tom's blog

Doesn't it seem pretty obvious the McCain folks have been caught cheating?

Of course, you know they didn't just listen on the way to the Saddleback Forum.

It seems to me that someone (probably Warren himself) gave them the questions a few days early. That would explain why he kept talking about the "cone of silence" because all of that was a fraud -- and he knew it.

That's the only thing that explains how they got the rehearsed answers out of Mathusaleh the other night. Read below the fold...

apparently believes that he, like W, should be listening in to your phone calls.

Wow. Talk about a disconnect.

Democrats should hit him over the head with this.

It will become obvious over the next few months that McCain really is "McSame" McBush. Read below the fold...

what the hell is he doing on my TeeVee on CNN telling me that Hillary should concede right now? Toobin knows legal issues like no one else but he has literally no idea about political campaigns. Holy cow.

And anytime I'm hearing discussions about her "tone" in a speech, I get annoyed. Anytime I hear "tone" mentioned at all in any way, I get annoyed. "Tone" discussions are almost always bullshit in my view.

How many times have you sent someone an e-mail that was carefully crafted and they complain about the "tone?" We've all had that kind of experience. That sort of argument is almost inherently emotional, not logical or analytical. Read below the fold...

Wow. Graves goes even lower. If you listen closely, the ad does refer to her as "Gay Barnes." I bet they thought that was funny -- and you know the folks in Graves's office say that to each other several times per day.

Wow.

Of course, the mastermind behind all this is "media consultant" Jeff Roe, who is about as reprehensible a campaigner as I'm aware of at any level of politics -- and I'm including Karl Rove. He's one of the major reasons that Missouri politics is rapidly becoming a cesspool. Read below the fold...

is my congressional representative. It's so embarrassing, really. He's apparently completely out of ideas as to how to run a campaign. I like Kay Barnes's response ad to this tactless attack.

(For more on the national coverage of Graves' pathetic ad, go here.) Read below the fold...

from Rachael Ray's hateful Islamic terrorist, um, scarf.

I'm not kidding. You've got to read this to believe it. Click on the link.

Just how ridiculous is Michelle Malkin, anyway?

I guess the only thing more ridiculous is the fact that the Dunkin' Donuts company gave in to Malkin and took the ad down. Read below the fold...

Atrios brings up the ubiquitous problem of the historical memory of undergraduates:
Read below the fold...

All of these folks have tried to argue that this "Tonya Harding option" stuff was from some supposedly objective anonymous DNC official.

Nope -- this is something straight from Obama's people as I expected.

Obama: Not Going to Pull a Tonya Harding

December 28, 2007 7:49 AM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told a crowd in Vinton, Iowa Thursday that he's not going to pull a Tonya Harding on his rival candidates.

Read below the fold...

Wow. The Obama people have this whining thing down to a high art:

"Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the 'Tonya Harding option.'" the official said. "Is that really what we Democrats want?"

The Tonya Harding Option -- the first time I've heard it put that way.

It implies that Clinton is so set on ensuring that Obama doesn't get the nomination, not only is she willing to take extra-ruthless steps, but in the end neither she nor Obama win the gold.

Read below the fold...

with this post right here.

It's really getting pretty damned sad now.

And I'm someone who would be happy with either candidate as nominee -- but this is just a sad thing to see Josh self-immolate himself like this.

And wouldn't it be nice if Josh would hire himself an editor? The various errors in his posts are a bit annoying from a "professional" blogger. You'd think if you just wrote 5-6 paragraphs per day you could, um, you know, proofread them? Read below the fold...

This McPeak goofball apparently doesn't even remember his own childhood very well:

McPeak, a co-chairman of Obama's campaign, then said to his Oregon audience: "As one who for 37 years proudly wore the uniform of our country, I'm saddened to see a president employ these tactics. He of all people should know better because he was the target of exactly the same kind of tactics."

Wow, what's wrong with this guy? What the heck has he been smoking? That's positively absurd! Read below the fold...

Wow. Goeglein was fired from his job at the White House too. Oh, excuse me, he "resigned" but we all know what really happened, don't we?

I think it's been a rather bad day for him. As you'd expect, I wholeheartedly agree that plagiarism should have serious consequences. I just didn't realize that the Bush White House would actually levy them against someone serving in Bush's office. Read below the fold...

If you've been following the saga of Special Assistant to the President Timothy Goeglein today (also here and here), you probably know by now that the editorial team at his hometown newspaper has fired him as a columnist for plagiarism.

Wow. I have undergraduates try that all the time -- and I catch them when they do it.

In fact, I now require all undergraduates to submit their papers in electronic format through a plagiarism-detection website. Read below the fold...

Wow. This is just uneffing believable.

I don't really even know what to say. As one of the commenters so aptly put it:

It's good to know that not all Republicans are crooks. Some are just assholes.

Indeed. Read below the fold...

You really should go read this post by Scott Horton over at Harper's.

I'll wait.

You know I find it fascinating to read all of these libertarian Republican types (Andrew Sullivan) who are suddenly astonished by the rise of the evangelical whackos and their power. "Where'd these folks come from?" they seem to be asking.

You know who empowered these people? You and your kind, Andy, that's who. It's like these folks haven't been paying attention the last twenty years. You guys enabled these people, in the 1980s and 1990s you avidly courted them. Did you not pay attention to the political history of the last twenty years? Read below the fold...