photo credit: Carolyn Kaster - AP

Hillary’s cell-phone is on vibrate.

“Yo, waiter! I’ll have what she’s having!”

photo credit: Allen Fredrickson - Reuters

“…probably aren’t going to get him very far in life.”

photo credit: John-Sommers-II—Reuters

Clearly, the man is in the pay of the National HitchHikers Union.

Bing is such a poser!

yeah, that’s me from about 10 years ago, in my Hairy Potter costume.

it’s a pun.

because i’m funny.

sometimes.

If there was any doubt in your mind about the power of the media, even when it is collectively ultimately but the lackey of the current Administration, think again. This whole New York Times-published McCain/Iseman issue should make it clear to anyone. And in a way, this might well have been the most well-crafted endeavor to get out from under the thumb of this Administration. If so, I may even have to start rethinking my cynicism in their regard.

These posts from earlier today were cute and all, but I was intentionally side-stepping the real issue at hand, which is not infidelity—an incredibly predictable trademark of persons in power in general—but which is about the accepting of favors in return for votes. If the story turns out to be true, nay, if the story turns out to be so much as incredibly likely, what happens?

Well, what happens is, McCain should step out of the race. Because most Americans are sick to death of Buy-Your-Vote-Here politicians. As well, the idea behind intellectual duplicity is that you’re not supposed to get caught at it until after you’re already in office, from which position of power you can disdainfully deny the very premise of the indictment, filibuster any dialogue on the matter by claiming Executive Privilege, and shred, shred, shred when you’re relatively confident that you have enough power to keep the Department of Justice from doing anything worthwhile about it. Even better, ensure that you own the Department of Justice. But I digress.

So, McCain should step out of the race, leaving the Huckabee as the sole-remaining candidate, or possibly Romney steps back in, pulls the boys out of the dog-carrier on the roof of his car, and sets back to work. At which point, every remaining moderate conservative either refuses to vote or votes for the Democratic candidate in November.

In other words, what the New York Times has effectively done here, should everything pan out, is ensure a Democratic President.

Brilliant.

Of course, the problem with it is that it’s all written up in this big huge news piece, that as it makes its way down the wire to the smaller newspapers with much less room to print it in, it’s going to get cut. And what’s it going to get cut to? In essence, the two posts I cite above.

Which actually strengthens the public perception of McCain from rural America.

“Whassat? McCain gotsa woody for some lady? Now that’s the kind o’ man Ah’m talkin’ ’bout!”

Not attractive, but luckily, the rural vote isn’t going to outweigh the inner-city vote, per capita. And that would be the first time that yours truly is pleased with the reality of that fact, for what it’s worth.

But luckily, McCain’s already given his Bill Clinton-esque denial:

“At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust or make a decision which in any way would not be in the public interest or would favor anyone or organization.”

Right. As if his voting record, when he bothers to take the time to contribute positively towards it, doesn’t make that lie incredibly clear. Okay, somebody who can figure out how to use the Senate website for polling voting records will no doubt make that clear. But at the risk of being one of those people who repeats the pundits without fact-checking, it’s apparently already clear. Especially when even the conservative ones are going, “Oh, so THAT’s why he kept voting that way….”

At any rate, given the apparently-obvious flaccidity of that statement, we can hopefully consider McCain on his way out the door, provided the rest of the media manages not to ignore the bigger story (vote-selling) for the smaller one (sex).

And with any luck, we just witnessed the rebirth of the Fourth Branch of Government. At the very least, it’s a big step in the right direction.

{cross-posted on perpetual dawnne}

photo credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed

“Today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was awarded the Liberian Medal of Being Somewhat Remotely Like Us Despite an Overdeveloped Tendency to Accessorize. Meanwhile, President and Mrs. Bush were awarded the Liberian Medal for Ineffectual Gringos.”

photo credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed

Obviously, the beagle wasn’t competing today.