The NRA’s already having a pretty bad week, so how about everyone pile on and accuse it of anti-Semitism?

After Diane Cardwell of The Times wrote about a National Rifle Association magazine’s broadside aimed at Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his gun proposals, a reader raised an issue about the image on the cover (at right), showing the Jewish mayor as an octopus. MORE »

Great catch by the American Mind blog:

Did CPAC toss Ann Coulter’s gay slur towards John Edwards down the memory hole? For only $100 you can have the “Best of CPAC 2007,” a six-DVD set of speakers and panels from this year’s conservative confab… Noticably missing is Ann Coulter.

Among the stuff ranked better than Coulter by a panel of druids and former POWs:

- Terrorism: Is Religious Extremism or Secular Extremism the Problem? a lively debate featuring Dinesh D’Souza and Robert Spencer
- Conservative Solutions for Urban America, featuring Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, John McWhorter, Niger Innis and more
- Balancing Individual Rights and National Security, a timely debate featuring Rep. Bob Barr and Professor John Yoo

Let the revisionism train roll on! In six months, Fox News will be reporting that there never was a leggy, gay-bashing blonde pundit and that “Ann Coulter” was actually one of Kurt Vonnegut’s pen names. MORE »

Reached inside his oxygen tent and told that his “bomb Iran” song met with only scattered applause, John McCain takes his best drunk-uncle-at-a-wedding swing at his critics.

“Please, I was talking to some of my old veterans friends,” he told reporters. “My response is, Lighten up and get a life.” MORE »

Good news from Variety, America’s #1 source on third-tier cable news channels:

MSNBC is trying out radio personality Michael Smerconish as the network looks for a permanent replacement for Don Imus. MORE »

Phew! The statute of limitations is up and the wingnutty “Virginia Tech happened because America forsook God” videos are rolling out. This American Family Radio production ropes Jeff Chamblee into reading some essay that’s been making the e-mail rounds, framed as a letter to God about why all these campus massacres happen. The answer:

Reply: “Dear concerned student. I am not allowed in schools. Sincerely, God.”

Then follow some examples of things America’s done to mock God, like:

“Then, someone said ‘Let’s let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won’t even have to tell their parents. And we said, ‘that’s a grand idea.’”

If only Cho Seung-Hi had told his parents that he needed an abortion! Or something.

Yes, of course, the worst one-man massacre in American history happened on Monday. This is still the least funny thing you’ve seen all week. ParkRidge47, the Democratic consultant who created the Obama/Hillary/Apple/Orwell “1984″ video, is back with a… I guess you’ve call it a “parody” of The Office. Not even the good Office - the remake with the physically attractive American actors.

So what was your favorite part? The static images of despair? The ill-fitting callback to stuff Wolfowitz said in 2003? The fat guy who used the word “sex”? Or did you get bored and start watching the awesome Peter Gabriel documentary in the “related video” window? MORE »

David Brooks was right: Red and blue America are different. In blue America, if you buck your party on the Iraq War, you get challenged by a nondescript-looking anti-war liberal. In red America, the gauntlet gets tossed down by a guy who looks like a cross between Sam Brownback and that doctor in the Spider-Man movies who eventually turns into the the Lizard.

Attorney General Jon Bruning has changed his mind. He now is considering challenging fellow Republican Chuck Hagel in Nebraska’s U.S. Senate primary next year.
…
Hagel helped Senate Democrats approve a $123 billion spending bill that includes a call for U.S. troops to begin withdrawing this year, with a goal of ending combat operations by March 31, 2008. MORE »

John McCain’s YouTube channel is streaming a pre-pre-preview of his official campaign announcement, featuring exciting video of those increasingly-rare moments when his blood is actually flowing to all of his body parts. Unfortunately, no one in the McCain mothership noticed that YouTube’s video previews capture the midpoint of the clips and turn them into static screenshots. Hence this deflated-sounding promise of sauce, beans and meat products for anyone who sidles up to the Straight Talk Express.
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Eons ago, when Republicans still ran Congress and the punditariat asked why America’s lacrosse players had such a penchant for rape, I swooped in to Wonkette and blogged for a vacationing Alex Pareene. Everything’s different now, but for today and Monday, while Ken Layne is out of town, I - Dave Weigel of Reason magazine - will be pinch hitting. Over the last few months I’ve written about why Hugh Hewitt crushes on Mitt Romney, why some Republicans are sweeter than others, why we need as much money in politics as humanly possible, and why General Sherman had the right idea about the South. And you get two whole days of this! Enjoy. MORE »

(Explanation for that photo: Here.)

As of this moment I am an ex-Wonkette guest blogger. Phew. Between the 12 posts per day, the flood of e-mail tips, the Tammy Bruce interview, and the manatee-paced blog software, I ran myself ragged this week. I have a few people to thank for that.

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