Pachacutec

During the Clinton Global Initiative conference, Barack Obama reiterated his commitment to specific principles in any Wall Street bailout plan. As a bonus, Bill Clinton made a point of saying how Obama has not politicized the matter, in an implied slapdown to McCain. Commenters are skeptical, and of note, Obama says nothing about bankruptcy reform.

Via the LA Times, Alaskans are getting pissed off that inquiries to their own governor's office are getting rerouted to the Arlington, Virginia McSame-Palin campaign office. So, the Alaska government has now been taken over by the. . . McCain campaign? Maybe Alaskans should be calling Todd Palin, who seems to claim higher authority than the state government, having refused to honor a bipartisan subpoena in Alaska regarding his role in the

Houses? Cars! Lucky 13 for the McCains, baby, because they're. . . regular people. They're gonna love that Honda in Michigan!

I've had the opportunity over the last year to listen to a number of polling presentations that yield recommendations on how to talk about various political issues. The polling is fine, as far as it goes, but the recommendations are flawed, and here's why. The result in part is an Obama campaign that signals a willingness to extend Bush's billionaire tax cuts while labeling McCain a hero and virtually apologizing for campaigning against such a fine American saint.

VIDEO: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discusses reasons for keeping Joe Lieberman in the Senate Democratic caucus. Reid volunteers that he recently went to Leiberman and said, "Joe, I need money from you." He describes Lieberman responding, "Will $250 thousand be enough?" Lieberman did then give $250 thousand to the DSCC.

Senator Dick Durbin was asked on camera to offer an example of a meaningful vote where Joe Lieberman helped the Democratic caucus. He rather pointedly declined to do so, and characterized the question illegitimate. WATCH IT!

Bill O'Reilly wouldn't sign my loufa. Video.

Speaker Pelosi got questions about war and telecom immunity that put her on the spot, and after blaming all of Congress's failures on the Senate, took the opportunity to stand up and provide wandering, nonresponsive answers to the next question. Why? She's a weak Speaker with a serious internal challenge to her authority from the Maryland conservative Majority leader Steny Hoyer, who is very popular among House Dems. He's there for them and he's a very able manager.

"The GOP has pummeled swing-district Democrats for refusing to back President Bush's update of counterterrorism surveillance laws and for last week's budget agreements that will allow most, if not all, of Bush's tax cuts to expire in 2011. Davis said the issues are not getting political traction now, but they could before November." -- The Washington Post

There's really not much more to say about this that has not already been said elsewhere, but I just wanted to pile on a bit, as it's gotten beyond disgusting. Ferraro's unrepentant comments are beyond the pale and the Clinton campaign should take serious, serious crap for keeping her on the campaign finance committee. This kind of unreconstructed, race blind idiocy (at best, blatantly ignorant racism at worst) needs to be called out by Senator Clinton, personally, in my view.