The Republicks don't like you either, Lieberman

Mark me down here as falling-on-the-floor-laughing:

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) late last week and urged him to contact John McCain to withdraw his name from vice presidential consideration, according to three sources familiar with the conversation.

Of course Mighty Joe stood up to the Rove-Beast:

Lieberman dismissed the request, these sources agreed.

Lieberman “laughed at the suggestion and certainly did not call [McCain] on it,” said one source familiar with the details.

“Rove called Lieberman,” recounted a second source. “Lieberman told him he would not make that call.”

Rove did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rove, President Bush’s former top campaign adviser and arguably the most prominent political operative of the past generation, has no formal role in McCain’s campaign. But he knows much of the Arizona senator’s high command and has been offering informal advice, both over the phone and in his position as a Fox News analyst, since McCain wrapped up the GOP nomination.

The Rover has been trumpeting $200 Million Dollar Man (and owner of three houses his own self) Mittens Romney for the pick, to be announced at any moment in order to blunt the Obamamentum of tonight's acceptance speech ...

“Rove is pushing Romney so aggressively some folks are beginning to wonder what's going on,” grumbled one veteran Republican strategist.

From his perch on Fox, Rove has touted McCain’s fierce primary rival as strong vice presidential material.

“Romney is already vetted by the media, has strong executive experience both in business and in government, has an interesting story to tell with saving the U.S. Olympics, and also helps McCain deal with the economy, because he can speak to the economy with a fluency that McCain doesn’t have,” Rove said on “Fox News Sunday” in June.

The sources spoke about Rove’s involvement after Robert Novak, writing his first column since being diagnosed with brain cancer, reported Wednesday that McCain and some of his close associates would like to tap Lieberman for the number two slot but that putting an abortion-rights-supporting former Democrat on the Republican ticket was likely to be unrealistic.

Gasp. Novak's not dead yet? Can you just see that ghastly countenance propped up in a cancer ward, phone in one ear, banging out a column not on a laptop but a 1940's typewriter?

This development is too bad/so sad for Kay Bailey's hopes, I suppose.

Blue Dogs cuddle up with AT&T in Denver

This is the kind of bullshit that just deflates all the good things I have watched and read about this week:

(Last Monday) night in Denver, at the Mile High Station -- next to Invesco Stadium, where Barack Obama will address a crowd of 30,000 people on Thursday night -- AT&T threw a lavish, private party for Blue Dog House Democrats, virtually all of whom blindly support whatever legislation the telecom industry demands and who also, specifically, led the way this July in immunizing AT&T and other telecoms from the consequences for their illegal participation in the Bush administration's warrantless spying program. Matt Stoller has one of the listings for the party here.

Glenn Greenwald tried to get in but no media was allowed. He spoke to people entering the event who refused to identify themselves (except for one Republican). One of the party's feted was not anonymous: Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader. Let's go to Think Progress ...

Hoyer was “the point man” in negotiations over the new FISA law that Congress passed and Bush signed last month. He helped secure retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies (including AT&T), thereby condoning their participation in Bush’s illegal spying program.

This is what roasts me about those Democrats who vote like, act like, party with, and generally speaking aren't much different from Republicans. They have sold themselves out to the corporations.

That's fascism, people.

Once we get unobstructible majorities in the House and Senate next year -- and with a Democratic president -- can we expect them to act any differently? As in governing for the people and not the powerful?

Why do I get the impression it will be even more difficult to hold their feet to the fire on, say ... offshore drilling?

Joe Biden, George McCain, and Sigmund Freud

Let me make this pledge to you right here and now. For every American who is trying to do the right thing, for all those people in government who are honoring their pledge to uphold the law and honor the Constitution, no longer will you hear the eight most dreaded words in the English language: "The Vice President's office is on the phone."

Nice left jab, Joe. Nice shout-out to your mother, too:

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As a child I stuttered, and she lovingly would look at me and told me, "Joey, it's because you're so bright you can't get the thoughts out quickly enough." When I was not as well dressed as the other kids, she told me, "Joey, you're so handsome honey, you're so handsome." And when I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, and this is the God's truth, she sent me back out the street and told me, "Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day." And that's what I did.

After the accident, she told me, "Joey, God sends no cross that you cannot bear." And when I triumphed, my mother was quick to remind me it was because of others.

My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you.

Selfishness and greed and the conservative mantra of "I-got-mine-and-fuck-all-y'all" is going back into the minority, where it belongs. His Freudian slip was showing here:

I can almost hear the conversation they're having at their kitchen table after they put their kids to bed. Like millions of Americans, they're asking questions as ordinary as they are profound. Questions they never ever thought they'd have to ask themselves:

—Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?

—Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars just to fill up the gas tank?

—How in God's name, with winter coming, how are we gonna heat the home?

—Another year, no raise?

—Did you hear? Did you hear they may be cutting our health care at the company?

—Now, now we owe more on the house than it's worth. How in God's name are we going to send the kids to college?

—How are we gonna retire?

You know folks, that's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the America we'll continue to get if George — excuse me, if John McCain is elected president of the United States of America. Freudian slip! Freudian slip!

Change, or more of the same? Pretty easy choice to make in November, I think.

Big Dog in da howse

He drives some of us wild and most of them nuts -- like they aren't already -- and last night he threw his support to Obama while at the same time throwing McLame under the bus:

The delegates stood on their feet and roared for nearly 3 1/2 minutes when Clinton walked on stage. The former president basked in their affection, but after several false starts at his speech, commanded: "Sit down!"

Actually it was more request than command: "Y'all sit down! We gotta get this show on the road!"

“The campaign generated so much heat, it increased global warming,” he said of the primaries. “In the end, my candidate didn’t win. But I’m very proud of the campaign she ran: She never quit on the people she stood up for, on the changes she pushed for, on the future she wants for all our children.”

And a few more excerpts, courtesy Ted:

In this decade, American workers have consistently given us rising productivity. That means, year after year, they work harder and produce more. Now, what did they get in return? Declining wages, less than one-fourth as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty, and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s. American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage.

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They took us from record surpluses to an exploding debt; from over 22 million new jobs to just 5 million; from increasing working families' incomes to nearly $7,500 a year to a decline of more than $2,000 a year; from almost 8 million Americans lifted out of poverty to more than 5.5 million driven into poverty; and millions more losing their health insurance. Now in spite of all this evidence, their candidate is actually promising more of the same.

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Think about it: more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy; more Band-Aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families, and increase the number of uninsured; more going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence. They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more.

Then Clinton turned his focus on the only argument Republicans seem capable of making -- that Obama isn't "ready to lead":

Everything I learned in my eight years as president, and in the work I have done since in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job. He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful president needs. His policies on the economy, on taxes, on health care, on energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of foreign policy and national security challenges and a firm commitment to rebuild our badly strained military. His family heritage and his life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation in an ever more interdependent world.

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Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American leadership in the world. Barack Obama is ready to honor the oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.

He is certainly a lot more ready than George Bush ever was, and the past eight years of demonstrated incompetence, failure, and outright deception are proof enough of that.

Really, it is to laugh: if somehow the GOP's warped definition of "leadership" was a decent argument then we would be wrapping up eight years of an Al Gore administration (or even four years of a John Kerry one).

George Bush had never traveled outside the United States prior to being elected president (sic). And not because he couldn't afford to.

Poor John McSame is -- besides being wrong about most everything else -- on the wrong side of history: the US hasn't elected the guy with the most Washington experience since Truman (that is, if you don't count The Wimp).

I sent him an e-mail pointing this out, but I'm pretty sure his staff did not print it out and read it to him.

Gustav by Labor Day

Have a happy Labor Day weekend but pay attention to the weather reports:

If the storm continues to stall it could favor a Texas landfall as the time may allow a ridge of high pressure over Florida and the Bahamas to strengthen and possibly expand. Alternatively a weakness could open in the ridge and allow Gustav to move northward -- hence the uncertainty in the forecast.

It is around this ridge that Gustav will eventually trace its way into the Gulf of Mexico, so the further west the ridge moves, the further west Gustav will move.