The GOP Can't Spare a Dime

Republicans in the Senate just killed a bill that would have given unemployment benefits to millions of jobless Americans. For the second time.

Will they be made to pay in November?

Consensus Builder

By Zamboni

We cats have been so busy today that we've only had the chance to read a few headlines. So we suspect that lots of our fellow bloggers have already said everything necessary and appropriate about Senator Byrd. But to any Republicans who are criticizing the late Senator for serving through old age and illnesses — and making fun of his long-ago membership in the KKK — we reply with two words: "Strom Thurmond."

Anyway, peace be upon him. We well remember Senator Byrd visiting Carter-Mondale headquarters in Pittsburgh and playing his fiddle for volunteers and staff.

Meanwhile, it's been very amusing to watch the GOP scratching its collective head about how to attack future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. We're sure that the teabaggers over at Free Republic are having babies when Republican Senators like Scott Brown praise her, which is fun to think about. But at the same time, we'd like to caution our friends and colleagues on the liberal side about two things:

1) Before we complain about Dean Kagan, we should remember what kind of person would be sitting in front of the Judiciary Committee if President McCain (or President Palin) had made the nomination. We don't think it would be somebody who admires Thurgood Marshall.

2) We need to remind ourselves that Dean Kagan's job on the court will not be to make completely perfect liberal decisions, but to convince "Mr. Swing Vote" Anthony Kennedy to join her, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer to overrule the four Nazi guys. We hear she's mighty persuasive that way.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — "Hell Week" Edition

By Miss Kubelik

We've been under the weather lately, so it's been tough to post every day. But goodness gracious, what a week it's been, news-wise. So we can't let it come mercifully to a close without sharing a few observations.

We cats imagine that all those hopeful teabaggers will have to cancel their orders for their "Petraeus 2012" T-shirts now that President Obama has given him other stuff to do.

We're also wondering for the first time if Nevada nutcase Sharron Angle might be right about something: banning alcohol. Ot at least, keeping it off-limits from generals and their staffs. McChrystal might still have his job today if his aides didn't drink all the way from Paris to Berlin.

McChrystal goes rogue, the Senate can't pass the jobs bill, there might be a hurricane heading toward the Gulf... sheesh. We're reminded of a favorite although possibly apocryphal story about John Kennedy, who allegedly turned to Barry Goldwater in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis and said, "So you want this fucking job." We apologize — we're not usually profane, but that quote seems particularly apt this week.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Douglas MacArthur Edition

By Sniffles

Oops, that headline is wrong. Of course we meant Stanley McChrystal. No reason to get him and MacArthur confused, except for the fact that they're both lamebrains and, as of tomorrow, may both have been sacked by a President whom they dissed.

But we can't read President Obama's mind, so we don't know what he's going to do. We're just trying to figure out what would be more fun: To see the general fired, or left in place to twist slowly in the wind. Until we make up our minds about that, here are a few random thoughts on the McChrystal Kerfuffle.

We cats are awfully tired of people trying to undermine and/or de-legitimize a decisively elected Democratic President. Whether it's the teabaggers and their crazy "birther" notions or this bat-eared jackass who's going to get called on the carpet in the White House tomorrow, these guys are the ultimate sore losers, and we're sick of them.

This "MacArthur 2010" story has so overwhelmed the punditocracy that we wonder how in the world Nikki Haley is going to roll out her new national profile tomorrow morning. Who's going to have the 7:10 slot on the a.m. shows available? It'll be all McChrystal, all the time.

President Obama has been fond of invoking the memory of Abraham Lincoln over the last three years. Tonight, then, we remind him of a Civil War general whom Lincoln probably waited too long to fire — but who, once sacked, turned around and ran for President himself in 1864. As the Democratic candidate, no less! (Hint: It's another "Mc" name. Weird!)

Never mind firing Mr. Blabbermouth, can we just court-martial him for the Pat Tillman cover-up?

Finally, we're fondly reminded of feisty Harry Truman's private response on General MacArthur's intransigence. ("I'm going to fire that son of a bitch right now!") Sometimes profanity is very satisfying. Let's put it this way: As President Obama recently said of the Gulf Oil spill, whether or not he gives McChrystal his walking papers, we cats hope he kicks his ass.

We'll See About That!

By Baxter

We've just returned from the vet in time to catch this silly Gallup poll on how "enthusiastic" Republicans are about the midterms.

Oh, bless their hearts. They really can't help themselves, can they?

Let us cats get this straight: For the better part of the last 30 years, the Republicans have been railroading anyone left of Attila the Hun out of town, creating a nearly all-white party of Southern and Western exclusionists and secessionists, and leaving themselves with not much more than 20 percent of the greater population identifying with their homogeneous little group.

And now that a poll says that 60 percent of this tiny minority is so excited about candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Joe Barton and scores of other crazies — they're going to carry the general electorate along with them?

(Ahem. Marco Rubio has fallen behind Charlie Crist by double digits. But, we digress.)

We cats wonder what the poll percentage would be if the Republican Party were still hospitable to people like Colin Powell, Susan Eisenhower, Andrew Sullivan, Lincoln Chafee, William Weld, Arne Carlson, Jim Jeffords, Ray LaHood, Michael Smerconish, Bill Ruckelshaus and yes, even Arlen Specter.

Can the Palinistas and the current sorry cast of Neanderthals carry a once-proud party's banner to victory in the fall campaign? We cats YAWN, and think not.

Holding a Tiger by the Tail

By Zamboni

Yes, it's a tired metaphor, but it is cat-related — and in the case of the Republican Party, it happens to be true.

That's because the teabaggers are giving the GOP establishment another headache: This time, in Alaska. They've thrown their support to Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's primary challenger, Joe Miller.

The situation couldn't be more obvious to us cats. At some point in early 2009, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, John Cornyn and other members of the Republican inside-the-Beltway crowd met privately over drinks, and decided not to try to rein in the racist, right-wing extremists who call themselves the Tea Party.

What choice did they have? After all, Mitch, John, et. al. must have been scared to death that if they stepped a foot wrong they could lose the fealty of their crazy, foaming, gun-nut base. Which, since they were already shut out of both the executive and the legislative branches of government, would have left them with next to nothing.

So they decided to let Sarah Palin and Rand Paul — and all those other mental cases running around as Republicans — do and say whatever they wanted, without a peep from Washington. And they're reaping what they've allowed to be sown.

Guys, you miscalculated badly, and we cats PURR.

(IMAGE: "The Jungle Book," of course)

Cat Fight! South Carolina Redux

By Miss Kubelik

South of the 49th Parallel, there's very little that's more exciting than the upcoming William Shatner-directed documentary on.... William Shatner, and the news that Leonard Cohen has been inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.

Except, of course, for South Carolina.

The Palmetto State offers the rest of North America unceasing entertainment. Case in point: The fracturing of the state Republican Party over its gubernatorial front-runner, Nikki Haley. Seems that the GOP party establishment is not enamored of the Sikh-cum-Methodist who didn't quite garner 51 percent to avoid a runoff on June 22.

This is good news to Democrats across the land. Not because we're going to win the state in a Presidential election any time soon, but because it's a nearly perfect microcosm of the problems the Grand Old Party is having within itself. Problems, by the way, that the lazy national media generally have not chosen to focus on.

Here's what we all need to realize as the national press coos over Ms. Haley's rising Republican star. It's a runoff. Nobody votes in runoffs except the party's hard core. And many of those hard core 1) are beholden to the party establishment, and 2) hate Haley's mentor, Mark Sanford. We cats want to know how many of Haley's teabagger supporters are going to vote next Tuesday versus folks who owe their livelihood to the state GOP machine. It'll be an interesting spectacle to watch.

Also, the implications for 2012 are growing increasingly fascinating. We cats wonder how many members of the state GOP apparatus will forgive national figures like the Mittster and the famous quitter from Alaska for backing Nikki Haley. We also think it's potentially significant that Fat Mike Huckabee hasn't rushed to jump on the Haley bandwagon. Maybe he thinks if he bides his time, it'll help him in the next Palmetto State primary.

And finally, here's a question that will resonate with Democrats: Who controls the voting machines in South Carolina? The political consulting class aligned against Haley? Or the Governor's office? We don't know the answer, but we suspect it's vitally important.

More internecine Republican fights, please. We cats PURR.

Captains Uncourageous

By Sniffles

For those of you who think you've seen Dick Cheney's fingerprints all over the BP oil spill, you probably weren't surprised if you also saw them all over BP CEO Tony Hayward's Congressional testimony yesterday.

Arrogant, evasive, uncooperative, disdainful... Yep, except for his slight Cockney accent, Hayward was a dead ringer for The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived (If Indeed He Were a Person). Maybe Tony thought he could skate through on his pink-cheeked resemblance to Freddie Bartholomew, but his inner Cheney kept coming out.

And why not? After all, about three weeks ago BP hired Cheney's former campaign spokesperson, Anne Womack-Kolton, to handle its American PR effort. Birds of a feather, and all that. It shows.

Here's the deal: The three rules of crisis communications are 1) regret, 2) reform and 3) restitution. BP was obscenely late — and incredibly insincere — about expressing regret. And Hayward's testimony made it clear that there's been no hint of reform; this disaster could happen again at any one of its other oil wells. As for restitution, well, that's laughable. It had to be dragged out of them, to the tune of $20 billion, by an angry citizenry and a determined President Obama.

Given this record of failure, what else could we expect? We cats just wish that more journalists would hammer the BP-Cheney connection home to their readers and viewers. In fact, half the effort that they expended on Monica Lewinsky, Michael Jackson and Chandra Levy would come in handy right now.

Solemnly Swearing

By Baxter

Nikki Haley has a mixed marriage — and that's just her side of the relationship.

The Republican endorsed by the famous quitter from Alaska for Governor of South Carolina grew up a Sikh. But now — well, we're not really sure what she does, religion-wise. Haley claims to have converted to Christianity in 1997, but attends both Methodist and Sikh services.

Now, we cats are extremely tolerant of diversity. But Republicans in South Carolina famously aren't. In fact, speculation has arisen as to whether the question of religion will play a "wedge" role in the pending Palmetto State runoff. It may — but for us cats, that's not the pressing issue. Here's what we want to know when it comes to Nikki Haley and religion: If she wins, what book will she be sworn in on?

The reason we're asking is because of all the GOP screaming a few years back about Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) getting sworn in on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran. Horrors! (Of course, Sikhs didn't fly planes into the World Trade Center. But since the Republicans were perfectly happy to invade Iraq for something 19 mostly-Saudi guys did, we cats figure that consistency isn't exactly their strong suit.)

If Nikki Haley wins the governor's race — not a given, by the way — perhaps it would just be easier for her to be sworn in on a copy of Moby Dick.

"I Should Have Kept My Mouth Shut About $20 Billion 'Shakedowns,' But I Didn't"

Joe Barton, Republican Congressman, friend of Big Oil, total fool.

Missed Opportunties

By Zamboni

One of the issues haunting Meg "Somebody Buy Me a Makeover" Whitman in the race for California Governor — aside from her shoving an eBay employee — is why she's so rarely voted in her lifetime.

"I should have voted, and I didn't," she now wistfully opines.

Hm. We cats are not impressed with candidates who can't get up off their fat asses to get to the polls. So we find Whitman's "explanation" unsatisfactory.

However, Meg has given us a real gift: The perfect Republican response to all manner of GOP-created messes, screw-ups and disasters. Here are some examples.

To Fred Malek: "Why didn't you tell Nixon and Haldeman to stuff it when they ordered you to hunt down Jews and fire them?"
Fred: "I should have, and I didn't."

To John McCain: "Why didn't you look more substantively into Sarah Palin's lack of qualifications to be Vice President?"
John: "I should have, and I didn't."

To Sarah Palin: "As a self-styled exemplary parent and Christian role model, why didn't you prevent your school-age daughter from having unprotected sex?"
Famous Quitter from Alaska: "I should have, and I didn't."

To Dick Cheney: "Why didn't you tell oil executives to take a hike, instead of letting them dictate U.S. energy policy for eight years?"
Father of the BP Oil Spill: "I should have, and I didn't."

To George W. Bush: "Why didn't you pay attention to that August 2001 Presidential Daily Brief that warned you about Bin Laden preparing to attack the United States?"
Worst Person Who's Ever Lived: "I should have, and I didn't."

Dear Meg Whitman: Take This Job and...

By Miss Kubelik

We cats have always found the Republican concept of "corporate CEOs are good at governing" to be specious. After all, we only had to cite the disastrous Administration of "businessman" George W. Bush and his partner in crime, Halliburton executive Dick Cheney, to negate it.

Therefore, we've been more than a little skeptical of the twin California candidacies of Carly "Butch" Fiorina and Meg "Needs a Makeover" Whitman. So, they came from Hewlett-Packard and eBay, respectively — so what? Add to that the fact that Fiorina was sacked with a golden parachute and Whitman left eBay with the company under a cloud, and you begin to wonder why you'd hire them as your office receptionist, let alone your Governor or Senator.

And now comes the news that Whitman shoved an employee at eBay and had to pay the woman $200,000 to avoid a lawsuit.

What an interesting story — especially since we're all agog that Representative Bob Etheridge (D-NC) manhandled an ambushing videographer yesterday. Yes, the Congressman reacted badly, and he's apologized. But call us cats biased — we find it astounding that Whitman, the CEO of a giant corporation, would dare lay a hand on a subordinate. That kind of workplace behavior is, as Fiorina would say, so yesterday.

Does California want a Governor with anger-management issues? That's for the Golden State to decide. In the meantime, we can only assume that Meg, competitive as ever, wanted to beat Fiorina for the title of "newest GOP mean girl." Meow!

(PHOTO: From "The Apartment," which opened in New York 50 years ago today.)

Charlie Crist, Baby Killer

By Sniffles

Did you think we cats had forgotten Charlie Crist? Oh, never! First, we used to be constituents of his — and second, we're hard-pressed to think of a bigger thorn in the GOP's side these days.

Gay Charlie comes from the fourth-largest state in the nation, and he is mighty, mighty ambitious. So we're certain he gives the Republican Party fits — especially when he vetoes bills that would have required women to get ultrasounds before obtaining abortions.

Crist said he thought the bill placed an inappropriate burden on a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy. He was correct about that. But predictably, the right wing — which claims to abhor all government intrusion in Americans' lives — went nuts. (The mental cases over at Free Republic, for example, jumped all over not only Crist but a commenter who dared to say he thought the vetoed bill was an unwarranted intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship. Don't even try to be consistent on the GOP fringe, folks.)

This whole kerfuffle got us cats thinking: What would we do in November if we still lived in Florida? We feel a confession coming on. It's entirely possible that if we were voting in the Florida Senate race in 2010 we would cast our ballot for Charlie Crist.

Why? Because much as we like Kendrick Meek, Charlie has a chance. And thanks to the extreme rightward tilt of today's Republican Party, Senator Crist will drive them mad. For example, whom will he caucus with, should he make it into the world's most exclusive club? We cats suspect that a party defined by the famous quitter from Alaska and her "mama grizzlies" will not tolerate a baby killer in its midst.

Go, Charlie, go! We cats PURR.

Everything Old is New Again

By Baxter

We cats are grateful to our friends over at The Huffington Post, who — in commenting on a recent Newsweek cover featuring the famous quitter from Alaska — have directed us to the immortal H.L. Mencken's obituary for William Jennings Bryan.

This dusty historical reference, we're sorry to say, continues to be relevant today. Because charlatans and frauds who cloak themselves in religion or righteousness are, alas, always with us. Newsweek's cover girl is just the latest example.

It becomes crystal clear when you take a key paragraph from Mencken's Bryan obit; then, substitute "Palin" for "Bryan," and the present tense for the past:

"Palin is a vulgar and common woman... She is ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and dishonest. Her career has brought her into contact with the first men of her time... It's hard to believe that she has been received in civilized societies as a high officer of state. She seems only a poor clod... deluded by childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things. She is a peasant come home to the dung-pile...

"The job before democracy is to get rid of such canaille. If it fails, they will devour it."

We cats PURR. We rarely post directly on Palin because we don't consider her worth our time. But this, we couldn't resist.

(IMAGE: "Inherit the Wind," United Artists, 1960)

Cat Fight! Carly Fiorina vs. Barbara Boxer's Hair

By Zamboni

We cats have a little advice for Republican Senate candidate Carly "Butch" Fiorina: When you have appearance issues yourself, it's not wise to attack your opponent's look.

We could continue in this vein, but if we did, we'd be sinking to Fiorina's level.

Yes, it's truly amazing that one of the GOP's rising female "stars" was able to wound herself so effectively, so quickly. But what really strikes us cats is how darn nasty Republicans are. Taking a page from the famous quitter from Alaska, Fiorina is clearly staking out her territory as the Grand Old Party's newest mean girl.

And we understand anew why Fiorina was fired by Hewlett-Packard. She not only drove the company into the ground — she didn't work and play well with others.

Obama's Home Town Takes the Cup

By Sniffles

The Chicago Black Hawks have won the Stanley Cup.

We cats are sure that the Obama-hating wingnuts over at Free Republic — who were so pleased when the Second City lost the 2016 Olympics — haven't noticed.


(PHOTO: Chris Sweda, The Chicago Tribune)

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Post-"Kinda-Sorta-in-a-Way"-Super-Tuesday Edition

By Baxter

Now is the time for all good cats to review yesterday's election results.

Arkansas — We cats are not crushed that the so-called Left was unable to defeat Blanche Lincoln yesterday. First, the Left in Arkansas is not left, if you know what we mean. But more important, we cats are tired of lazy journalists who latch onto a convenient narrative and beat it to death (e.g., the electorate's anti-incumbent mood). The country is much more complicated than that — which reporters would discover if they got their fat asses up from behind the computer and actually talked to folks. So, thank you, Senator Lincoln, for temporarily shutting these people up.

California — Carly "I Killed HP" Fiorina and Meg "Billions of Dollars Can't Buy Me a Makeover" Whitman were pushed so far to the right in their respective Republican primaries that we're wondering how in the general they'll be able to dial it back. Yes, the lazy press will probably allow them to do it — but surely the teabaggers won't.

Orly Taitz — Oh, darn. "Birther" idiot Orly Taitz lost her bid to be California's Secretary of State. Gosh, it would have been fun. But we're sure that Ms. Taitz is already blaming her defeat on the Muslim conspirators who planted Barack Obama's birth announcement in the Honolulu Star Bulletin 50 years ago.

Nevada — We cats are very sad that with Sue Lowden's embarrassing loss, the days of chicken suits at Republican rallies appear to be over.

South Carolina — So the boys in the state GOP establishment tried to take down Nikki Haley and failed. There is no downside to this. On the national party level, a victorious Haley will compete with Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Liz Cheney for the title of Biggest Female Wingnut. On the state level, as a Sanford person Haley has been in open rebellion against her party's establishment for some time — even before they started talking openly about her sex life. Hard to see how a Governor Haley gets anything done.

Republican Party Overall — We cats agree mightily with E.J. Dionne that 2010's election results so far bode ill for the GOP. Republicans continue to marginalize themselves into an angry, white, regional party. (Take Meg Whitman, for example. As the new Latino hater, she's like Pete Wilson Redux. That worked out well for them, didn't it?)

We cats PURR.

Helen Thomas Screws Up

By Zamboni

One of the things we cats like best about the end of the Bush Administration is that we no longer have to endure White House briefings from the likes of Ari Fleischer. Our T.V. and computer screens are much better places without him.

So thanks a lot, Helen Thomas.

Don't get us wrong, we admire Helen Thomas. She's put Cheshire cat grins on our faces for many years — particularly when she was sparring with the execrable Mr. Fleischer and calling George W. Bush the worst President ever. In fact, we cited her as one of the few journalists whose death would be worthy of the wall-to-wall coverage Tim Russert inexplicably received back in 2008.

Now, however, Ms. Thomas not only has forced an awkward retirement on herself — she's given Arrogant Ari the opportunity to crow. This drives us cats crazy. (Oh, and by the way, as annoyed as we are by the Gaza thing, her remarks on Israel made us feel like hacking up a hairball. Substitute the words "blacks should go back to Africa" for "Jews should get out of Palestine," and — well, ugh.)

Interesting, however, that a dolt like Fleischer doesn't note the irony that Helen worked for the last few years for the Hearst News Service — or the fact that William Randolph Hearst, like most of his generation, harbored some pretty dark racism and anti-Semitism himself. But of course, why should a GOP flack ever criticize a fellow arch-conservative? Nope, only 89-year-old lefties are in their sights.

Well, we cats HISS at all this. Helen Thomas has just added a sad, unnecessary footnote to a brilliant career, and we're sorry.

A Day in the (Oh, John Boehner, Get a) Life

By Sniffles

We cats well remember our irritation when Paul McCartney decided to lecture Americans that they needed to get behind George W. Bush and everything he stood for after September 11, 2001.

So we were startled — although not necessarily displeased — when Sir Paul, in Washington last week to receive the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, took an amusing swipe at the same Mr. Bush. Should we conclude, we wondered, that the surviving half of Lennon & McCartney (and don't get us started on how much we miss John Lennon) didn't really mean his pro-Bush comment from nine years ago? Or is he just an insincere opportunist?

No matter. We don't really go through our days worrying about what knighted British citizens say — except when the House Minority Leader suddenly decides to take umbrage.

That's right — John Boehner is demanding an apology from McCartney.

Goodness gracious. Can this be true? For several years now, Mr. Boehner's fellow Republicans and teabaggers have called Barack Obama every name in the book, from socialist to Communist to fascist to racist to, most recently, "raghead." And we haven't heard a peep from Boehner about any of that. But Paul McCartney can't make a joke about Bush?

We cats HISS.

Cat Fight! S.C. Republicans Go Nuclear

By Baxter

Oil spewing in the Gulf, Israel's blockade of Gaza, perfect games ruined — there's no shortage of earth-shaking news events that we cats could comment on today. What better time to focus on Nikki Haley's sex life?

That's because furious, no-holds-barred, intraparty Republican fisticuffs mean just one thing: fun, fun, fun! You're probably familiar by now with the aforementioned Ms. Haley, who wants to be governor of South Carolina but who's been hit with not one but two allegations of extramarital naughtiness.

The latest one, as before, comes from a fellow Republican, Larry Marchant, who claims he and Haley had a one-night stand during a Salt Lake City school-choice convention. Aside from the obvious — that right-wing Christians who lecture other people on their lives should be the last folks cheating on their spouses — there are soooo many things wrong with that. We hardly know where to begin, but we'll try.

Sounds like Haley and Marchant were misbehaving on state business. Remind you of anyone — like the Appalachian Trail guy?

So they were at a conference to figure out how South Carolina parents could be reimbursed to pull their children out of public schools and send them to private (read: religious) schools, where no doubt the kids would be taught the virtues of abstinence and the sanctity of marriage. And that's where they decided to break one of the Ten Commandments?

Did they at least have the decency to pay for a cheap motel room on their own — or did they use one of their state-reimbursed hotel suites? Taxpayers have a right to know. Heck, we cats want to know.

How many calls did Haley make and/or receive on her state-paid mobile phone from her husband and children while she was in Utah, um, doing what she was doing?

Who in their right mind would travel to Salt Lake City for extramarital sex, anyway?

It's all very amusing, and it makes us cats PURR. The fact that the hapless Ms. Haley was just endorsed by the famous quitter from Alaska before the roof fell in — well, that's just catnip.

Lest We Furr-get: Fred Malek Edition

By Zamboni

Once an anti-Semite, always an anti-Semite.

We cats may sound unforgiving, but we find it difficult to believe that people who've harbored racial or ethnic hatreds ever really change.

That's why we're so appalled at an article in this morning's Washington Post, about uber-Republican Fred Malek. Herr Malek richly earns the "uber" characterization, and not just because he's given more than $1.3 million to the GOP over the years. It's because once again his Nixon-era, Jew-hunting past is catching up with him.

Recently released documents from the Nixon library reveal that Malek "supplied Nixon with a list of 13 people he thought had Jewish surnames" and coordinated other efforts to root out Jews at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nixon, you see, thought that there was a "Jewish cabal" at the bureau that was purposely giving pessimistic economic forecasts to sabotage him. Can we say "paranoia," anybody?

We cats don't know what's worse: That Malek did this? That he's currently an adviser to the famous quitter from Alaska? (Birds of a feather, and all.) That Republican Governor Bob "Confederate History Month" McDonnell of Virginia has appointed Malek to chair a state budget panel and now claims he was "unaware" of Malek's past? (Aren't we entitled to expect better from the governor of a major state — even one who was "educated" at the right-wing Regent University?)

We cats SNARL. We have no idea why any Jewish person would be a Republican. None.

(IMAGE: Conrad Veidt in "Casablanca," Warner Bros., 1942)

Would You Believe...?

By Sniffles

Well, that takes the cake. In a world in which Al and Tipper Gore can split up, anything can happen. And here are some of the other news items that are making our furry little heads spin tonight.

Surely... surely the famous quitter from Alaska isn't whipping up a teabagger frenzy against distinguished author and journalist Joe McGinniss — and potentially endangering his life. Is she?

So now Republican Senatorial candidate Mark Kirk, after claiming he won an award that he didn't get, is rumored to be gay. And, of course, he voted against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Gee, maybe both sides can start over in that race.

While his constituents wade through thousands of gallons of oily muck, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) thinks BP should get a liability cap. Really? We cats would like to know what the outraged Louisianans we've seen on T.V. think about that.

That nutty Michele Bachmann is at it again. This time she's sputtering that President Obama is encouraging Israel's enemies by sending "signals of weakness." Hmmmm, let's see... how is he doing that? By killing Al Qaeda's third-ranking operative in Pakistan?

Finally, a few well-chosen words from Harry Reid. Republicans in Nevada will pick his 2010 opponent next week from a short list of extremists and mental cases. Did he have a preference, reporters wanted to know? No, the Senator quipped, "They all scare me." Sir, considering the direction the GOP is going in these days, we cats couldn't agree more.