OT Breaking News

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/19/eob.fire/index.html

Document destruction getting out of control?

-- Jim White

...the building was not properly wired for the additional data-gathering equipment for spying on congress that they tried to stuff into that closet.

There were no reports of injuries from the blaze, which appeared to be confined to the third floor, said D.C. Fire Department spokesman Alan Etter. Etter said the blaze appeared to have started in an electrical closet or a telephone bank.

:~)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/19/eob.fire/index.html

http://www.observer.com/2007/kristol-krauthammer-are-out-time

I think the URL says it all...

My apologies if this is a duplicate, but it cannot be repeated often enough...

http://www.observer.com/2007/kristol-krauthammer-are-out-time

Finally, a URL that should be music to our ears.

...about Ponnuru, but two for one is still a net gain. And then there is the news about Salon's Michael Scherer leaving to go to Time to cover the presidential election. Perhaps even more of a net gain?

Ironically, Salon's Blog Report heads the story with: Neocon Purge At Time: Kristol, Krauthammer Out As Columnists

Yet, the reporter for The Observer was a little less direct:

The exact reasons for the departures of Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kristol, both high-profile backers of the Iraq war, are not entirely clear.

For now, though, I'm just going to enjoy this cup of schadenfreude... while I eat a brownie.

Wouldn't it be great if we could get some real, tried and true, sports writers to cover the election, but not just the horse-race; they'd have to cover some substance, too.

There is still some connection between the candidates Glenn writes about in today's post re: their lack of proper coverage and the wholly improper coverage that Al Gore received in 2000.

In both cases, the press was reacting to what they perceived as an attack on themselves. In the first case, the variations on the populist message threaten, not just their future livelihood, but also their sense of invincibility, due to their belonging to such an exclusive club.

In the second case, Gore, known too often for his own good as the smartest person in the room, was a threat to their own perceived entitlement-- as the namers, the designators, the deigners, the condescenders-- to the rest of us, the great unwashed. If Gore were allowed to form an agenda that threatened theirs, by virtue of actually being (one of, if not the) smartest person in the room, they might still find their livelihood, and sense of exclusivity threatened. At the very least, he might wound their fragile egos.

Not a very grand or unifying theory, just a connecting thread: two types of candidates with the potential to turn upside-down the establishment's agenda.

...and why the Media (and the NYTimes' Adam Nagourney, in particular) doesn't get his closing argument.

From Jonathan Tasini at Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/john-edwards-closing-arg_b_77466.html

Between the fights about Paul, and those about abortion and whether or not contraception really is as available as it should be... this thread will be more than I can take today.

Back tomorrow...

That's the term that Mitch McConnell persisted in using last night on The NewsHour. I don't know exactly how many times he used "molding" to describe the "effects" of the senate's over-use of (the threat of the) filibuster, but if it had been a drinking game, I'd still be hung-over.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec07/mcconnell_12-19.html

Cracks me up how you always think you have some riveted audience out there hanging on your every post.

Should read:

Cracks me up how you always think you have some riveted audience out there, when they're really skimming briskly past, trying to avoid your efforts to turn the entire thread into a joyless enterprise.

...on the Neocons fascination with Obama, and she doesn't think they're really endorsing him.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=26712

An excerpt:

I smell a smoke filled room.

December has been quite a month for Republicans and Barack, with Karl Rove, his aide Peter Wehner, and now David Brooks, all in a swoon over Obama; either giving advice to the Democratic personality candidate, or singing his praises while ticking off how horrible Hillary Clinton would be for Democrats. Isn't it nice that Rove and the neocons are all so concerned... about us.