New York alert: Cliff Schecter of "The Real McCain" joins Laughing Liberally tonight to vivisect (one hopes) Young Johnny McCranky

Who is John McCain?
What are his politics?
And what was his boyhood in the 16th century really like?

-- questions to be tackled
tonight at Laughing Liberally's
John McCain Comedy Jaunt

Incredibly, we keep hearing that people "trust" Young Johnny, that they think of him as a man of "principle" and "convictions."

I'm guessing fewer people think that way than was once the case, and that's in no small part thanks to the tireless researching and crusading of our pal Cliff Schecter, principal author of The Real McCain -- and now a political blogger at Firedoglake. (This morning Cliff brings us breathless news that McCranky "is aware of the Internet"! Makes you wonder how he found out.) So I want to make sure New Yorkers know that he's scheduled to join Laughing Liberally's John McCain Comedy Jaunt tonight, along with Paul Waldman, coauthor with David Brock of Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, and a slew of comics gathered to try to answer questions like those above.

It's true that word of McCranky's sleazy ethics and cynically opportunistic ideological flip-floppery (though there seems little doubt that he's a true-red reactionary) hasn't reached elite pundits like D.C. Village elders David Broder and Richard Cohen, but jeez, do you really want to be farther out of the informational loop than those bozos?

The John McCain Comedy Jaunt is tonight at 9pm at the Tank, 279 Church St., between Franklin and White Sts., below Canal, and I certainly plan to be there, armed with my copy of The Real McCain for Cliff to sign. (Hmm, I should probably pick up a copy of Free Ride.) It's listed as "FREE / $10 Suggested Admission." Make it $100 -- or $1000 -- and it sounds like a pricing policy the "straight-talking" McCranky could get behind.

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