Random sniping roundup

For whatever reason, my blog aggregator seems to be particularly full of distribution-worthy gaffes today. To that end:

Staffers at John McCain's campaign are said to refer to Barack Obama as "The One" - sarcastically, one might assume. In that vein, they've been taken with quite the bout of self-pity regarding allegedly biased media coverage of Obama. The campaign is now holding a lopsided election between two different soundtracks for a compilation of talking heads saying "Obama" and swooning. Interestingly, McCain himself said last night that coverage of the campaign has not been unfair, and that since he's a "big boy," he is "certainly not complaining" and even finds it "fun to watch." I hope he keeps us posted about his mood swings.

Despite their complaining (or not?) about the media's adulation of Obama, the folks at McCain HQ are apparently cool with a little bit of messianic imagery themselves:

On the plus side, the campaign also seems to have a sense of humor, as evidenced by their distribution of a press pass that reads: "McCain Press Corps JV Squad - Left Behind to Report in America," with the French translation on the back. Disappointingly, though, those press passes may not have gotten the wide audience in trend-setting New Hampshire that they so richly deserve, as McCain was greeted on his arrival at the Manchester airport late Monday night by precisely one reporter. (And a photographer, if you're picky.) Conservatives can insert more griping about biased media coverage here. I will begin to prepare a riposte about how McCain's publicity people clearly suck.

In less hilarious news, everyone's favorite columnist Bob Novak was on the guilty end of a hit-and-run today. Apparently he hit a pedestrian and started driving his Corvette away - until a cyclist pulled in front of him to block him from going anywhere. Kind of reminds me of the time Greg Mankiw almost ran his BMW over my blockmate. Moral of the story: yay, bicycles!

Finally, despite the urging of forty thousand signatories to a petition circulated by Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, yesterday Joe Lieberman made an appearance at a convention of Christians United for Israel, a group headed by the, um, outspoken Reverend John C. Hagee. If you've forgotten about him, here's a quick refresher:

If you don't want to sit through that (totally understandable), the gist of it is that Hitler was doing God's will by chasing the Jews back to Israel. Wow! A perfect friend for Joe Lieberman!

Good Riddance Joe Lieberman

Looks like McCain supporter Joe Lieberman has been stripped of his superdelegate status, thanks to a rule put in place following former Senator Zell Miller's endorsement and crazy rant in support of Bush in 2004.  It's incredible that he's been able to slide by calling himself an "Independent Democrat" for so long despite 1) running against the elected Democratic nominee for Senate in Connecticut, 2) being an enabler for Republican claims of bipartisan support for the Iraq war, and 3) endorsing the presumptive Republican nominee for President (although it seems the conservative pundits wish McCain were a Democrat).

I can only hope that we'll win a large enough margin in the Senate this November so that the leadership can stop worrying about a complete Lieberman defection  - it's well past time that he lose his seniority and chairmanship. 

Lieberman endorses McCain; nobody cares

Bill Kristol is reporting that Joe Lieberman is going to endorse John McCain tomorrow.

I will preface this by offering the following disclaimers: There are many good things to be said for John McCain. I like him on campaign finance reform; I like him on opposing torture. Perhaps there's something to be said for his other endorsements; recent big ones include the Des Moines Register, the Boston Globe, the New Hampshire Union Leader, and Curt Schilling, among others. I don't think he's the worst person in the Republican field (even eliminating Alan Keyes), and I can see why you'd like him.

But Joe... come on! If you're going to be a Republican, just run as a damn Republican. If you still think you're a Democrat, you have no business endorsing someone who thinks we're not mired in Iraq deeply enough. But apparently you think you're so important that you can impose upon the country the Lieberman Democrats, membership: you.

Joe Lieberman on Mukasey

"I can't think of a nominee for Attorney General who has been more independent of the president nominating him than Michael Mukasey in a long, long time," Lieberman said.

So, because the President would actively support waterboarding of people on the street to encourage them to tell him where the best pizza joint is, whereas Mukasey would just maybe tickle the guy while Bush dripped water down his throat, they're now independent of each other? What less-independent nominee might Lieberman have in mind by way of contrast? A petri dish of Bush's cheek cells?

Above: So dependent on the President, they can't even live outside of the warm confines of his mouth.

What did you expect?

There's bi-partisan cooperation, and then there's WTF? Testing the love, Joe Lieberman made two out on a limb decisions this week. First, he became the only Democrat to endorse "the surge," calling it a "courageous course." And now he's reneged on his pre-election promise to investigate White House failures in the lead-up to Katrina. As chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Lieberman is able to subpoena the White House for records.. but he's not going to, according to Newsweek (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16585614/site/newsweek/).

Iraq and Katrina--the two most spectacular tragedies of the Bush presidency--bipartisanship does not mean bowing and brushing them off.

Stop -- LieberTime!

There are lots of serious issues that the new Democratic majority has to confront. Our House caucus is deeply divided; our Senate majority is razor-thin. We have no House Intelligence chair. Ethics problems are already lurking in the background, and meanwhile the Iraq situation threatens to envelop our agenda entirely. It is a time of great ambitions and great risks... so what better time to take a short break and have some fun at Joe Lieberman's expense?

The political party formed by U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman after he lost the Democratic primary in August has a new chairman - and it's not Lieberman. [...]

Professor John Orman seized control of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party this week after registering as its sole member and electing himself as chairman.

It was a stroke of bureaucratic genius. This guy--

--went down to the Secretary of State's office, and realized that with one damn signature he could take over the Connecticut for Lieberman Party. So he did. I'm in love already... but wait until you see his rules:

a. If you run under Connecticut for Lieberman, you must actually join our party.

b. The party will nominate people for office who have the last name of Lieberman, and/or who are critics and opponents of Senator Lieberman.

c. If any CFL candidate loses our party's nomination in a primary, that candidate must bolt our party, form a new party and work to defeat our party endorsed candidate.

d. We in the CFL intend to run the same candidate for three different jobs at the same time, ie. House, Senate and Governor.

These are the new rules for my new political party that I am working to keep alive so it will not be some fake gimmick that Senator Lieberman used to get elected.

Oh God. Sometimes I just love politics.