• Republican strategists accept possibility of losing control of Congress in midterm elections, but not the responsibility for it — that’s Foley’s fault. [WP, NYT]

• FBI knew about Foley emails in July, concluded they “did not rise to the level of criminal activity.” [WP]
• Independent spending by political organizations out paces candidates’ own campaign expenditures in closest races. [WP]
• Bush happy to raise money for any Republican Congressional candidates that will have him. [NYT]
• George Tenet did brief Condoleezza Rice about a “looming” (NYT) and “imminent” (WP) threat from Al Qaeda (NYT) or al-Qaeda (WP), in July 2001. [WP, NYT]
• Lewinsky blowjob jokes once common among Capitol Pages, to be replaced by Foley anal sex jokes. [LAT, USAT]

• Foley’s replacement on the GOP ticket in Florida has never even heard of himself. [TPMMuckraker]

• It wasn’t just teenage boys. Mark Foley also liked to “cut open illegal Ecuadorian immigrants and fuck their still pumping aortas.” [Rude Pundit]
• Democrats send out email blast about Foley without even blog-level fact checking. [Washington Wire]
• Ben Stein calls Democrats pedophile-enablers. [Hit & Run]
• Supreme court upholds Texas ban on dildos; loophole exists if they’re used for, “legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose .” [Pandagon]
• Is Pennsylvania Congressional candidate Don Sherwood gonna have to choke a bitch? [YouTube]
• Ah, Britain — where paging a terrorist to remind him to board a plane is still considered funny, not a felony. [YouTube]
• How will Iraq, sex scandals, and the economy affect the midterm election? Just watch the share price — if anybody can see the future it’s coked-up Wall Street gambling addicts. [Tradesports]
• In Gonzales’ Justice Department, anything goes. Seriously, margaritas at lunch and Friday’s No-Pants day. [Above the Law]
• “Funny” Mark Foley t-shirts. [Spreadshirt, CafePress]

It’s time once again for resident curmudgeonly comics analyst the Comics Curmudgeon to take a stab at explaining Today’s Cartoons. Someone’s got to.

This week, metaphors! Learn why they should be left to the experts, after the jump. Also, there is semen.

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Delayed due to technical difficulties/epic hangover

• Terror detainee bill passes House, will “authorize the indefinite detention of non-citizens without access to courts - even if they are not charged with any crime.” [WP, NYT, LAT]

• Democrats could win 6 seats and take control of Senate, “if the stars continue to align.” [NYT]
• Jeb Bush talks smack about George Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, “not saying it’s bad, but needs to be better.” [NYT]
• Bush “chaperoned” dinner for passive-aggressive Presidents Pervez Musharraf and Hamid Karzai last night. [BBC, NYT, CNN]
• Kazakh president to be feted at White House state dinner Friday while accusations of rampant corruption, murder, and Borat obstructionism continue to hound him. [NYT, NYT]
• Full NIE dealing with Iraq will not be released. [CNN, W$J]
• Chelsea Clinton to host her dad’s 60th birthday party/fundraiser in New York. Guest list and activities humiliate the CakeLove cupcakes and six-pack you got. [WP]

So, while we’re on the subject of Matt Drudge, we just want to ask: MORE »

Congratulations to Chris Lehmann, writing in the New York Observer, for pulling off a political journalism coup — getting a rank-and-file Republican (who isn’t MAVERICK RENEGADE LOOSE CANNON JOHN MCCAIN) to give an on-the-record criticism of his party! MORE »

Another day, another article full of on-the-record Democratic hand-wringing. Today’s comes from the New York Times, and features a handy graphic illustrating this week’s Major Problem With the Democratic Party: No effective party-wide leader! Under the faces of those with fairly legitimate claims to that title are lists of reasons — handily provided by the Democrats themselves! — why each one of the candidates isn’t effective in steering the party. But shit, that’s a lot of words. To save you a couple minutes, we’ve summarized both the article and the entire Democratic media strategy for the rest of the year:
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