What can I say, John McCain just loves surges.

If you’ve got a problem, John McCain has a surge. In Iraq, of course, McCain loves the surge so much, he’s willing to credit the surge for events that occurred before it even began. In Afghanistan, McCain opposed sending additional troops, that is until a few weeks ago, when McCain announced he supports a ... wait for it ... surge in Afghanistan.

Over the last several days, McCain has become so enamored with this child-like formulation — surge = problem solved — that he’s now willing to extend it to policies that have nothing to do with the military or foreign policy. On Saturday, addressing the Urban League, McCain talked about his approach to inner-city crime. He recommended a surge.

It’s become so reflexive, the McCain campaign, two weeks ago, was talking about the debate over energy policy, and said, in relation to Obama’s position, “This is the domestic policy equivalent of the surge.”

But this is especially odd given today’s remarks about the economy. What’s the difference between McCain’s economic policy yesterday and his new-found support for an “economic surge”? Nothing, except now, McCain’s policy is surge-rific.

I’m curious — if McCain was challenged to give a speech without the word “celebrity” or “surge,” could he do it? I really doubt it.

Most of the time, the conservative culture-war efforts are simply annoying. Some far-right activists will try some stunt, it’ll fail in the courts, and the rest of us can focus our attention on real problems.

But it’s much harder to tolerate conservative intolerance when national security is at stake.

This morning’s Christian Science Monitor reports that the Army is preparing to offer a staggering $150,000 retention bonus to service members who are proficient in Arabic, “in reflection of how critical it has become for the US military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks.” Indeed, as the war in Iraq goes on, and the military subsequently finds fewer and fewer people anxious for extended stays in the desert, retaining trained troops is becoming a critical centerpiece of many commanders’ strategies. The supply of Arabic speakers just isn’t keeping up with the demand created by ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The military’s conventional language training program, the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., could not churn out enough American soldiers proficient in Arabic, Kurdish, Dari, Pashtu, and Farsi, and the military quickly turned to private contractors to fill the gap,” reporter Gordon Lubold writes. “Numerous programs have sprouted up, including one at Fort Lewis, Wash., where soldiers are given a 10-month immersion program in language and culture.”

The Army is taking almost every step imaginable — from six-figure bonuses to civilian interpreters in the warzone to recruitment campaigns targeting Arab-American communities — to beef up its language capability.

Well, almost every step imaginable. While the military is searching desperately, and willing to pay enormous sums for those proficient in Arabic, the exact same military, at the exact same time, has driven 60 linguists who specialize in Arabic or Farsi out of the military because of their sexual orientation.

Republicans, including John McCain, think this makes sense. I have no idea why.

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In any party or political movement, there’s bound to be a mainstream and a fringe. As a rule, the fringe looks to the mainstream for validation, and the mainstream looks at the fringe as kind of icky.

Things get interesting, of course, when the line between the mainstream and the fringe blurs. Take the Republican National Committee, for example.

The RNC is a fairly predictable, far-right animal. It’s run by lobbyists and business interests who divide their time between raising money and lying about Democrats. The RNC likes to exploit the ignorance of its base, and stoke the culture-war fires from time to time, but generally steer clear of the kind of insanity one might find in, say, a thread at the Free Republic. It’s the whole mainstream/fringe dynamic in practice.

At least, that’s usually the case. Yesterday morning, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan sent out this email to Republican donors.

It seems the Democrats’ would-be president of the United States of America really believes that the rest of the world’s problems, and approval, trump the interests of Americans when it comes to how we live our lives and where our money is spent. [...]

A bill he has sponsored in the U.S. Senate, the so-called Global Poverty Act
(S. 2433), would raise the amount of American tax dollars allocated to United Nations’ redistribution efforts to $845 billion.

That’s $2,500 from every American taxpayer, when many in our country already are struggling to make ends meet.

And with that, the line between the unhinged fringe and the Republican National Committee has disappeared. The lunatics, it appears, are running the asylum.

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I really didn’t intend to return to the whole “tire gauge” nonsense, but let’s do one more. This one’s amusing.

After Barack Obama noted that routine auto maintenance can improve fuel efficiency, John McCain told a group of voters, “[Obama] suggested we put air in our tires to save on gas. My friends, let’s do that, but do you think that’s enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don’t think so.”

And what is enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? My friend Jed discovered the answer: Turning off our lights a little sooner.

What’s wrong with this? Nothing in particular. In fact, it’s probably about as sensible as what Obama said about inflating our tires and getting regular tune-ups.

The difference is, Dems didn’t spend a week getting “giddy” about using lightbulbs as a political prop and insisting that McCain’s entire energy policy is composed of turning off the lights.

Update (Blue Gal): Don't miss C&L reader Plisko1's YouTube, an excellent push-back on the whole tire gauge thing. We've got talented readers!

Once again, House Republicans are on Capitol Hill during the August recess, and once again, they are holding something of a sit-in, giving spirited speeches about coastal drilling for tourists and congressional staffers who happen to pass by the charade.

Yesterday, however, there was a bit of a twist in the Republican rhetoric. Far-right lawmakers actually believe they’re affecting the market by talking to each other.

House Republicans on Tuesday said their protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision not to allow a vote on expanded offshore oil drilling has helped lower gas prices.

Heading into a third day of speeches in the near-empty chamber, Republicans acknowledged that the average price of gas and oil has declined in recent weeks. But they claimed credit for part of that reduction.

“I think the market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) at a joint press conference with other GOP lawmakers. “I think the market realizes this kind of pressure from Congress may, in fact, lead to a change in policy.”

The Republican members did not answer questions about whether they would take the blame if gas prices go up again.

Yes, House Republicans are hosting a very sad little photo-op on the Hill, and some of them are willing to argue, out loud, in public, that simply by talking to each other about drilling, they’re able to bring the price of fuel down.

If you told me that Speaker Pelosi’s office was paying these clowns money to make House Republicans look ridiculous, I’d be tempted to believe you.

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For quite a while, there were certain trends that political observers were simply supposed to accept as fact: Barack Obama would struggle to win support from Latino voters. And Jewish voters. And working-class, low-income voters. These were obvious “truths” that “everyone” knew.

Except none of these observations are holding up well. Obama is doing very well with Latino voters, Jewish voters, and according to a new Washington Post report, working-class, low-income voters.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama holds a 2 to 1 edge over Republican Sen. John McCain among the nation’s low-wage workers, but many are unconvinced that either presidential candidate would be better than the other at fixing the ailing economy or improving the health-care system, according to a new national poll.

Obama’s advantage is attributable largely to overwhelming support from two traditional Democratic constituencies: African Americans and Hispanics. But even among white workers — a group of voters that has been targeted by both parties as a key to victory in November — Obama leads McCain by 10 percentage points, 47 percent to 37 percent, and has the advantage as the more empathetic candidate.

Let’s not brush past this point too quickly — among low-income whites, Obama leads McCain by 10. To be sure, about one in six of the white workers remains uncommitted, but at least for now, Obama seems to have a sizable lead with a constituency that was rumored to be a lost cause up until fairly recently.

Greg Sargent concluded, “If this poll is accurate, McCain is dramatically under-performing among these voters. Will we be hearing a ‘McCain’s working class whites problem’ meme anytime soon?”

Given the data, it’s hardly an unreasonable argument to make.

Atrios asked yesterday, “Does anyone understand why Obama suggesting that people keep their tires properly inflated is some sort of hilarious gaffe?”

I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing for days. As the Obama campaign kicked off “energy week” with a new contrast ad and a policy speech in Michigan, Time’s Mark Halperin reports, “McCain supporters in Michigan will distribute tire gauges at Obama’s energy speech in Lansing. The RNC will also deliver gauges reading ‘Obama’s energy plan’ to Washington newsrooms.”

It looks like far-right blogs have received their copies of the Republican script, too. RedState.org’s Erick Erickson is on message: “Inflating your tires and getting a regular tune-up sounds more like Obama’s plan for ego maintenance than it does for helping American families.” Ed Morrissey added, “…Obama refers to ‘big oil’ and the need to reduce our use of oil by 35% over the next twenty years. How do we get there? Keep inflating those tires, folks.”

We are, quite obviously, in the midst of a very aggressive roll-out here. John McCain criticized the notion of well-inflated tires on Friday, and Newt Gingrich described Obama’s remarks as “loony toons” during a Fox News interview. Over the weekend, McCain said, “It seems to me the only thing [Obama] wants us to do is inflate tires” to improve gas mileage.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, still auditioning for the role of VP, even took to using a tire gauge as a prop.

“Barack Obama stood up at a speech recently and said that one of the things that is really important from energy policy from his standpoint is to check the pressure in our tires, so here’s a tire gauge and you can go out in the parking lot here and check your tires. Now, that’s an interesting thing — we want you to have good pressure in your tires, you know, it will very mildly add to your fuel efficiency — but checking the air pressure in your tires is not an energy policy for the United States of America,” Pawlenty said.

ABC News’ The Note added that tire gauges may get the Republican Party’s message “back on the road.”

There’s something deeply wrong with these people.

John McCain has always seemed to revel in the sycophantic adulation he’s enjoyed among the media elite, so it’s kind of fascinating to see McCain’s one-time media fans realize that he’s not the man they thought he was.

The first, and probably most notable, was Time’s Joe Klein, who conceded last week that he was wrong to believe McCain is an “honorable man.” Soon after, writing on the inanity of McCain’s attacks against Barack Obama, Klein’s headline read, “The Scum Also Rises.”

It looks like Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter has joined the club, noting with noticeable regret that he “misread McCain.”

In the middle of John McCain’s dopey Britney & Paris attack ad, the announcer gravely asks of Barack Obama: “Is He Ready to Lead?” An equally good question is whether McCain is ready to lead. For a man who will turn 72 this month, he’s a surprisingly immature politician — erratic, impulsive and subject to peer pressure from the last knucklehead who offers him advice. The youthful insouciance that for many years has helped McCain charm reporters like me is now channeled into an ad that one GOP strategist labeled “juvenile,” another termed “childish” and McCain’s own mother called “stupid.” The Obama campaign’s new mantra is that McCain is “an honorable man running a dishonorable campaign.” Lame is more like it. And out of sync with the real guy. […]

McCain is patently insincere when his heart’s not in it, like a little boy who eats his peas when his parents tell him to but remains transparently unhappy about the experience. It’s not clear how committed McCain himself is to this latest assault on Obama. Does he genuinely believe that Obama is an out-of-control egomaniac who thinks he’s Moses? McCain no doubt comforts himself that the ad making that argument — an argument that is beneath a major-party candidate for president — was not part of a big media buy but just chum thrown to the media piranhas via the Drudge Report. […]

On the night of the 2000 South Carolina primary, I was in his hotel suite and watched Cindy weeping over what Rove and his goons did. Her husband was plenty mad, too. Now he’s got Rove’s protege, Steve Schmidt, running his campaign.

Alter concludes that McCain “mortgaged his precious personal honor.” I think that absolutely true, but I still get the sense that even newly-critical McCain detractors are still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. At least a little.

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David Gergen may be a Republican, and he may be a long-time member of the DC establishment, but he knows loaded language when he sees it.

Sam Stein has more.

Barack Obama reminded an audience yesterday that American consumers can save money and improve fuel efficiency by keeping their tires inflated and getting regular tune-ups. I thought this was just common sense, and one of those simple steps that everyone already knew about.

Apparently, Republicans have decided that it’s worthy of mockery.

“[Obama] suggested we put air in our tires to save on gas,” McCain told a group of voters. “My friends, let’s do that, but do you think that’s enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don’t think so.”

Well, Obama didn’t say we could break our dependence if we inflated our tires; he said we could save money and improve fuel efficiency. It won’t “break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil” if we open up more of America’s coastlines to oil drilling, either, but it’s suddenly become the basis for McCain’s entire energy policy.

But it seems Republicans really are worked up about this tire thing. Here’s Newt Gingrich on Fox News.

While Gingrich ranted, you could hear one of the Fox News personalities laughing a bit, as if the notion of routine auto maintenance, as a method of improving energy efficiency, was necessarily hilarious.

I feel like I’m missing something here.

Fortunately, Ben at TP set the record straight.