One of my longstanding pet peeves is the right’s use of the “incivility” canard to attack liberal bloggers. They latched onto this one metric – use of swear words – as some kind of bogus proxy for Basic Human Decency, because it was the only measure by which they come out ahead. But now Michael Gerson has gone beyond even that flimsy dodge, and simply hones in on liberal/Democratic incivility to the exclusion of all else:

The fallout from the FBI’s interest in the Kazeminy case continues to seep into the public face of the Coleman campaign. And, it’s hard to run a successful presidential campaign if you’re not a sitting governor, senator, or US Representative — and according to the latest Survey USA poll, nearly six of ten adult Minnesotans don’t want T-Paw to run for a third term next year.

Crazy Pete Hoekstra wrote a very good description, in 2006, about how serious is the obligation to inform Congress of CIA’s activities. He seems to have forgotten that description now.

Remember back in the fight over the economic stimulus package, when the idea of the federal government spending billions to make up state/local government budget deficits got cut back substantially? Well, now California is preparing to pay the price:Faced with a massive budget crisis, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has outlined major budget cuts and plans to sell some of the state’s most treasured landmarks.

was on ABC’s Top Line with Rick Klein and Jonathan Karl today.   Wherein I find myself in agreement with Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove in wanting an inquiry into torture.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s office took a particular interest in the torture of al-Qaeda detainee Ibn Shaikh al-Libi — who recently was found dead in a Libyan prison — evidently believing he could provide a justification for the invasion of Iraq.

Let me see if I’ve got this right: The previous extra-legal system wasn’t up to snuff because it wasn’t codified enough? The new! improved! Obama-era secret trials will be better because they are swifter and more certain? Seriously?

Shorter Republicans: leave the CIA alooooone!

I’ve got to correct something I said yesterday about Bob Graham. I reported that Graham said that CIA had given him two erroneous dates for briefings. They gave erroneous dates for three briefings.

Sen. Nelson has been tougher on the Obama administration’s nominees than he ever was during the Bush years. Funny that.