The fine citizens of Tennessee have been warned that a secret Mad Scientist Lair (possibly deep below Lookout Mountain) is dedicated to: MORE »

This week’s coup: getting a picture of Tennessee Senate candidate Bob Corker’s daughter Julia making out with another girl into the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Now we’re just working on getting Pierce Bush and Leslie Cochran into a Frank Rich column. MORE »

Rep. Harold Ford tearfully concedes that his interests are as pedestrian and suburban as a normal human American: He is apparently a single man who likes girls and football — whatever, perv! — and enjoyed attending a party where both were celebrated, even if he originally denied it. MORE »

The Tennessee Senate race between Democrat Harold Ford and Republican Bob Corker is really damn close. Ford, unmarried, does have a bit of a thing for white girls. But because both candidates are pretending that this is about Iraq or some other bullshit like that, Corker has to pretend to “distance” himself from ads like the one above, in which, yes, the terrifying spectre of Harold Ford cavorting with dangerously pale models and strippers is suggested — briefly, but a little too obviously.

Ford responded by crashing Corker’s press conference, which is pretty cool. Ford was ostensibly upset because of Corker’s ad trashing Ford’s family (which painted the other Fords as somehow lazy gadabouts and hard-working corrupt lobbyists). Because everyone’s more comfortable talking about the suggestion of familial impropriety than the race-baiting thing, we’ll compare the Ford and Corker families’ embarrassment potential after the jump.

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• Illionois Senator and Democratic Dreamboat Barack Obama all-but-announced his candidacy for President this weekend, by not not announcing it. [WP, NYT]

• In Tennessee, former Democratic Dreamboat Harold Ford is running for Senate like a Republican. His opponent is escaping charges of secret Democratic tendencies. [Newsweek, Newsweek]
• President Bush seems convinced that the Republicans are a lock to win it all this election year. Washington asks, is he high or does he know something? President’s dad: Less optimistic. [NYT, WP]
• The Virginia Senate Race may depend on women. Which is a problem for both Democrat Jim Webb and Republican George Allen. [WP]
• The United States will be in Iraq forever. [WP, WT]
• “Polls of white evangelical Protestants show that their support for the Republican Party grew substantially from 1999 to 2004, then began a steady decline.” [Time]

Bob Corker is running for Bill Frist’s Senate seat, and he’s already demonstrating that he can be just as great a politician as the Senator Daktari himself. You see, Senator Frist hasn’t been particularly happy with, well, us for (along with others) publicizing the wacky (but harmless!) exploits of his strapping young sons. Not very happy at all. We even suspect he might be partly responsible for this.

So, after seeing all that, you’d think Mr. Corker might have let his lovely daughter know that she probably shouldn’t let pictures of her making out with chicks and dancing at underwear parties show up on a publicly accessible social networking website. Thankfully for all of you, they never had that talk.

Mr. Corker’s daughter is on the left. Another hard-partyin’ pic, after the jump.

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It’s Friday, we’re posting pictures of a guy in a bear suit.

Says the tipster who sent it in: “here in TN i can guarantee you that the voters are BEARLY paying attention to this controversy.” MORE »

Local campaigns are so much more colorful than national ones. They involve all the best stunts:

There’s a bear on the loose in this year’s [gubernatorial campaign.

A man dressed in a bear costume and wearing a highway trooper-style hat has appeared at several of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s re-election campaign stops this week, holding up signs demanding the Democratic governor return campaign contributions made by members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

“The bear is a friendly reminder that the governor needs to ‘bear’ more responsibility,” Chris Devaney, executive director of the state Republican Party, said Thursday.

Yeah, we’re groaning too.

If you can “bear” with us — HARHAR — there’s a little more, after the jump.

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