Wonkette

by Joe Klein
TIME

I posted something a politician said on Swampland, the political blog at Time.com, along with my opinion about presidential politics.

The next day, I was blasted by a number of left-wing bloggers: Klein screwed up! On Eschaton, a blog that specializes in media bashing, I was given the coveted “Wanker of the Day” award. I got hammered by bloggers and Swampland commenters for “stalking” a politician into an apology and for being a “water boy for the right wing” and many other riffs unfit to print.

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Bush’s very last loyalist supporters are having a very public breakup with the White House over the illegal-immigrant amnesty thing, diplomacy with Iran and, uhm, “media leaks that cripple our national security.” Over at the popular website “Little Green Footballs,” folks are so pissed off that they’ve briefly paused their brave hunt for Islamo-Fascists on the Internets to bitch about that turncoat Dubya.

“This makes me want to puke,” wrote some commenter. “President Bush seems to have just given up. Well, this rash act seems to make the immigration problem look somehow smaller..damn it. Was Condi involved? Pelousy?”

Pelousy? WTF? Let’s all laugh together, after the jump.

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* Republican faithful watching Fred Thompson’s messiah-mobile for signs of his cand-ascendancy. [The Carpetbagger Report]
* Bill Richardson knows you don’t get high on your own supply — ’til later on at night. [Radosh]
* Sam Brownback wasn’t the only person at the Republican debate with a beard. [Political Wire]
* Imagining Al Qaeda attempting to recruit black dudes is more hilarious than anything Dave Chapelle has done. [WND]
* Al Gore: hot no more. [Radar]
* Crazy right-wing blogger threatens online reputations of crazy right-wing senators. [Right Wing News]
* Because if you don’t kill all the illegals, you’re letting them off too easy. [The Corner]

* Paul and Shaha rock each other’s worlds like a bomb-belt in a crowded market. [Liberal Avenger]
* Republican bloggers “declare war on the Republican Leadership of the United States House of Representatives.” [Red State]
* Hilary is stealing all Barry’s best zingers. And by zingers we mean pointless clichés. [Election Central]
* Sam Brownback ends up in tears when his memorized sports analogy backfires. Stick to the show tune metaphors, Sam. [AP]
* Navy still thinks Muslim pilot is dangerous, but will let him be a wingman anytime. [Blackfive]
* White dudes run shit, jam up your teevee on Sundays talking about it. [Media Matters]

It’s all Andrew Sullivan all the time! Well, not really. But rastafarian blogger Matthew Yglesias is moving to the Atlantic Monthly website and leaving This American Life or wherever he used to work. MORE »

Congratulations to Andrew Sullivan, who’s set a date to wed his long-time partner Aaron Tone. While the New York Observer doesn’t actually know Mr. Tone’s name (it was written as Eric and subsequently corrected), Diner-frequenting Washingtonians have come to know the amiable, large-necked pundit’s partner well over the two years they’ve been living together. MORE »

Patriotic mouth-breathers have finally figured out a new way to pretend to kill Muslims that’s even creepier than blogging. Increasingly despondent over the lack of bloody terrorist attacks on big U.S. cities they’ve seen on teevee, suburban freedom fighters are going to find all the mosques and falafel stands in America and figure out where on a map these establishments are located!

Watch out, Islamic Nazi Fascists! Those losers hanging around your neighborhood day-care centers aren’t simple pedophiles — they’re secret soldiers. Behold the Afterbirth of a Nation, after the jump.

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Seven long years after the blog craze began, otherwise-useless bloggers have finally had an effect on an election: They’ve kept shiny-haired squeaky-voiced oddity Sanjaya Malakar on the hit karaoke show American Idol, despite his inability to carry a tune. MORE »

Nearly a third of Americans don’t know Dick Cheney is vice president, according to a sad new survey by the Pew Research Center. While people can certainly be forgiven for “forgetting” Cheney is actually running the USA, other poll questions revealed that Americans are just getting dumber overall.

For example, 74% could name the governor of their own state in 1989; only 64% hold such precious knowledge today.

After the jump, feel good about yourself for reading Wonkette!

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* President Bush to launch new “surge” in war on Mexicans. [WP, USAT]
* Barney Frank wants the government to get back to building low-income housing so all the poor people will be in one place. [WP]
* Hurricane Katrina related claims against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reach $477 billion. [USAT]
* Democrats propose tax cuts for the rich! [NYT]
* Fred Thompson may be a little behind in fundraising for ‘08, but do any of the other candidates have a star vehicle like Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee in which they play President Ulysses “The Alcoholic One” Grant? [WSJ]
* Newt Gingrich blames Alberto Gonzales for Alberto Gonzales’ problems. [NYT, LAT]
* Bloggers get John McCain to admit to strolling around Baghdad with a platoon of his closest heavily armed friends. [NYT]
* Drunk with power and in search of an identity, Joe Lieberman makes a seating chart. [WP]
* Country not ready to learn the porn-surfing habits of White House staffers. [LAT]

If you see a disheveled teen-aged panda around Union Station, stinking of urine and crack fumes, that’s the once-popular Butterstick. Everybody knows babies don’t stay “adorable” for long, but the burn rate is even faster for our animal friends because they live “dog years” or something. And there’s always a new, younger, cuter animal ready to take the title of World’s Most Adorable Critter. MORE »

Each week, the Comics Curmudgeon helps explain Today’s Cartoons.

Of course, we don’t mind it if political cartoonists take certain … liberties with things. We know that Bill Clinton doesn’t really always have lipstick on his collar, for instance, and that Hillary Clinton doesn’t really wear dominatrix gear, at least not at campaign events. These are less lies than symbolic overrepresentation in the service of a higher truth.

Sometimes, though, political cartoons present us with out-and-out falsehoods, vile lies that subvert the very notion of truth, and this we cannot allow to stand. This week, Cartoon Violence pulls aside the curtain and reveals this fraudulent scribblers for what they are.

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* Everything you ever needed to know about national security law you learned by watching The Wire. [Danger Room]
* John Edwards is pissed his party powder shipment got opened by a staffer. [News & Observer]
* Tom DeLay wants to arm-wrestle Bill Clinton over who loathes Newt Gingrich more. [Captain's Quarters]
* Sam Brownback would like to take this opportunity to remind you that he does, in fact, hate the gays. To reiterate: hates the gays, definitely not gay himself. Nope, definitely not. [1115]
* Military blogger conference to have largest concentration of geeks that can kill you in three seconds. [Blackfive]
* Joe Trippi is sure as he can be that “Every one of these candidates is going to get caught in a macaca moment.” [PrezVid]
* Rahm Emmanuel finds Stephen Colbert “unsafe.” [The Hill]

* Read Express has a good primer for the Conservative Political Action Conference, including the lunch hot spot: McDonald’s. [Read Express]
* Trivia spots around town, although they left out Palace of Wonders. [The DC Concierge]
* “Does Petworth end at Kennedy or Missouri? Is there a North-South Petworth rivalry?” [Prince of Petworth]
* Where to take drawing classes. [Mid Atlantic and Washington, DC Art News ...]
* Maybe you already knew this, but Sara from Season 6 of “America’s Next Top Model” lives in DC. She was at the blogger happy hour last night. [MySpace]