I thought I would leave you with some really great quotes from the Villagers who trekked out to Oklahoma for the wankfest on Unity and the unbearable greatness of being Bipartisan. [Look, I know this kind of unity and bipartisanship is extremely distinct from the teh unity and bipartisanship that Obama's advocating, because, well, Obama promised me a pony. Maybe I can heat the house by drying and burning the droppings. I love ponies.] May I have the handkerchief, please? The last cigarette? Thank you:

Bloomberg, moderates lament state of U.S.

"I think he's like the rest of us, hoping against hope that the two parties rise to the occasion," Sen. David Boren said.

Boren said a "time out" from the two-party system might be needed to get a system derailed by money, special interests and political extremism back on track.

A joint statement read by the meeting's co-host, former U.S. Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, led off with the line: "America is in danger."

"We are failing to address them primarily because rampant [??] partisanship has paralyzed the ability of government to act and lead," Nunn said.

Right, right. As Digby points out, the first thing a Democratic administration should do is extend the right hand of good fellowship across the aisle by leaving Bush's tax cuts for the rich in place. After than, we should get serious about making sure the financial classes can keep their second and third homes by handing them a new commission stream from privatizing Social Security. Of course, that won't be enough, because nothing is ever enough. You know the drill.

And my personal favorites, from Bloomberg himself:

Bill Press:

NEW YORK CITY, June 21 - A new landmark was reached for New York auction houses today as Sotheby's reported a record bid of $500 million for the Oval Office. According to anonymous sources, the winning White House bid was placed by New York political office collector Michael Bloomberg, who also held the previous record of $155 million paid for the New York mayoral office. "I could never capture the Oval Office the old-fashioned way," Bloomberg told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "so why not buy it?

Of course, if Bloomberg needed to be paid, you'd have to ask who's cutting the checks:

As predictable and predicted, Broder's lost bladder control, now that there's a chance that Bloomberg might enter the 2008 race.

Anything, anything but a Democrat. If the Republicans can't, than Vanity08 must. You know, I almost hope Hillary's our nominee, so Broder's forced to sniff her panties for eight long years. And I wouldn't mind Broder acting the straight-out partisan shill like Brooks or Safire if he didn't pose as the above-it-all and very serious Wise Man: The Dean of Beltway journalism.

Dean Floater: The gaseous turd that just keeps circling the bowl, refusing to go down.

Once again, Broder makes Sunday Fun Day:

[Bloomberg] now looks more and more as if he will have a chance. In what appears to have been a carefully orchestrated series of events, Bloomberg dominated the political news last week.

No, Bloomberg didn't. Bloomberg dominated the vacant space between Broder's ears. The guy who did dominate the political news was Shooter, the Vice Presidential Entity, and that's why WaPo's running a four-part series on him this week.

First, he turned up on the cover of Time magazine along with Schwarzenegger. A flattering article suggested that the two men embodied the pragmatic, problem-solving approach that Washington conspicuously lacks in these final dispiriting months of the Bush presidency.

Sweet Jeebus. We've got a Vice Presidential Entity who thinks he's a fourth branch of government and wants to go to war with Iran, and a Presidential Entity who's rewriting the laws with signing statements and getting obeyed by the Christianist sleeper cells down in the bureaucracy. We aren't living in a Constitutional system anymore, and Broder wants to talk about pragmatism?
WTF?