Is this going to be Craig's defense?

From WND's Joseph Farah. Please let Craig try this one. Mitch McConnell will keel over.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, didn't have to plead guilty to sex charges stemming from a men's room encounter with an undercover cop in Minnesota.

All he had to do was hand the police officer a copy of the U.S. Constitution – the document the senator swore to uphold upon first taking office in Congress 27 years earlier.

There is little ambiguity in Article 1: Section 6, which clearly states no member of Congress can be arrested while traveling to or from official session.

Craig was arrested just after 12 noon June 11. He cast a vote on a high-profile cloture motion on the Senate floor at 5:55 p.m. that same day.

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GOP Debate Wrap Up

Very short. 1) I can't believe I watched the whole thing. 2) It's implausible to me that any of those guys can be president. None of them had that presidential presence. Not even close. 3) The big loser was Mitt Romney. He was a disaster. It was like he was acting as a Presidential candidate and didn't really need to have real answers. 4) Rudy had a bad night, too. He had nothing going for him. 5) Because there was no competition, McCain seemed to do better.

The word used to describe the debate by two friends who also suffered through it was "lame." I agree. Read More......

GOP Debate Open Thread

Yes, the Republicans are debating again tonight -- on Fox News. Ugh. They are in New Hampshire at the University of New Hampshire (my alma mater, btw). Remember, there won't be a Democratic debate on Fox.

We'll liveblog as painful as it is...although the Republicans are usually good for a few laughs.

The candidates at the debate are going to be in a snit because Fred Thompson just announced on Leno that he's running.

If anyone says anything particularly inane, I'll try to get the video.

9:02 PM: The head of the New Hampshire Republican Party just thanked Fox for teaming up with them on this debate. Teaming up? Fox is the Republican Party channel.

9:04 PM: Brit Hume opens the festivities by asking about Fred Thompson - who blew off the debate for Leno. Gives them all a chance to take a whack at Thompson. McCain makes an age joke, yuk...and tell Fred "get out in the arena." Mitt is just laughing at his own stupid joke. God, he's annoying. Rudy thinks Fred did a pretty good job playing his part on Law & Order. What a bunch of clowns.

9:09 PM Wallace to Romney for challenging Giuliani on immigration...you couldn't even find the illegals on your front lawn. According to Mitt, Rudy's the reason we went from 3 million illegals to 12 million. Rudy also gets a question about "illegals." These Republicans are such immigrant bashers. When McCain gets an immigration question, he says American people have lost trust in us...because of Katrina. (When McCain says "us" he surely means the GOP, because they've failed at everything.)

They all keep mentioning keeping the borders secure...Huckabee said the government has ignored borders. Again, that mean the Bush administration has failed to keep our borders secure. Still.

Of course, Tancredo loves getting the immigrant bashing question. His whole campaign is based on immigrant bashing. Sounds like the GOP crowd in Durham loves the bashing, too.

Hunter gets a "viewer" question about building the border fence. He said he built the fence in San Diego...built the fence himself the way he makes it sound. And, Hunter takes a swipe at CNN.

9:20 PM...Carl Cameron even has a "man on the street" immigrant basher, too. Wow. Fox is leaving no immigrant bashing opportunity tonight. This clearly is the biggest issue for the GOP...over twenty minutes already. Mitt HATES AMNESTY and sanctuary cities. Got it?

9:25 PM. Wendell Goler asks Brownback about family values using the Larry Craig example, basically how can voters trust the GOP on family values when Larry Craig is one of them. Sam thinks Larry has taken responsibility, but Larry already "pulled the trigger" on leaving.

9:26 PM. Hunter gets an email question asking if Craig should leave immediately for the good of the party. He says yes...and thinks the GOP deals with these issues immediately.

9:28 PM. Romney gets an abortion question...he wants Roe v. Wade overturned, then allow states to ban it. That means Mitt would let some states still allow abortions and thus commit murder in GOP-speak. Huckabee wants a human life amendment.

9:29 PM: Goler asks Giuliani about guns using Fred Thompson's slam against NYC's gun laws. Fred is working the NRA vote apparently. (and lest we forget, Rudy has always been a strong proponent of gun control. He supported the assault weapons ban and wanted a national licensing system.)

9:32 PM: Ron Paul also gets a gun question...somehow Paul thinks there should be more guns on planes or something like that. He's hard to follow.

9:34 PM: The inevitable gay marriage question...should there be a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The person asking the question opposes the amendment. Brownback says yes citing inaccurate studies, of course.

HA..the ad during the break is from the Bush-backed pro-Iraq war group headed by Ari Fleischer.

9:39 PM...they're back. McCain gets a chance to attack Giuliani's lack of national security credentials. "I know war." Noting Giuliani still hasn't been to Iraq, Wallace wants to know if he'll go by the end of the year. Biggest lie of the night so far by Rudy: "I'm not running on what I did on September 11th." That's all he's running on.

9:44 PM Mitt gets a question about Iraq. His main point: "The surge has worked" but then says we're going to be able to see if the surge is working? HUH???

McCain picked up on that and said: THE SURGE IS WORKING....the great debate will take place in the Senate this month to see if we let the surge continue or surrender...we need to keep the surge going.

9:46 PM Great line from Ron Paul -- The people who are saying Iraq will be a bloodbath if we leave are the same people who said Iraq would be a cakewalk and we'd be paying for it with oil revenue. Why should we believe them now? Typically pro-war Wallace slams him by saying we should take our marching orders from Al Qaeda. Ron Paul fought back hard.

9:49 PM Brownback thinks we need a political surge in Iraq. The political process isn't working...and we need to recognize that reality.

9:51 PM Huckabee says we have to continue the surge. We broke it...we have to fix it. Great little exchange between Paul and Huckabee....Paul says we're losing elections over foreign policy...asks Huckabee how many more Americans he wants to lose to save face.

9:55 PM Hunter is a buffoon. Seriously. He is just a pompous, bloviating butthead. I don't even care what he says...and no one else cares either.

9:57 PM Tancredo just turned this into a war against radical Islam..it has nothing to do with Iraq. Oh, he's insane, too.

9:59 PM Creepy Carl Cameron is back with the person on the street interviews (from Young's restaurant)....a guy whose son is in Iraq lambasted Romney for equating the work his sons are doing on his campaign to military service. Romney stuttered, puffed out his chest and got into a war on jihad. And, he certainly hopes the surge is successful....Brit pushed to know if it is or isn't successful. Mitt thinks it is, but he's not sure. Huh? Mitt is NOT having a good night.

10:02 PM Goler asks Mitt about wiretapping...Mitt wants to wiretap mosques, but apparently wouldn't do it without approval. Okay, seriously, Mitt has no idea what he's talking about when he gets national security questions. He has platitudes and code words, but is so out of his league on these issues.

10:03 PM Tancredo still thinks torture like waterboarding is okay.

10:04 PM McCain gets the torture question. He quotes a general who said any info. we got from torture wouldn't outdo the damage it did. Those without military experience support torture according to McCain.

10:06 PM Giuliani: we can't close Gitmo. There's a reality that the liberal media and Dems. don't get. He wants an Iraq that will help us win the war on terror...now how that relates to Gitmo is unclear...but Rudy somehow mixed up the issues. Duncan Hunter also got a Gitmo question, but I refer to my comments above -- Hunter is a buffoon. Seriously, a buffoon.

10:09 PM Brownback wouldn't give his veep as much power as Bush gave Cheney.

10:11 PM Finally, a tax question so they can all outdo each other on who is the bigger tax cutter. Wallace wants to know why McCain won't sign the anti-tax pledge. McCain says the GOP has destroyed the confidence of their base by the rampant spending -- and notes the GOP corruption. But why won't McCain sign the pledge??? The pledge, the pledge, the pledge...that's all that matters. Why won't Rudy sign the pledge. It's all about the pledge....Mitt gets the tax question, too. You know Massachusetts is a Democratic state, right? He's going to get rid of the death tax which benefits the very rich, and which, of course, Mitt is.

10:18 PM Huckabee wants a fair tax.

10:20 PM Ron Paul. He's just fun to watch. We're sacrificing liberty for security -- and losing both.

10:22 PM Rudy gets a question about family values...because Rudy doesn't really have a great track record on family value issues. And, Rudy thinks private lives should be private. He's not perfect. Any issues in my private life do not affect my public performance. That was a lame answer.

10:28 PM Brit Hume asks an Iran attack hypothetical....these GOPers are looking for the next war. Ron Paul gets the question first and doesn't think we should launch a war..you know he's the only one. Paul says Israel has 200 - 300 nuclear weapons.

Tancredo and Hunter gave answers on this one, but they're nuts. No one cares what they think. No one.

WHY IS THING NOT OVER? IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE OVER AT 10:30 PM....it's soooo painful.

Brit Hume loves Brit Hume's hypothetical -- he's quite serious about it -- and wants the candidates to know just how real of a hypothetical it is. Fox probably thinks a war with Iran would be good for ratings.

Rudy answered the hypothetical but then said it would be foolish to answer a hypothetical like that.

Mitt gives some stupid answer about building consensus. He's not very good on the national security questions at all.

McCain thinks he is the only one on the stage who knows anything about national security. Read More......

New study: Iraq's police force should just be "scrapped entirely"

Bush sees progress in Iraq because that's what he wants to see. Yet another study shows Iraq is a disaster:

Iraq's security forces will be unable to take control of the country in the next 18 months, and Baghdad's national police force is so rife with corruption it should be scrapped entirely, according to a new independent assessment.

The study, led by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, is a sweeping and detailed look at Iraq's security forces that will factor heavily into Congress' upcoming debate on the war. Republicans see success by the Iraqi forces as critical to bringing U.S. troops home, while an increasing number of Democrats say the U.S. should stop training and equipping such units altogether.

The 20-member panel of mostly retired senior military and police officers concludes that Iraq's military, in particular its Army, shows the most promise of becoming a viable, independent security force with time. But the group predicts an adequate logistics system to support these ground forces is at least another two years away.

All these years we've been hearing nothing but lies from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all of their toadies. But next week, when the Petraeus report comes out, we're supposed to believe them.

Whatever the issue in Iraq, one more time, why should we believe them this time?
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Exposing the "Anti-gay Industry"

Alvin McEwen, who writes the blog "Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters," has turned his research into a book aptly titled "Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Exposing the Lies of the Anti-Gay Industry." In his book, Alvin does expose the very well-organized anti-gay industry. That crowd is in overdrive this month as Congress is considering pro-gay legislation.

We first met Alvin when he busted the San Francisco Chronicle for citing the work of the widely discredited Paul Cameron who is beloved and always cited by the right wing. For years, he has monitored the right winger who routinely bash gays. Here's how Alvin described the process of writing the book:

Coming out is a difficult process. Realizing that there are people out there who, through lies, will try to convince you that you have a negative future as a gay man only makes the process worse. Hearing people cite the work of Paul Cameron and other lies did much damage to my psyche at that time. I have since gotten over it, but I will never forget it.

So I finally sat down three years ago and began the process of writing this book. My purpose is to show how the anti-gay industry distorts studies to prove the lie that "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle."

I also outline their propaganda techniques and give examples of how they distort current events to lie on the lgbt community.

This book is my way of striking back not just for myself but for the next generation; the next young lgbt who will be forced to listen to the standard lies about the supposed gay life span or gay men molesting children.

Alvin does strike back. Everybody who cares about gay issues needs to read this book. Alvin gave me an advanced copy so I've already read it. It's amazing how willingly so many of the right wing religious types lie about gays -- over and over -- even after the lies have been debunked. Homophobia apparently overrules that commandment against bearing false witness.

This book was a labor of love for Alvin. He's self-published it (and has a full-time job besides being an activist on glbt issues in his home state of South Carolina.) But, if you ever get in the ring with the right wing, you need to know who you're fighting -- and how dirty they fight. You can buy it here -- and if you ever have to debate the anti-gay right wingers, you should buy it. Read More......

Ohio U.S. Rep. Gillmor and anti-gay megachurch pastor D. James Kennedy both pass away

These two men passed away today. I'm not going to say anything negative about them, as their records speak for themselves.

[NOTE FROM JOHN: I'll weigh in. Kennedy was a bigot. I have no respect for anyone, living or dead, who preaches hatred for his fellow man, and then has the audacity to claim that he's speaking for God. A higher power most certainly inspired D. James Kennedy. But that power had nothing to do with God.]

Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio), died in his office on Tuesday. From The Hill:

According to an inter-conference email obtained by The Hill, Gillmor did not show up to the office this morning causing his staff to become concerned. When they went to his apartment to check on him, they found that the lawmaker had passed away.

Capitol Police is currently investigating, but sources believe that the 10-term lawmaker may have had a heart attack.

In November, Gillmor won his district with 57 percent of the vote, holding on to his seat in a year that saw Democrats take over a GOP Senate seat and the governor's mansion in Ohio.

A special election will be necessary to find someone to fill out the rest of the term. While Republicans are favored to retain the seat, such an election will likely be costly and an added burden to the GOP.

He was a solid Republican vote. A sampling of Representative Paul Gillmor's record, via Project Vote Smart:

* Voted for adoption of H AMDT 890 to HR 2546, an amendment to repeal the Health Care Benefits Expansion Act of 1992 which allows unmarried individuals, regardless of gender, to register as domestic partners, allowing them to be eligible for D.C. government health care.

* H J Res 88: Voted to pass a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment providing that marriage in the U.S. consists only of the union of a man and a woman, and federal and state constitutions can not be construed to require marriage or legal incidents of marriage be conferred in other unions.

* H.AMDT.200 to HR 1501: Voted for an amendment that allows States to decide whether or not to display the Ten Commandments on or within publicly owned property.

* Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007: no surprise. He voted against it.

* Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Voted for this in 1996.

* HJRes 54: Proposed an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

***

The passing of Florida megachurch pastor D. James Kennedy, of Coral Ridge Ministries, was not unexpected. He had been ill for some time. Right Wing Watch has a collection of Kennedy quotes. Here are his thoughts on gays:

"With other dangerous and contagious diseases, all sorts of  efforts are made to identify those carrying the disease, and to minimize their  contact with the public. And yet, here we have homosexual rights groups working  day and night to make sure AIDS victims ARE NOT IDENTIFIED! Until action is  taken, AIDS victims are free to infect anyone." (Newsletter, 1989)

Another newsletter item featured a photograph of very young  children under the headline,  "SEX WITH CHILDREN? HOMOSEXUALS SAY YES!" The newsletter went on to assert that  "Adult sex with children has been a crucial component of the homosexual  movement all along."

"Whatever four members of the Supreme Judicial Court of  Massachusetts may say, the intimate coupling of two men or two women is not  marriage. It is a pale and misshapen counterfeit that will only serve to empty  marriage of its meaning and destroy the institution that is the keystone in the  arch of civilization. If homosexuals win the  right to 'marry,' expect further similarly argued claims challenging legal  barriers to polygamy, bestiality, and child marriage." (Center  for Reclaiming America  for Christ, 10/2003)

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Craig forces McConnell's hand. How did that happen?

UPDATE: Pam has one of the best headlines ever: "Craig has Mitch by the short ones"

Last week, Mitch McConnell was the aggressive defender of all that was right and good within the GOP when it came to Larry Craig:

The Senate's top Republican says many GOP senators believe Larry Craig should resign.

Mitch McConnell describes Craig's conduct as "unforgivable." And he says Senate Republican leaders have "acted promptly to begin the process of dealing with this conduct." McConnell adds, "We will see what happens in the coming days."

Mitch thought he got what he wanted when Craig announced his "intent" to resign.

Larry Craig is getting his revenge this week -- and today, McConnell had to admit that this issue isn't over:

“He said he is going to try and get the case in Minnesota dismissed,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, telling reporters he had heard from the Idaho lawmaker earlier in the day.

McConnell spoke several hours after Craig’s lawyers appealed to the ethics committee to dismiss the complaint against him, saying it stemmed merely from personal conduct, and did not relate to his official duties.

Josh Marshall asks the question that everyone is asking:

What's Sen. Craig got on Mitch McConnell?

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Dinesh D'Souza D'Idiot

Because I'm a small step above a Luddite, I still belong to AOL. One of the few perks are the columnists who write there on a daily basis. Yesterday, I came across a column by Dinesh D'Souza.

In the column, D'Souza tries to turn around the "Republicans are hypocrites" narrative by saying that liberals would react differently if Larry Craig was a Democrat.

If Larry Craig was a Democrat, we'd be hearing a lot from liberals in the media about how he was bravely exploring his sexual identity. We would hear indignant objections to this policeman who, obviously having nothing better to do with his time, was doing surveillance in airport bathrooms in search of innocent people to harass and victimize. The ACLU would be right in there, asking about Craig's right to privacy and wondering why such ambiguous evidence (he placed his bag in front of the door, he tapped his foot) was enough to warrant arrest and prosecution. Even Craig's guilty plea would be employed in his favor: look, the man is at least being honest about what he did, and why should he be ashamed of being who he is? If Larry Craig was a Democrat, the system, not Craig, would be on trial.

Frankly, it's a stupid argument for a number of reasons. First, Democrats haven't been asking for Craig to resign. It's the GOP and conservatives that have forced Craig out (no pun intended).

But what really undermines D'Saouza's argument is that liberals have, in fact, made the very arguments he suggests on behalf of Craig. For instance, D'Souza says that if Craig were a Democrat, a liberal would complain about surveillance being done in a public restroom. But Arianna Huffington has already made that point on behalf of Craig.

In the consensus judgment of America's 16 intelligence agencies, the terrorist threat to our homeland is "persistent and evolving," placing our country in "a heightened threat environment."

Given that chilling assessment, isn't it the height of madness to use America's finite law enforcement resources to seek out and arrest people for tapping the foot of a cute undercover officer in a restroom?

D'Souza then suggests that some liberals would attack the evidence and wonder whether it warranted prosecution if Craig was a Democrat. But Matthew Yglesias has made that very same argument on behalf of Craig.

On the other hand, I do regard this as somewhat mitigated by the fact that I continue to regard Craig's arrest as fundamentally unjustified.

Clearly, D'Souza didn't do any type of research before making his ridiculous claim as both Huffington and Yglesias are pretty prominent liberal bloggers. Given his past statements, it wouldn't surprise me at all if D'Souza wrote this column without doing any checking to see if his claims were accurate.

But I think it speaks to a real mindset of the right. Since they are not intellectually honest, they do not expect anyone else to be. Conservatives disregard an argument the minute it conflicts with one of their desires (they care about States Rights, until a state passes something they don't like, like a "right to die" initiative). D'Souza assumed liberals wouldn't defend Craig based on their ideals, because as another partisan hack, D'Souza wouldn't defend a Democrat based on his own ideals. I hope someone sends this to Dinesh, cause he ought to at least apologize for being wrong. But more to the point, he ought to learn that intellectual consistency does exist, just not on his side of the aisle. Read More......

Craig is fighting ethics complaint lodged by GOP leaders

This is really getting good -- and it's so not over. Larry Craig is fighting back against the GOP colleagues who threw him under the bus last week:

The lawyers, Stanley M. Brand and Andrew D. Herman of The Brand Group, wrote that there is no precedent for a Senate ethics review of “purely personal conduct unrelated to the performance of official Senate duties.”

Investigating such a complaint, they warned, would draw the Senate into “reviewing and adjudging a host of minor misdemeanors and transgressions” even if “minor or professionally irrelevant.” Mr. Craig has also hired lawyers to review the Minneapolis airport case, saying that he made a mistake pleading guilty and that he is, in fact, innocent.

Five Republican leaders issued a statement shortly after they heard about Mr. Craig’s arrest and guilty plea saying they would recommend that the incident be reported to the ethics committee. The action was widely seen as ramping up pressure on Mr. Craig to resign and avoid further embarrassment. Mr. Brand, a former general counsel to the House of Representatives, said he has not seen the written complaint but assumes it was filed. “I don’t expect them to withdraw it,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview this morning. “I expect the committee, which is an evenly split committee, to look at the precedents and to dismiss the complaint.”

Mitch McConnell and his GOP leadership colleagues were acting pretty smug about how quickly they dispatched with Craig last week. They were celebrating their accomplishment too soon. Read More......

Cheney wanted to expand his executive branch power -- despite claiming he's not part of the executive branch

For the past couple months, Dick Cheney has been claiming he's not part of the executive branch. It's a bizarre claim, but Cheney sticks with it. So, why, then, would Cheney's lawyer try to expand the power of the executive branch if Cheney isn't part of the executive branch? That would be expecting consistency when that mattered was power and abusing power:

Vice President Cheney's top lawyer pushed relentlessly to expand the powers of the executive branch and repeatedly derailed efforts to obtain congressional approval for aggressive anti-terrorism policies for fear that even a Republican majority might say no, according to a new book written by a former senior Justice Department official.

David S. Addington, who is now Cheney's chief of staff, viewed both U.S. lawmakers and overseas allies with "hostility" and repeatedly opposed efforts by other administration lawyers to soften counterterrorism policies or seek outside support, according to Jack L. Goldsmith, who frequently clashed with Addington while serving as head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in 2003 and 2004.

These are some evil people running our government. Read More......

Nuclear warheads flown over the U.S. -- and nobody knew

CNN's Barbara Starr has been breathlessly reporting the news that a B-52, loaded with nuclear warheads, flew across the country last week -- without anyone's knowledge. It has caused quite a stir in the military. Starr reports that Bush had to be informed about the mistake. Here's an NBC report:

An Air Force squadron commander has been relieved of his command after five nuclear weapons were mistakenly loaded aboard a B-52 and flown cross-country from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, NBC News reported.

Five 150-kiloton warheads were attached to cruise missiles that were flown from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to be dismantled, but they should have been removed, according to officials.

Military officials insist the warheads remained "under control" at all times and did not pose a danger.

That's comforting. Read More......

What will the GOP do about Craig now?

Have you had enough schadenfreude yet?

When you have headlines like "Bathroom Sex Senator Hires Vick's Lawyer" paired with "Idaho Sen. Craig reconsidering decision to resign," you know that things are getting deliciously downright ugly for the anti-gay GOP pols and leadership, and it's their own fault.

Remember, as Joe said earlier, the person who threatened an official investigation to -- ahem -- get to the bottom of Craig's same-sex cruising was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And Larry Craig was shaken to his core when his colleagues came for him with the torches and pitchforks (NYT):

"Larry was shocked by the deafening silence by some and rush to judgment by others, even in his own leadership," said the person, who is a confidant and adviser to Mr. Craig and asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the behind-scenes deliberations. "He had to evaluate what it would be like to go back into that environment."

His friends called for his head.

The purge of gays from the GOP is the new standard for the much-courted Base. Look at the Idaho Family Values Association:

Even setting Senator Craig's situation aside, the Party should regard participation in the self-destructive homosexual lifestyle as incompatible with public service on behalf of the GOP.

That clearly goes beyond purging pols guilty of a sex-related misdemeanor -- it's specifically about homosex. Or is it? The ridiculous public claim by the defenders of sex worker customer David Vitter is that he didn't plead guilty to the crime. OK. I'll let's take that at face value, since yes, Craig's criminal intent was to have sex in a public restroom, it's behavior that is offensive to most people who don't expect or want to be exposed to that in a public venue. However, that's not what the Idaho Family Values Association or the Base is drawing as a line in the sand.

The GOP is now forced to make a choice -- defend its witchhunt as conditional upon whether someone is convicted of (or pleads guilty to) a tawdry misdemeanor, or affirm that same-sex behavior -- illicit or not -- is fine as long as you don't get caught. I wouldn't want to be in that slippery position with Daddy Dobson's crowd.

After all, Mike Huckabee said, Craig "did us all a big favor by leaving the stage and taking this issue away from further discussion." This issue. What's Huck going to say now that Craig's not ready to pack his bags?

The political undercurrent here is that Mitch McConnell's threat to Craig -- an investigation that ensured additional public exposure and humiliation that forced the initial quasi-resignation -- is actually a signal to the rest of the conservative closet cases in the GOP's midst -- don't get caught in a sex-sting or we'll dump you, no matter that you loyally voted against LGBT issues. You -- and your closet -- are expendable. I wouldn't want to be a Log Cabinette having to shill for these folks. The knickers are now definitely in a twist as they have to deal with a defiant Craig. Has he decided to kick open a few closet doors of his friends on the Hill now that they've publicly stabbed him in the back? Let's see how many former "outraged" GOP pols start treading lightly or fall silent. That should tell you something.

Dem presidential candidate Mike Gravel addressed the self-loathing GOP on Real Time with Bill Maher. Maher asks Gravel why gays, particularly these Republican Sexual Hypocrites, would join a party that doesn't want them. Gravel responds:


GRAVEL: "Because they are hypocrites, they talk about these values...it's very sad. There's nothing wrong with the sex, it's the problem of the hypocrisy. They need to come out of the closet -- then they'd be normal. [Applause.] ...It truly is a tragedy because it's our culture that drives them into the closet, and being in the closet brings out all these perversions. There's nothing wrong with the sex, it's the way they approach it, and the hypocrisy and them pointing...like Craig, you know. He was the one talking about Clinton being a "bad boy...bad boy." [audience laughter].

MAHER: "It's guys like Larry Craig, the senator who force guys like Larry Craig the man into the airport toilet."

More from the Blend here.

[UPDATE: As many of you have noted, Roll Call has Craig's voicemail to the wrong number, where he left this message, intended for his attorney, Billy Martin. It's clear that the Idaho senator was leaving the door open to fight for his seat:

"Yes, Billy, this is Larry Craig calling. You can reach me on my cell. Arlen Specter is now willing to come out in my defense, arguing that it appears by all that he knows that I have been railroaded and all that.

"Having all of that, we have reshaped my statement a little bit to say it is my intent to resign on Sept. 30. I think it is important for you to make as bold a statement as you are comfortable with this afternoon, and I would hope you could make it in front of the cameras.

"I think it would help drive the story that I’m willing to fight, that I’ve got quality people out there fighting in my defense, and that this thing could take a new turn or a new shape, it has that potential. Anyway, give me a buzz or give Mike a buzz on that. We’re headed to my press conference now. "Thank you. Bye."

Hahahahahahahaha.] Read More......

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Never a dull moment. If it's not the lies about Iraq, it's one of these out-of-control Republicans.

Let's get it started. Read More......

Egypt cracks down on media reports on status of Mubarak's health

Apparently discussing the health of the president in Egypt is a gross violation and grounds for a judicial investigation. Even Mubarak's wife has chimed in, calling for punishment to those in the media who report on the subject. It all sounds a bit like our own royal family, when Laura jumps into the fray to stand up for George when the big, bad media actually asks legitimate questions. When the media is attacked so broadly over something as basic as the health of the president, one has to wonder just how much panic is going on behind the scenes and also, just how true the rumors are. Read More......

Close your eyes and guess when this statement was made

Was it yesterday? One month ago? Three months ago? Six months ago? Nine? A year? Two years? It's always the same bunk, just another day and it's never any more or less accurate or serious or related to the reality on the ground. It's just spin.

"I think the next three to four months are critical," [Lt. General] Odierno told reporters. "I think that if we can continue to do what we are doing, we'll get to such a level where we think we can do it with less troops."

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