Okay, I felt a little like Fox News typing that title, but it is an apt question to pose.

Democrats.org:

By now you've heard about the questionable firing of perfectly good U.S. attorneys for political gain. That's bad enough.

It gets worse. Let's look at one of the attorneys that is replacing one of those who were let go:

Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove's assistant, the President's pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.
Key voters on Griffin's hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In October 2004, our investigations team at BBC Newsnight received a series of astonishing emails from Mr. Griffin, then Research Director for the Republican National Committee. He didn't mean to send them to us. They were highly confidential memos meant only for RNC honchos.
However, Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails - potential evidence of a crime - to email addresses ending with the domain name "@GeorgeWBush.com" he sent them to "@GeorgeWBush.ORG." A website run by prankster John Wooden who owns "GeorgeWBush.org."

Whoops! I mean, seriously, you can't write this stuff. He sent damaging emails to a spoof site? Amanda at TP has more...

DKos:

We've been keeping close tabs on the fired prosecutors story here at DailyKos, with a special focus on our two good friends who tried to strong-arm the long arm of the law, Sen. "Pajama Pete" Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson. As you may know, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (aka CREW) has filed ethics complaints against both alleged law-breaker lawmakers (Domenici | Wilson).

What you may not know is that the complaint against Wilson may wind up going nowhere. Paul Kiel at the indispensable TPM Muckraker explains:

[T]here's a funny thing about the ethics committee in the House. Unlike in the Senate, a complaint does not automatically trigger a preliminary investigation. For that to happen, a member of the House has to file a referral. And, because of an ongoing ethics truce between the parties, that is exceedingly rare.

I worry that this scandal is too obscure for many Americans to understand, but this is a really big deal. The Republican roughshod is almost mafia like and we just cannot let Heather Wilson slide. Please, please contact your Representative and demand that an ethics investigation be opened against Wilson.

Here is David Iglesias testifying before the Senate on the events before his firing.

Brilliant at Breakfast:  Here's what really sends "the wrong message to the troops"...and this is just the tip of the iceberg

The Washington Note: Karl Rove received a copy of the secret Iranian proposal for negotiations with the United States from former Republican Congressman Bob Ney in early May 2003, according to an Iranian-American scholar who was then on his Congressional staff.

Firedoglake: Auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work, or work never done.

The Pump Handle: Dick Cheney's dangerous son-in-law cut the EPA out of chemical plant safety

Truly Equal: Here's a novel idea; women should wear chastity belts to prevent sex crimes

Newsie8200's Penndit: Media News Report

Whippersnapp: Karl Rove reveals his genuine and abiding contempt for physical labor and the people who do it

The Carpetbagger Report: Dick Cheney's office claims that the “Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch.”

beliefnet: Best-selling atheist Sam Harris and pro-religion blogger Andrew Sullivan debate God, faith, and fundamentalism

Shakespeare's Sister: Is Tucker Carlson also a theologian or just a store-bought a*shole?

All Things Democrat: With all those ultra expensive Pentagon choppers full of Americans falling from the sky in Iraq...

notmypill: Important info for women...

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: African American (Black) Political Pundit...Prose Before Hos...American Torture...Advice From A Fake Consultant

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) just couldn't keep her hands off President Bush last night.

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From ABC 5 Minneapolis:

Newly-elected Congresswoman Michele Bachmann got quite a bit of face time with President Bush after his State of the Union Speech Tuesday night.

While the President was signing autographs for members of Congress after the speech, the sixth-district Republican put her hand on Bush's shoulder. However, it wasn't just a tap. After he signed an autograph for her, Bachmann grabbed the president and did not let go for almost 30 seconds.

After signing the autograph for Bachmann, the president turns away, but Bachmann doesn't let go. In fact, the video shows her reaching out to get a better grip on him.

Bush then leans over to kiss another congresswoman, but Bachmann is still holding on. Bachmann then gets more attention, a kiss and an embrace from the president. A few seconds later, Bachmann's hand finally comes off the presidential shoulder.

Bachmann has quite a thing for Bush, apparently. This press release from her campaigning days reads more like a diary entry for a 12 year old who got to meet her Tiger Beat teen idol:

I have never been in the Presidential limousine before so I was a little unsure what to do when the limousine stopped at the custard stand. I wasn't sure if I should exit with the President or get out of my side of the car. Karl Rove told me I would exit out the door on my side after The President steps out and someone would open the door for me. I could not believe I was discussing what flavor of custard to order with the President of the United States!

Our man Flint---Mr. Murray Waas---the super sleuth investigative reporter from the National Journal---who did the best work on the Plame case bar none---is being hounded---not by Karl Rove or the Weekly Standard or even the White House, but an alt weekly in Washington D.C.

The culprit of this vicious attack is a mini-rag called the Washington City Paper in DC. Most recently, they became best known for the theatre critic who wrote a review of a play but never stayed past intermission to watch the entire show. I ain't kidding.

The attempted swift boating has nothing to do with journalism or politics, but rather because the editor of the paper uses his newspaper to settle personal scores and his own vendettas. Super silly and super slimy.

Wonkette has the latest garbage from this hack of a rag. The editor of the paper even went so far as to launch an investigation of the local bloggers after they reported about his years-long feud with their next door neighbor, the Wag Time Pet Spa. The editor’s wife was arrested for assaulting their neighbor—slinging something at the owner of the doggy spa. No, really.

Continue reading »

Salon (watch a short ad for a site pass):

Hate merchants: Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, Beck, Savage, Ingraham and their ilk poison the airwaves and do the GOP's dirty work. Why are they given a platform by the media? And with so many right-wing liberal-bashers, why do reporters feel the need to pile on? Jamison Foser tackles the second question: "Given the magnitude of the Republicans' loss, we might expect the journalists and pundits who have so mercilessly mocked Democrats as bumblers and fools, the political equivalent of the Washington Generals, to turn their snide comments and patronizing jokes on the GOP. With Karl Rove apparently wandering around in a daze, wondering what the hell happened, surely his spectacularly incompetent reading of the electorate has earned him months, if not years, of ridicule by the likes of Norah O'Donnell, Chris Matthews, and Mark Halperin.

We all know how the pundits would chortle if Democrats took an electoral thumpin', then responded by elevating their most liberal members to the party leadership. We'd hear how their policies and their demeanor were anathema to "real Americans" -- and how their reaction to defeat shows just how clueless these effete liberals are.

But those waiting for similar treatment of the GOP at the hands of the nation's political reporters and pundits shouldn't hold their breath. It isn't coming.

Read full article here

Duncan:

Karl Rove is a genius.

Thanks for turning America Blue, buddy.

Jane - Hey Red State, How’d That Work Out For You?

Last night Mike Krempasky of Red State was on CNN saying how liberal blogs wouldn't be taken seriously because of Ned Lamont's loss. We understand that Krempasky didn't quite get the implications of the Democratic landslide that Ned's campaign triggered, but maybe he didn't look at the fruits of their fundraising efforts on behalf of GOP candidates?

And some interesting news that may have been missed:

Dobson Quits Haggard Counseling Team

Citing a lack of time, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson withdrew Tuesday from the team overseeing counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use.

Seems like the Republicans still love their dirty tricks. From Matt Stoller:

Terry Nelson, an unindicted co-conspirator in the TRMPAC Tom Delay scandal, and the boss of Jim Tobin, the convicted felon in the NH phone-jamming case, is the head of opposition research for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. So it's not a surprise that these kinds of unethical dishonest tactics are being used.

Sources in Bergen County are reporting that an autodial robocall is being made that starts out sounding like a positive Bob Menendez message. If you hang up, it repeatedly calls you back. If you listen all the way to the end, it finishes by saying that Menendez is an embezzler and under criminal investigation.

This is a voter suppression tactic being used nationwide by the GOP. Initially callers will think they are hearing a call from the Menendez campaign asking for support. If they hang up, it will repeatedly call them back. The intention is to annoy the voter so much that they no longer support the candidate. For those who actually listen to the entire call, they are presented with a series of lies and smears against Menendez, also with the intention of suppressing turnout. It's a win-win tactic for them.

The NRCC is doing the same exact thing in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and at least 53 other races across the country.

Terry Nelson is a key GOP operative, a senior advisor to John McCain and someone heavily involved with both Tom Delay and Karl Rove. This guy breaks the law and gets rewarded for it. Democrats should make election reform a very core part of their agenda for a lot of reasons, but the rampant criminal nature of the Republican operative class is a pretty good rationale...read on

Josh Marshall has also been on top of this story.

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From CBS:

Let’s face it: "The sky is falling" or "the nukes are coming" is a frighteningly effective sales pitch.

Don’t get me wrong: North Korea testing a nuke is real bad news. But I couldn't help but wonder what political use Karl Rove and the president would put this real bad news to. After all, banging the fear gong and trying to scare the hell out of us has worked like a charm for President Bush and the GOP.

Ever since 9/11, "be afraid" has been their No. 1 talking point. They sold us on invading Iraq with warnings from Condoleezza Rice that the "smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud" and dire predictions from Bush and Cheney about all the ways Saddam could rain death and destruction on us. And it's remarkable how the terror rhetoric always seems to hit Red just before elections.

Whether it's the specter of North Korean nukes or Iraqi insurgents making their way to Main Street USA, fear is a powerful, universal emotion — always there to be exploited. So as Election Day draws near, be on the lookout for those attempting to scare us into voting our fears.

To quote FDR, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." And those who use it for their own political purposes.