Today's Silliest And Smarmiest News Items

McCain is stumbling around Pennsylvania with ex-Governor Tom Ridge and the foolish media is going along with the exciting idea of a McCain/Ridge ticket, even though the religious right has already specifically nixed Ridge as too moderate and told McCain not to dare. He won't.

For those who hoped we'd never hear from Howard Wolfson again, one of the brain trust responsible for the defeat of Hillary Clinton, we have this: "I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee." He claims-- like someone cares what this sack claims-- internal campaign polling showed "our voters and Edwards voters were the same people. They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama." or maybe they would have been reminded of tawdry sexual affairs and adultery and flocked en masse to Obama. Who knows? Not Howard Wolfson.

Digby caught a good one yesterday, Cokie Roberts blurting out a Karl Rove talking point. Apparently, according to the always wrong about everything Cokie, Hawaii, American's most desirable vacation destination, is too exotic and foreign for Obama and he should have taken his vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Apparently, Hawaii isn't quite American enough for Cokie and her provincial pals in the beltway, even though it's one of the 50 states.

I remember that Clinton got dinged right after he was elected for vacationing in Santa Barbara because it was too "California." Unless you're a Republican presidential candidate apparently you shouldn't go to any western beach, much less to Hawaii, unless you want to be called a foreign fag. You have to go to a Cokie approved place like Myrtle Beach where they have Real Americans. Maybe he could eat some pork while he's there, this proving that he isn't a Muslim. (Of course, then Cokie and her gossipy little village friends would condemn him for pandering and being "inauthentic.")

Obama went to high school in Hawaii, his grandmother and his sister and her family still live there. It's his real home state. The idea that he can't go there because it's too foreign is truly insulting to the Americans who live there. Evidently Obama isn't going to be allowed to go anywhere but Iowa and Illinois without being suspected of some sort of traitorous foreignness by the beltway gasbags. Well played Mr Rove.

And then there are the announcements about gays getting married. No, not in California. Florida's 52 year old "bachelor" Governor, Charlie Crist, is marrying his beard on December 12 in St Petersburg's First United Methodist Church. But ex-New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, unlike Crist, is embracing his real self and riding off into the sunset with boyfriend Mark O'Donnell now that his divorce has been finalized. Finalized but... "the mudslinging could continue. [The ex-wife] filed a separate fraud claim, saying McGreevey married her knowing he was gay." Gay attention, Charlie.

And that photo above? McCain claimed the 1,259 pound pig was his favorite part of the Iowa State Fair. He also met the Pork Queen and then headed over to a fundraiser for his kind of people at a Des Moines country club.

Most of the Blue America endorsed candidates have challenged the Republicans they're running against to an energy debate. Most, like John "#dontgo Boston Tea Party" Shadegg (R-AZ-$119,495), would rather debate themselves in an empty House of Congress and wave air pressure gauges over their heads. Similarly, two weeks ago Sam Bennett challenged incumbent Bush rubber stamp Charlie Dent to a real debate on energy policy. He's too scared to face her probably because he's taken $75,831 from Big Oil and has voted for all the initiatives in Congress that they designed to drive up their profits-- and their profits don't go up by keeping gasoline prices low.

“Congressman Dent is so deep in the pocket of Big Oil companies and special interest groups he’s refusing to publicly defend his record and have an open debate about the issue,” said Kathryn Seck, Sam Bennett’s campaign manager. “He should explain why he’s taken $75,000 from Big Oil and given them billions in tax breaks while middle class Pennsylvanians are struggling to afford high gas prices.  Voters deserve an open dialogue on the issues and Congressman Dent is ducking the issue.”

And then there's Old McCain still croaking out his nonsense about Obama being too big a celebrity to be president. Actually, Obama's campaign has a great response today:

There IS a dime's worth of difference between Dems and Rs. It's just that that's an AVERAGE. Sometimes it's a quarter, others barely a penny

Sweeties Cokie and Stevie--it's all in the family.

"For professional legislators like Lott, the toxic partisanship poisoning the capital today makes their job very difficult and dispiriting. Ideologues in both parties savage anyone who even hints at working with the rival camp. As Republican Sen. John Thune, Lott’s deputy, explained: 'He’s just sort of reached the end of the line in terms of what he can do here.'"
--America's Sweethearts, Cokie and Stevie Roberts, in their syndicated column today, "Lott's career shaped by willingness to compromise"

Poor Cokie Roberts is really taking it on the chin for this quote, which as far as I can tell appears only in this column written jointly with her sweetie Steve--or, as they're known professionally, "Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts."

Now if that's all America's Sweeties had to say about our Trent, they would be fair game for the ridicule that's been heaped on them, er, her. In fact, it's a highly professional, thoughtful, and balanced column, which says much worse things about the Trentman than most of the ridiculers probably knew, but also gives him his due. And one thing you did hear from Senate insiders when he gave way as Senate majority leader to America's Lifesaver, Doctorbill Frist, is that Trent, unlike Doctorbill, actually believed in getting things done, meaning that he understood the art of political compromise.

Contrary to what the ridiculers would have you believe, the Sweeties' column is actually quite solid; I encourage you to read it. True, it might have been nice if they'd qualified the huzzahs to our Trent's pragmatism with some recognition that his range of compromise narrowed considerably once the cabal of Cheney, Rove, and Bush was installed in the White House. But then, you can't have everything.

The Sweeties do note:

Lott is leaving for many reasons. At age 66, he knows that he has only a few years left to make money in the private sector. His sudden decision to quit, with four years left on his term, seems partly motivated by new ethics rules that make it harder for ex-lawmakers to lobby their former colleagues.

As a matter of fact, already last Wednesday Paul Kane posted this report on his washingtonpost.com blog, "Capitol Briefing":

Lott Courted By Senator-turned-lobbyist

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is a wanted man out on K Street, as he has many lobbying shops seeking to transform Lott into the first modern-era senator to quit midterm to shill for corporate clients.

And the man with the inside track to land Lott appears to be his old friend, former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) [left]. Breaux told Capitol Briefing in an interview today that he is planning a full-court press to bring Lott into his new lobbying shop once Lott retires next month. At that point Lott is officially allowed, under Senate ethics rules, to enter into serious contract talks with lobbying firms.

"I told him I wanted to be one of the first people to talk to him once he officially retires," Breaux said Wednesday afternoon in a telephone interview while he drove around his hometown of New Orleans. "I'd love to have him as part of my small group." . . .


Breaux announced today that he is leaving Patton Boggs, the lobbying firm where his old Cajun friend Tommy Boggs is in charge. Breaux and his son, John Breaux Jr., are forming their own lobby shop. He said he wanted to start such a firm with his son when he retired three years ago, but wasn't sure he knew enough about the private sector.

With his three-year contract at Patton Boggs expiring next month, Breaux is jumping ship and hopes his old friend Lott will join him. Back in 2004, as he prepared for retirement and after Lott had been ousted from GOP leadership, Breaux jokingly (and seriously) tried to coax Lott into starting a firm together then.

"I kept telling him he ought to retire," Breaux said.

Of course Senator Breaux was never what you would call DWT's kind of Democrat. Kane lays out some of the political and personal ties between him and our Trent:

The two started out as aides to House Democrats in the 1960s, and then got elected to the House in their own right in the 1970s. Once they joined the Senate in the 1980s, Lott and Breaux served on the Finance and Commerce committees together. In addition to their mutual southern charm, they both created legislative personas as go-to senators when it was time to cut a deal - which earned them some distrust on the left and right flanks of their caucuses.

But beyond the political ties, they share personal bonds no other lobbying firm or corporate association can match. Breaux and Lott raised their families across the street from each other in Annandale, Va. Lott's wife, Tricia, is the godmother to Breaux's youngest daughter. Their sons served as grooms in each other's weddings.

In fact, Breaux's vision has a family glow: himself and his old pal Trent lobbying together alongside their sons. (Young Chester Trent is currently a-lobbyin' his soul away in Kentucky.) You know, all in the family.

Speaking of sons, the aforementioned Tommy Boggs--of the aforementioned Patton Boggs lobbying firm--is more properly known as Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. (right), the son of onetime Democratic House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and former Rep. Lindy Boggs, who represented their Louisiana district for 18 years after her husband was presumed killed in an airplane crash.

Which makes Tommy the brother of none other than Sweetie Cokie, er, Cokie Boggs Roberts. Like we said, it's all in the family.

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