ANA MARIE: Good morning!

MEGAN: Hey there! How are you?

ANA MARIE: A little tie-tie and already tired of the fucking shoe story.

MEGAN: I am actually really impressed with Bush's reflexes. Like, for all those politicians that took cream pies to the faces, Bush was like, nuh-uh. In slow-mo, it's very Matrix-y.

ANA MARIE: I think this should put to rest the rumors that he's drinking again. You know what's really going to suck about this, right?

MEGAN: Other than everything?

ANA MARIE: Journalists no longer be allowed to wear shoes. We're living in a post 12/14 world. And in that world, shoes just aren't worth the risk.

MEGAN: Dude, no one is taking my shoes. I stop with the pedicures in, like, November. I can't afford otherwise.

ANA MARIE: I doubt if you're alone. Lynn Sweet does not seem like a regular pedicure girl.

MEGAN: Plus, not to be mean to the White House press corps, but I'm betting some of those dudes have some gnarly, smelly feet. I really think a room full of unshod reporters' stank feet is probably more of a risk to the President than a shoe.

ANA MARIE: (And I just want to note that I had to cycle through a few names before I got to a WH correspondent that might not get regular pedicures. But I suspect Jake Tapper does!) Yeah, see that is where we disagree! I think many WH correspondents take VERY good care of their tootsies. It's not like they're out there pounding the pavement. Very little reporting involved in covering the White House.

MEGAN: I don't know, it's not like Maureen Dowd is there and can go all Elvira, Mistress of the Dark on him. [Ed: For those with better taste in movies than me, Elvira dispatches the villain at the end with a stiletto to the forehead, killing him. ]

ANA MARIE: I had forgotten that Elvira had her own movie. Thanks. You will not be shocked to know that right now on Morning Joe Pat Buchanan is showing a rather... uhm... exhaustive knowledge of Nazi history. Seriously, though: Pat Buchanan showing up to out-Nazi-trivia Bryan Singer about his own Nazi movie.

MEGAN: Yeah, completely NOT surprised. At least I can blame my Hitler trivia knowledge on the fact that I was a German history minor.

ANA MARIE: FWIW, I sense that Pat, like the heroes of Valkyrie, thinks that Hitler totally ruined Nazism.

MEGAN: Is is strange that I'm surprised that Bryan Singer is kind of hot?

ANA MARIE: I'm a little surprised at how young he seems, but not that he's hot. Usual Suspects was, fuck, over a decade ago?

MEGAN: Directors are so rarely attractive, though.

ANA MARIE: I have not made enough of a study of that. But speaking of studying: Trying to make sense of this Kristol op-ed. Have you read?

MEGAN: I find it hard to read while his grinning pumpkin head stares at me. It's already hard enough to decipher.

ANA MARIE: He and Jim Webb should hire themselves out for Halloween.

MEGAN: Is there enough orange paint in the world for that?

ANA MARIE: I think he wants a bail out? Or he's knocking the GOP for something?

MEGAN: Actually, I am a little horrified that I'm agreeing with some of the things he's saying about Republicans. He's still a reflexive idiot about liberals.

ANA MARIE: He has been kind of an idiot about Republicans!

MEGAN:

But despite the fact that the government is partly responsible for the Big Three’s problems, the right hasn’t really been stirred to enthusiastically promote a deregulatory agenda to help the auto companies. What excites it is mobilizing to oppose bailouts for unionized workers.

Last week, Senate Republicans picked a fight with the U.A.W. on union pay scales — despite the fact that it’s the legacy benefits for retirees, not pay for current workers, that’s really hurting Detroit, and despite the additional fact that, in any case, labor amounts to only about 10 percent of the cost of a car. But the Republicans were fighting Big Labor! They were standing firm against bailouts!

ANA MARIE: I'm not convinced he's always writing this column himself. Not that he's farming it out, but just engaging in automatic writing or something. Letting the spirits speak through him. And this spirit happens to be different than the "I HEART SARAH" one.

MEGAN: It's definitely written through his "all liberals are hypocritical" filter, though.

ANA MARIE: I think he's saying that they should do MORE to deregulate unions besides take on labor. Like, the problems of regulation go beyond unions. By saying that GOP shouldn't have gone after labor, he's NOT saying unions are good. And even though he likes the idea of the "car czar," isn't the car czar idea inherently anti-anti-regulation? My head hurts now. Let's move on

MEGAN: Well, I think he main point actually comes through at the end.

The bill would have allowed President Bush to name a car czar, who could have begun to force concessions from all sides. It also would have averted for now a collapse of the auto industry, and shifted difficult decisions to the Obama administration.

It's all about trying to make his Republican compatriots understand their role is to make Obama look bad.

ANA MARIE: AH! Ain't unity grand?

MEGAN: But let's talk cute: an Obama daughter-Chris Rock daughter playdate. That's a unity of cuteness.

ANA MARIE: But not BIDEN PUPPY CUTE!

MEGAN: Okay, the puppy is very cute, but: he used a breeder. Pound puppies, people, the nation is crying out for change.

ANA MARIE: And, seriously, who DOESN'T want a play date with Sasha and Malia. I mean, I want a playdate with them. I know, I would feel better about a rescue pup. BUT LOOK AT HIS EYES. The puppy's, not Biden's. Though I think that the national had a similar reaction when Obama picked Biden: "We would have preferred HRC BUT LOOK AT HIS EYES."

MEGAN: It is an extremely cute puppy, and the Biden granddaughters will, naturally, get to name him.

Originally, Brown said she was to bring two puppies to Biden, but Biden called and said he wanted to see all the dogs.

"He was very gracious," Brown said. "He hugged and kissed all of the shepherds."

There are also totally women in the world today wishing they were puppies.

ANA MARIE: I LOVE that detail.

MEGAN: Well, how do you not let puppies lick your face?

ANA MARIE: "He hugged and kissed all of the shepherds." Of course he did. That's the only part of the Vice President's job that Biden's not planning on eliminating.

MEGAN: I'm sure that's in the Constitution.

ANA MARIE: I am so glad I'm not in Chicago, btw. You can hear the chattering of teeth in the voices of reporters covering Blago/PEBO (PEBO = "President-Elect Barack Obama" I learned that very recently! Like, journo slang.)

MEGAN: I sort of love how more and more people are like, dude was craaaazzeee when he's obviously just sort of always been an asshole.

ANA MARIE: But you can't "plead asshole" in court.

MEGAN: Actually, I think that should be a legitimate defense. "But, Your Honor, I'm an asshole." I want to hear defendants say that, give 'em 30 days off their sentence or something.

ANA MARIE: I think that was Scooter Libby's first try.

MEGAN: Scooter left out the "stupid" part. Everyone already knows lawyers are assholes. That's the real meaning of "Esquire." Speaking of, I found Shep Smith's interview in Esquire kind of endearing but difficult to read in the absence of questions. Even writing that made me feel like I'd bought into something very bougie about writing.

ANA MARIE: Well it was like hearing one side of a phone conversation. A fascinating conversation! But still, a little disjointed. Maybe they're saving money by not printing the reporter's questions! Something that maybe places like the Tribune Co. and Newsweek should look into!

MEGAN: Less ink, less layoffs? Maybe they should look into this Internet thingie, where there's no ink and no layo... Oh, wait, never mind.

ANA MARIE: I was thinking more, like, how they don't have to pay extras in movies if they don't have lines. If you don't print the reporters' questions, you don't have to pay them.

MEGAN: Maybe we could just let all the people in the news write in the first person about what they're doing and just call it a day. The press is just like this unnecessary middleman in this day and age.

ANA MARIE: EXCEPT THEY'RE NOT, right? I was a conference last week and this guy from Google was all, "we hate it that the MSM is going under, because without them we're not going have quality information to index for people to search." So I was like, "You'll need to start hiring journalists then."

MEGAN: Oh, God, stop. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. Or crying so hard I'm laughing, I can't really tell.

• There's probably some economic metaphor to be had in a story about 13 people being trampled by bulls in Pamplona, but then again it might be a cautionary tale about what the tourism industry can convince you is "fun." [Washington Post]
• Speaking of a snow job, guess who is the latest politician calling for a withdrawal timetable in Iraq sooner rather than later? Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that's who. No worries, Bush and McCain will find other reasons not to withdraw yet. [Washington Post]
• Jim Webb, though, is totally withdrawing from VP consideration, though. [HuffPo]

• In possibly the smartest logistical decision made to date, Barack Obama will accept the nomination at Invesco Field, which seats 75,000 people instead of the 20,000 they can cram into the Pepsi Center where the rest of the convention is being held. Here's to the speech being slightly less of a clusterfuck than every other acceptance speech in the history of televised party conventions. [NY Times]
• Oh, and he's kind of kicking ass at the polls right now, so maybe it won't even be his last? [CQ Politics]
• And, if we're lucky, the good corrupt politicians of Alaska might get their asses kicked both by exorbitant legal bills and at the polls this year. I'll take either one, actually, since they're using donations from lobbyists (mostly oil company types, one assumes) to pay them. In the immortal words of Nelson: Ha-ha. [HuffPo]

MOE: Yo whassup.
MEGAN: Yo
It's finally no longer insanely humid here for about 5 more minutes
MOE: Did it rain last night? Apparently there was
some sort of hurricane during my panel last night.
MEGAN: Yes, I was going to dinner and I looked in my
closet and was like, hey! There are those white linen pants I love and
haven't worn! So naturally it poured rain.
MOE: Yo, this is probably a Crappy Hour first but I'd
like to discuss this disgraced gambling addicted ref... I used to be really into basketball and
the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Sacramento Kings and
the Lakers was...probably the most exciting ten days of pro basketball
at least since Jordan retired, and then fucking Game Six comes along,
and Kobe elbows Mike Bibby and Bibby gets a fucking serious bloody
nose, and THEY CALL FOUL ON BIBBY.
MEGAN: Um, I believe you have now officially lost me?
MOE: Okay, well you see there was this crooked ref in the NBA...
MEGAN: Wait, ok, so, like a guy that is being kicked
out is the one that made that call to extend the game? That sucks.
So, everyone cheats in sports. What the fuck?
MOE: No no no, I guess now that he's been disgraced
he's filing suit against the NBA alleging that games are fixed by
referees to suit the interests of PROFIT.

Tim knew referees A and F to be "company men," always
acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's
interest to add another game to the series. Referees A and F heavily
favored Team 6. Personal fouls [resulting in obviously injured
players] were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the
referees. Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in
order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6. Their
foul-calling also led to the ejection of two Team 5 players. The
referees' favoring of Team 6 led to that team's victory that night,
and Team 6 came back from behind to win that series."

it's like the baseball
strike(s).. that fucked MLB up reallllll goooood. And it took
McGuire/Sosa home-run race to bring something back to the game (insert
steriod aside here)

Asked about
corruption allegations dogging Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, Mr
Bush insisted: "I have found him to be an honest man."

He also offered words of encouragement for another ally, Gordon Brown,
whom he will meet on Sunday. He said that he needed no advice on
coping with political adversity. He is "plenty confident and plenty
smart, plenty capable — he can sort it out".

Moran also addressed the issue of sexism which,
during the course of the campaign played the role of the gopher chased
by Bill Murray in "Caddyshack" — popping up and down, up and down, as
the weeks and months went by.

His style was this: After first
complimenting the beautiful eyes of a Spanish reporter, Chávez curled
his lips, frowned and scornfully declared that the Interpol news
conference, "this show organized by these clowns," did "not deserve a
single serious comment." Then he commented ad infinitum in an
hour-long counterattack.
There was guilt by association and character assassination. He called
Noble, a former U.S. law enforcement official, "disgusting,"
"immoral," "corrupt," "irresponsible," "shameful" and "Dick Tracy, the
super-cop," and a "gringo cop" at that.
There were theater and faux magic. He used a mock card trick (he said
he learned it from Castro) to help dramatize how he thought the
incriminating data had wound up on the computers. He scribbled a note,
stepped into the audience and showed it to a reporter. Then he walked
over and planted it on one of his ministers sitting in the front row
— just as he believed the files would have been planted on the
computers.

MOE: So should we slog through the Veeps today? is anything else happening?
MEGAN: Yeah, we can start with veeps, want to go Dem or Republican firsties?
MOE: I'm sending you TNR. I will admit to having not read long past Ed Rendell, but I'm calling it up again.

MEGAN: Yeah, I sadly read all of those this weekend, including David Frum's bullshit piece on "how" McCain should choose a Veep (hint: even the ones that don't win go on to be President some day, what a terrible thought) and that ends with this gem:

I have my own personal nomination for vice president for McCain. It's Rudy Giuliani, precisely because he shares the vision of a practical, reforming, war- winning Republican Party that inspires John McCain, plus the stronger-than- usual grounds for hoping that he might be the rare candidate who can make a difference in an essential state—in this case, New Jersey.

MEGAN: The fact that I continued reading the rest of the profiles after that is a sign of my dedication to our readers, for real. Wetlands was less perverse.
MOE: I'm actually reading Frum's piece now. Uhhhh, news you can't use: Garrett Hobart was William McKinley's VP…something something C-Span, VP candidates never deliver voters…blah.

MEGAN: Right. And let's get that Giuliani guy back. Barf.
MOE: Also, how did Mike Bloomberg get on "both Barack Obama and John McCain's vice-presidential shortlists"? Is this true?
MEGAN: I think that's bullshit.
MEGAN: Obama needs a New Yorker? Please. I mean, Bloomie spent 5 minths trying to gin up enough national press to get enough name recognition to make a run at it and couldn't manage. The last thing McCain needs with social conservations already starting to defect is to put a non-Zell Miller, non-Joe Lieberman former Democrat from New York City on the ticket.
MOE: I like this lede re Huck Yeah:

If the first rule of picking a running mate is to risk as little harm to the ticket as possible, then Mike Huckabee shouldn't be John McCain's first choice for veep—or his second, third, or fourth, for that matter.

He is the GOP equivalent of Ed Rendell! Although Ed could probs use some of his dieting tips. And you can file the rest of this piece into "Quirky pol derangedly beloved by numerous members of the media, who have filed away several hundred thousand words of anecdote — and travel expenses — that will go to waste if editors don't redeem this "possible VP" angle in critical pre-Convention window of time.

MEGAN: But didn't you hear? He saved someone's life this weekend. He's obviously ordained by God or something. He's the actual Messiah. What has Obama ever done?
MOE: Um

“I’m glad that Mike was in the right place at the right time and continued to lead by example,” former South Carolina Lt. Gov. candidate Mike Campbell told The Palmetto Scoop. “We all know that [Huckabee] is pro-life, and once again he has lived up to it.”
The newspaper noted that Pittenger apparently suffers from acid reflux, which likely caused the incident to occur. It added that Huckabee, who is also known for losing 110 pounds and promoting healthy living, was trained as an EMT in college and this may not be the first time he’s sprung to action when needed.

Are they subtly suggesting a little experience with bulimia might have saved a life?

MOE: Also, Pawlenty. The thing is called "Extreme Makeover," it addresses his "proletarian chic," and you can't see it on the site, but in print it's adorned by a picture that just makes you think: that is a rather aristocratic nose on that guy.
MOE: But genes can be so deceiving! He likes to perform "headlocks" and go to bars and such.

Pawlenty will be the first presidential running mate to have worn a mullet into middle age.

MOE: Oh my god, and more on the hair.

At 47, he is lean and vigorous, with plush brown hair.

MOE: Plush?
MEGAN: Dude, it's Minnesota. Of course he's all down home like. I love, however, where he's drinking: at an American Legion Hall. The first bar I ever spent any time at at the tender age of 16 was a VFW bar and I am pretty sure they would've served me but I didn't drink and I had to drive home from there but it was shady, dude.
MEGAN: Anyone else think Noam has a man crush on Pawlenty?
MOE: Did you read the Vanity Fair man crush piece? I was going to post on it later. I hate trend pieces that are accurate.
MEGAN: I didn't, but if we're gonna talk man crushes, we should probably talk about Jim Webb now.
MEGAN: Except that the TNR piece is written by a woman. Goddammit, ruins my joke. Oh, well.
MOE: One thing, btw, I totally do not understand is how the "Axis of Arugula" enemies over at Fox News have remained so oblivious to how thorougly their beloved blue collar culture has totally been co-opted by the elite. The American Legion is like, the epicenter of the scene!

MEGAN: Because the Enemies of Arugula are too busy dining at [insert name of trendy NYC eatery here] to bother checking out the American Legion or VFW bar, not that they could get in because you generally have to be a vet or a friend of a vet and, well, you know. Fox News.
MOE: Like right wing blogger Dorothy King re her Obamaconservatism, who is referenced in a Bartlett piece:

Do I now, as a newly minted Obamaphile liberal elitist, have to serve my guests Chablis? Or would any old chardonnay do? Must it be arugula for the salad; or would lamb's lettuce, dandelion and little gems in hazelnut oil be okay? What about desert? I had planned to make a chocolate soufflé cake. But baking ... are Obamacons allowed to bake, or is that too conservative?

Um, Dorothy: if you really want to pass for bleeding-heart, cupcakes and Pabst! Pretend like you're in Kansas. Ohhhhh, bad pun. Srsly though.

MOE: I didn't even know chablis was supposedly nicer than chardonnay. I just buy this shit by the price point.
MEGAN: Also, wait, isn't Hillary the feminist candidate? Isn't Hillary the one who doesn't bake?
MEGAN: Chablis is like what people drank in the 70s. And it's sweeter. Chardonnay is the new Chablis, it's what people buy when they don't know what to buy or drink or even what they like.
MEGAN: It's 90% mass market, dumbed down, oaked-up crap that people think they're supposed to like.
MEGAN: Wow, I think I might have stronger opinions about wine than I do about VPs. Especially if that VP is Sam Nunn. Boooring. Also not gonna happen.
MOE: That's totes what I thought. Like, chablis was advertised in all those old Cosmos Anna got for us this one time. Regardless, you notice how the last desperate shreds of this phony elitism-populism thing are sort of a theme of this issue? Hence the Jim Webb hardon:

He embodies the liberal fantasy laid out by Thomas Frank in What's the Matter With Kansas?: that blue-collar whites will stop being mad at liberals for frowning at their guns and start being mad at conservatives for raping their pocketbooks.

MOE: Here's the link.

MEGAN: Blue collar white semi-conservatives might well get mad about their pocketbooks, but they vote with our uteri. I mean, they don't vote with their own because they don't have them or would totes never get an abortion, not that they would talk about, anyway. Guns for all, abortions for none! And fuck the economy, that's the Democrats' fault.
MOE: Like, personally, I am liberal as fuck, and my dad is a conservative, and he has fine tastes and reads the classics and knows about wine and shit, and I am the one who clocks in at 7:30 after grabbing an egg sandwich and a Post, and I guess that's how it should be?
MEGAN: Well, I'm not quite as liberal as you I'd say, but I know about wine! And I read the classics. Sometimes. The last book I read the whole way through was The Master and Marguerita and I swear I'm gonna finish Crime and Punishment and Baal and Amerika and Tropic of Cancer this year. I swear. But I won't be voting for McCain, that's for sure.
MOE: Oh my god I just saw that joke in the Gchat screen lolol. Readers, why don't you decide?

Megan: dude. i need an opinion whether I should write this.: Wait, dude, there's an even more horrible takeaway joke from Dorothy: She's trying to say that a world with Obama is a world without chocolate. is that past the line?

No lady, I'm just drooling right now and I'm not sure why…
MEGAN: Fine, I'll bake cupcakes next time I visit. Chocolate ones. Soufflé doesn't travel well.

MEGAN: Ok, we keep getting distracted by other stuff, so let me give the run down on VP as I see it and I'm sure I'll be wrong because I always am about these things, but whatever.
MOE: Um, I'm interrupting the veepstakes magic 8 ball chat just a sec for an obligatory moment in Geraldine Ferraro, oy she is nuts.

Geraldine Ferraro dismissed the idea in a conversation with me last week - noting that these voters had already voted for an anti-abortion rights Republican before: Ronald Reagan. More, she said, these sophisticated voters know that Democrats will keep control of Congress no matter what, blocking any extremist nominees for the Supreme Court.

Oh yes that is some very sophisticated reasoning Ferraro! If by "sophisticated" you mean impenetrably self-sabotagingly warped!
MEGAN: Oh, right, like how the Dems blocked Alito and Roberts? Fucking a, like, she's literally trying out reasons for them not to vote Obama. WTF is wrong with her. Ok, back to veeps.

MEGAN: Republican: It's not going to be Huckabee, I'll bet he annoys McCain and he's no upside with the fiscal conservatives. McCain might swallow it and pick Romney. He won't take Crist (gay), he won't take Jindal (won't pass vetting, I'd bet), he can't take Rice (those naughty lesbian rumors and all).
MEGAN: Side note: John McCain's campaign has the most high-level gay staff and advisers of any campaign so far this year. Oh, and the Log Cabin Republicans who declined to endorse Bush twice, I have it on good authority, will endorse McCain despite his record on gay issues because he once voted against the federal marriage amendment. But he's still not going to take Crist.
MOE: Don't you think Rice's bigger problem is being, um, friends with Bush?
MEGAN: Not when he needs to appeal to Bush's voters. What, like she and he disagree on Iraq?
MOE: No, see: Bush doesn't have any more voters.
MOE: Seriously, I don't think Tom Davis was hyperbolizing.
MEGAN: Anyway, so I think Pawlenty's definitely on the short list. I think he's vetting Carly Fiorina in the press the way he did Rice.
MEGAN: I don't think he was hyperbolizing, either, but I think McCain's going to have to tack right now that Bob Barr's the libertarian, he's going to pick up $$ and voters.
MOE: And even if he did, it is not a prim black brainy Ferragamo-clad warmonger they were voting for.
MEGAN: And who's left on the right? The 27% of people or so that still actually support Bush, and you gotta know those people are not big McCainiacs.

MEGAN: Anyway, so the other thing that Attackerman were talking about this weekend that would probs make sense in McCain's warped mind was Lieberman. And that would be a pro-war, all-war ticket with this semblance of bipartisanship that I think would totally lose and Liebarman's a shitty VP candidate so that's the one I'm sort of rooting for.

MOE: You know, we never hit Rendell, but the lede is all you need. Rendell is appearing at a rally with Louis Farrakhan. Buzz Bissinger is a city hall reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer following Rendell for six years because he thinks municipal politicians will actually be able to learn something from the experience of Philadelphia or something.

I was writing a book on Rendell at the time. Allowed into his inner sanctum for close to six years, I found Rendell's stance on Farrakhan important and was eager to hear what he had been thinking during the rally. He did not disappoint: "As I sat there, I said to myself, 'Wouldn't it be great if someone burst in and gunned me down, because then Buzz would at least have an ending to his book.'"

MEGAN: Oh, great, just with this campaign needs, two people who the Republicans can associate with Louis Farrakhan. Also, Rendell got on TV last week and said unequivocally (unlike the rest of the Veepstakes candidates) that he doesn't want the gig because he doesn't like working for other people or trying to spin shit.
MOE: So dude, do you think it will be Jim Webb? And if so, does that mean we have to read his books?
MEGAN: I think if it is, we do, but I don't think it will be. I'm sure he's on the short list, but how do they take a 1st term Senator (from a state where the seat might swing back) with no domestic policy experience who is a former Republican with a shitty record on women's issues and make him Obama's VP in this climate?
MOE: Little known fact: Anna's dad is apparently obsessed with Scot-Irish history. And all I know of the climate is that it is hot. And that fucking Geraldine Ferraro is voting for McCain anyway.
MEGAN: A month ago, sure, I can see him topping out the list, no doubt, but I think the surging supposed feminists (I'm sorry, I ain't calling anyone who is threatening to vote for McCain or write-in Hillary to turn the election over to him an actual feminist) who are pissed at Obama over sexism in the media and among some of his supposed supporters makes it much less likely.
MEGAN: But I think he's on the short list. I know Clinton is, though I'm on record as being confused why she'd give up power in the Senate for what is basically a powerless ceremonial role (And HRC-as-VP people, don't give me "VP is head of the Senate" crap, because that's not how it works, Cheney casts a tie-breaking vote once in a blue and doesn't have any actual power in the institution, look it up, thanks).
MEGAN: McCaskill's seat could go red, my Steve mentioned Landrieu but that's the same deal, ditto Klobuchar. Napolitano hates McCain and would totally attack him, which is good, Sebelius for sure. I'm still feeling like Feingold could be a dark horse but am constantly told that he's too liberal (which is actually the point of taking him), Tim Kaine wants it but he has weird eyebrows. Edwards doesn't, Richardson is grabby with the ladies and, fuck it, he really should just announce a shadow cabinet because there's be someone in there for everyone in the Democratic party and no one would be able to vote against every major Democratic figure.

MOE: Well you can do that here.
MEGAN: No, because I have a rule that I only tune into the Today show for NKOTB.
MEGAN: Oh, the McClellan interview, they've been replaying that ad infinitum on MSNBC.
MOE: Which I can't watch. I'm practically dead from some ailment with its origin in cigarettes and insomnia
MOE: Anyway we need to have a sincerity summit
MOE: A sincerity evaluation summit.
MEGAN: Ha, I was gonna say!
MEGAN: Also, wtf is up with us having attacks of insomnia at the same time?

MEGAN: I have to say, watching this interview, I'm far more convinced by him today than anything he did in his 3 years as press secretary. And he seems far less bumbling and stupid.
MOE: Yeah, he's convincing but um not slick.
MEGAN: If overly made-up. Oh, make-up artists, you failed him! (Although, I understand it may have been deliberately).
MEGAN: Oh, God, no, not slick at all. I mean, he says he still has a "great deal of affection" for GWB, he's obviously not particularly capable of slickness.

MOE: Oh man and I still haven't seen the most-buzzed video "Lohan's sapphic smooch"
MEGAN: It's on video? Also, why do we care that she's a lesbian or bisexual, if she is?
MOE: We care because SAMANTHA RONSON COULD TURN ANYONE GAY. And um... speaking of... did you see Anderson Cooper last night?

MEGAN: Whoa, I totally did not. Also, sniff, I remain sad that Anderson plays for the other team. Such a loss that one. Wait, is Samantha Ronson what happened to Anderson Cooper? That bitch!
MOE: Dude now I am going to have weird SamRonAnderson sex dreams. Oooh did you catch this passage?

A page later, he recounts what he perceived as a moment of doubt by a president who never expresses any. It occurred in a dimly lit room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a room where an injured Texas veteran was being watched over by his wife and 7-year-old son as Bush arrived.
The vet's head was bandaged and "he was clearly not aware of his surroundings, the brain injury was severe," McClellan recalled. Bush hugged the wife, told the boy his dad was brave and kissed the injured vet's head while whispering 'God bless you' into his ear.
"Then he turned and walked toward the door," McClellan wrote. "Looking straight ahead, he moved his right hand to wipe away a tear. In that moment, I could see the doubt in his eyes and the vivid realization of the irrevocable consequences of his decision."
But, he added, such moments are more than counterbalanced by deceased warriors' families who urge him to make sure the deaths were not in vain.

Uhhhhh, what was that Heller book…that became a cliche…describing situations like this…didn't that involve war?
The other person, or their software, refused the request.
MOE: Dude now I am going to have weird SamRonAnderson sex dreams. Oooh did you catch this passage?

A page later, he recounts what he perceived as a moment of doubt by a president who never expresses any. It occurred in a dimly lit room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a room where an injured Texas veteran was being watched over by his wife and 7-year-old son as Bush arrived.
The vet's head was bandaged and "he was clearly not aware of his surroundings, the brain injury was severe," McClellan recalled. Bush hugged the wife, told the boy his dad was brave and kissed the injured vet's head while whispering 'God bless you' into his ear.

MOE:

"Then he turned and walked toward the door," McClellan wrote. "Looking straight ahead, he moved his right hand to wipe away a tear. In that moment, I could see the doubt in his eyes and the vivid realization of the irrevocable consequences of his decision."
But, he added, such moments are more than counterbalanced by deceased warriors' families who urge him to make sure the deaths were not in vain.

Uhhhhh, what was that Heller book…that became a cliche…describing situations like this…didn't that involve war?

MEGAN: Can someone please ask those fucking families, then, what would be an acceptable outcome to justify the deaths of their children?
MOE: Dude who is ronaldpagan? Reading his comments alone is like reading…a book? A very long New Yorker piece about the shifting views regarding violence within the jihadist movement, but actually finishing it?
MEGAN: I don't know, about either RP's identity of the shifting views on violence in the jihadist movement. But can we please, please talk about the male liberal blogospheric hard on for Jim Webb? Between Attackerman and Ezra Klein, it's starting to get a little uncomfortable all up in here, especially as neither one of them talks to any degree about his shitty record on women's issues, like Kathy G does and nobody but Politico gets into the 3 obvious female choices, none of whom suck and all of whom have great records.
MEGAN: Because, really, Jim Webb? Is going to corral Hillary supporters? What we need on the Obama ticket is a thrice-married former Republican with a shitty history on women's issues just because he's got a military background? That's why McCain's neck and neck with Obama in the polls? Bish plz.
MOE: I preach general ignorance on this one. But it's cool Kathy G named her blog the G Spot. I do think Obama should pick someone with military experience. I have no fucking clue who that is though. Who do you think he should pick?
MEGAN: Well, A. I voted for Jim Webb despite his record on women's rights because I wanted George Allen out of office. I think, however, with Obama already facing charges of sexism he's not going to do well on the trail and the argument that the seat goes back to the Republicans is rather apt.
MOE: And I don't really care about this shit:

Stepping away from all that high-minded rhetoric, I'll add that, in practical terms, selecting Webb would be a slap in the face to the Hillary Clinton supporters. I'm not saying that Obama has to pick Hillary as veep (and indeed, I think that would be a bad idea). I'm not even saying that he needs to pick a woman.

But Hillary was the first woman to ever have a serious shot at the presidency, and she came so close. So the Hillary supporters (of whom, to be clear, I am not one) will feel frustrated enough that their candidate didn't win.

MEGAN: B. Wesley Clarke is an idiot.
MEGAN: Well, I agree with that. Maybe not the "slap in the face" part, but the people that are pissed at NARAL for endorsing Obama ain't gonna be pleased with him picking a guy who said the Naval Academy was a "horny woman's dream" either.
MEGAN: Hell, I won't be.
MOE: On B. we concur. But okay, of course you voted for Webb. George Allen was a tool machine. And egad, when did he say that? I'm just getting my coffee now.
MOE: I just don't want to talk about gender ANY MORE. We know Obama doesn't want his daughters to be punished with babies. ISN'T THAT ENOUGH?????
MEGAN: Egad, he said that in 1979, more than a decade before he defended the dudes who assaulted women at Tailhook. It's all the feminists' fault, you know, that those Great Men's careers were ruined by a little drunken tomfoolery that the women totally took out of context.
MEGAN: Also, keeps divorcing his wives.
MEGAN: I mean, whatever, obviously Virginia wasn't going to elect a Senator that doesn't make me slightly sick to my stomach with his opinions on things, and great that he's spent his term so far appropriately sucking up to the left wing that got him elected (hello, unions!) but, I'm sorry, he is a shitty VP choice. He doesn't bring Virginia, he doesn't bring the South, his presence as the stooge in the short chair doesn't counter McCain on foreign policy and, frankly, this election stopped being (for most people) about the war or foreign policy for the swing voters when the economy went in the tank and their houses got repossessed.
MOE: Just throwing out a link to an uplifting Frontline on Tailhook. Maybe I'll clip it later! So yeah, he is not the guy. I think Obama should choose someone with military experience in spite of what the election is about. The president has immeasurably more influence on a war than he does the economy.
MOE: But perhaps that line of thinking is a little audacious.
MEGAN: I just don't think military experience matters, cough, Bush, cough, Cheney, cough, Clinton, cough, Gore.
MEGAN: It's part of this whole fetishization of our military that we insist on engaging in.

MEGAN: Can somebody, please, show me one of the so-called Reagan Dems that voted for Hillary in Ohio, PA or West Virginia who is saying they'll otherwise vote for McCain (and not the pissed off women) who would be like, oh, hey, he picked a virtually unknown first term Senator from Virginia with some military experience for his VP, so now I'm totally voting Obama?
MOE: Well sure, agreed, but matters for what? Like, I think more than three highly uneventful years in the Navy might have done Rumsfeld some good; well actually, that point is rhetorical because being a HUMAN might also have done Rumsfeld some good. And, yeah, you've got it: the biggest reason Jim Webb is a bad choice is because no one really knows who he is. To depart for a second: here is a piece from the New York Review Of Books on the ideas of Obama's economic adviser confidante types. They are…um…less socialist than I'd like.

MEGAN: Well, at least they're not Keynesian?
MOE: Oh dude my BROWSER just crashed. I thought I was having a heart attack.
MEGAN: Dude, my other computer is totally fucked, I'm going to finish transferring files today and then reformat that bitch.
MOE: Did you check Dan Bartlett using our favorite SFW term for feces?
MEGAN: Wait, you can say "crap" on TV? It's not as good as Jon Stewart getting away with calling Tucker Carlson a dick, but it's pretty good. Yeah, the Administration has its PR efforts together pretty good on Scottie this week, from Dana's saddened "This isn't the Scott we know" to "total crap," they're running the gamut.
MOE: Okay, so what I would really like to know is 1. How did Scott McClellan come to the realization that this was the book he wanted to write 2. Was it an agent? It had to be, right? 3. Who was the ghostwriter? How long did they work together? I thought I might get some of that from this interview with his publisher but uh…not really. We learn that Mike Allen did, in fact, as he specified in his initial story on the subject, bought the book from a bookstore. I'm pretty sure he did the same thing with the Bernstein Hillary book. So Mike Allen has a "source" at Politics & Prose, who cares. How did this thing actually come about? Why don't we know this yet?
MEGAN: Well, I mean, someone on MSNBC had a good theory this morning (obvi not Joe Scarborough). I mean, dude spent 3 years defending the indefensible and looking like a doofus only to get ousted in 2006 as everything started to suck and he (apparently) got to realizing that everyone figured they could lie to him and he's never figure it out.
MEGAN: Does he have a cushy sinecure somewhere? No.
MEGAN: He's still on the lecture circuit, but everyone knows he's a shit public speaker that didn't know anything.
MOE: I hate how everyone's like, "unbelievable." Dude, have you ever lived with someone who just got fired?
MOE: Midlife crises have been known to spawn from less.
MEGAN: Dude, I've been fired. I sucked. I got drunk for the better part of a week, stayed in bed, and the dude I was seeing dumped me because I got fired.
MEGAN: So, I stayed in bed for like another week after that.
MOE: Yeah, now just imagine Nick Denton had spent six years brainwashing you!!!!
MEGAN: To the point where I still held great affection for him!
MEGAN: Then I'd have to turn on Noah.

MOE:MOE: Dude remember Scott Ritter? What's he doing these days? I don't usually buy this whole "You can't change your views after 30" silliness but that guy's epiphany was a little weird.
MEGAN: Apparently, he's a talk show commentator.

MEGAN: HA! He was also arrested in 2001 but never charged for trying to fuck an underaged girl he tried to meet on the Internet.
MEGAN: So, he either spend a lot of time on his computer or virtually none, I'm guessing.

MOE: can you check real quick if any of the other major newspapers (besides the times) had anything bad to say about mcclellan
MEGAN: Howie Kurtz entitled his column "Turncoat Time" and said "We all may have underestimated how he felt about being dumped in a White House shake-up."
MOE: Oh by the way how hilarious is it that Bush pretended not to remember if he'd had cocaine??? DUDE YOU REMEMBER IF YOU HAD COKE THAT IS THE POINT
MEGAN:

The question is inescapable: Now he tells us? McClellan had deep qualms about Bush using propaganda to sell the Iraq war, about being misled on Valerie Plame, about the president being in denial on Hurricane Katrina, and he utters not a peep of public protest until he's ready to sell his book?

MOE: OH like he was really going to miss that job so much
MOE: I'm just saying the Editorials though
MEGAN: Novak's column is, hilariously, about Clinton.
MEGAN: Um, weirdly, neither the WaPo, Boston Globe, LA Times has anything one way or the other thus far.