Month: July 2008

Meet The Bloggers

by dday

I’ve been invited to co-host the first segment of Brave New Films’ “Meet the Bloggers” Web video show tomorrow. It’s basically Meet The Press with thinking people. The guests include:

Rachel Maddow (Air America, MSNBC) interviewed by Cenk Ugyur and David Dayen (D-Day, Hullabaloo)

Bloggers roundtable with Roberto Lovato (Of America), Liliana Segura (AlterNet) and Baratunde Thurston (Jack and Jill Politics)

The topic is US policy in Afghanistan and it hopes to be a good, substantive discussion. I last posted about Afghanistan here – clearly this is an issue where Democrats feel they can “look tough” by believing they can shift troops and fight the “real war on terror,” but there needs to be a serious, substantive look at what our goals should be and whether 5 years of trying to bomb the country into submission hasn’t permanently damaged relations and led us to fight a losing battle. With the release of RAND Corporation study (hey, it only took a decade to undertake a study on how to best fight terrorism) re-affirming a strategy opposed to the militarism, colonialism and unilateralism of the current Administration, we need to think strategically about this foreign policy challenge and what might WORK best, not what will make the yahoos feel good.

(I should also say that the RAND study basically proved John Kerry right, and he is continuing to smartly lay out a new strategy against extremism designed to put military force in the background and a more totalistic “global counterinsurgency” based on legitimacy and global development in the foreground. It’s well worth your time reading.)

I don’t have to tell all of you that we need more progressive media, and this program, in its third episode, is an excellent opportunity for us to stake out a real tentpole. Plus, the strong commitment to women and communities of color is a very exciting way to show off this diverse movement. On this one episode you’re seeing the equivalent of a year on all the Sunday chat shows combined.

More information at the Meet The Bloggers website. It streams live at 1pm ET/10am PT.

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Scrubbed

by digby

Look what’s been scrubbed from the McCain campaign website. (Here’s the google cache)

NEW YORK (AP) – Republican Sen. John McCain said he will officially enter the presidential race … with a formal announcement in early April after a trip to Iraq.

The Arizona senator discussed the timing of the long-expected announcement with reporters at an awards reception Wednesday evening a few hours after taping an appearance on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman.”

On the talk show, McCain told Letterman: “I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States,” then added that he would give a formal speech to that effect in early April.

[…]

There had been no doubt that McCain would eventually become a full-fledged White House candidate, and he had been expected to make his candidacy official in the spring.

The 2006 midterm campaign had just ended when McCain took the first formal step toward a presidential run in November. He formed an exploratory committee and gave a speech casting himself as a “common-sense conservative” in the vein of Ronald Reagan who could lead the party back to dominance after a dreadful election season by returning to the GOP’s core principles.

A political celebrity, McCain is considered a top contender for the nomination.

H/t

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Innoculation

by digby

These guys are on a roll:

“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

Here’s their evidence, from Obama’s town hall meeting in Springfield yesterday:

So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other Presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky. That’s essentially the argument they’re making.

The Obama campaign won’t make that mistake again, I’m sure. And I’m sure many people are happy to know that race will be off the table and McCain can dogwhistle his way in to office without any push back from anyone. Excellent work.

Keep in mind that this is just fine, however:

McCain pounded the Democratic presidential hopeful for opposing an increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq — known as the “surge” — which has been credited with helping stabilize the country.

”When we adopted the surge, we were losing the war in Iraq, and I stood up and said I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war,” McCain told reporters.

”Apparently Sen. Obama, who does not understand what’s happening in Iraq or fails to acknowledge the success in Iraq, would rather lose a war than lose a campaign.”

Playing the unpatriotic traitor card is a-ok. Unless, of course, you say that being a POW doesn’t automatically qualify you to be president, in which case you are an unpatriotic traitor.

Good to know the rules are being laid down clearly so we know what is and isn’t allowed in this campaign. Republicans can say anything and Democrats have to pretend it isn’t happening. Some things never change.

And anyway, Obama can always dance on the head of pin:

Stipulating that McCain isn’t race-baiting doesn’t mean that Obama ought to refrain from recognizing that some people who might be inspired by his message might also be a little wary, a little prejudiced in the way that most of us are, a little confused about what this unusual guy is all about.

McCain isn’t race baiting. And campaign operations chief Steve Schmidt has told his communications staff that he will fire any campaign operative on sight who even thinks of trying to exploit racial prejudice. Democrats might be skeptical of this, but there’s no evidence to say otherwise.

Right. If Steve Schmidt says it, it must be true. And we’re all a “little confused about what this unusual guy is all about.”

Mum’s the word on the racism thing. Nothing more will be said on the subject. It doesn’t exist in this campaign. But the good news is that we do have permission to push back on the “Democrats are fags” stuff, which apparently has just been noticed by the members of the press:

Now, I didn’t go to a four year college NOT to assimilate some lessons about the semiotics of about gender and language. CBS News National Correspondent Dean Reynolds noted yesterday that the McCain campaign accused Obama of reacting to McCain’s aggressiveness “with a mix of fussiness and hysteria.” Strike me down for noticing, and I usually hate to even think in these terms, but those words have gendered meanings. Reynolds:

It reminded those of us in the political press corps of the “Breck Girl” tag the Republicans stuck on John Edwards, or their slam against John Kerry: “He looks French.”

Republican campaigns frequently take this “wimp factor” tack — even against fellow Republicans. Remember Alexander Haig’s critical riposte to then Vice President George H.W. Bush during a debate in 1988. “George,” said Haig, “we didn’t hear a wimp out of you.”

It appears that in the latest rip on Obama’s “fussiness and hysteria,” the party of Larry Craig and Mark Foley seems to be trying to woo not only the male vote, but the “manly men” substrata therein.

Apparently the “Al Gore is practically lactating” line went right over their little heads.

But it’s great that the mainstream media have finally noticed this so that they can pretend they are sensitive to the semiotics in gender and language after they trashed Clinton for months. Better late than never, I guess. And it’s really convenient that they can do this without having to acknowledge that Obama is the first African American nominee and might just be subject to some acial-ray edjudicepray. (That could never happen in America!)

Update: The campaign responds.

“Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they’re using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign, and those are the issues he’ll continue to talk about.”

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Resurrection

by digby

Look who’s back! And with a great post about McNasty’s history.

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The Right To Be Offensive

by tristero

Ed Brayton is right. This is an excellent description of the recent Myers affair. Briefly, what happened was this:

A fellow attending Mass decided that, rather than swallow the consecrated Host, to take it home. This created a huge to-do about blasphemy which infuriated PZ Myers. In reaction, Dr. Myers offered to desecrate the Host himself and proceeded to do so.

As mentioned, I didn’t like what PZ did but I sure understand why he did it. And I certainly agree with this:

… this is not the middle east; this is not the middle ages. This is a free society. And in a free society, there exists no right to not be offended. If the Catholic church can get away with desecrating what others consider sacred (or, for those of us who have no concept of sacredness, at least special) – if they can call a loving union between two gay men or women an “abomination”, if they can call the union into which I hope to enter someday a “perversion”, then damn it, I reserve the right to desecrate what they consider sacred also. Respect is a two-way street – if they want my respect, they must give me theirs. If they want Myers to respect them, they must also respect him (and Mr. Cook for that matter). But this is something of which religion in general seems incapable – they always want respect, but reserve the right to give none in return.

That is exactly right.

This is about respect and tolerance which, among the lunatic fringe that drives public discourse on religious belief these days, simply doesn’t exist. It is, as the letter writer points out, absolutely outrageous to publicly characterize as “an abomination” a loving relationship or anathematize contraceptive practices as “murder.” And yet christianist goons do it all the time. And no one blinks an eye.

PZ simply gave them a taste of their own medicine. We should carefully note the christianist reactions. We should recycle them, with interest, the next time they blame a hurricane on a gay pride parade, as psychopastor Hagee did in re: Katrina.

Note: The last time I posted about this , some of you were curious why I didn’t like what PZ did. As I said then, it’s besides the point. I just didn’t, is all. My friends often do things I don’t like, but I still like them fine (and vice versa, I hope). I think it’s silly to assume we must agree with everything our friends do.*

In PZ’s case, whom I’ve met and who I like a lot both personally and intellectually, I think PZ’s actions here pale in comparison to those of the lunatics arrayed against him. I support him and have written the president of his college a letter to say so. But more to the point, I am so thrilled Dr. Myers regularly gives us posts like this one which really stick it to the likes of Bill Donohue and his boring, bleak, and loopy worldview!

*Let’s make this general for a moment. Disagreement is not that big a deal; if anything, disagreement is a good thing. OTOH, strong opposition to intolerance, ignorance, and other right wing lunacy is a very big deal. About this, I agree with PZ (and most likely, you, dear reader) 100%.

Not That It Matters

by digby

David Riley at Businessweek notices that McNasty is McNasty

What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was…wait for it…using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that’s political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents—a lie. This is what some people are calling the Hannity strategy. Right wing nut-muffin Sean Hannity employs a slick strategy of repeating canards very quickly over and over, day in and day out, which aren’t challenged by his TV co-host Alan Colmes or by any of his radio listeners. By relentlessly repeating falsehoods day after day, the theory goes, it becomes embedded in the media. There is truth in this. In 2004, the Bush campaign ran an ad and daily repeated that John Kerry was a flip flopper, running a Kerry clip with the Democratic candidate saying he voted for an $87 billion military appropriation before he voted against it. It sounded bad when ripped out of context. Kerry voted for it in committee, and then voted against in on a floor vote when the bill included giveaways to Halliburton he didn’t support. The distortion took on a life of its own, parroted by mainstream media including Chris Matthews, and even the Tom Brokaw and the late Tim Russert. It is a case study in how effective advertising can work when it is done relentlessly and consistently…even if its untrue.

I don’t know why they are calling this the “Hannity Strategy.” It’s a long time propaganda technique that goes back to the birth of propaganda — and it’s one that’s been constantly employed by Republicans for the past 20 years.

What this person fails to realize is that it isn’t Hannity or even Limbaugh who make these things work. It’s the mainstream media. They Blackberry each other the latest hilarious snotty talking point, which they repeat like a bunch of parrots with ADD, and it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not because “it’s out there.” Even when they are arguing that the facts are incorrect or claiming that there’s a ‘risk” of Mccain being perceived as too negative — they are getting the smear out.

I just heard Andrea Mitchell argue for 10 minutes with McCain’s campaign manager along those lines. She put a quote of his on the screen:

Only a celebrity of Barack Obama’s magnitude could attract 200,000 fans in Berlin who gathered for the mere opportunity to be in his presence. These are not supporters or even voters, but fans fawning over The One. Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand “MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea” and worry about the price of arugula

It sat there for quite some time as Davis and Mitchell talked over one another, making little sense. The only thing you remember from the exchange is that quote.

Enough of that and you wind up with this, (Via Stoller):

Perhaps one of the clearest indications emerged Tuesday from the world of late-night comedy, when David Letterman offered his “Top Ten Signs Barack Obama is Overconfident.” The examples included Obama proposing to change the name of Oklahoma to “Oklobama” and measuring his head for Mount Rushmore. “When Letterman is doing ‘Top Ten’ lists about something, it has officially entered the public consciousness,” said Dan Schnur, a political analyst from the University of Southern California and the communications director in John McCain’s 2000 campaign. “And it usually stays there for a long, long time.”

For historical purposes, here is an example of the late night jokes that were done about Kerry in 2004. (Interestingly, Letterman hates Bush so much that he doesn’t seem to have joined in the fun.):

“Bush and Cheney say now they’re targeting people who can’t make up their minds, so apparently they’re trying to get John Kerry’s vote as well.” —Jay Leno

“You see the pictures in the paper today of John Kerry windsurfing? He’s at his home in Nantucket this week, doing his favorite thing, windsurfing. Even his hobby depends on which way the wind blows.” —Jay Leno

“We make jokes about it but the truth is this presidential election really offers us a choice of two well-informed, opposing positions on every issue. OK, they both belong to John Kerry, but they’re still there.” —Jay Leno”

Vice President Dick Cheney attacked John Kerry. He said that John Kerry ‘lacks deeply held convictions.’ Today Kerry shot back, he said, ‘That’s not completely true.'” —Jay Leno

Once it’s out there, it’s out there. It doesn’t matter how it got there.

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McNasty’s McNasty

by digby

Here’s a story in tomorrow’s NY Times about McCain’s new hatchet man’s very special talents. He’s earning his money.

Mr. McCain’s campaign is now under the leadership of members of President Bush’s re-election campaign, including Steve Schmidt, the czar of the Bush war room that relentlessly painted his opponent, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, as effete, elite, and equivocal through a daily blitz of sound bites and Web videos that were carefully coordinated with Mr. Bush’s television advertisements.The run of attacks against Mr. Obama over the last couple of weeks have been strikingly reminiscent of that drive, including the Bush team’s tactics of seeking to make campaigns referendums on its opponents — not a choice between two candidates — and attacking the opponent’s perceived strengths head-on. Central to the latest McCain drive is an attempt to use against Mr. Obama the huge crowds and excitement he has drawn, including on his foreign trip last week, by promoting a view of him as more interested in attention and adulation than in solving the problems facing American families. “I would say that it is beyond dispute that he has become the biggest celebrity in the world,” Mr. Schmidt said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “The question that we are posing to the American people is this: ‘Is he ready to lead yet?’ And the answer to the question that we will offer to the American people is: ‘No he is not.’ ” Mr. McCain’s more focused assault comes after one of his worst weeks of the general election campaign, when he seemed to fumble for a consistent, overarching critique of Mr. Obama, who winged around the Middle East and Europe. Mr. McCain’s advisers continue to look for ways to bring more discipline to his message, and are being urged by some supporters to cut back the frequency of his question-and-answer sessions with reporters, a staple of his campaign but one that occasionally yields unscripted moments, misstatements and off-the-cuff pronouncements that divert attention from the themes he is trying to promote. The intensity of the recent drive — which has included some assertions from the McCain campaign that have been widely dismissed as misleading — has surprised even some allies of Mr. McCain, who has frequently spoken about the need for civility in politics. The sentiment seeped onto television on Wednesday with Andrea Tantaros, a Republican strategist, saying on MSNBC that the use of Ms. Hilton in Mr. McCain’s commercial was “absurd and juvenile,” and that he should spend more time promoting his own agenda. Mr. Obama’s campaign seized on those concerns, trying to turn the tables by portraying Mr. McCain as cranky and negative. The Democratic National Committee called Mr. McCain “McNasty.” Late Wednesday Mr. Obama released a counter advertisement citing editorials critical of Mr. McCain’s latest volley of attacks and featuring an announcer who says, “John McCain, Same old politics, same failed policies.” Asked by reporters about Mr. McCain’s new advertisement, Mr. Obama said, “I do notice that he doesn’t seem to have anything to say very positive about himself.”

I realize they want to take the high road, but ….

Here’s a reminder of how President Dukakis responded when he was ruthlessly attacked by Bush Sr:

MICHAEL DUKAKIS: I’m fed up with it. Haven’t seen anything like it in 25 years of public life. George Bush’s negative TV ads, distorting my record, full of lies and he knows it. I’m on the record for the very weapons systems his ads say I’m against. I want to build a strong defense. I’m sure he wants to build a strong defense. So this isn’t about defense issues. It’s about dragging the truth into the gutter. And I’m not going to let them do it. This campaign is too important. The stakes are too high for every American family. The real question is, will we have a president who fights for the privileged few, or will we have a president who fights for you? George Bush wants to give the wealthiest one percent of the people in this country a new tax break worth $30,000 a year. I’m fighting for you and your family, for affordable housing and health care, for better jobs, for the best education and opportunity for our children. It’s a tough fight, I know that. Uphill all the way, but I’m going to keep on fighting because what I’m fighting for is our future.

That worked out.

For a little more info on the special political stylings of our pal Steve Schmidt, here’s a story from the San Francisco Chronicle when he was hired to run Schwarzenegger’s campaign:

ELECTION 2006
Governor’s team adds former Rove protegeSteve Schmidt displayed his uncanny political talent — the ability to launch “rapid response” — when Martha Alito fled weeping after senators cast her husband, Judge Samuel Alito, as a closet racist during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Working the phones, the lawmakers and the media, Schmidt, the administration’s point man on Alito’s confirmation, lamented that she had been pushed to the limit by the Senate’s Democrats. “The American people who saw this hearing today are going to be troubled by some of the tactics of the Democrats, who I think didn’t focus on law, didn’t want to have an uplifting debate — but made a decision to try to attack Judge Alito and tear him down in the most unfair way,” Schmidt, 35, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in one live interview. Republicans — even some frustrated Democratic opponents — shook their heads in admiration. Thanks to Schmidt’s spin, the incident ballooned into front page headlines and photos sympathetic to the judge. Schmidt, a former California political operative, was a member of the exclusive “breakfast club” led by top White House adviser Karl Rove that ran President Bush’s re-election campaign.

That was a beaut, for sure, and we were on to it at the time. It made no difference, it took on a life of its own and we all know the result. This guy’s good.

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Silly Season

by digby

Atrios watched the gasbags all day and it’s driving him crazy. I feel his pain. If you haven’t checked in over there today, go to his first post of the day and read up the page. It’s hilarious.

This is the first one, and it only gets better:

Spying

Sam Brownback is on my TV upset that China might be monitoring the internet and telephone communications of visitors during the olympics. “That’s spying!” he says. He’s really upset.

Please just kill me.

I saw that one too and nearly lost my latte.

This is getting weird. Brownback’s taking on the mantle of a fake libertarian ca. 1997 as if we haven’t just gone through a huge debate about the US spying on Americans without warrants. Which he supported. The other day Pelosi went on Jon Stewart and complained about domestic surveillance powers and then said “this Republican Congress has been a rubber stamp for so long, but that will change.”

Am I on drugs and don’t know it?

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“As many loyalists as possible.”

by dday

Today the Justice Department’s Inspector General, Glenn Fine, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss Monday’s report showing serious violations of the law in the hiring of career Department employees. What the IG revealed today was that the attitude of extreme partisanship inside the DoJ was pervasive. Whether people were actively engaging in politicization or just tacitly accepting it, everyone was at least aware of what was happening… everyone except for Abu Gonzales, of course, who does not recall.

FINE: He said he wasn’t aware of what was going on. He said he did not know Goodling used poltiical factors when assessing candidates for career positions, did not know the search terms Goodling used, did not know even that Goodling’s portfolio including hiring for IJs [immigration judges], and basically said he didn’t have knowledge of the role the office of the Attorney General played in identifying candidates.

It is of course grossly incompetent for Gonzales to be unaware of the goings-on in a department he’s supposed to manage. But I don’t buy this at all. Gonzales came from the White House counsel’s office, and it is beyond clear that the politicized hiring originated at 1600 Penna. Charlie Savage finds evidence inside the IG report.

n May 17, 2005, the White House’s political affairs office sent an e-mail message to agencies throughout the executive branch directing them to find jobs for 108 people on a list of “priority candidates” who had “loyally served the president.”

“We simply want to place as many of our Bush loyalists as possible,” the White House emphasized in a follow-up message, according to a little-noticed passage of an internal Justice Department report released Monday about politicization in the department’s hiring of civil-service prosecutors and immigration officials […]

The report released on Monday by Justice Department investigators said that the context of the May 17, 2005, message from the White House about its priority-hire list “made plain” that it was seeking politically appointed government jobs, for which it is legal to take politics into account. The report did not say who sent the message.

But the message also urged administration officials to “get creative” in finding the patronage positions — and some political appointees carried out their mission with particular zeal.

“We pledge 7 slots within 40 days and 40 nights. Let the games begin!” Jan Williams, then the White House’s liaison to the Justice Department, responded in an e-mail message on May 19, 2005.

But despite this very clear evidence, the IG only consulted with one White House official, Rove protege Scott Jennings, during the entire investigation. It’s this compartmentalization – investigating pieces of the federal bureaucracy in a vacuum and refusing to connect the dot to the overall project directed at the highest levels – that feeds the Beltway mindset that restricts accountability at every turn. As Jonathan Turley said yesterday, if Monica Goodling becomes the next iteration of the “few bad apples” at Abu Ghraib, with accountability and punishment ending with her, it would be pathetic.

And even getting Goodling to pay for this would be a stretch. She was given immunity against self-incrimination at her Congressional hearing, and the crime she committed doesn’t appear to have a penalty now that she’s no longer employed by the DoJ. This made me want to scream today:

Schumer: On of the most shocking conclusions in your report is that someone like Monica Goodling, who politicized the appointment of Assistant US Attorneys, Immigration Judges, and even Counter-Terrorism positions may not face any consequences for her actions. So let me ask you this, Mr. Fine. Should such blatant politicization and illegal activity be subject to some criminal punishment so there would be some ultimate accountability.

Fine: I’m not sure it’s true to say she escaped any accountability and punishment. As I discussed with Senator Whitehouse earlier, she–people did leave the Department, so they can’t be disciplined by the Department, but we’ve recommended that they never get a job with the Department again and hopefully with the federal government again and that hopefully they consider this report if they ever do reapply. They have been exposed. Their conduct has been exposed in a transparent way for all to see. And then, there may be–I’m not saying there is but there may be appropriate Bar sanctions for–possibly–for attorneys who have committed misconduct and may have violated a Bar rule and so the Bar may look into that […]

Whitehouse: Um, with respect to the consequences for the violation of federal law. Can you identify what Bar rules might have been broken. … I did not see OPR making any referrals to the Disciplinary Council as a result, so I’m a little confused about what disciplinary consequences lawyers might face?

Fine: My understanding is, and I’ve had discussions with OPR about this, that OPR intends to, and we will participate in a notification to the Bars of individuals who are found to have committed misconduct, for them to review the conduct. Now I don’t believe OPR has done a lengthy review of this and say which exact rule but it does intend to and I think it is appropriate to notify the Bars of the individuals who were involved and in fact I think some of them have already been notified; I think individuals have provided our reports to various Bars for the Bar to look at. In terms of the rules, I’m not an expert in the area, potentially Rule 8.4 which talks about the administration of justice and acts going to the fitness to practice law. I’m not necessarily saying that does apply but I do think there are things that ought to be review and looked at and I think the experts in this area ought to do that.

Whitehouse then asked about stripping civil service protection for anyone hired during Goodling’s reign, and also about John Nowacki, revealed in the IG report to have lied about Goodling’s hiring practices, and STILL employed by the Justice Department. And… crickets.

This, in the end, is the problem, as surely as it’s the problem with citing Karl Rove for contempt. There are follow-ups and hurdles and gaps within the law that allow these people to pervert the Justice Department, use it as an arm of the RNC, put honorable people into jail, and get away with it. Because there’s no understanding of the big picture here. Krugman gets at it today.

As we all know, the Bush administration essentially brushed aside all notion of due process. It locked up and tortured people it said were “enemy combatants”; it engaged in warrantless wiretapping; and so on.

We weren’t supposed to worry our pretty little heads about this, because we were supposed to take it as a given that these were people we could trust not to abuse their power.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department was interviewing job candidates, and asking,

What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?

In other words, there was a combination of power without oversight and a deeply creepy cult of personality (which was obvious long before we got the latest specifics.)

The deeply politicized Justice Department is the firewall against accountability for the crimes of the Administration. They started that project right away to make sure.

It was in a different context and regarding different criminals, but this is what accountability looks like, courtesy (Lord help us) Republican Ted Poe:

Mr. Speaker, it seems to be this is yet another example of incompetence, waste, and possible fraud against America. If crimes have been committed, the Justice Department needs to prosecute anyone that steals money from America during this time of war. Because the long arm of American law even reaches crooked contractors in Iraq. And where shall we send these people? To the well-built Guantanamo Bay prison where we house war criminals. And that’s just the way it is.

Loyalists have a different opinion.

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Dog Day Rollout

by digby

Just a little reminder. It was precisely this time of year in 2004, the lull before the Olympics and the conventions, when they rolled out the swiftboat smear. It’s when the media are hungry for something juicy and mean and the Republicans are ready to feed it to them.

And don’t think because they have been somewhat sympathetic to Obama up to now that they won’t run with this stuff. remember, it doesn’t matter if they agree with it, if they stage a hissy fit, if they write long denuncuations of McCain or run fact chacks. All that matters is that they get it out there for the McCain campaign.

The swift boat liars never did a big ad buy. They got almost all their play through pimping the controversy and having the media show their ads for free.

Update: Speaking of Barack the anorexic starlet on the down-low:

McCain camp on Obama’s ‘hysteria’

Staying very personal, the McCain campaign responds to Obama’s suggestion that Republicans will attack his unusual name and his race:

“This is a typically superfluous response from Barack Obama. Like most celebrities, he reacts to fair criticism with a mix of fussiness and hysteria,” says McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, before trying to link the attack back to offshore drilling