THE MITCH McCONNELL-LARRY CRAIG KABUKI DANCE JUST GETS STRANGER AND STRANGER AND STRANGER

Yesterday, one of Larry Craig's legal and p.r. team, Stan Brand, threatened Republican leaders that if they persist in railroading Craig based on ethics and misdemeanors when none of that supposedly impacts on his duties in the Senate, then it opens many doors. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, to mention two powerful Republican senators, have doors they certainly don't want forced open. The NY Times ran a story that pointed out that the Republican leadership is in chaos.

And Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, told reporters Wednesday that Mr. Craig had called to update him about his plans.

“My view remains what I said last Saturday,” Mr. McConnell said. “I thought he made the correct decision, the difficult but correct decision to resign. That would still be my view today.”

Mr. McConnell, growing weary of repeated questions about Mr. Craig, asked: “Anything on any other subject? I really have covered this.” And then, to his noticeable relief, came a question about the war in Iraq.

Oddly enough, McConnell has been spinning and flip flopping nearly as much as Larry Craig (if not Mitt Romney). At can't figure out which statement comes before the other anymore. In the Times he says resignation is the right road-- really the only road-- for Craig to take. But on CNN, McConnell had apparently already heard that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I heard from Sen. Craig this morning. He called me to give me an update on where he is in order to dispel, as he put it, any confusion that might exist with regard to his intention.

So let me relate to you his comment-- he said that he is going to try to get the case in Minneapolis dismissed, that if he is unable to have that disposed of prior to Sept. 30, it is his intention to resign from the Senate as he expressed last Saturday. If he is able to get he case favorably disposed of in Minneapolis it would be his intention to come back to the Senate, to deal with the ethics committee case that he knows he will have, and to try to finish his term.

So whatever confusion may have been created in the last few days, as of this morning that is his view about where he is headed.

Mitch McConnell may be confused about what to do with fellow Republican closet case Larry Craig, but he certainly isn't confused about doing all he can to assist his business partners in China. This is the new TV ad being run this week by some of the folks in Kentucky who aren't happy about McConnell's steadfast support of the Bush-Cheney war agenda and about the Chinese trade policies that have made him and his wife so incredibly wealthy:




UPDATE: REPUBLICAN VOTERS, LIKE NORMAL AMERICANS, WOULD APPROVE OF McCONNELL AND LARRY CRAIG MARRYING EACH OTHER

Just ask far right extremist, Sam Brownback. Last night when he denounced equality for gays at the Fox debate, he was loudly boo-ed-- by Republican voters. The GOP's and Brownback's message of bigotry and hatred goes over well in rural counties of the Old Confederacy but you can't bring it into less backward parts of the country. After 2008, the Republican Party is likely to be recognized for what 7 years of George Bush has made it: a narrow, regional party unable to compete nationally.


UPDATE: MORE REPUBLICAN CLOSET QUEENS ABOUT TO BE OUTED?

I think so. So do many others. But does David Dreier even count as a closet queen? Is there someone who doesn't know about this odious California hypocrit?