Let me see if I’ve got this straight: in order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying

The recent cave in by a hand full of Democrats isn’t going to go away. It will resonate for a while. Falling for the Same Old Line

In this post and this one Glenn also makes the point that the 57th Retreating Dems aren’t as big a problem as the Democratic “leadership” in both houses, which could have put a stop to the disaster by simply rejecting Smirky’s order to pass the law or else.

Harsh, but damn. The least the Democratic leadership could have done is said things are going too fast, lets recess and reconsider the changes to FISA later. That’s all. If the thinking was that they’d come back to it in six months and change it or let the changes sunset, on a political level that was a miscalculation. You don’t put these guys on the defensive with a sea of supenas and then take a step back. While it might not be weakness in reality in the game of public perceptions it is perceived that way. Will it get Republicans votes in 2008, probably not, but it might get a few Democrats to stay home.

Which is better? Being known as a Republican male prostitute or being a racist? He’d Rather Be A Racist

Florida State Sen. Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) says he would rather tell the world that he’s afraid of black men than admit that he offered an undercover cop $20 for a blow job.

“This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park,” Allen, who is white, told police in a taped statement after his arrest. Allen said he feared he “was about to be a statistic” and would have said anything just to get away.

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Remember that the Right holds the truth in the highest regard.

The Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp stories continues. The far Right Weekly Standard says,

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned from a military source close to the investigation that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp—author of the much-disputed “Shock Troops” article in the New Republic’s July 23 issue as well as two previous “Baghdad Diarist” columns—signed a sworn statement admitting that all three articles he published in the New Republic were exaggerations and falsehoods—fabrications containing only “a smidgen of truth,” in the words of our source.

This story has gotten more attention then it deserves even after one figures in a fidelity for the truth regardless of where it leads us. First Michael Goldfarb is the author who will take information and repeat per batum regardless of of the veracity of the source. So far Mikey hasn’t printed a retraction or apology based on that “reporting”. Since the facts matter and all it would be the right thing to do. Then there is this investigation by the military. You don’t have to have any military experience to know that guys in the same platoon or company do not rat each other out over relatively small infractions of the rules. Since some of the things that Scott claimed to have seen are legally actionable by the military it seems unlikely these guys would turn on each other. We might not know the truth for years, but since creating a distraction from more important issues like the possible murder of Pat Tillman and Bush’s determination to hand over even more power to a corrupt serial lying Attorney General the truth probably doesn’t matter to the network of rightie blogs and punfits one way or the other. John Cole, one of the moderate members of Pajamas writes,

The funniest thing in all of this is that there is no way to prove one way or another Beauchamp is lying, but now, even if Beauchamp is lying, he comes out looking better than the asshole armchair commandos attacking him.

Cole does get to the heart of the matter. Pvt. Beauchamp faces death everyday, he’s not down in mom’s basement playing surrogate warrior with a keyboard. Everyday, regardless of Scott’s politics and those of his fellow soldiers they’re watching each other’s backs and fighting the Right’s favorite optional war.

If the truth matters to rightie bloggers why did Captain’s Quarters write this in regards to Fred Thompson’s wife,

Added conservative blogger Ed Morrissey last month: “Anyone with access to Google knows that Mrs. Thompson worked as an attorney and media consultant in DC.”

Like many issues and dramas in the political sphere ol Cap couldn’t get this one simple fact straight, “Jeri Thompson does not have a law degree.”. Like Atrios I could care less. Its just another pimple that the Right pumped into a mountain and it blew up in their face.

Yossarian: Let me see if I’ve got this straight: in order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy any more and I have to keep flying.

Catch-22 (1970)