You Can't Spell William F. Buckley Without F-U-...

Lest it be said that I cannot find a good word to say about all God's children, I want to commend the late Bill Buckley for his pioneering work as a safer sex educator or, as the position was known in those days, Texas Pecker Inspector:

Q: Am I wrong in thinking that Mr. Buckley served as an infantry company commander in World War II? If so, in what unit and in which theater of operations did he serve? —Hillard Gordon

A: He served in the U.S. Army but did not make it overseas. He did, however, oversee a sexual hygiene operation on a base in Texas.

True, it wasn't Corregidor or Omaha Beach, but this was before the advent of Malathion lotion. I'd like to think that Bill formed his life-long crush on Ronnie Reagan during a screening of a cautionary one-reeler starring the future President as Private Pustule.

Mergers & Acquisitions

You've probably already read this elsewhere, but Michelle Malkin has swallowed up "Captain" Ed Morrissey and the Captain's Quarters empire.

Our condolences to the family.

Joe McCarthy and Bull Connor, Meet Your New Roommate

Now he belongs to the worms:

In 1955, Mr. Buckley started National Review as voice for "the disciples of truth, who defend the organic moral order" with a $100,000 gift from his father. The first issue, which came out in November, claimed the publication "stands athwart history yelling Stop."

It proved it by lining up squarely behind Southern segregationists, saying blacks should be denied the vote. After some conservatives objected, Mr. Buckley suggested instead that both uneducated whites and blacks should not be allowed to vote.

Bill finally becomes the organic moral order he aspired to be.

p.s. to the NYT: You miscounted the grandkids.

p.p.s. to Josh Marshall: When someone dies of natural causes, the story usually doesn't develop any more.

p.p.p.s. -- To all those who claim that the conservative movement has degenerated from the cerebral and civilized days of Buckley, you don't need to revisit 1955 to disabuse yourself of that fantasy. Try 2005. A congenial prick with a large vocabulary is still a prick.

Update: Thanks to Bill S. in comments for the correction.

The Hackademy Awards

And the award for Biggest Republican Hack Posing As An Objective Journalist goes to:

Chicago: I know this has been asked before, but is it ever appropriate to flat-out state that a public official has lied in straight reporting (vs. opinion)? It seems that most reporters are very, very reluctant to use that word, even when it seems clear that the person in question is not telling the truth. The contradiction between John McCain's recent statement about his meeting/speaking with Bud Paxson and his own 2002 deposition comes to mind. But reports always call it a "conflict" between statements rather than what it is -- he's lying.

washingtonpost.com: McCain Disputed On 1999 Meeting: Broadcaster Recalls Urging FCC Contact (Post, Feb. 23)

Howard Kurtz: There may be occasions where it's warranted, but "lie" suggests an intentional untruth. In the case of McCain and Paxson, it's possible that he forgot the 1999 meeting. After all, why deliberately lie about it when you already have testified under oath that there was a meeting?

And, with the award for Most Ill-Informed Republican Hack, it's a clean sweep for the Putz:

Annapolis, Md.: Good morning. Do you have any information about the "60 Minutes" blackout last night in Alabama? This was during the segment about Gov. Siegelman, and of course the rumor is that the TV blackout was politically contrived. Did the "glitch" occur in other places also, or does it seem to have been confined to Alabama?

Howard Kurtz: This is the first I'm hearing of it, but local stations can choose not to run, or only to run part of, a network program. So if this happened during that segment, it doesn't sound like a coincidence.

Ignorance is no excuse --for Howie, it's a career.

Saint vs. Saint

The battle is joined. It's now the Media's Maverick vs. the Corporate Avenger in a three-way cage match.

Ron Paul must now continue his campaign through the general election in order to protect the markets from Saint Ralph. (Having him join the Nader ticket is just too much to hope for.) And someone should exhume Ross Perot as well, just for yucks.

p.s. -- I didn't see the interview, but shouldn't that be "descent is the mother of ascent," not "dissent?" I know Ralph was a disciple of The Steve Miller Band at some point in his career.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Straight Talk's Criminal Cronies Edition

"Tell Alberto The Money's On Its Way... And There's More Where That Came From ... And Just Keep Grinning Like An Idiot"

Seems one of Saint John McCain's campaign co-chairs is about to spend a few years in the federal pen. The charges against U.S. Rep. Richard Renzi (R-AZ) include conspiracy, money laundering, embezzlement and bribe-taking, four of the Seven Republican Sins.

But surely this is all news to the Maverick, the man so pure he won't even fuck a lobbyist.

Renzi, 49, a burly former college football player and father of 12, was elected to Congress in 2002 in his first bid for office and narrowly won reelection in 2006, just days after news of the federal investigation broke. After a family business was raided by the FBI in April 2007, Renzi quit the three House committees on which he served. The race to replace him is underway.

Last year, Renzi also became involved in the controversy surrounding the Bush administration's firing of nine U.S. attorneys when his office acknowledged that his chief of staff called one of the federal prosecutors to ask about the status of the Renzi investigation.

The investigation broke just before the November 2006 election. And here's Saint John's benediction, circa October 2006 -- after the investigation was made public, according to CBS:

"This is Sen. John McCain. I'm calling to urge you to support my friend Rep. Rick Renzi for Congress. Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach. I work with Rick every day and can report to you his total dedication to the people of Arizona and the United States. Please join me in supporting rural Arizona's workhorse congressman on Nov. 7."

So Straight Talk knew Renzi was bent for over a year, but still made him a campaign co-chair. Perhaps McCain's outrage over the Jack Abramoff affair was all about the fact that Jack-Off wasn't one of his supporters.

Roger, Oscar, Oscar, Roger

Because my television died and the Vanity Fair party invite got lost in the mail again, I'll have to go to a gay bar if I want to watch the Motion Picture Academy Clearinghouse Sweepstakes ceremony this year. And, since Roger el-Simon has a say in the outcome, who really gives a toss?

But that won't stop me from offering my choices from among the nominees.

Best Picture Show

There Will Be Blood was, without question, far and away the only movie I've seen at the bijou in the past year. So it gets the old bowling trophy.

Best Leading Thespian, Male

Daniel Day-Lewis, for the portrayal of an oilman -- and an American -- more convincing than Bush's.

Best Leading Thespian, Not Male

Julie Christie for her third nomination in a film I'd never heard of, Philistine that I am.

Best Bit Player, Male

Hal Holbrook, for his years of service impersonating Mark Twain, even though he's married to an annoying right-winger.

Best Bit Player, Not Male

Cate Blanchett, for her non-traditional casting, portraying a Jew.

Best Original Photoplay

Lars and the Real Girl, inspired by a true story involving Ace of Spades.

Best Unoriginal Photoplay

There Will Be Blood, but only if they give it to Sinclair Lewis.

Best Newsreel

No End In Sight: The John McCain Story.

Who wouldn't be proud of a country where you could steal drugs from a charity and not suffer any consequences?

I'd be Yakov-Fucking-Smirnoff if I could get away with such shit.

Where To Stop Reading

PRESTO PUNDIT
The moral duty to do no harm has as it's corollary the duty not to be ignorant.

Right there.

Update (2/20): Roger gets results, but not a thank you note. It's a crying shame, but virtue is its own reward.

Grand Old Police Blotter: Wilkes-Behind-Barre Edition

It is tough out here for a pimp, not to mention a pimp's family:

SAN DIEGO – Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor who federal prosecutors contend was the mastermind behind the largest congressional bribery scheme in history, was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday.

With his daughter crying behind him, he asked the court to look at his entire life and "not the picture, which I don't believe to be accurate, which the prosecution has tried to paint of me."

U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns urged Wilkes to admit his wrongdoing, something he politely refused to do.

"Today is a day to own up," Burns said. "A guy who cares at least about his family should come clean to them."

A guy who cares about his family shouldn't bribe Congressmen in exchange for wingnut welfare. But that's just me.

Wilkes, 53, who had been free on bond, was convicted on Nov. 5 of conspiracy, bribery, fraud and money laundering in connection with the bribery scheme that brought down former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, once a highly respected war hero.

Cunningham pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion. He was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison in March 2006.

Prosecutors said Wilkes' decade-long bribery of the former congressman netted him $46 million.

During Wilkes' trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he showered Cunningham, a Republican congressman from Rancho Santa Fe, with expensive meals, gifts, fancy trips, cash bribes and prostitutes.

In exchange for the gifts and bribes, Cunningham, who then held a seat on a powerful defense committee, used his influence to earmark money in budgets and steer projects that benefitted ADCS, Inc., the Poway defense contracting firm that Wilkes owned.

An investigator said in court papers that the federal government lost at least $30 million and as much as $60 million on the contracts that ADCS was involved in.

If Wilkes can swing it so he shares a cell with the Dukestir, can a reality show documentary on MSNBC be far behind?

Meanwhile, Wilkes' conviction provides further proof, if any was needed, that it only helps to hire Mark Geragos if you're actually innocent of the crime.

Obampulation

If you think Cliffie Kincaid's nuttier than a fruitcake made from Reed Irvine's head cheese (see post immediately below), check out Lisa Schiffren, who thinks that Barack Obama is the product of a Communist Party breeding experiment:

Barack Obama is the new man, of course. His mixed race is a symbol of that. Just like Tiger Woods — as we have read, endlessly. What's to wonder about?

But maybe it's not so simple. Obama and I are roughly the same age. I grew up in liberal circles in New York City — a place to which people who wished to rebel against their upbringings had gravitated for generations. And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics.

And that would reflect a lot better on the Communist Party than on the Young Republicans, except in Schriffen's twisted mind.

Of course, the liberal media is covering up the plot against Purity of Essence:

Political correctness was invented precisely to prevent the mainstream liberal media from persuing [sic] the questions which might arise about how Senator Obama's mother, from Kansas, came to marry an African graduate student. Love? Sure, why not? But what else was going on around them that made it feasible? Before readers level cheap accusations of racism — let's recall that the very question of interracial marriage only became a big issue later in the 1960s. The notion of a large group of mixed race Americans became an issue during and after the Vietnam War. Even the civil-rights movement kept this culturally explosive matter at arm's distance.

If you find a coherent thought in that paragraph, let me know, will ya? Given that interracial marriage was illegal in many places until 1967 and a death sentence in many others in the early 60s, it's hard to understand how "the question of interracial marriage only became a big issue later in the 1960s." Perhaps Schiffren means that people knew their places until the 60s ruined everything.

But Schiffren thinks she has the answer to the question than the EMESSEM will not persue:

It was, of course, an explicit tactic of the Communist party to stir up discontent among American blacks, with an eye toward using them as the leading edge of the revolution.

And nothing would discontent American blacks more than having them marry crazy white women. It all makes sense now.

Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family's background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.

Because we can't have the product of Communist fucking occupying the White House.

Obammunists

Cliffie Kincaid and the Corner idiots have discovered Barack Obama's secret ties to International Communism.

Cliffie notes that Obama, the Brown Menace, "has well-documented socialist connections, which help explain why he sponsored a 'Global Poverty Act' designed to send hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world."

An act co-sponsored in the House by this fellow traveler.

But wait, there's more.

In the late 70s, teenaged Barry O. recieved advice from Franklin Marshall Davis, a man who "the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified ... as a CPUSA member." If that wasn't bad enough, the future optimist "developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his 'poetry'...." Indeed, Obama recklessly "admits he saw a book of his black poetry."

Davis was in fact so influential on the impressionable Obama that when Davis called higher education "an advanced degree in compromise," Obama chose not go to college and law school and become editor of law review and devoted the rest of his life to writing "black" "poetry" for the Daily Worker. That's some powerful mentoring!

If the sinister implications haven't caused you to wet yourself yet, this will do the trick:

[Dr. Kathryn] Takara says that Davis "espoused freedom, radicalism, solidarity, labor unions, due process, peace, affirmative action, civil rights, Negro History week, and true Democracy to fight imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. He urged coalition politics."

Is "coalition politics" at work in Obama's rise to power?

Yeah, is it? Huh? Huh? Answer that, smartass!

And if that doesn't empty your bladder:

Frank Chapman, a CPUSA supporter, has written a letter to the party newspaper hailing the Illinois senator's victory in the Iowa caucuses.

Cliffie double-dog dares the liberal media "to report on this." And he's probably not referring to his own mental breakdown.

I've done my bit, Cliffie.

First It Was That, Now It's This

My television passed on this morning after seven years of faithful service. Given how little I paid for it, I can hardly complain.

It will probably be a few weeks before I get around to replacing it and, in the meantime, I can visit all the blogs and sneer at everyone in the television-related posts.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any television shopping tips, please leave them in comments here. Anyone who recommends the extended warranty will be banned.

Republican Justice

I love a good mission statement:

The Harris County District Attorney's Office is dedicated to the vigorous prosecution of those who commit crimes within the county. As the chief advocate for the State and citizens of our community in criminal matters, the District Attorney seeks to provide quality legal representation while maintaining the integrity of the criminal justice system. We believe that criminals must be held accountable and that victims be treated with the dignity, compassion and justice they deserve. We strive to sort the innocent from the guilty, and seek justice not just convictions.

To that end, we strive for excellence throughout our staff. We expect not only competence but also professionalism and an absolute commitment to the ends of securing justice without regard to status, race, gender, or national origin, or the prominence of either the victims of crime or those charged with crimes.

Please feel free to email me directly with your comments and suggestions.

...

Sincerely,

Charles A. Rosenthal, Jr.

It may take a while for Chuck to get your comments and suggestions, given his recent resignation. He's a big fan of e-mail, though:

Seven weeks ago, hundreds of Mr. Rosenthal’s other e-mail messages were disclosed, including endearments to his executive secretary, sexual and racist jokes and pornographic videos....

Mr. Rosenthal wrote his secretary, Kerry Stevens, last July, "Bet I could make you sleep."

He also forwarded to a friend a mock study of flatulence and a series of jokes making fun of University of Texas football players after several had been arrested on felony charges. Also in his e-mail but not with his name was a photograph titled "Fatal Overdose," of a black man lying on a sidewalk amid watermelon peels and Kentucky Fried Chicken containers.

Mr. Rosenthal apologized on Dec. 28 but vowed to stay in office.

Rosenthal also "admitted in federal court here that he had deleted up to 3,500 personal e-mail messages in violation of two subpoenas and a court order and that in sworn testimony he gave false information on how he came to delete some of them." So he's probably resigning to work for the Bush Justice Department.

Meanwhile, though, Rosey's now mounting a Big Pharma defense:

"Although I have enjoyed excellent medical and pharmacological treatment," he said, "I have come to learn that the particular combination of drugs prescribed for me in the past has caused some impairment in my judgment."

He said he was under "a different regimen of therapy" and was concentrating on "the restoration of my health." Mr. Rosenthal had not previously made an issue of medical problems.

Let that be a lesson to us all: Don't e-mail while stoned. And never vote Republican.

Grand Old Police Blotter: The McKee Mouse Club Edition

The Blotter is back, this time with another Foley scandal from the party of predators:

Robert A. McKee, a long-serving Republican delegate from Western Maryland, announced his resignation yesterday after authorities, who say they are conducting a child pornography investigation, seized two computers, videotapes and printed materials from his Hagerstown home.

First elected to the House of Delegates in 1994, McKee was chairman of the Western Maryland delegation and sponsored legislation to protect minors from sexual predators. McKee, 58, also resigned yesterday from his post as executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County, a child mentorship program where he has worked for 29 years.

"For me, this is deeply embarrassing," McKee said in a statement. "It reflects poorly on my service to the community."

...

"In the meantime, I have entered treatment," McKee said, without providing specifics. "My primary focus is to get well and stay well. I know this can only happen with the support and prayers of my family and friends and the help of professionals."

...

McKee, who is considered a political moderate, has sponsored bills this year dealing with minors, including the Child Protection From Predators Act and a proposal to collect DNA samples from sexual predators. McKee has sponsored several other sexual offender and child abduction bills in previous years.

For decades, McKee has been involved in youth athletics and children's groups, according to his General Assembly biography. He has served in officer positions in two Little League groups and as secretary of a parent and child center advisory committee.

McKee doesn't actually say what is embarassing, beyond acknowledging that the cops seized his PCs, which contain "images that are available on the Internet." Perhaps he's referring to the images of his membership on the Maryland for Romney Steering Committee.

Let's hope there are no direct victims of McKee's activities. Which would make him less dangerous than those in Bush Administration, if that is the case.

I Get Stupider E-Mails, But They're Intended For The Other Ailes

If you've ever wondered why The Corner doesn't have comments, the answer will reveal itself as you read these two comments which Limbaughette and Doughy Fatone culled from the cream of reader e-mails:

Am I the only one who is reminded of the Buffyverse goddess Jasmine when I hear Obama speak? The screaming fans, the empty world-saving optimism, the hive-minded response of the media, the shield-your-eyes glare of the smile.... If we checked his basement, would we find Wesley Wyndham Price in a steel cage?

-0-O-0-

I was watching American Idol last night, and as usual Paula Abdul was just going on and on about feelings and emotion, and crotchety Simon Cowell was rolling his eyes and telling her to get to the point. It occurred to me that this could be a preview of the election this year if it's Obama and McCain. Paula versus Simon. Who do we want as President?

One can picture the mayhem as Corner readers clashed over whether John McCain was more like Kirk or Picard, and groused that the patently unqualified Avery Brooks and Kate Mulgrew only got their commands because the Soros-dominated United Federation of Planets wants Starfleet Command to lose.

Although that would probably be an improvement, and more grounded in reality than the posts of Cokie Kudlow.

(Links here and here, if you must.)

Bonus Deep Thought from Little Ricky:

I missed about two weeks of political chatter, but one of the things that got through while I was over there was that a lot of conservatives waited to endorse Romney until the race was already all but over. Very odd. Isn't politics supposed to be all about timing?

Congratulations to Mitt Romney, who has rebounded from his humiliation in the Republican primaries and has found work as the default avatar in the Talking Points Memo comments sections.

The Further Adventures of Chuck and Muck

Earlier this week, various rightwing blowhards were confronted with their own impotence as the G.O.P. faithful said "Fuck You Very Much" to the blowhards' golden boy, Mitt Romney.

And now that the self-proclaimed opinion leaders have had McCain crammed down their throats, the Republican electorate delivers another pimp slap to Limbaugh, Hewitt, Malkin and the sundry slappees who infest The Corner.

In Republican contests on Saturday, Mike Huckabee won in Kansas, an embarrassing setback for Senator John McCain as he tries to rally the party around him as the nominee. The candidates were battling in Louisiana and Washington, where the results were too close to call. The Associated Press called the Louisiana race for Mr. Huckabee.

...

The results on the Republican side provided some surprise, particularly since Mr. Huckabee's showings in Kansas and Louisiana came as Mr. McCain seemed headed to the nomination.

Mr. Huckabee declared that the voters had been heard from. "They spoke with one voice," he said. "They said I am the authentic conservative in this race."

The Huckster was a shoo-in in Kansas, where he promised the voters that, if he was elected, God created the world in seven days.

A triumphant Pastor Mike even taunted both the non-fundie wing of the right-wing establishment and Quittin' Mittens:

Later, after the results from Kansas were in, [Huckabee] said Republican leaders "ought to be begging me" to stay in.

"It's an awfully weak party that can't handle competition," he said. "Competition breeds excellence."

And Republicans breed with their cousins. It's called the Southern Strategy.

If McCain wants to hold his lead, he needs to stop mingling with those CPAC city slickers and start handling snakes.

A Graceless Stunt

Professional umbrage taker Molena Charen goes into splutter overdrive upon learning of the vile antics of one Leon Fleisher, octenegarian and terror lover:

This is the most graceless stunt I've seen a while. Leon Fleisher, the conductor and pianist, received a Kennedy Center honor. As part of the weekend of festivities associated with this prestigious award, Fleisher was invited to attend a White House reception along with the four other honorees (Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, and Martin Scorcese).

What crime against civility did Mr. Fleisher commit? Send the children away, and then read on:

In the end, I decided to attend wearing a peace symbol around my neck and a purple ribbon on my lapel, at once showing support for our young men and women in the armed services and calling for their earliest return home. My family did the same, as did a number of fellow attendees who, over the weekend's various events, asked me for ribbons of their own.

Molena sneers that the former lefty should have rejected the honor rather than wearing the offending symbols to a White House reception. Why? Because although "every American is fully within his rights to express his views on anything in the world," "to do it in this way, at this moment, is quite a shameful performance."

I say the shame is that the Kennedy Center required Fleisher to kiss the ring of the unelected dolt in order to recieve recognition for his accomplishments. Under those unfortunate circumstances, Fleisher hit just the right note.

The Mitt Hits The Fan

Willard Romney, the man whose core beliefs consisted entirely of "I'm Mitt Romney, bitch" has pulled out of the Republican presidential race. Tiny prick that he is, we never realized he was in.

True to his character, Romney remained a shit to the bitter end:

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," he said during the conference. Members of the audience shouted, "No!" as Mr. Romney spoke.

The Heart of Darkness

Mister Leonard Pierce reports from CPAC:

The only person of color on the panel, Niger Innis of the race-baiting Congress for Racial Equality, actually draws boos.

Those weren't boos, they were cheering for Booosh.

Oh wait, Booosh didn't show. Even he doesn't want to associate with these loons.

"Romney Pulling Out?"

Write your own punchline.

Update: The Cornerites are convinced Willard Muff the Second is going to pull out at CPAC. And just yesterday the NYT reported that Muffy was thinking about placing Rick Santorum underneath him ... on the ticket, that is. That was 50 million well spent, Muffy.

So now McCain and Huckabee will battle for the nonexistent soul of the Grand Old Party.

p.s. -- Could I put less effort into this blog? I'm going to start trying harder, I swear.

Shorter The Corner

"If John McCain holds any hope of capturing the Republican nomination, he must first come to CPAC and rim our asses while simultaneously waterboarding a Mexican. We're not bluffing."

Seems my endorsement of No on 94 through 97 was as ineffectual as the presidential endorsements of the National Review, Hugh Hewitt and Special Ed.

(02-05) 23:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- As vote totals slowly trickled in Tuesday night, the tallies were favoring ballot measures that would allow four Southern California Indian tribes to more than double the number of slot machines they operate in exchange for millions of dollars of new payments to the state.

Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 - which would uphold gambling compacts negotiated by the governor and approved last year by the Legislature - were winning 57 percent of the vote, with about a quarter of the state's precincts reporting.

Of course, Willard got his ass kicked by a much larger margin, and by opponents he probably outspent 20 to 1.

Update: 20 to 1 was just a guess, but turns out to be just about right.

Tears Of A Clownhall

That sound you hear is A Mormon In The White House being thrown into the pulping machines.

The scream that follows will be that of the late Hugh Hewitt.

Update: The Corner page wouldn't load for the longest time. Naturally I feared another Jonestown. Turns out it's just my crummy computer.

This Room.... [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

needed the Utah win.

02/05 10:07 PM

Heh.

Character Counts

When given the choice between a military veteran and an impotent junkie who caused his own deafness by abusing painkillers, the Cornerites will choose the limp-dicked draft dodger every time.

And military service is the new "identity politics." I kid you not. (Though the Yellow Elephant Brigade should award Hood a Distinguished Self-Service Cross for coming up with that one.)

And this, from the same link: "Typically, when someone tries to form and lead a coalition and can't seem to pull it off, the blame belongs to him, not to the audience he's trying to reach." No, he's not referring to Willard the Muff, or Big Pharma.

The Corner should be mighty entertaining tonight, and in the coming weeks.

Electability/Strong and Warm and Wild and Free

Can bloggers endorse Presidential candidates? Yes we can. But I don't imagine any of my 1,025 readers (on a good day) will be moved one way or another by my choice. You've probably got more interesting reasons for your vote than I do for mine.

My ballot will be cast on Tuesday for the candidate who has the best chance of winning in November. I think both Democratic candidates can win, so my vote is for the candidate who I think will win the most times out of a hundred.

Predicting that requires predicting numerous other variables, including who the Republican nominee will be. And guessing what kind of sleazy tricks and crimes the Republicans will think up in the coming months. It's a mug's game, for sure. But I could've told you the Giants would win the Super Bowl, if only you had asked.

P.S. Vote "No" on all those Indian casino propositions. The Editorial Voice has spoken!

My Friends,

Could everybody chip in and get John McCain a new rhetorical crutch?

The Morality of a Sockpuppet

Self-awareness is not this guy's strong suit:

"By the time the Lonelygirl hoax was revealed, the country had long been reeling from a series of public betrayals. Enron officials had lied to their shareholders. A New York Times reporter named Jayson Blair had lied to his editors. James Frey had fabricated events in his best-selling, Oprah-endorsed memoir. Most consequentially, and outrageously, of all, President Bush had clearly lied to America and to the world about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and also about a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. You might have expected an exasperated American public, or at least the American media and blogosphere, to be equally angered by the revelation that YouTube and MySpace had been infiltrated by dishonest and powerful vested interests."