They really want to go there?

Right wingers want to go after Michelle Obama? They think she's the weak link and think it's a good idea to go after the candidates' spouses?

Because Cindy McCain is a mother lode of scandal. Having an affair with a married man, bookkeeping for the Keating Five, going through drug addiction and stealing from a charity? Want to compare these problems against a non-existent tape of Michelle saying the word 'whitey'?

Is that the only thing they have?

I thought McCain was going to run a positive campaign....

Help Stony Brook University Political Science guy do his dissertation project!

The purpose of this survey is to examine how people think and feel about the political issues, parties, and candidates in the upcoming election. In the survey, you will be asked a series of questions about two political candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. We are very interested in how individuals that find information on the web think about politics, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

I take it 1) Pffffft! and 2) Definitely! won't suffice?

Ok, ok... off to take the survey.

Whatever...zzzzz....

Fred Thompson takes a nap:

(CNN) – Republican Fred Thompson has long faced criticism he lacks motivation to be President of the United States, and the former Tennessee senator's latest comments Saturday may spark new criticism on that front.

"I'm not particularly interested in running for president," the former senator told voters at a campaign event in Burlington, Iowa when challenged by a an audience member over his desire to be commander-in-chief.

"But I think I'd make a good president," Thompson continued. "I have the background, capability, and concern to do this and I'm doing it for the right reasons."

You just get all comfy there, Fred. And we'll go on with the activities over here....

There's nothing gracious about it

Mike Huckabee:

In June 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention issued a “statement on the family” that asserted, “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” Two months later, then-governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee was one of 131 signatories to a full-page ad in USA Today specifically endorsing the Convention’s view on marriage:

You are right because you called wives to graciously submit to their husband’s sacrificial leadership.

I thank God I'm not a Southern Baptist. So does my husband.

But he seemed like such a nice man...

Exposing the dark side of Mike Huckabee. And there really is a dark side. Remember when Texas was warning us that a certain governor wasn't all that good a candidate? Remember how we promised ourselves we would look at the state where any politician came from and look at his/her RECORD? Remember how we vowed we'd never ever again unquestioningly take the mainstream media's word for it? Remember?:

Max Brantley for Salon:

In 10 years as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee left a rich and complicated history. It is not without points to praise. But there's so much more, a record that the national media -- so ready, since 1992, to plumb the tiniest cranny of Bill Clinton's past -- seems uneager to discover. It's a measure of the loving kindness with which he's been treated so far by the coastal punditry that Huckabee has not yet had one of his famous self-pitying public meltdowns about the unfairness of the media.

But then, you don't have to believe me about any of this. After all, I live in Little Rock and, as Huckabee has often said, I'm just the editor of a trashy, throwaway liberal tabloid. Why not look instead to a conservative voice from the national media? At the American Spectator, once home to the anti-Clinton Arkansas Project, senior editor Quin Hillyer, a former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial writer, wrote recently, "National media folks like David Brooks [of the New York Times], dealing in surface appearances only, rave about what a nice guy Huckabee is, and a moral exemplar to boot. If they only did a little homework, they would discover a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak, and a long history of imbroglios about questionable ethics."

At last, something the national media and the Arkansas media can agree on.

Thin-skinned, vindictive, and greedy? Didn't we just go through two terms with a guy like this?

Update: Steve Benen of Talking Points Memo has an excellent overview of Huckabee:

It's probably fair to say that Mike Huckabee has had a strange week. On the one hand, he's been surging in the polls, picking up religious right endorsements, and is now considered the frontrunner in the Iowa caucuses. On the other hand, he's been caught lying about the Wayne Dumond scandal, he's proven that has no idea what the National Intelligence Estimate is, he's completed a dramatic flip-flop on immigration policy, and he's presented himself as literally God's own anointed presidential candidate.

Update 12/10:
Jesus' General has an excellent take on Huckabee and offers this stunning poster:

Just a thought

Would President Giuliani put his next mistress in the Lincoln bedroom? And ask Homeland Security to walk her dog?



Update: Disgusted in St. Louis has more, along with this delightful poster:

A small man in need of a balcony

Wonderful quote from Jimmy Breslin about Giuliani, found via Watertiger's post at Dependable Renegade.

The Republican debate on speed

Just to get the flavor but not to leave a bad taste in your mouth:

This is just an historically common shift

And so, must be good for the Republican party. Really. Honest. They meant to do that:

Fundraising for Republican campaign organizations lags. That is strikingly so in the House, where the party committee spent more than it raised in each of the past two months, reported only $1.6 million in the bank at the end of August and a debt of nearly $4 million.

Democrats reported $22.1 million in the bank and a debt of slightly more than $3 million.

Candidate recruitment has been uneven, particularly in the Senate, where Republicans must defend 22 of the 34 seats on the ballot next year. Democrats boast top-tier challengers for GOP-held seats in Colorado, Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon.

[snip]

After a long turn in power in Congress, LaHood and other Republicans say the change in fortunes is partly the result of historical cycles. "The American people like a change," he said.

At the same time, President Bush's approval is stuck in the mid-30s and the Iraq war remains unpopular with the public.

Nor have the ethics woes that plagued the party in last year's elections abated. Corruption investigations swirl around Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and California Rep. John Doolittle. To the particular distress of party leaders, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct last summer in an airport men's room sex sting operation and has yet to make good on an earlier pledge to resign.

Stevens and Doolittle deny all wrongdoing, as does Craig, who has asked a Minnesota judge to permit him to withdraw his guilty plea.

Polls, too, chart the decline of the Republicans.

A recent Gallup poll reported that 59 percent of those surveyed have an unfavorable impression of the Republican Party. By a margin of 47-42 percent, they said Democrats will do a better job of protecting against terrorism and military threats. Asked which party would better maintain prosperity, the majority preferred the Democrats, 54-34.

Awww.... Let me give you some conservative compassion:

Joe Lieberman sold his soul a long time ago and became

Republican Lite.



PSoTD explains:

The timing is about right for Democrats to start stating the obvious suspicion: Joe Lieberman will endorse a Republican Candidate for President in 2008. There’s no reason to cede news value to the Republicans for such an “announcement” next year, when some regular drumbeating of this political opportunity for Lieberman can easily reduce it. Democrats shouldn’t be concerned that by doing so now they will appear to be “moderating” the Republican candidates, but should be concerned that a Lieberman announcement of support of the Republican nominee next year will be reacted to by the shallow national media in such a way.

In short - the likelihood is too great that Lieberman will support ANY REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT in 2008 over ANY DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT in 2008 to ignore until it happens. It won’t be about people, but about power, and about Lieberman’s future political opportunities. Rather than act dismayed when it does happen, Democrats should be honest in the news media - and repetitively vocal - about why Joe Lieberman may just do that next year.

Of course Lieberman will endorse a Republican candidate for President, he can do no else.

Fred Thompson was a mole for Nixon

The Boston Globe:

WASHINGTON -- The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson made the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight -- asking an aide to President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system -- he telephoned Nixon's lawyer.

Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, "At That Point in Time," Thompson said he acted with "no authority" in divulging the committee's knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon's resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson's actions.

"Thompson was a mole for the White House," Armstrong said in an interview. "Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was."

[snip]

John Dean , Nixon's former White House counsel, who was a central witness at the hearings, said he believed that Baker and Thompson were anything but impartial players. "I knew that Thompson would be Baker's man, trying to protect Nixon," Dean said in an interview.

Down With Tyranny and Crooks and Liars has more on the wonderfulness of Fred Thompson.

But remember, he's all manly and stuff!

Longing for the manly scent of fatherly power?

Yearning for the comforting presence of a commanding figure so you don't have to think anymore?
Listen to these descriptions: dominating, seasoned, in charge of himself, perfect chin, perfect hair, has shoulders you could land a 737 on, smells of English Leather, Aqua Velva or cigar smoke....

These are the words used to describe the Republican candidates. (Obviously not the weak feeble feminized Mommy-type Democrats.) You are clearly supposed to be voting in a father figure, not based on his (or her) intelligence, grasp of foreign policy, capabilities...

But on how he smells.....

Jesus.

Echidne of the Snakes as her real self J. Goodrich writes her column.