Long-shot races against polarizing incumbents could become one of the newest routes for young politicians to fast-track their political careers, if Democrat Tarryl Clark’s recent political two-step pays off.

On Tuesday, the Free Times in Columbia, South Carolina broke the story of the “You Lie”-inscribed assault rifle parts being sold by Palmetto State Armory to “honor” Congressman Joe Wilson, who shouted that line in his infamous interruption of President Barack Obama’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress in September of 2009. The Free Times article points out the presence of a photograph of Wilson with Armory founder Jamin McCallum on the webpage selling the part, and reports that the photo was taken during an August, 2010 visit by Wilson to the Armory.

In comments on a post I wrote in response to the Free Times story, I noted the presence of a seal in the photograph of Wilson and McCallum and wondered whether it is legal to use such a seal in an advertisement for a product, since it creates the impression of government endorsement. Getting no response to the question, I then found the relevant law (scroll down to section 713).

Meanwhile, you can get your own “You Lie!” assault rifle.

Nope, right-wing rhetoric in response to the health care bill has nothing to do with violence and is not at all related to guns.

Of course, these aren’t reasonable objections and, as such, shouldn’t be held up for examination for logical consistency. I just think repeal opponents have reached funny-papers status. They remind me of the kid who says, “This ice cream really sucks, can I have more please?”

Presidents continue to taint their once-cherished soap boxes with false statements that quickly become exposed as such, whether about the need to go to war in Iraq or the benefits of the health care reform bill.

Aside from the fact that Karl Rove’s latest Wall Street Journal op-ed operates on the erroneous foundation that the Administration shared all the intelligence they juiced up with Congress (they didn’t), the entire op-ed is based on an absolutely delusional sense of timing.

Jason Leopold has a long article and videotape of an interview with Jon Kiriakou that you should check out in full. I’ll discuss their conversation about Abu Zubaydah’s torture (and, more interestingly, Kiriakou’s knowledge about who Abu Zubaydah is) later. But I wanted to look more closely at Kiriakou’s description of a June 10, 2003 meeting at which (Kiriakou says) Scooter Libby made it clear that he knew of Plame’s identity.

As the NYT reported earlier today, Genentech/Roche wrote a Republican script and a Democratic script for its parrots to enter into the Congressional Record. Here’s what the Republican script looks like (I’m going to try to do the Democratic one next–but this is tedious stuff; and yes, Heath Shuler was working from the Republican script).

“I oppose this bill but love the appropriate balance it gives to monopolistic biologics”

Joe Wilson

The passionate media poobah dismissal of Scott McLellan’s new book, and the insistence that he has joined the ranks of liberal bloggers in an outlandish attack on their integrity, is pretty amusing. I guess it’s on us to remind everyone how Time Magazine knew that what McClellan was telling them about Plame wasn’t true, but they printed it anyway…