HYSTERICAL RAISINS

Imagine this: John McCain campaigning across America with Heidi Montag!

It’s a possibility. At least Montag thinks so.

A day after lunching in L.A. with the presidential hopeful’s daughter, Meghan, the publicity-hoggin’ reality star said she’s hoping to hit the road to do some GOP stumpin’.

…snip…

Now, back to that lunch with Meghan…

Montag says the two have become “good friends” since first meeting less than three months ago at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C.

In May, President Bush revealed that he had given up playing golf because of the Iraq war. “I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal,†said Bush. Apparently though, he’s fine with golf as long as it raises money for GOP candidates.

If you’re a high-flying Republican, and you can afford to take next Monday off to fly to Maine, have we got a treat for you.
On that day, former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush are hosting a high-dollar fundraiser for John McCain near their home in Kennebunkport.

You’d think, at this point in the presidential race, that McCain campaign surrogates would be prepped on how to answer some of the easy, obvious questions, such as, “Are there any differences between Bush and McCain on economic policy?â€

This came up in May, when Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the second highest-ranking Republican in the House, was asked to name a difference, and he couldn’t come up with one. It came up again in June, when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) couldn’t think of any differences either.

[...] CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked campaign surrogate and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), a man rumored to be a VP possibility for John McCain, “Are there any significant economic differences between what the Bush administration has put forward, over these many years, as opposed to, now, what John McCain supports?â€

It a painful display, Sanford hemmed and hawed for quite a while. “Yes. I mean, for instance, take, you know — take, for instance, the issue of — I’m drawing a blank, and I hate it when I do that, particularly on television,†he said, before adding, “But take, for instance, the contrast on NAFTA.â€

On the surface, President Bush’s decision Monday to lift the presidential moratorium on offshore drilling - a policy initiated by his father and extended by Bill Clinton - appeared only to embolden Democrats in their efforts to preserve the 27-year-old federal ban.

Congress has renewed its ban on drilling on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts every year since 1981, and top Democrats said Monday they will do so again this year, despite the pressure from Bush. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Bush’s action a hoax that “will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence.”

The sophisticates at The New Yorker have come up with a cover that is sure to get the magazine a lot of attention. Negative attention. From their friends.

An illustration by Barry Blitt depicts Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his wife Michelle in the Oval Office, revealing their “true” selves: Michelle is in full revolutionary garb, an enormous afro making her look like a millennial Angela Davis, holding an automatic weapon and wearing military pants.

In the cartoon Michelle is giving dap, or fist-bumping, with her husband who is wearing a turban and is dressed in garb perhaps more appropriate for a madrassa in Lahore than the Oval Office.

A painting of Osama bin Laden hangs above the fireplace, where the American flag is being burned.

Said Obama spox Bill Burton: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

Knowing the liberal politics of the magazine, I believe the magazine’s staff when they say the illustration is meant ironically, as a parody of the caricature some conservatives (and some supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.) are painting of the Obamas.

But it’s still fairly incendiary, at least as these things go.

Barry Blitt is the artist behind this week’s very controversial New Yorker cover of Barack and Michelle Obama. [...] Here’s what he wrote:

I think the idea that Captain Underpants Senator John McCain is branded as old, foul-mouthed, Chimpy-hugging, Constitution-burning, and angry [let alone beholden to almost every lobbyist who ever came down the pike], and that Cindy Lou McCain is branded as drug-abusing and filthy rich [let alone charging staggering amounts on her credit cards] in certain sectors is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the truth-mongering ridiculousness that it is.

Conyers Opens Door to Inherent Contempt for Rove

Karl Rove has simply refused to appear, as he is legally required to do. His actions, endorsed by the Bush/Cheney Administration, are a challenge to our system of checks and balances and Congress must respond to this type of outrageous behavior with appropriate severity.

Today, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers courageously stated today that inherent contempt will remain an option for the House of Representatives so long as Rove and this Administration refuses to abide by the law.

WASHINGTON – Texan Phil Gramm handed John McCain a huge headache Thursday by calling America a “nation of whiners” whose economic complaints are mostly “mental.”