"SCLM, call holding, line 2"

"If there's another Deep Throat out there, give us a call, won't you. We're waiting for your call."

-- Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw, at the end of their discussion of "Deep Throat", aka W. Mark Felt, earlier this week.

Well fellas, (s)he got tired of waiting for you to pick up the phone, and hung up.

I think it was Richard Clarke, but it may have been Sibel Edmonds. It could have been Karen Kwiatkowski, or Coleen Rowley. Or Paul O'Neill or even Joe Wilson. It might have been Gen. Eric Shinseki; I guess it could have even been John DiIulio, but if it was him, he sounded like he was already changing his mind even as I was putting him on hold.

Pick up your pages a little quicker in the future, guys.

DeLay is gearing up for 2006

but it's how he's doing it that's creating the interesting questions -- even from his supporters.

Charles, via Jesse, has the skinny. "Inside baseball" warning: it'll take a while to read and click through all of the links and comments, but I encourage you do so if you're interested in getting to the mindset not only of DeLay and his campaign staff but Republicans nationally (the RCCC) and locally (two local conservative bloggers, one of whom claims to be close to the ground in Sugar Land).

Especially revealing are the on-the-scene viewpoints of perennial DeLay opponent Michael Fjetland at his blog. No sour grapes on his part; just intriguing observations.

It's just too early to tell what this all means. But I'm certainly enjoying watching it.

Howard Dean wins the Moneyshot Quote of the Week

for this:

Dean's comment came as he recalled conditions at crowded Ohio polling stations last fall. He wondered who could expect voters to work all day and then stand in line for eight hours to vote. "Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives," he said, drawing some surprised "oohs" from his audience.

I only have one thing to add:

YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH !

Update: The People's Republic of Seabrook nails it, again.

Today's media doesn't get "Deep Throat"

After watching G. Gordon Liddy turn up on EVERY SINGLE TALK SHOW ON TELEVISION to provide his opinion of the revealing of "Deep Throat", W. Mark Felt, I am left to wonder if the MSM is even worth saving.

Watergate would have never happened if it hadn't been for thugs like Liddy. Yet we were forced to hear over and over again his sneering judgment of the man who helped save our democracy (just so Bush Incorporated could pillage it thirty years later). Go here to get to the "Daily Show" video where GOP moral titans Pat Buchanan and Bob Novak join Liddy in condemning DT for not keeping his mouth shut about the felonies committed by the Nixon administration.

My friend Prairie Weather has it exactly right:

Does anyone else believe that Mark Felt's "coming out" needs to be greeted in a way which encourages and gives additional attention, legitimacy and support, when necessary, to whistleblowers?

We were as scared about the possible demise of democracy in 1974 as we are in 2005. Are we prepared to honor government officials and reporters who speak truth to power?

Do we dare hope there are reporters out there right now who are putting together the information needed to restore our national self-respect?

How about that separation between church and sanity?!?

I just cross-posted at Hou Dems and Come and Take It! on the news that Rick Perry will sign some legislation in church this Sunday.

It's simply appalling that we now live in a theocracy and no one really seems too upset about it.

This is exactly the reason

why I couldn't finish the Da Vinci Code.

And also the reason why I never posted why I could not. Everybody who wrote something there is pretty much spot on.