Two things that pissed me off today

First, more comically: Predictably, the Federal Marriage Amendment is back, and David Vitter and Larry Craig are among the ten original sponsors in the Senate. Family values, kids! Hat tip to Ta-Nehisi Coates - and yeah, follow that link, because the Chris Rock clip is sweet.

Second, more angering: the brouhaha over something Wes Clark said yesterday. First, watch the actual video:

Or, if you're really pressed for time:

Clark: "Because in the matters of national security policy making, it's a matter of understanding risk. It's a matter of gauging your opponents and it's a matter of being held accountable.

"John McCain's never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world.

"But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded -- that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle this publicly? He hasn't made that calls, Bob."

Bob Schieffer: "Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down."

Clark: "I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

Immediately, McCain and friends flipped a shit about how Clark was smearing McCain and disrespecting his military service and probably hates baseball and apple pies and motherhood. (Oh wait - that last one would be the GOP.) This in itself is ridiculous. For starters, the idea that Wes Clark, a decorated veteran with thirty-five years of military service, would in any way devalue military experience - John McCain's or anyone else's - is simply incredible. Add that to the fact that one of the loudest critics has been Colonel Bud Day, who was active in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and you have a thoroughly bogus accusation. But most tellingly, Clark went out of his way to acknowledge McCain's service to the military, both in active duty and in his position in the Senate. Unless I've suddenly forgotten how to read, I'm pretty sure Clark said nothing that could be reasonably construed as an insult to McCain's military service.

But what frustrates me the most is that Clark is getting in trouble for something that is absolutely true. Factually, riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is not a qualification to be president, and I doubt that you can find a single person who's been through the experience who will make that claim. Maybe I've missed something, but John McCain doesn't make that claim; neither do the people who have jumped to his (imaginary) defense. Moreover, what Clark said was a response not to anything McCain has argued, but to what Bob Schieffer said might be an argument on McCain's behalf. In essence, the Republicans are grasping at straws, trying to find something that they can get offended about, and I'd say it's not working except that the media sure is all over this non-story. Diversions from actual issues, anyone?

Hypocrisy: Larry Craig on Bill Clinton....

Larry Craig calls Bill Clinton a "bad, naughty boy" commenting on subject of great personal importance

Anonymous sex in Union Station is neither bad nor naughty of course...

Republicans have similar tastes....in male protitutes?

The Idaho Statesman reports that Larry Craig paid 200$ for sex with Mike Jones, the same guy who got headlines last year when he outed the Rev. Ted Haggard.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/273/story/226703.html

Additionally, Larry Craig is apparently one smooth operator, talking about the weather when his escort brought up politics.

From the Statesman story: "Jones said he recognized Craig only after he became a big story in August."Once I saw Larry Craig do his news conference, that's when I go, 'My God! That guy came to see me.' "...Jones said a man phoned to make an appointment, not giving his name. The man, whom Jones later recognized as Craig, then arrived at a studio apartment on Sherman Street in downtown Denver. Craig asked whether Jones followed politics but then quickly changed the subject. "When I said, 'Yes,' he said, 'Oh, gee, it's cold outside.'" Jones said he immediately deduced from his client's odd response that he was servicing a politician."

Wow.

Scary things and places

The DSCC is playing off the RNC's Scariest Democrat Halloween theme of scary politicians of late with their latest email blast video:

They dig into six big targeted seats for Democrats to pick up in 2008: Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, Jim Inhofe, Mitch McConnell, Gordon Smith, and John Sununu.

While we're on the topic of scary politicians, why not cover 10 of the scariest (ok, most dangerous) political organizations in the US. Guess what, if you're reading this, you are IN DANGER! That's right. Colleges and Universities are rated second on the top 10 dangerous organizations by the group Family Security Matters. I guess I'm about quintuply in danger since I get emails from other of their list toppers: ACLU, MoveOn, ThinkProgress, and the Center for American Progress.

Oh, and if you are a Muslim student and belong to your national student association, you can be dangerous too. With token call outs to the Family Research Council (who got Ann Coulter to keynote their 2006 Values Voter Summit) and the League of the South (which earlier this month had a a conference titled "Southern Secession: Antidote to Empire and Tyranny.") I'm sure he hoped to placate any accusations of bias. Man, I'm definitely going to take this blogger as an impartial judge, after his admission that those two groups are dangerous to politics.

So be safe this Halloween, kiddos.

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Give us some stage directions, here!

While in most regards the Minnesota policeman's report on the arrest of Sen. Craig goes into far more detail than I ever wanted to know about a senator's—ehem—"squatting stance", one bit of the report piques my curiosity. Namely:

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

“With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’

Visual thinker that I am, I can't resist imagining exactly what the tone implied in that starkly-described "No" was. Was it a perfunctory, curt "No", delivered with the haughtiness of an arrogant statesman enraged by a petty lineman of the law questioning his excretory activity? Was it a horrified, soul-dejected "No" with the sorrowful mental fast-forwarding to the eventual outing and scandal? Was it a sassy, super fab "No" which was allowed to escape before Craig switched Hetero Mode back on?

Or was it ... this kind of "No"?

Please, please let it have been that kind.

Larry Craig is... also out.

Yet another Republican was found in yet another restroom performing lewd and lascivious acts.

Seriously, closeted Republican hypocrites, can't you afford a motel room?

Now the blogosphere gets down to the serious business of finding all the embarassing comments that Mr. Craig has made.

ArchPundit found this, from Meet the Press:

Well, I don’t know where the Senate’s going to be on that issue of an up or down vote on impeachment, but I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure resolution and it’s a slap on the wrist. It’s a, “Bad boy, Bill Clinton. You’re a naughty boy.”

The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughtyboy.

I’m going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

And Swamp Land excerpts this, from the original Roll Call article (the Roll Call server is swamped):

Craig stated “that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,” the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.

“It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper."

I wonder how many straight Republicans there actually are?