They keep coming back until you decapitate them

First rule about zombies:

Matthew Delong of the Washington Independent:

The Wall Street Journal reports a familiar face is back on the campaign trail with Sen. John McCain at a stop in Aspen, Colo.:

Ousted John McCain campaign co-chairman Phil Gramm is back with the campaign’s top advisers this weekend, as the campaign gathers top supporters for a series of briefings in scenic Aspen, Colo.

The former Texas senator stepped down from his position after he said in an interview last month that the country is in a “mental recession” and that we had become a “nation of whiners.”

Gramm was seated in the front row, with other top supporters, this afternoon as McCain addressed the Aspen Institute in a “conversation” with Walter Isaacson, president of the institute and a former editor of Time magazine.

Asked what his role in the campaign is now, Gramm said in an interview, “I’m a supporter.” As for whether he continues to advise McCain, he said, “We’re friends. I haven’t stopped being his friend. If he asks me, I’d give it to him.” He added, “I’m not an official adviser.”

Maybe they think it's been long enough that we forgot about whining about losing houses and money and jobs. Maybe they think the Olympics will distract us. Maybe a few weeks off with no one to advise McBush on the economy was too long...

Not whining or anything. Just watching the train wreck.

Just as advisers, right?

Because the last time we did this, it didn't turn out so well:

The United States will send dozens of military advisers to Pakistan to train soldiers who are fighting extremist groups in the country's restive tribal areas, it emerged today, the first meaningful deployment of American troops in the country.

After weeks of negotiations between the US and Pakistan's new army chief of staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a squad of American trainers will arrive later this year to teach soldiers how to handle counter insurgency operations, rather than a conventional land war against India.

The trainers will focus on the Frontier Corps, a force of about 8,500 soldiers, drawn from tribal groups along the Afghan border. The majority of the Pakistani army comes from Punjab and is often regarded as a "foreign force" in the border region, which is dominated by Pashtuns.

Although the original plan sees a deployment that stretches until 2015, the current forecast is that the trainers will be in Pakistan for up to two years. Initially the US military advisers would not be allowed out of their training camps. However, a widely discussed 40-page memo circulating in Washington eventually sees US troops accompanying Pakistani soldiers on missions against the militants.

US troops accompanying Pakistani soldiers on missions? .... What could go wrong?

crossposted at American Street