McCain got caught in two traps by this perfectly reasonable question.

The first is that he, and now all politicians running for high office, feared saying something that would contradict something he had said in the past. The minute he says "my favorite movie is Casablanca" when he was once on record saying "my favorite movie is Godfather," he gets branded as a flip-flopper. On the question of condoms for Africa, he obviously realized that it was an issue that he'd had to finesse in the past, and couldn't recall quite how he handled it. Rather than saying something that would lead to a gotcha moment, he punted. Given the current climate, that seems reasonable. Given the question, it is bogus - he could have said, "you know, my feelings on this have been influenced by strong arguments on both sides, but in a perfect world I would say X."

The second trap is one of his own party's making. He knows as well as anyone that you cannot win the Republican nomination if you piss off the evangelicals. He hears the word "condom" and he also factors in conservative Catholics, and he says, "boy oh boy, this is poison, run, John, run!" Unfortunately, we've seen symptoms of this disease even in the Democratic race - witness Hilary and Obama declining to say that homosexuality is not immoral. Given McCain's history with the religious righteous, his understandable reaction is to shut his mouth and let the spin doctors do the damage control later.

Understandable, but detestable nonetheless. On behalf of the millions of women and men who risk dying horrible miserable deaths because you don't have the balls to stand up and say "Yes, let's distribute condoms as part of a massive effort to wipe out HIV," you and your ilk will never, ever get my vote, Mr. McCain.

Let's see here...

On the floor of the Senate, the vice president tells Patrick Leahy to go fuck himself. The exact quote, as said by the VP voted for by our most morally self-righteous citizens, was "Go fuck yourself."

Patrick Leahy is from Vermont, one of the most liberal states in the Union. Every time he confronts the administration, his popularity in the state goes up. Right now his approval rating hovers at about 178%.

Leahy has been ranking minority member for the Judiciary Committee for most of the Bush administration, forced to sit by and watch Arlen Specter roll over for the administration time and time again.

Now Leahy is chair of the Judiciary Committee. He has nothing to lose by confronting the administration. Nothing. And, when the vice president had all the power in the world, he used that power to personal invite the senator to go fuck himself.

If you were Pat Leahy, what would you do?

Can you say "subpoena the bastards?" Thought you could.

Goodness gracious, when did they let Jeff Gannon back into the White House press corps? Or has Karl Rove found a new boy toy?