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What's a good way to spice up a story about lobbyists' influence over Congress? Make it about sexy seductresses, obviously! Preferably blond ones. More »
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• People at Washington's Sidwell Friends School (where Sasha & Malia go) are disappointed that the Obamas "only" donated autographed magazines to their charity auction rather than agreeing to hang out with the highest bidder. [MSNBC]

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• Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided that the entire Democratic caucus will vote next week whether Independent Senator Joe Lieberman will keep his seat as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee after having back John McCain and gone negative against Obama. [TPM Election Central]
• How negative did Lieberman really go? There's a video to count the ways. [Politico]
• And both the Clintons swear that — despite leaked reports that rather obviously came from Lieberman's camp — they aren't pushing to keep Lieberman at Homeland Security or in the caucus. [Politico]
• Racist Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, who, according to the Constitution represents all the citizens of Georgia regardless of their race, knows the reason he didn't avoid a run-off election because not enough of "his" people turned out. You know, white people. That always vote for the white guy. Because they're white. [Think Progress]

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Though John McCain called for toned down convention festivities in light of Hurricane Gustav, it seems someone forgot to tell the rest of the GOP. In the clip above, conventioneers are seen dancing awkwardly to Cyndi Lauper and hiding their faces from the cameras with pink feather boas. Today Good Morning America reported that corporate and lobbyist funded parties celebrating the RNC were in full swing this weekend, including a party sponsored by the NRA, Lockheed Martin, and the American Trucking Association that featured a band called "Hookers and Blow." (But rest assured, the accompanying article notes, "there was no evidence of any actual prostitutes or cocaine" at the party.) Lest you think that ABC News is unfairly targeting GOP partygoers, you can check out their coverage of parties at the DNC last week as part of their series The Money Trail. More »
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Now, we know virtually no one listens to Glenn Beck's radio show (or, at the very least, that there's likely little overlap between his audience and ours). So you probably missed Toby Keith's groundbreaking appearance when he broke down the racial issues of the Presidential campaign for the intellectual betterment of us all. And, if you believe there's an iota of truth in that preceding statement, you obviously haven't heard Toby's seminal (heh) work "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue". So between the truth about him, John McCain's lobbyist ties, how McCain's position on oil drilling has helped his fundraising and why Nancy Pelosi shouldn't be insulted by being asked how that bean soup is coming, Spencer Ackerman and I have had a busy morning. More »
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Seventy five thousand people showed up to see Obama's biggest yet speech in Portland, Oregon yesterday. Firstly, that represents something like one-seventh the entire population of Portland and undoubtedly the biggest-ever congregation of fixed-gear bicycles. In fact, the crowd was bigger than pretty much any outdoor rock concert including Burning Man (though not including the Stones at Altamont Speedway) and it was in a city, a city we can only imagine smells kind of awful right now, if only because the coffee in Portland lends itself to really foul shits. Anyway, a friend of mine used to call Portland "White People Gone Wild." It is not such a terrible shock this crowd digs Obama. So as this woeful chapter in our nation's history concludes I can only hope the WPGW contingent will stop saying ludicrous things like the election of John McCain would be "eight more years" of Bush. To say such a thing cheapens the trauma of the World's Worst Presidency and further tries our almost thoroughly bankrupt national capacity for nuance, a capacity Obama is trying to restore. That and lots more with Megan and I, after the jump. More »
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Can you tell the difference between these two ladies? Can John McCain? See, one is John McCain's patriotic wife, and one is some telecom lobbyist who liked to show up at his events and tell her bosses that John McCain was doing her all sorts of favors. So did he go down on her? Can you do that with dentures? Did former campaign strategist John Weaver tell the media about how he had to chase Vicki Iseman away from McCain because he's still mad McCain didn't go along with his prescient plan to defect from the Republican Party back in 2000? Probably doubtful! But is this why that other McCain adviser says he's leaving the campaign if his guy ends up running against Mr. Nuclear Family Obama? Maybe so! More scurrilous gossip/hearsay/hypothetical conspiracy theorizing with me and Glamocracy Megan after the jump! More »
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A lobbyist friend writes me: "So I'm in a southern GOP office (where pretty women, skirts, heels, etc. are still the norm) with a few of my clients. Now, most of the guys I represent are salt of the earth, hard working folk. However, on this particular day, "Earl" decides he's gonna venture off-script, talk shit about the Member, and flat-out hit on the smoking, damn-near-burnt-my-retinas-cuz-I-looked- at-her-too-closely hot staffer. I corralled him, like a good lobbyist, about a dozen times, steered the conversation back to the topic at hand and got the other clients to talk. Finally, we get up to leave and Earl is sporting wood. No, I'm sorry, Earl is sporting log. The boy is blessed and not just with being a consummate jackass, and not afraid to show it. As he goes in for the hug - yup, a hug - I step in and thank her for her time. Any idea what to do next?" More »
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