The Truffle

It's Presidential Comics! Wonder what ComicMix columnist Elayne Riggs will make of this?

No, not that nasty "c" word that McCain called his wife. Jed Report is helpful enough to provide a screen capture of a page on McCain's Web site, where McCain is referred to as "a political celebrity." Strangely, the page has been removed. I don't think the IOKIYAR defense applies here, folks.

David Gregory on the Edwards kerfuffle: Tonight: the Edwards affair. He admits an extramarital affair dating back to 2006, telling ABC News, wife Elizabeth learned of it that year. He lied repeatedly to cover it up as a presidential candidate. And now, questions about his future abound in the party and whether this creates another shadow over Barack Obama as he gets ready for the conventions. Allow me to introduce you to a new word, Mr. Gregory. The word is "nonissue." Mediamatters , via Atrios .

That's the only way to explain Dick Cheney's presence at the GOP convention. I guess it partly explains why so many Republicans are antsy about even showing their faces there . What Mensa candidate thought it would be a good idea for Cheney to show up? Are they going to have Jack Abramoff give a speech by satellite from prison, too? Is McCain going to give Cheney a big hug the way he did with Bush in 2004?

It really sucks that an extramarital fling can sink a politician's career in America. In other countries, it's sort of expected that elected officials can be horndogs, just like everyone else. Thus, when someone is running for office or actually holding office, there's are simple solutions for whenever he feels "the urge": a. Manual stimulation below the belt. In private , dummy. b. Buying Playboy (as I've mentioned, you can always say you read it for the articles). c. Inviting your significant other for a night of hot nookie. Predictably enough, people like David Vitter, Eliot Spitzer, and John Edwards avoid any of these options. In fact, Edwards' little peccadillo may not have been his first (and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't). This isn't a matter of scoring partisan points (insert references to Newt Gingrich and John McCain here). In the red and blue camps, you'll hear politicians who blather about morality and are later ex...

Sue me. I like this ad:

I'm just so shocked to find GOP ratfuckers in their ranks. Note to the handful of Hillary supporters who are still mad that the Uppity Negro Who Cannot Be Named won the nomination: Cut it out. Because the sooner you face the basic facts--i.e., La Hill ain't running for office--the sooner these bogus Hillary supporters will lose traction. The PUMAs are not--I repeat, NOT--your friends.

And that goes for all the whining PUMAs who are still sore that La Hill didn't get the nomination. Ever since she pulled out of the campaign, they've been doing their best imitation of petulant second-graders. As in: "WAAAAAAAAAH! No fair! I wanted Hillary to win! I'm voting for McCain! Waaaaaaaaaah!" Act your age, will you please? The really childish and offensive part is that these women are attempting to speak for American women (and, more specifically, American feminists) as a whole. From Politico : Pamela Sumners, who directs the Missouri chapter of the abortion-rights group NARAL, added that Clinton “is now seen as the reigning dean of the women’s movement. It’s sort of Moses gets all the way to the mountain and doesn’t get to the promised land — and I think there would be people really angry about that.” Excuse me. La Hill didn't reinvent herself as the avatar of American womanhood until rather late in her campaign, when she realized that The U...

Donna Summer singing one of her best songs, "Dim All the Lights." Saw her at Jones Beach in the 1990s; she looked and sounded amazing. Her voice is a little hoarse here, but make no mistake: she's still got the voice.

Novakula is retiring because of his brain tumor. The world is safer for covert CIA agents, at least until a new right-wing attack dog-cum-stooge can be found.

Okay, why is it such a bad idea for people to keep their tires inflated ? I'm confused. Are they arguing against keeping tires filled? Is John McCain's cast of idiots going to turn around and say that there's nothing wrong with flat tires? I ask because I'm imagining the potential Team McCain slogans: "If you're a dirty appeasing hippie tree-hugging tire-filler, vote for Obama." Or maybe: "Never mind the price gouging. Aren't tire gouges funny?" Or maybe: "We'll never TIRE of new attempts to come up with talking points that don't work." Maybe McCain should spend the rest of the campaign season hanging out at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant. P.S. Properly inflated tires save oil. So there.

The Democratic party is not Marxist or socialist. In fact, it was founded long before The Communist Manifesto was even published. The party runs the gamut from Russ Feingold/Paul Wellstone progressives to DLC types to the kind of Blue Dog Democrats that would warm Roger Ailes' heart if he had one. One other thing: Senator Bernie Sanders is a socialist, but he is not a Democrat. He is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. So if you're a conservative and you want to be taken seriously, you might want to avoid referring to Democrats as Marxists, Communists, or socialists. You also might want to avoid suggesting that the dirty Commies have any influence on the party platform. For that matter, you might want to buy a calendar. The Cold War has been over for some time.

I'm going to be in the Poconos with Le Sweetie and friends for a rather long weekend, so blogging will be light and/or nonexistent over the next few days. Needless to say, I am looking forward to this break. Yay, Poconos!

Even the former head of Mossad says an attack on Iran would be a bad idea. Former Mossad Chief Ephraim Halevy told Time magazine in an interview published Thursday that an Israeli attack on Iran "could have an impact on us for the next 100 years" and should only be considered as a last resort. Halevy, who currently heads the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, added that an Iranian attack on Israel would probably have little impact, because Iranian missiles would largely be intercepted by Israel's advanced anti-missile defense system. Another former senior Mossad official, who reportedly served during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's administration, told the American magazine that "Iran's achievement is creating an image of itself as a scary superpower when it's really a paper tiger." So much for the axis of evil. Via Firedoglake .

David Sirota notes that the World According to Kristol doesn't extend beyond the DC suburbs: I know it's hard for sons of Washington privilege like Kristol to fathom, but there is a whole world outside the Maryland/Virginia I-495 Beltway. Living out here and having just completed the majority of a nationwide book tour, I can report that this world outside of D.C. is actually a pretty interesting place. Maybe people like Kristol should visit more often before putting pen to paper and opining on the mindset of the nation.

Welcome to the town of Disbarred. Population: you. Really, the ABA should step in and take away Goodling's law license. That way, she can't do any more damage and can simply join Wolfowitz et al. on the Island of Misfit Movement Conservative Nutcases. On second that, screw that. She could be guilty of perjury, in which case, she could find herself in an orange jumpsuit very soon. Of course, if it would happens, it would happen after Bush and Mukasey are gone. It can't happen soon enough. Of course, schadenfreude lover that I am, I'd be happy to see Ms. Goodling rendered unemployable and rejected by anyone who even thinks of hiring her. Even if it is a wingnut-welfare think tank. She could join Alberto Gonzales in a pity party.

Note to Andrew Rosenthal: It's nice that your daddy was friends with Bill Kristol's daddy. But dude? You may want to rethink this little op-ed gig you gave him. Especially after his latest embarrassment : Early Friday, I went to the Real Clear Politics Web site, as I do every morning, for my fix of political news and commentary. I perked up when I saw the third entry on the list of that day’s notable articles — “No. 44 Has Spoken.” “Hank Aaron has spoken? Wow,” I thought as I clicked through. Yes, it's Bill Kristol, professional papa's boy and perennial Mr. Wrong, pretending he's a Troo AMERIKAN!11!!1! He likes baseball! He likes Hank Aaron! He's trying for the same right-wing populist shtick that Rush Limbaugh works when he isn't spending his millions on Oxycontin and admitting he's a right-wing water carrier. Said shtick involves Kristol being really disappointed that Der Spiegel was writing about Barack Obama and not Hank Aaron. Actually, I th...

From TPM comes another story of GOP disunity: Republican Senate candidates who are skipping the GOP convention. So who said Republicans put party before country? CongressDaily has more. Among those who will not attend are Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who is not close to presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is a McCain loyalist. Stevens and Collins will use the convention week to focus on their campaigns. Since being in the same room with President Bush is going to hurt their campaigns, I don't really blame them. Against my better judgment, I have a soft spot for Susan Collins and her fellow Maine old-school moderate, Olympia Snowe. I just wish "moderate Republican" didn't equal "run-of-the-mill Bush rubber stamper" these days. Also sending regrets is former Rep. Bob Schaffer of Colorado, running for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Wayne Allard. Six others -- Sens. Roger Wicker of ...

From TPM comes the story of Alaska Rep. Don Young, who's trying to pass himself as a taxpayer-friendly Republican. We reported earlier that Rep. Don Young (R-AK) falsely claimed that he was named "Hero of the Taxpayer" by the non-partisan reform group, Taxpayers for Commonsense. But Taxpayers for Commonsense denies even having such an award, yet alone awarding it to Young, a long-time target of the political watchdog. To be fair, Taxpayers for Common Sense did give Rep. Young an award: namely, the Golden Fleece Award for wasting taxpayer money on the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. In fact the silly taxpayer's hero award is given out by Americans for Tax Reform, helmed by the GOP's best-known Snidely Whiplash impersonator, Grover Norquist. And now Norquist is dissing Young for voting for--gasp!--a tax hike: "Republicans that vote for tax increases are like rat heads in Coke bottles,"Norquist said. "They ruin the Republican brand for all members. It...

Years ago, during the waning days of syndicated TV (sniff sniff), I watched Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda pretty regularly. Show creator Robert Hewitt Wolfe cut his teeth on my very favorite show of all time, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Anyhow, the show had real possibilities, except the idiot production company decided they wanted to attract channel surfers and not build a long-time fan base. I'm not going to vent here, because even after I quit watching regularly, I still took part in Andromeda discussion boards and even wrote a handful of show-related filks. And yup, I met some kewl people online--some of whom were the show's writers and producers. Among the DROM staff was Ethlie Ann Vare , a versatile writer, journalist, and TV producer. AND she's a fellow redhead to boot. After the horror of 9/11, Ms. Vare wrote this essay . It's worth reading, if only to remember that the US government had an opportunity for healing and progress, and they utterly s...