So it’s Nephew Weekend for me (yeah!) and we’re sitting here watching The Day the Earth Stood Still (What is it about 50s movies that make them so perfect for young kids? No swearing, gratuitious violence or sex, that’s what). I’m trying to teach him about truth and lies. He’s only 3, but he’s bright and chatty and I think he’s asked me “Why?” about 1 million times today. So I think he’s ready for “advanced” concepts like the difference between truth and lies.

This may seem like a nonpolitical post to you, but it’s not. I’m trying to better understand how Republicans can function, how their world is constructed, and I’m wondering if some of it doesn’t come out of their childhoods. Actually, I’m sure that childhood development is the root of our problem. I can’t do the detailed post right now, but let’s just say that “Bobo’s World” isn’t just a pithy joke.  Read more 

Hat tip to DailyKos, where the diarist “Free Exchange On Campus” provided the quotes below:  Read more 

Great, great little piece in NYT today, which interestingly enough they chose not to hide behind the evil Paywall. The author: Frank Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Not a big name, not a politician. Very nice writer though, and his logic (as well as politcal savvy) seems quite impeccable.

His topic: Should Congress impeach the Attorney General? That they can is unquestionable:

A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct … grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government.”

Emphasis added, because as we’ve said on possibly a time or two before, this is the heart of the matter.  Read more 

Honestly. Is there anything Republicans won’t lie about? Anything at all?

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist acknowledged Tuesday that he may not have met all the requirements needed to keep his medical license active — even though he gave paperwork to Tennessee officials indicating that he had.

The state of Tennessee requires its licensed physicians to complete 40 hours of continuing medical education every two years. Frist, a heart-lung surgeon who is considering a 2008 presidential run, submitted a license renewal with the Tennessee Health Department stating he has fulfilled that requirement.

Responding Tuesday to repeated requests from The Associated Press, a Frist spokesman said the Republican senator may not have done his continuing education after all [He must have been taking lessons from the same guy who David Addington worked with], and had contacted the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners to see if corrective steps were necessary.

Any doctor will tell you not to spin when you’re lame, but Frist flack Matt Leigh gives it the ol’ college try:  Read more