Either Relevant or True » Strip Caucuses

Tie: The really nice golden yellow one he doesn’t wear nearly enough.

Tune: Georgia Gibbs with The Hula Hoop Song

Worst Person: Republican presidential candidate and sometime Joe Scarborough band mate Mike Huckabee, proving once again that inside that cuddly, affable exterior is a thinking person’s worst nightmare.

As usual, Keith starts out on the campaign trail, where Senator Leahy endorsed Senator Obama today, likening the contest between he and the distaff Clinton to that of LBJ and Robert Kennedy. Jonathan Alter thinks Leahy missed the point, since Johnson dropped out just two weeks after Bobby announced. Not only is Obama racking up the senatorial and gubernatorial seals of approval, a federal judge puts his seal of approval on the plan to let the casino employees caucus on the Strip. Sadly, this is not the same as strip caucusing. The Big Dog got pretty darn snippy about it to a reporter (caucusing in the casino, not… you know), denying the Clinton campaign had anything at all to do with the lawsuit. To this, Obama replied, “Nanny nanny boo boo!” Or something to that effect.

Meanwhile, John Edwards pounces on Obama’s choice of Ronald Reagan as a symbol of change. Which it’s right there in the Democrats playbook, rule #37, “Thou shalt not invoke St. Ronnie.” But really, Obama’s right. Reagan sure as hell changed the direction of this country! At this point KO welcomes Lawrence O’Donnell, who not only thinks Edwards isn’t a factor in the race, but that he should drop out entirely. (This is where I try really hard not to inject politics. Really really hard.) I believe Mr. O’Donnell makes inaccurate assumptions about the members of the culinary union, and… Leaving. This. Alone now.

Continuing on the campaign trail, we find ourselves at the neighborhood Staples, where Glenn Johnson of the Associated Press asks Willard “Mitt” Romney about certain of his campaign staffers who just happen to be Washington lobbyists, exposing to the light of the camera the untruth of the idea that Romney has no ties to DC. Even after his handler tells the press corp that it’s time to go, “Mitt” keeps after Mr. Johnson. There are some things the Easy Button just can’t fix.

Bushed! Wherein Karl Rove dare not speak his former employer’s name, the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal notes that the surge has caused a manpower drain, and that disabled soldiers are being sent back to active duty overseas because brigades are “having trouble reaching deployable strength.”

Oddball gives us virgin births, straw bears, goalies allergic to Toronto, and Superballs on the Spanish Steps! Whee! Indeed a fitting, if inadvertant, tribute to the late WHAM-O founder Richar Knerr. (And by the way, NYT, it’s spelled in all caps.)

Um, Britney did something dumb. OJ is out of jail. Again. And much to the chagrin of Keith, myself, and many others, it’s once again time for American Idol to rear its ugly head. [insert heavy sigh here]

And finally tonight, a look at Canada. Our neighbors to the Great White North have put the United States on their watch list for torture. Right along side Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and China. That, my friends, is how far we’ve fallen in seven years.

Katy, if you are reading this, please, oh, please sneak into Keith’s closet and donate the brown jacket to Goodwill. (You can throw in the tie as well). I think it was Richard Lewis who upon seeing Keith in that suit jacket when he was on Countdown said, “Woodrow Wilson called, he wants his jacket back.” (Maybe he said Herbert Hoover, either way, it needs to go!) ;)

You know, I’m a flaming liberal, and I love Keith.

That said, Johnson, the AP reporter, *was* unprofessional in the way he approached Romney. It was an ambush, not a question. If it’s unacceptable for Fox Noise to do that sort of thing, it’s equally unacceptable for a respectable organization like the AP.

I think Keith didn’t get the memo that Lawrence O’Donnell recently blasted Edwards at the Huff-Post and is a big Obama supporter. Ronald Raygun did change the political landscape, my once hardcore Democratic parents voted for him twice, as many did in Demoratic working class Chicago.

Anyway, I would like to see Keith do a special comment about the ugliness of the Dem campaigns, particularly Sen. Clinton. They have injected race into this thing since Obama won Iowa. Granted, most were via her surrogates, but it has been ridiculous. I do not believe the LBJ vs. MLK comment was racist or the “fairy tale” comments was racist. But the drug references and disenfranchising voters in Nevada really sickens me. Starting with Andrew Young, “Bill’s blacker than Obama, he’s dated more black woman…” to Bob Kerry calling him a “potential Muslim Manchurian Candidate to Hillary’s comment on the Today show, “Obama hasn’t done the “spade” work when it comes to experience…” to finally Bob Johnson having to apologize for comments he supposedly didn’t intend. I am not saying Obama is a saint or his surrogates haven’t taken advantage of some of these comments, but Hillary is still winning Nevada (and all the big Feb. 5th states) by double digits or near double digits. I do not understand why she feels the need to fight so dirty. In my opinion, this race stuff has got to stop. It would be a very brave thing for Keith to do a special comment about this, but I feel it would be too much to go against the powerful Clintons AND his image/reputation as mainly speaking out against Bush and conservative politics/corruption.

And for the record, Hillary’s senior campaign advisor, when asked by Chris Matthews after the Nevada debates, ADMITTED to lobbying.

Hey GM, I like the tweed jacket! (I think Lewis was on him about the dark brown suit that fits him like a potato sack, IIRC)

Ray, I don’t think Johnson ambushed Romney; Johnson is the AP guy assigned to Romney’s campaign and has been following him around for quite a while. I think it commendable that a member of the MSM is calling a candidate on his bullshit. But I do agree that it was an unprofessional way to go about it.

I am mumbling to myself, Am I being unfair? Do I just think that Johnson’s behavior was fair game because I consider Romney a (political comment omitted)? I am certainly giving Romney the benefit of the doubt in this instance.

It was certainly NOT an ambush. Johnson is not some random individual with an agenda who wandered into Staples to come after Romney.

Seeing the full tape somewhere yesterday, and I do not remember if Keith played it all, Johnson is a member of the press corps following Romney and is on his plane with him.

When Johnson heard what he thought was an untruth, he called Romney on it. That seems appropriate to me.

It just seems odd because so many supposed reporters are now besotted lackeys who never ask important or hard questions of the candidates to whom they are assigned.

All Romney needed to do was clarify what he meant, which it took him some time to do.

In the full tape it is clear that it is Romney who keeps it going and even comes back after Johnson after initially walking away.

It was also reported that later on the plane Johnson was invited up front to discuss it some more as Romney could not let it go.

What I was not clear on was whether of not Romney knew that he was being taped. Certainly in this day and age where it is hard for even a minor celebrity to go to the bathroom without a cell phone taking a photo, he should have known that it was possible.

What I found inappropriate was the Romney goon who then came back after Johnson in Staples.

That said: I actually think that Romney believes that having a lobbyist as a non paid advisor means that the man is not running his campaign and from his perspective he was speaking truthfully.

I also believed Bill Clinton when he said “I did not have sex with that woman” because he is of a generation where having sex means getting to home plate and a blow job is merely making it to third base.

We may all use the same words but we do not all mean the same thing by them.

PS: I love this tie. Keep it.

I had to reflect when seeing it last night that it is a hard color to wear well, at least for Caucasians. Bush has one close to this shade, and it is hideous on him.

Opps, I think you are correct Becky. In that case…Katy, please get rid of both! ;)

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