In the midst of some boilerplate crap about Tim Russert (he faced down mean 'ol Ross Perot!) we get a true Inside-the-Beltway gem. I honestly thought this was a joke:

But as soon as the camera lights went off at 10 a.m. on Sunday, he relaxed. Ali, the NBC butler, brought out the platters of shrimp and glasses of juice, and the reporters who had been on the roundtable (and sometimes the last interviewee) would join Tim and executive producer Betsy Fischer for a lengthy exchange of political gossip. When a birthday or anniversary was imminent, there would be cake. And at Christmas, a brass ensemble would play carols.

Sorry, but the rehab effort of Andy Sullivan isn't cutting it. Sullivan today:

When I heard the usual complaints from the left about how we had no right to intervene, how Bush was the real terrorist, how war was always wrong, my trained ears heard the same cries that I had heard in the 1980s. So I saw the opposition to the war as another example of a faulty Vietnam Syndrome, associated it with the far left, or boomer nostalgia, and was revolted by the anti-war marches I saw in Washington.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...

Poor baby. A little "revolted" conservative, so lots of people had to die.

You just can't make this stuff up. The current headline on WaPo

President says Tehran has "declared" a desire for a nuclear bomb to "destroy people." White House later backs away from the comment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Is it just me, or has the fun gone out of phony warmongering for the GOP? Where's the effort, guys?

Just listening to Weekend Edition on Nice Polite Republicans. Ever so mild mannered Scot Simon gently questioned Sen. John Kyl on the Iraq war. Was it the right decision to invade?

Cokie Roberts, this morning on NPR (rough transcript):

A longer primary season will be bad for the Democrats. Because the candidates will keep talking about Iraq. And voters are not talking about Iraq.

Right. To obtain the White House, Dems should ignore Iraq.

The best sentence I have read in the New York Times for Some time:

Is this the end of Roger Clemens? If it isn’t, it should be.

Now let me say that I don't want to gloat too much about a guy who once struck out 20 guys for the Red Sox.

But the fact that he's a fat ass, ugly, obnoxious redneck means that his downfall pleases me. And the fact that I was forced to watch his tearful retirement years ago in front of a bunch of gullible Texans - also a plus.

Is there a more pathetic figure in the D.C. pundit set than Richard Cohen? Here is the sentence from today's WaPo that should be engraved on the man's tombstone:

You do not talk about your hairstylist like that.

Then we have the failed court jester routine:

Here she is four years ago today in the most graphic display of editorial onanism I have read anywhere, ever:

The report has been released. On first glance, it's not as glossed over or as opaque as one might expect.

But it is extremely brief.

Here's a little tidbit, though, that highlights how complicit folks at the New York Times have become with Bush spin.

From the report:

Iraq’s neighbors influence, and are influenced by, events within Iraq, but the involvement of these outside actors is not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq’s internal sectarian dynamics.

From the NYT reporting:

The general conclusion was that the biggest security problem is of a sectarian nature but that outside Iranian involvement makes the situation worse. Nonetheless, Iranian lethal support for select groups of Iraqi Shia militants clearly intensifies the conflict in Iraq.

Nice to see the helpful NYT reporter spin this for the Bush crew.

UPDATE: Well that line I omitted is my fuckup, and makes the NYT reporting much more solid. Mea culpa.

As if we needed more evidence that The New Republic is a laughing stock, here's todays inadvertenly hilarious nonsense form John Chait, via Digby:

Or go back to the last war we fought with Iraq. Schell insisted that we could force Iraq to leave Kuwait with sanctions alone, rather than by using military force. But the years that followed that war made it clear just how impotent that tool was. Saddam Hussein endured more than a decade of sanctions rather than give up a weapons of mass destruction program that turned out to be nonexistent. If sanctions weren't enough to make him surrender his imaginary weapons, I think we can safely say they wouldn't have been enough to make him surrender a prized, oil-rich conquest.

I had to read that a few times to make sure Chat wasn't being sarcastic.

So what was the last election about? What did all of our effort really accomplish? Aside that is, from increasing Joes Lieberman’s power and profile in the Seanate?

Henry Waxman will have subpoena power, and John Conyers will more than likely end some of the more egregious abuses of Buscho, and end a few Republican careers. Even Dianne Feinsten may slow the demolition of the EPA.

But here’s an example of the fundamental corruption of stupidity at the top in Washington D.C.: "Our" pick for House Intelligence Committee charman lacks the basic  understanding of Al Qaeda, of, say, an average poster on dailykos.

Ladies and gentlemen, the smart, hard working Sylvestre Reyes:
http://public.cq.com/...

Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?

"Al Qaeda, they have both," Reyes said. "You’re talking about predominately?"

"Sure," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Predominantly — probably Shiite," he ventured.

Ah yes. BinLaden is a Shiite, like the rest of AlQuaeda.
Supported by, Iran no doubt. Black turban, white turban, Farsi, Arabic, whatever.  Bombs away. (More)

It's not enough that I have to watch the GOP piss on most of the U.S. Constitution. I now have to read about the 17 point lead of our bitch ass Governator, a man with the political convictions of a Bangkok hooker.

It's do or die time for California Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides -- but he's mostly dying. With just a handful of weeks to go in the re-election race of Governor Schwarzenegger, new polls show Angelides trailing by as much as 17%...
[N]othing seems to be slowing Arnold's momentum. He has made recent deals with the Democratic legislature on raising the minimum wage, lowering prescription drug prices and has just signed the most advanced anti-Global Warming legislation in the country.

Dr. Charlie "Strangleove" Krauthammer attempts to unfurl the neocon fall election gambit. But he fails so badly that you almost want to look away as he rolls headfirst off the ramp wheelchair and all.

Ladies and gentlemen, the expected results of operation Hit An Empty Iranian Bunker or Two:

No, it's not a joke. The man literally blames John Kerry for the disaster in Iraq.

If the United States leaves, the central government in Iraq will collapse, and the beneficiaries will be Iran, Syria and al-Qaeda, the three major terrorist actors in the world today...

One can argue that we should therefore have left Saddam Hussein in place...

But assume for a moment that the critics are right. That's the argument that should have been made -- that Kerry should have made -- four years ago, before he voted yes, before he voted no, before he voted yes on the war.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Here is an article describing past events, with some names changed slightly to predict the future:

...President George W. Bush announced to a national television audience that US troops were invading Iran, the country east of Iraq through which the Shiite military was supplying their troops. In fact, the US had been conducting bombing raids in Iran for over a year.

Millions also saw it on live television as Bush disclosed the invasion. Several journalistic accounts commented on the sense of disbelief and helplessness felt by many viewers. Time's cover story began,

For the past year the Bush had been promoting the "Iraqization" of the war, promising to replace US troops with newly-trained Iraqi soldiers. Citizens had expressed relief at the thought of American fighters coming home.
On the heels of Presidential promises of de-escalation, the  announcement caused many in the United States to respond with shock and anger. Protests erupted across the country...

http://chnm.gmu.edu/...

According to SUSA, Snowe and Collins are the two most popular senators by far, with 77% and 74% respectively.
http://www.surveyusa.com/...

Yet SUSA shows Bush's approval in Maine at 35%. That's 42 points lower thaqn Snowe's.

What's wrong with the Democratic Party?

You can start with this guy. Marshall Whitman. AKA "Bull Moose," AKA member of the DLC (the DINO Lackluster Conference), AKA Joe Lieberman's Only Fan. The man is a born loser, and he wants to take the rest of us down with him.

http://bullmooseblog.com/

Here's his bit of wisdom for today:

And you can stop reading right there.

Indulge me as I put together several stories that may or may not be related.