The Oregon Democratic Senate Primary today between attorney Steve Novick and state House Speaker Jeff Merkley is also noteworthy, as it pits an "insurgent" candidate (Novick) against the democratic establishment's choice. Rumors are the DSCC will pour millions into the race should Merkley win to go against republican Gordon Smith in November, as they did for Claire McCaskill in Missouri in 2006. Novick has countered with concerts by Pearl Jam and others next month at Madison Square Garden to give him the money needed. Polls show an extremely close race, a virtual toss up.

Steve Novick has become well-known for his self-deprecating and funny off-beat ads which make light of his physical disabilities while highlighting what he's done to overcome them. Chris Matthews is certainly a fan.

It shouldn't surprise anyone when Meet The Press assembles a panel of four spin doctors* that they will furiously try to out spin one another, though in at least one instance there was a qualitative difference. Three were selling old models, John McCain and the DLC , while Bob Shrum was more or less left on his own to paint rosy pictures of that New Kid on the Block, Barack Obama.

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Former republican presidential aspirant Mike Huckabee and political consultant Mike Murphy (hired gun in the past for both John McCain and Mitt Romney, among others) were bemoaning the fact the republican brand was damaged, while trying to sell the idea that John Sydney McCain was just the tonic for a beleaguered party. Huckabee's spin was the usual tired and worn "Maverick" nonsense, McCain as the non-traditional traditional republican. Or something like that. Murphy's hyperbole would extend further, calling McCain a "Change Agent," a centrist who would bridge the partisan gridlock in Washington. (Murphy said all that with a straight face, too.)

Harold DLC Ford, Jr came in, chomping at the bit, when the conversation moved to the three recent congressional losses by republicans in heavily red districts, seats in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In each of the races Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were used by the RNC in tv advertising as the scary 'libruls' to dissuade the republican districts from voting for the democrat. This strategy was a dismal failure. But to Harold the real lesson to be gleaned from all this was that moderate democrats were on the ascendant, and that presumably the democratic party should not stray too far to the left lest it implode. The party brand might be a problem but as long as the candidate running was not 'threatening' everything would be fine.

Each selling an idea without any real facts to back up their assertions. One could ask, for instance, how Sen. Barack Obama became the most liberal in the U.S. Senate with a collective rating (80%) from liberal interest groups similar to that of Joe Lieberman (78%), while John McCain's rating (9%) by the same groups is down near the bottom of the barrel of true lunkheads like Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), all at 8%.

Beware of salesmen selling you a bad bill of goods is an old and in this case, apt piece of advice.

*Informal a person who provides a favourable slant to a news item or policy on behalf of a political personality or party [from the spin given to a ball in sport to make it go in the desired direction]--Collins Essential English Dictionary

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While the rest of the country seems to have forgotten about Iraq, in Maine's Senate race the issue is front and center. Bush Enabler Susan Collins is being confronted both for her support of the war and her lack of oversight when she chaired the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2003-07) and is now the republican ranking member, a committee chaired by her good, good friend Joe Lieberman with similar disastrous consequences.

The news report from WGME in Portland is noteworthy not only for the content but the inclusion of some of Robert Greenwald's Iraq For Sale footage.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger Tom Allen are sparring over whether she should have called executives from Halliburton before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Allen tells News 13 that Collins and her committee failed in its oversight role when it came to American contractors like Halliburton and KBR in Iraq.

Collins responds by saying she focused on legislation calling for greater accountability among contractors. That includes a special inspector general in Iraq, an office that has led to investigations, audits and criminal indictments.

Collins says results are more important than political theater, but Allen says she was "missing in action" when she was most needed.

Congressman Tom Allen is a Blue America endorsed candidate for the United States Senate.

Kyra Phillips brought up an interesting point for the good Senator from the Nutmeg State today on American Morning, namely that even the Iraqi soldiers don't want us there any longer. Lieberman replies with all the grace and aplomb we've come to expect from the man that it's a good thing they don't have "a vote in our election". Lieberman could just as well have left off that stipulation as completely unnecessary, replacing "our" with "their".

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PHILLIPS: All right. Let's step aside from the polls and talk subject matter. Obviously the Iraq war, he continues to embrace that. This is high on the agenda of the American people. I just returned from Baghdad and what was interesting to me, I sat down with dozens of Iraqi soldiers and dozens of students at Baghdad University and senator, they said to me, we don't want to see a Republican president. As a matter of fact, out of every single one that I talked, not one person said they supported John McCain. They said we're living a Republican war. Look at this. it's a disaster, we want to see a Democrat for president. What does John McCain say to the future of Iraq and we're talking about Iraqi soldiers and Baghdad university students? They're the ones living this.

LIEBERMAN: Well, I'm real surprised to hear that.

PHILLIPS: I was too, it was very interesting. They were very blunt and very straight forward.

LIEBERMAN: Yes, not that I expect the Iraqis to vote in our election, but I will tell you that in all of the visits i have made there and it's eight, the Iraqi people on the street, the Iraqi military, the Iraqi government that I've talked to don't want us to just pick up and leave because -- which is what Senator Obama, Senator Clinton have been advocating. They want us obviously not to stay there forever, Senator McCain wants the war to stop and to have us pull back into bases and be on a path, a reasonable path of withdrawal. But I think the Iraqi people more than anybody know, they made tremendous progress in the last year and a half towards security, towards economic rebirth, some kind of political, national reconciliation.

And the last thing they want us to do in '09 is just to pick up what we begin to retreat because they'll be the victims. They'll be genocide, there'll be genocide, there will be bloodshed they have made tremendous progress in the last year and a half, thwart security, toward economic rebirth, toward some kind of political national reconciliation reconciliation. The last thing they want us to do in '09 is to begin to retreat because they will be the victims, there will be genocide, bloodshed. Iran and Al Qaeda will win and we will lose. And I'm surprised at what your unscientific poll found. I honestly don't think it reflects the feeling of most Iraqis, certainly not the ones that I've met when I've been there.

And here is the video from March that Kyra Phillips is referencing.

Just to be perfectly clear here, I did ask them are you following any of the republican candidates?…Do you want to talk about John McCain? Within that whole group, not one wanted a republican in the US presidential seat. They were all for a democrat. They were all for that type of change because they said they were living a republican war.”

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In one of the odder transformations seen this primary season, some of the harshest critics of Hillary Clinton are now championing her candidacy with great gusto. Kristol seems to lead this pack of concern trolls from the vast rightwing conspiracy, but we've also seen Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough,and Karl Rove among others rush to her defense. And then last month's bizarre endorsement from her once arch nemesis Richard Mellon Scaife.

In this clip from yesterday's Fox News Sunday Kristol rallies to her side saying, "She is a better candidate than he is. "

And Kristol continues today in the NY Times:

I normally don’t claim to speak for other members of the vast right-wing conspiracy. After all, we’re each nefarious in our own, individual way. Indeed, we often disagree with one another.

But I do think I can speak for most of my fellow right-wingers when I say this: We once looked forward with unambivalent glee to the fall of the house of Clinton. Many of us still do. But we also see the liberal media failing to give Hillary Clinton the respect she deserves. So, since we conservatives believe in giving credit where credit is due, it falls to us to praise Hillary.

Of course, the disdain for all things Clinton has not lessened one iota among these people. The annoying clucking sound we hear is only Republicans savoring the prospect of Democratic discord, their only real means to retaining the White House.

Info from the Youtube link:

Thomas Friedman, the author and NY Times columnist, was invited to Brown University to give a keynote speech on Earth Day, before a packed auditorium. His talk, titled "Green is the new Red White and Blue" was about how corporate environmentalism (based on putting a price on the atmosphere, and investing in biofuels and techno-fixes) can restore America to its "natural place in the global order." Luckily, this outrageous neoliberal capitalist propaganda was interrupted with a suprise visit from the Greenwash Guerrillas.

And further information from the Brown University newspaper.

After the pie hit Friedman and splattered on his face and torso, the two jumped offstage and ran out of the southeast exit of the building, followed closely by a man trying to catch them. A police officer also ran toward the exit but stayed inside.

The thrower was eventually caught by police, who detained her in Salomon's lobby before moving her elsewhere.

"One of the offenders was apprehended, placed in the custody of the Brown Department of Public Safety and identified as a Brown student," University spokesman Michael Chapman said in a statement released Tuesday night. "The University will review this incident through its non-academic disciplinary system to determine the appropriate response."

Update: John Amato: You may remember that Mr. Friedman was one of the main cheerleaders in the media for the US to go into Iraq and kick a little ass because "we could."

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Friedman: What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, “Which part of this sentence don’t you understand?” You don’t think, you know we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we’re just gonna to let it grow? Well, Suck. On. This. That Charlie is what this war is about. We could of hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. Could of hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.

Bill Clinton is still upset about what happened during the South Carolina primary. The victimization used in this campaign has been tiring. From the WHYY blog:

“I think that they played the race card on me. We now know, from memos from the campaign that they planned to do it along.” - President Bill Clinton.

And that’s how President Clinton begins his answer to WHYY’s Susan Phillips who, during a phone interview earlier this evening, asked the President how he feels about one Philadelphia official who says she switched her support after interpreting Clinton’s remarks in South Carolina as an attempt to marginalize Obama as “the black candidate.”

Unbeknownst, President Clinton expresses himself:

His frustration comes through towards the end of the recording when, apparently unaware that he was still on the line, Clinton asks whoever is with him, “I don’t think I should take any shit from anybody on that, do you?

However, today Bill Clinton denied saying what he said:

CLINTON: “No, no, no. That’s not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day.”

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Props to the Governator for just coming right out and saying that the real reason Republicans deny Global Climate Change so hotly is that they're beholden to big business.

Kilmeade: But here’s the thing, Governor: A lot of people, a lot of Republicans in particular don’t believe there is Global Warming, there is Climate Change. They don’t believe the green technology and we talk to a lot of them on an every day basis. You’re a Republican, what do you know that they don’t?

Schwarzenegger: Well, I think they know the reality. I think they’re just trying to protect business. And in the end, they’re hurting business. Because we’ve proven in California that you can do both, that you can protect the environment and protect business. Even though in 2003, when I ran and I said that, people didn’t believe it but then we started building the ‘Hydrogen Highway’ and passed the Green Building Initiative and the Million Solar Roof Initiative and the Ocean Action Plan and AB32 to make a commitment to roll back our greenhouse gas emissions and the low carbon fuel standards, all of those things that got world recognition, I think people realize now, ‘wait, this does not hurt our economy, this is actually a big plus' because we’re creating jobs through green, clean technology.

This being Fox though, they had to end a rather lengthy interview on a more cheerful note, with Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade looking for some body-building tips. Arnold called him "without a doubt the most muscular television host," whereupon Kilmeade positively swooned.

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In a sign of just how toxic the Bush administration has become for Australian politicians after years of former PM John Howard's all-too willing servility, current prime minister Kevin Rudd gets into trouble at home for "conduct unbecoming of an Australian prime minister" by saluting Bush at the NATO summit.

Greens Leader Bob Brown was also unimpressed, accusing Mr Rudd of belittling Australia and being subservient. "There is a streak of John Howard's 'deputy sheriff' in Kevin Rudd's slip-up," he said. "We are not the 51st state of the United States of America and Mr Rudd's salute carried a subservient connotation many Australians won't like."

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Joltin' Joe went on Fox on April Fool's Day and said Barack Obama was not credible on the Iraq War debate. No, he really did. Talk about your pot calling the kettle....uh, nevermind.

LIEBERMAN: Well, I think that - let me say generally that Sen. Obama doesn't come to this debate with a lot of credibility. Basically on the question of Iraq, John McCain has had the guts to stand out on his own arguing for what he thought was right. And it turned out that he was right about the surge working to improve conditions in Iraq.

If we did what Sen. Obama wanted us to do last year, Al-Qaeda in Iran would be in control of Iraq today. The whole Middle East would be in turmoil and American security and credibility would be jeopardized.

On the specific question of the 100 years, I think that's an unfortunate example of the way Sen. Obama has used it, of playing political gotcha with a national security question.

Update: John Amato: OK, we know McCain had to be corrected by Lieberman when he said that Al-Qaeda was being trained in Iran, a major gaffe for the man running on his foreign policy experience, but what's Joe's excuse? Seems like he's planting this one on purpose. In an email exchange with Digby, she said that it worked so well with Saddam and 9/11.

And Jane has a suggestion: "Maybe all the national Democrats busy lobbing grenades at each other could spare a few for Slummy Joe?"