It seems the conservative howler monkeys are just warming up.

Okay, someone is thinking seriously about taking the American people’s side in a Senate debate like his late colleague Edward M Kennedy used to do so forcefully: North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan wants to blow up the deal the White House and Finance Chairman Max Baucus made with Big PhRMA to screw Americans who need pharmaceutical drugs.

Just last year, when Barack Obama was running for president, we were deluged with stories about Obama’s connection to Rev. Jeremiah Wright and former Weatherman Bill Ayers.  CNN, NBC, (of course, Fox) and the rest couldn’t get enough of this.  In fact, we’re still hearing about this nonsense. 

The funny thing is that candidate John McCain had his own Rev. Wright–two of them, in fact: the Revs. Parsley and Hagee.

The YERT team scours the earth for the weirdest, coolest eco-friendly stuff to document with low key homespun charm as they take you on “your environmental road trip”–hence their name. They’re three kids with a camera, a dream and a gas card, and you’re along for the ride.

When the Senate Finance Committee starts work again on Tuesday things should get heated. Here are some of the more interesting amendments to watch out for.

Dan Riehl is pulling a Peggy Noonan It-Is-Irresponsible-Not-To-Speculate smear job on a dead guy who can’t fight back: “Was Census Worker Bill Sparkman A Child Predator?” Gee, how would Dan Riehl like it if we asked without any evidence if Dan Riehl had raped and murdered any little boys?

Dana Perino attempts a baseball metaphor to describe Democratic and Republican positions on health care reform, explaining why Obama can’t score the winning run but the Republicans have a terrific team that can win this thing. Wrong game.

Congressman Towns, if somebody forwards this post to you, tell B of A they have already waived attorney client privilege with respect to the very information you seek and to stop wasting your time trotting out that objection to your information request.

Over the weekend, fundies and wingnuts gathered in St. Louis to discuss “How to Take Back America.” And according to Mike Huckabee, one of ways to do this is to destroy the U.N. building.

The fact that a Blue Dog has supported a public option in the past does not mean that they will support one now — their principles tend to be lobbyist-flexible. But Nate Silver’s number crunching indicates that most of those who have done so in the past probably have majority support for a public option in their districts, so come 2010, they will have some explaining to do about why they flip-flopped. That’s particularly true for those in California like Cardoza, Thompson and Schiff, who have significant Democratic majorities in their districts.