Can Karl Rove and his henchmen really keep us common folk from reading about clown-style Republican antics on washingtonpost.com?

Is there any way to measure when a merely suspicious mind has crossed the line into full-blown paranoia? (And even then, as it's often pointed out, paranoid people do have enemies.)

This morning I tried several times to click on the link in a washingtonpost.com newsletter to Al Kamen's "In the Loop" column, which is usually good for a chuckle or two. Each time, the website claimed to be unable to locate the page and seemed to be suggesting that I was making the whole thing up and might benefit from a brief liedown.

Instead of giving up, I typed "al kamen" into the proffered search window and was ultimately offered a link to the column, titled "A 'Commitment' Goes Only So Far." The column turns out to consist entirely of items that poke pretty good fun at Our Ruling Republicans.

The headline refers to the lead item, which tells the hilarious story of House Speaker Denny the Blimp Hastert taking a blocklong photo-op ride in an experimental GM hydrogen-powered car, then—apparently forgetting that mobilizing a corps of photographers was the whole point of the event—waddling into his Chevy Suburban for the long ride (as much as a couple of blocks) back to his office. Now, I'd already heard this morsel on the radio this morning courtesy of Rachel Maddow. But it's the kind of soul-satisfying story that makes you crack a smile however often you hear it.

The other items in today's "In the Loop"?

• "Good News Comes in Waves"—a report from the RNC website's steady dribble of good news from Iraq, that "Baghdad is to get its first water park and wave machine," thanks to the Scottish company Murphy's Waves.

Kamen comments: "What better way to cope with the coming brutally hot summer in Baghdad with temps hitting 120 degrees? In the prewar days you might have had air conditioning, but electricity is still not up to prewar levels—even to WWII levels."

• "Are You Expendable?"—an item brief enough that there seems no reason to paraphrase:

"The State Department, anxious to fill openings in Iraq, recently sent out a cable detailing job opportunities for spouses and other family members in Baghdad. Some—office managers, housing coordinators, cashiers and such—appear fairly safe, since they are in the Green Zone.

"But then there is 'Expendable Supply Manager.'

"The job doesn't appear to pay much, and it sounds as though they aren't going to care enough to provide any security for you."


Now what I can't help but wonder is:

Do you suppose that Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman really have tentacles that reach into washingtonpost.com to prevent websurfers from seeing Their GOP at Work—in full clown mode?