TWO DISASTROUS PEOPLE GET INTO FIGHT: Joe “Fucking Wind Sock” Klein and Jamie “Marty Peretz’s Slave” Kirchick appear to have gotten into a fight, at a Jew conference! “A heated debate between Time magazine’s Joe Klein and the New Republic’s Jamie Kirchick spilled off the dais Tuesday into a hallway confrontation where Klein called the younger pundit a “dishonest [expletive]” and a “[expletiving] propagandist.” Oh boy! [WP/Reliable Source]

• The Weekly Standard used strategically placed ellipses to suggest Joe Klein thinks Iran is “breezy” with freedom, which is patently false. Joe Klein thinks Iran is “overflowing” with buckets of candy corn. Get it right or apologize, Weekly Standard. [Swampland]
• Be it Hamas, Hezbollah, Chavez, Castro, corn syrup, Heinrich Himmler, unibrows or the sinking of the Lusitania — in the battle of Good versus Evil, Barack Obama endorses Evil. Always. [RedState]
• Internet sensations Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein are reading Infinite Jest together, and they’re keeping a diary about it. Because the world needs more of those WordPress things. [A Supposedly Fun Blog]
• Henry Paulson and Fareed Zakaria will mate, and they will ask Matt Taibbi to be the child’s godfather. Also: Fareed Zakaria is a ham-head. [Matt Taibbi]
• Jonah Goldberg’s pet snail is dead! “Gary never caused trouble, never talked back, helped keep his tank a cleaner, better place and made everyone smile.” If only Michelle Obama could be a little more like Gary. [The Corner]

Seems the National Review erred in dubbing Sonia Sotomayor the one “Wise Latina” on Earth, because, as Joe Klein might say, if she’s so smart then why can’t she walk? “WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor broke her ankle Monday morning in an airport stumble on her way to Washington to meet with senators who will vote on her confirmation.” That is clearly not why she was in an airport, silly AP writer with a “September 10th” world view. [AP]

Your Wonkette does not have much praise to bestow upon the collected letters & columns of Washington Post warbomber Charles Krauthammer, who loves torture more than Dick Cheney does and hates “fairness,” hmm, slightly less than Dick Cheney does? But even Krauthammer’s most virulent ad hominem insult hurlers, on the Internet, usually understand that there is a LINE, there is a LINE when writing about this guy. You should never bring up his, uhhhhhh… well… OH YOU KNOW… the thing. The unfortunate Krauthammer thing?? And *no,* we are not referring to his race (black), about which many jokes can and should be made. MORE »

• SUCKS TO BE JOE KLEIN: HA HA HA, whiny Time conventional wisdom scribe Joe Klein has been banned from both the McCain and Palin planes because why waste a good seat on such a predictable man? Best McCain-Palin campaign move in months. [Michael Calderone]

Yes, absolutely, no doubt, because that is precisely what Time’s Joe Klein says and that makes it true. You see, back in the old days, the national nominating conventions were very important. Since humans had no means of communicating long-distance until 1994 or so, each party’s leaders would gather in some fancy saloon in, say, Ohio, and smash whiskey bottles over each other’s heads until they decided on a good presidential nominee. And this is why Al Gore will finally win the presidency at this year’s Democratic National Convention. MORE »

Time’s Joe Klein on CNN late this afternoon: “Maybe the operative metaphor here isn’t drowning but a giant stingray landing in Obama’s boat.” Today’s top story on CNN.com: “Woman on boat dies after ray strikes her.” Let’s give a big round of applause to Joe Klein of Time magazine; he’ll be here every night this week, matinee on Saturday. [via Eschaton]

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.

MORE »

The point at which we really, really should’ve stopped reading Joe Klein’s Time piece on Rudy Giuliani: MORE »

• On the Senate Dems’ proposal to phase withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Pandagon says: “A glass eye in a duck’s ass can see that there’s no real substance to this.” [Pandagon]

• Saudis Offered Scholarships for Aviation Courses in US. [Michelle Malkin]
• Atrios body slams Joe Klein’s claim that he opposed the war. [Eschaton]
• Imprisoned Egyptian blogger Alaa freed, but paperwork snags prevent him from cutting and running just yet. [Sand Monkey]
• TPM’s Justin Rood rode the elevator with freshly convicted David Safavian. [TPM Muckraker]

* Reliable Source: Laura Bush dropped two sizes after a year of private fitness classes; she works out three times a week at 8 a.m. [WP]
* Rush & Molloy: Bloomberg, David Remnick, Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, Kurt Andersen, Richard Holbrooke, and Ron Silver attended Joe Klein’s New York book party. . . Actor Dennis Hopper defends Bush. [NYDN]
* Page Six: Cheney was accidentally shot on a hunting trip in the late ’90s. . . Emails from Aaron Sorkin to call girl are revealed in her new book. [NYP]