Spin Cycle

On the eve of this political judgment day, reviews have already begun of what could have been done and what should or should not have been said. To begin honoring the wrapup of this longest-ever, costliest-ever national campaign, here's a bipartisan sampling of statements that our power players would like to have worded differently, or not made at all, or later apologized for, or would just as soon have everyone forget:

Sen. Barack Obama (April 2008): "In some small towns in Pennsylvania [with high unemployment] ... they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Sen. John McCain (December 2007): "There are more and more questions at the town-hall meetings about the economy. ... The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should. ... I've got [former Fed chairman Alan] Greenspan's book."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (February 2008), comparing herself to Obama: "Speeches don't fill up your tank, speeches don't fill your prescription, or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night. ... I offer solutions. It's one thing to get people excited; I want to empower you."

President George W. Bush (July 2003): "There are some [in Iraq] who feel like uh, that if they attack us, that we may decide to leave prematurely. ... My answer is, bring 'em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."

Gov. David A. Paterson (March 2008), on past affairs: "Several years ago there were a number of women. ... I was pretty upset and I was kind of just angry and for a period of time I was using poor judgment."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (January 2004), of diet doctor Robert Atkins, killed in a fall on an icy sidewalk: "I don't believe that -- that he dropped dead slipping on a sidewalk. Yeah, right. ... The guy was fat - big guy - but heavy."

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (January 2008), on Obama, in support of Clinton: "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room."

Rep. Charles Rangel (September 2008), on how he misunderstood the taxing and finances on his Dominican Republic house in conversations with partners: "Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they'd start speaking Spanish."

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (August 2004): "And thank God that Dick Cheney, a man with his experience and his knowledge and his strength and his background, is our vice president."

Sen. Joseph Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin: Where to start?

Most of these can be categorized as statements that became invonvenient to have uttered. For flat-out flubs let us not forget the world's champion: the man from the Republican power elite who could make all Americans feel good about their own critical abilities, former Vice President Dan Quayle. For you kids watching at home, take a look at why Quayle was legendary:

If McCain loses, the rationale you will hear on the right will be that for all his attempts to mollify the movement, the Senator wasn't a real conservative and therefore never the correct man to expose Barack Obama as the freakish reincarnation of Leon Trotsky and Frantz Fanon that he truly is (invented, of course, by satanic body-surfing liberals using stem cells in crack pipes on the mysterious isle of Oahu).

This line of argument would resemble what you'd hear from some Democrats if Clinton proved to be a losing nominee -- that she was really a Republican anyhow, probably a secret first-female member of Skull and Bones, so why not vote for the real conservative?

We need not wait. Thanks to YouTube, GOP talking points are already out there, having helped smear the former POW early on as a lily-livered Washington insider and perhaps helping the Democrats with their own general-election damage task the way McCain's camp echoed Clinton's criticisms of Obama.

McCain opposed torturing prisoners, he wanted to give illegal immigrants "amnesty" and didn't support the magic of the Bush tax cuts, complained these fuglemen in his party before Super Tuesday last February. Rationales for a prospective Obama crash-and-burn are coming soon too, but for the moment, here's a sample from way back in early 2008, in the heat of the primaries, that set the Arizona senator on the trajectory he's been on:

U.S. Sen. George McGovern faced the rejection of powerful Democratic Party players in 1972 and lost big to President Richard Nixon. Some in the GOP now fear Sen. John McCain could be undercut, or “McGovernized,” by a kind of self-fulfilling gloom within his party, despite his surviving chances. Add to that an evident rift with “rogue” running-mate Sarah Palin. Bottom line: National parties don’t always coalesce behind their candidate’s agenda. Watch for the Republican schism to be a big story no matter who wins.

As noted in this space before, Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton has a rare condition by which he breaks out in hives if he hasn't been in the national news for a while. So it came as no surprise when reports spread that the former NYC police commisioner had taped robo-calls on behalf of Barack Obama just as his old boss/nemesis Rudy Giuliani was stoking fear on behalf of John McCain regarding Obama and sex offenders. Are either of these Big Apple celebs of the 1990's swaying votes on the American landscape?

Dan Janison

Here's a clip of McCain, being interviewed on Fox yesterday, gracious at the prospect of defeat. Not necessarily the best way to convince everyone that you're still in it and fire up the troops:

How ironic was it that Sen. John McCain chose the Town of Hempstead as the place to start making “Joe the Plumber” into a campaign legend as he attacked Sen. Barack Obama’s tax plan in their final debate?

It turned out that tradesman Joe Wurzelbacher of Ohio, at right in AP photo, lacks a plumber’s license. Well, if either presidential candidate wanted to find a place where plumbing licenses and politics can turn controversial, they could have stuck around Hempstead, America’s largest township.

On June 11, Kathleen Gavin of Massapequa delivered a bold public speech to Nassau County legislators. She’s been supporting a bill to impose a countywide licensing system for the plumbing trade, sponsored at the state level by Assemb. Charles Lavine. The measure
has stalled, presumably due to a lack of home-rule support from the affected localities.

“It would open a window into the closed worlds of the local
Plumbers Examining Boards, who currently operate as they see fit,” Gavin
said. “They alone decide who gets licensed, who gets permits...They
enforce codes. They handle complaints. They are a one-stop shop — a closed
shop.”

“The members of these boards are, by and large, owners of large plumbing companies in Nassau County, yet they are also compensated by the Towns in which they work — creating conflicts of interest...so glaring that they cry out for reform,” she said, alluding to
Oyster Bay and North Hempstead as well.

As she and husband Ed Gavin described in detail her son, a licensed plumber elsewhere, encountered an irregular obstacle course when he sought a Hempstead plumber’s license. The Gavins see this is a wrenching example of a locally-enforced business cartel -- whether your name is Joe, Josephine, or Sam.

Dan Janison

UPDATE: For a relevant rebuttal, see plumbing contractor Pat Dolan's response in the comments below.

Immigration policy has drawn remarkably little mention in this huge general-election campaign — and some want to see the presidential candidates confront the issue in their final debate Wednesday at Hofstra University.

One year ago, nothing in politics was as explosive as Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s controversial plan to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers’ licenses. The perceived presidential front-runner, Democrat Hillary Clinton, caught heat for her qualified support. But rival Barack Obama also expressed support — and it seemed then as if any GOP candidate would certainly be using this to drub the nominee this fall.

But John McCain faced fire from within the GOP for having supported President George W. Bush’s sweeping immigration bill last year. Condemned by foes as amnesty for illegal aliens, the bill died in the same type of backlash that killed Spitzer’s license proposal.

“It’s interesting,” says Patrick Young, director of the Central American Refugee Center in Hempstead and Brentwood. “Essentially, you had the two most pro-immigrant candidates win each of their parties’ nominations.”

On the GOP side, he said, “I think it’s been kept off the radar screen to give McCain some sense of cover.” As for Democrats, he observed, “Obama has made maybe only three statements on immigration since he became the nominee apparent in June.”

“They have the mainstream immigration-rights position,” said Young, who follows the issue closely and writes blog posts on it. “Protect the border, legalize those who are not criminals, deal with the future flow.”

An active Republican, who declined to be identified, believes...

Dan Janison

As widely reported, John McCain’s campaign has demanded Barack Obama’s ties to ACORN, an activist organization that runs voter-registration drives, be probed. Registration cards submitted by the group prompted fraud investigations in Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri, and at least five other states — including some in the name of Dallas football players.

Bertha Lewis, ACORN executive director well known in New York City politics, issued a detailed rejoinder with Steve Kest, saying status quo forces were playing up isolated irregularities to deter voter registration.

Just to help keep the players straight: Lewis has been co-chair of the state Working Families Party. She drew paparazzi-style notice in 2005 by grabbing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s face and kissing him on the lips when ACORN and the city reached a certain participation deal with developer Bruce Ratner on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project. That deal, preceding Bloomberg's last election, looked at the time like a nice deflection of support against the city's majority Democrats.

Seems like Bloomberg's found his own alliances with ACORN -- and Liz B reported last week that he's had his associates contributing to WFP too. Not to be New York-parochial, but should those links be investigated as well? Or does the McCain-Bloomberg cordiality rooted in the mayor's immense wealth bring with it an automatic immunity -- with ethics laws not yet caught up to the prospect of corrupt money flowing from, rather than to, the public official? The McCain people in the state were expressing concern about the group months ago but now its role is of course part of the GOP artillery. Interesting to see where it leads both before and after this election...

The photo's from a past cover of 'City Limits', whose Web site is here.

Just a little pre-debate thought exercise — and there are no right answers, only honest or dishonest ones:

Given the acrid cries at McCain-Palin rallies of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and even a yelp of “Kill him!” — never mind the racial slur hurled at the sound man — what do you guess the overall reaction would be if, at an Obama rally the same day, folks in the crowd had been stirred to shout “Racist!”, or “Stick him!” or “Siddown, white boy”?

Sen. Barack Obama makes much of rejecting contributions from lobbyists for his presidential campaign — and slams Sen. John McCain for his close ties to a number of them.

So it is interesting that National Grid Executive Vice-President David Manning insists he is no lobbyist.

Never mind that Manning addressed colleagues on the presidential race last week in a talk billed inside the company as “perspectives and insight from our Washington D.C. ‘insider.’” Forget his continual travels in the political circuit, hobnobbing with the elected and the appointed of state, federal and local governments, talking up utility issues.

And never mind that for the 9 months until June 30, Manning was registered with Congress to lobby on a wide range of high-stakes company interests, including the Islander East Pipeline, the Jamaica Bay pipeline, and Long Island pipeline extensions. Or that major-player National Grid in the first quarter was reported on track to spend more than $2 million on federal lobbying this year.

On Friday we asked the loquacious Manning, who was aware of Obama’s rule, about his fundraising and contributions to candidate Obama — such as a $2,300 donation recorded Aug. 28. Manning denied any breach. He responded: “I was registered to lobby at one time, briefly. We’d lost a Washington person and I registered before I was able to hire a new D.C. person. In this quarter I am not a registered lobbyist. I was de-registered within the period.”

Walking, talking, or acting like a lobbyist apparently don’t make you one, at least by that account.

Bob Barr, the Republican-turned-Libertarian running for president, has an interesting angle today in singularly whacking Republican John McCain on his bailout support -- saying it is against his own GOP's policy.

"Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin should read the platform of their own party before making a plan to deal with this most recent financial crisis," Barr said in his latest statement. "The GOP platform clearly states that it is opposed to government bailouts and market regulation... However, McCain and Palin are in favor of the bailouts if they come with market regulation. Apparently, being a 'maverick' means favoring 'big government.'"

Now, a quick glance at the platform on the national party's Web site turns up no use of the term "bailout," or any anticipation of the current crisis. But, Barr seems to be alluding to this portion of the economic platform:

"The Republican Party will put a stop to both social engineering and corporate handouts by simplifying tax policy, eliminating special deals, and putting those saved dollars back into the taxpayers’ pockets."

Even if you're no vigorous adherent to the free-market faith, the Fed bailout proposal would seem to fit rather handily the category of "special deals' and "corporate handouts."

On his “NYPD Confidential” Web site, our ex-colleague Len Levitt suggested that if McCain wins and makes Rudy Giuliani attorney general, Bernie Kerik could win an inside track to a pardon on federal corruption charges. But since McCain whacked Giuliani over Kerik, isn’t it more likely President George W. Bush would be the one pardon Kerik, perhaps, on his way out the door? Bush, after all, commuted the sentence of spy-name-leaker Lewis “Scooter” Libby — who wasn’t even a purported 9/11 “hero”. Caution: Some wonder if Bush has forgiven Kerik’s embarrassing 2004 implosion as his security-secretary nominee.

Here's an item as reported by Bloomberg News:

"Republican John McCain cited New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, as a potential successor to Christopher Cox, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"McCain, his party's presidential nominee, called for Cox's resignation last week, saying government regulators failed to head off the current crisis in the financial markets.

"Cuomo would be a good replacement because he is respected and "did a good job" as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Democratic Clinton administration, McCain said."I think he is somebody who could restore some credibility, lend some bipartisanship to this effort," the senator said on CBS' "60 Minutes" program.

"McCain and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, in dueling appearances on '60 Minutes,' disagreed on a range of issues, including their responses to the credit turmoil."

This is one of those little political strokes by the Republican candidate that seems to splash in a lot of directions.

1. Cuomo was a Clinton supporter, of course, as well as a Clinton administration official, who is popular in a state and region where McCain wants crossover appeal among Democrats.

2. "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference," Cuomo said rather controversially of Barack Obama, back in January. "All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room." Since then, we're not betting the mortgage money that the AG has become the world's biggest Obama fan, though of course you can't read a man's mind and of course he's officially supporting the Democratic nominee.

3. Despite Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, his own Senate voting record, Iraq, and a dramatic flip-flop on the national bailout, McCain undoubtedly regards Bush politics right this moment as a partisan albatross, so this is one level another reminder that he's called for SEC man Cox's resignation.

4. Never mind that Cuomo's stewardship of HUD may, according to this previous tome from Wayne Barrett, have helped set the stage for the crash of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

5. The New York press can be counted on to snap up this move like a tax-free bond -- with some of us dutifully marveling at how freshly "bi-partisan" the Arizona senator is. And don't think it'll step on local toes: the New York Republicans have fine relations with the Democratic AG. Maybe just don't bring up Jeanine Pirro.

Shock and awe over the nation’s financial crisis — and an enormous taxpayer bailout of failing ventures — are giving alternative candidates and leaders an opportunity to show off differences from major-party figures and boast of prescience.

“Capitalism involves losses as well as profits,” said Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman, who threatens to divert votes from GOP Sen. John McCain, as Ralph Nader allegedly did with Democrat Al Gore 8 years ago. “The Fed was not created to take over parts of the U.S. economy,” he said.

Nader, running again this year, cited his prediction in 2000 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were on track to follow the S&L’s of the past “into a big financial heap of trouble.”

And Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who was a genuine maverick in the GOP primary debates, recalled warning of distorted incentives in the housing market 5 years ago as a result of federal policy.

A sample below: Barr holds forth on 'the Fed.'

Political fallout from the latest Gulf emergency is as tough to gauge right now as its final human impact.

Some TV viewers, from here and from out-of-town, saw Sen. John McCain as looking "presidential" on Sunday when he announced a cancellation of convention hoopla. Others said his performance seemed to convey exhaustion.

Beyond any momentary impressions, however, the storm will thrust emergency preparedness policy into the foreground for both McCain and Barack Obama, as it rekindles campaign debate over response to Hurricane Katrina.

On Friday, fresh from her trip to Denver and actions in support of Obama, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton released a third-anniversary statement on the 2005 storm, calling its aftermath "a national disgrace that the Bush Administration still has yet to adequately address ... The approach of [Hurricane] Gustav to the Gulf Coast region is a sobering reminder that the failures of Katrina must never be repeated."

Now that John McCain's homes are a hot subject - finally giving Barack Obama an issue he might be able to gain some traction on - here is a chance to take a tour of one of them, in the July 2005 Architectural Digest. The article features the home where Cindy McCain grew up, and notes that the McCain's rebuilt and expanded the house after her parents moved out. They have since sold it. The toney magazine describes the house, done in Southwestern style, as "unspectacular but supremely comfortable."

Tom Brune

Barack Obama this morning pounced on comments by his rival John McCain, who couldn't remember how many homes he owns.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain responded to a question posed by Politico, according to a story Thursday on the publication's Web site. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

McCain’s memory lapse – which came days after McCain joked that being rich meant a $5 million income -- made it into Obama's stump speech here this morning.

"Somebody asked John McCain, 'How many houses do you have?' And he said, I'm not sure. . . .

Nia-Malika Henderson in Chester, Va.

A few premature questions have popped up in New York circles regarding former mayor Rudy Giuliani's keynote speech at the GOP convention:

Will Giuliani be answering any cell-phone calls from his wife during the address as he did repeatedly during speeches in his own star-crossed campaign for the nomination?

Will discussion of a criminal pardon for troubled ex-mayoral aide Bernie Kerik -- who spoke at the 2004 parley as a prelude to Bush's star-crossed nomination of him to head Homeland Security -- come up in the waning weeks of the Bush administration?

Will the mayor's performance regarding "reform" a week from Tuesday boost McCain anywhere in the Northeast, where the chat was at one time about a 50-state strategy?

Will Giuliani's friends be able to restrain themselves from mentioning anew McCain's role in the S&L scandals of the 1980's as occurred during the primary campaign?

Now Mother Jones reports on how McCain said he'd look for wise advice to Rep. John Lewis, left,the Georgia Democrat who's been a leading figure in the civil-rights movement. Fair enough: the Arizona senator likes to cross the partisan divide. Just one glitch: By Lewis' account, the two have no relationship. The Congressman says: , "Sen. McCain and I are colleagues in the US Congress, not confidantes. He does not consult me. And I do not consult him." Lewis last drew national attention when he crossed over from endorsing Hillary Clinton to backing Barack Obama during the primaries.

Are we dealing here with something from a cringe-inducing Larry David script?

If Evan Bayh becomes the Democrats' VP nominee, you might at best start hearing about how he's a son-of-a-Birch (sorry). But selection of that other "Joe," Biden, would instantly prompt the word "plagiarism" for his clean lift of British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock's speech and that, in turn, would kick off a recycling of the stories about Obama having snagged portions of speeches used by Massachussetts Gov. Deval Patrick, as described here.

Update: Some are reviving speculation that John McCain lifted a story from Solzhenitsyn.

Many are the riveting questions if Sen. John McCain picks Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running-mate (speculation stirred here). Does it make McCain the Sen. Al Gore of 2008? Does McCain therefore lose, grow a beard, gain weight, and start a foundation? Does Lieberman stand up at this convention, as he did at the other one, but this time give a whole new meaning to his tag line, "Only in America"? Does Lieberman continue to embrace the controversial Rev. Hagee -- as he did just a few weeks ago, and compare him to Moses -- now that McCain has renounced Hagee over the pastor's dicey comments?

Some of Hagee's printed quotes: "The Roman Catholic Church, which was supposed to carry the light of the gospel, plunged the world into the dark ages.

"[John Paul II] will be remembered for staring down Communism and embracing people of all faiths and colors. He will lovingly be remembered for his bold stand against abortion. (Lieberman is avowedly "pro-choice").

"When Hitler signed a treaty with the Vatican in Rome, he said "I am only continuing the work of the Catholic Church."

Shockingly, the major drug companies don’t seem to have gotten word that Barack Obama is a disguised left-of-Lenin agitator with a radical program bent on nationalizing their holdings -- rather than what the evidence would tell you: that he’s someone with whom many of those Washington oligarchs and their financiers might in the final analysis feel quite safe. After all, there must be some reason these companies are pouring three times as much into the campaign coffers of the Illinois senator, as told here by Justin Blum of Bloomberg News, than they are to Sen. John McCain.

Oh, right - maybe it's the fact that McCain teamed up with Sen. Charles Schumer in 2000 looking to make it easier to bring low-cost generic drugs to the market. That brought opposition from makers of brand-name pharmaceuticals. The news agency quotes a Princeton economist as saying “the betting would be that if McCain were in the White House the drug industry would not have the receptive ear” that they have had from George W. Bush.

How's this for some reverse spin: "McCain: Change from Bush we can believe in?"

(Photo from U.S. Department of Justice Web site, warning of oxycodone diversion)

This could have come into play if things had gone otherwise, but of course, it is not to be...unless the Denver convention turns into one wild and crazy event as some Hillary-hypers would like.

Obama meets on energy issues with T. Boone Pickens, who backed the "Swiftboating" of John Kerrry.

In California, McCain sticks to stock answers against an evangelical pastor's admonishment.

But a partisan commentator puts the appearance in the McCain column for the "gravity and poignancy" of his answers.

Close race intensifies, heading into the final two-and-a-half months.

Obama beats McCain in fundraising for the last month, $51 million to $27 million.

Evan Bayh, center of some VP speculation, slams McCain as too war-hungry, dissecting the candidate's "We are all Georgians" impulse.

McCain calls for greater volunteerism and sacrifice.

Sen. Clinton visits south Florida later in the week -- and Sen. Cardin urges her supporters to get on board with Obama.

Democratic keynoter Mark Warner, who's running for Virginia's open U.S. Senate seat, has been collecting big-time funds from Beltway lobbyists, leading one blogger to ask if this is "change we can believe in."

Minnesota's Pawlenty would have to "watch his tongue" as an attack dog if he becomes McCain's running mate, warns this analyst.

Obama ad whacks McCain on the economy. Video below:

For those watching the horse race in the Northeast, a lot of the attention focuses on the prospect that John McCain can peel off Democrats to win key states, most likely from those who preferred Hillary Clinton in the primary. But in the Midwest today, Jim Leach, a former Republican Congressman from Iowa, endorsed Barack Obama -- and specifically cited foreign policy, calling for "a new approach to our interaction with the world." That could play among centrist Democrats, but it's more damaging to McCain if members of the GOP out in America defect or stay home on Election Day. In this wire-service account, Leach says he's never known a time when the "American brand" was in worse repair. (Photo's from Princeton University, where Leach teaches).

Sen. John McCain told a campaign crowd that he had spoken with Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili and told him that "the thoughts, prayers and support of the American people are with that great little nation as it struggles today." Report is here.

Obama, in Hawaii, told reporters that -- like McCain-- he wants to see a multinational approach to dealing with the crisis but according to the AP "added that U.N. Security Council should play a major role in helping end the crisis."

McCain declared that Russia's aggression shows a will to restore the old Russian empire (not the Soviet one). With the predictability of a hometown crowd at a ballpark, the emotional domestic noise will be -- depending on your partisan team -- either that McCain never met a potential military involvement he didn't like (per the Obamites) or Obama is removed and ineffectual (per the McCainites). And here, we are told Obama has moved into a more critical position against Russia's invasion.

Be your own judge. McCain's latest speech from Pennsylvania is below:

Obama makes what seems to be a fairly proportional comeback here against the flat 'celebrity' charge by McCain. The point of the McCain commercial, though, seemed to be to hit first. This Obama comeback takes a "so's your old man" approach and is a bit reminiscent of his "brush the dirt off" gesture when he was drawing flak from the Clinton camp during the primary. Take a look:

On page 19 of the August issue of "Yankees" magazine, which is published by the ball club and sold for $7 at the doomed Stadium, we find "quotes of the month" from both major-party presidential candidates.

This is magnanimously bipartisan, especially when you consider George Steinbrenner got in criminal trouble all those years ago involving campaign funds for President Richard Nixon, and in the modern age, Rudy Giuliani's ex-deputy Randy Levine runs the organization.

So the spread quotes Barack Obama, saying on July 9: "I'm a White Sox fan, but I believe in tradition, and there is no tradition greater than Yankee Stadium."

Then it quotes John McCain, saying on July 20: "Yankee Stadium is one of the remarkable places in America. It has a special place in history. The good news is that the new Stadium is basically just an updated version. It is not a radical departure, and some of the aspects of the old Yankee Stadium will be there, as well. I was here for every game of the 2001 World Series. In my opinion, that was the most poignant time to be here."

And so a new ballpark where tickets are less affordable is going up with major help from taxpayers in the form of land, infrastructure, transit, foregone taxes, tax-exempt bonds, and maintenance funds because.....?

In her "Funny or Die" response linked here to McCain's use of her bimbosity to attack Obama, Hilton articulates a shallow yet passable compromise on energy policy that comes off about as convincing as your average Congressional or state legislative candidate -- which is both sad for what it says about modern political dialogue, and worth pondering. This is, however, a change from the usual pitch from Ann Coulter (described by one right-wing savant as the Paris Hilton of the conservative movement) which is in itself refreshing.

Here's the bim-spot:

First-hand sources tell us that what was first reported in the Wall Street Journal (that bastion of l