More Sunday Funnies

And another from the great Nick Anderson:

Sunday Funnies

Romney, Huckabee, McCain, Giuliani and more bloggerhea

-- Give Huckabee and McCain the up arrows and Romney and Giuliani the downs. Huckabee is finally catching some flak (over things like his phone call to God) after coasting all the way into December. Count Rudy out; he hasn't bottomed out yet from Sex on the City. Romney's JFK moment this week wasn't even that (a moment). Nobody else -- including Dr. No and Lazy Fred -- is going to be a factor.

If I had to hold my nose and pick one of these ultimate November losers today, it would be John McCain.

-- The latest Bush adminstration scandal involves the destruction of tapes. How Nixonian.

-- Blackwater's brother, the State Dept.'s inspector general, went on and resigned yesterday.

-- My neighborhood was voted one of America's top urban enclaves. Of course I knew this already.

-- The Republicans in Wharton county have decided to go back to paper ballots:

On whether computerized electronic voting machines are reliable and secure, the Republican leadership in Wharton County votes "no."

Precinct chairmen in the county southwest of Houston decided this week to return to using paper ballots in the March GOP primary for president, congressional seats and local races. ...

In the statewide election, businessman Jim Welch tried to vote at a fire station in Boling. Some of his votes on state constitutional amendments changed before his eyes, he said, and when election officials acknowledged the problem and offered to let him start over, he concluded the equipment was unreliable and declined. Welch later complained to county and party officials.

-- Auto loans are the next credit crisis.

-- Progressive blog readers are Satan worshippers, according to Bill O'Reilly. NBC's David Gregory blames blogs for the polarization in politics. These two fools simply don't understand that if they had simply performed as journalists, then there would have never been a need for a political blog in the first place.

"O'Reilly" and "journalist" in the same sentence. My mistake.

-- Lastly, Harvey Kronberg has noticed the power of the Texroots:

In perhaps another signal of the maturation of the netroots, QR notes that 24 Democratic candidates for the Texas House have already reported raising money through ActBlue, a national Web-based clearinghouse for Democratic campaign donations.

The fundraising leader so far is Brian Thompson, the all-but-declared challenger for Rep. Dawnna Dukes’ (D-Austin) seat in the House. He reports $4,800 in donations. While that’s not exactly a Bob Perryesque figure, it’s almost as much as the incumbent has in cash on hand on her last Ethics Commission report.

Dukes will obviously have the resources to vigorously defend her seat, but Thompson’s popularity fits an initial trend of challengers getting support from the netroots. After Thompson, the next three most successful online fundraisers are Sandra Rodriguez ($2,000), Dan Barrett ($1,674) and Sherrie Matula ($1,575).

Thompson and Rodriguez are primary challengers to Craddickrats Dawnna Dukes and Kino Flores. Barrett is in the runoff for Fort Worth's HD-97 (election day is December 10) and Matula will take on the ethically challenged John Davis in HD-129, in Pasadena.

Texas GOP lines up, pays big for more Rove lies

Longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove decried Democrats in general and Hillary Clinton in particular as big spenders and said President Bush's spirits are high at an Associated Republicans of Texas fundraising dinner Thursday.

When The Architect of a misadventure in Iraq deep into the trillions of dollars with still no end in sight calls anyone a "big spender", maybe it's time for the attendees to put on the waders. They put on their kneepads instead:

Among those attending were Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Comptroller Susan Combs, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones.

"Every time ... I see Karl, I bow just a little bit and call him 'his excellency,' " said Dewhurst.

Shame we don't live in a monarchy. Oh wait ...

"Karl was neither the man behind the curtain in as many things as he got credit for, nor is he to blame for all the things in the last couple of years he's been blamed for. He's a hard-working, smart political strategist. I would imagine he's so busy rewriting history these days that he may not have time to make any history with new candidates."

-- Democratic consultant Kelly Fero, getting it right for once