The Morning After

By Zamboni

Yesterday's Rally to Restore Sanity was wonderful and awful. Wonderful because 200,000-plus people attended. Awful because 200,000-plus people attended.

The Metro came near its breaking point, food vendors were overwhelmed, there weren't enough screens and loudspeakers, and the lines for the Port-O-Potties stretched back to Rosslyn, Virginia. Clearly Jon Stewart and his "Daily Show" forces, as The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived would say, misunderestimated the crowd.

Still, even though we were in the largest sea of humanity since our last Democratic convention, we have to say that everyone there was sane — in fact, very nice. Their homemade signs were funny and inspiring. We left feeling great, that America — at least, the America that we feel a part of — is civil, intelligent, informed and clever.

Nobody was talking about bringing baseball bats to state capitals or "taking out" reporters. There was no stomping. There were just thousands and thousands and thousands of people who couldn't see or hear much of the show but who clearly agreed that violent rhetoric, punching or stepping on other folks' heads, misreading (or not reading) the Constitution and watching FOX "News" were, um, bad things.

A pity that Americans watching at home may have realized none of this. But that's a subject for another post. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The Globe & Mail is quoting a National Parks police officer who said he thought 400,000 people had turned out for the rally.  So let's just agree to say we were half a million strong, shall we? We cats PURR.

Holding Our Noses

By Miss Kubelik

We cats are awfully glad we don't have to vote in Florida this year. What to do, what to do, in the excruciating Senate race there? Support Republican-turned-"Independent" Charlie Crist, or the admirable but fast-fading Kendrick Meek?

Goodness gracious. Charlie Crist. There he was, on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" last night — the man who only two years ago was desperately vying to be John McCain's running mate — wearing his faux-earnest face and trolling for lefty votes, talking about the people of Florida he loves so much. Ugh. We felt a hairball coming on.

Still and all — as opposed to the hard right and the far left, who demand 110 percent or nothing — those of us who live in the real world, politically, know that sometimes you have to hold your nose and make an unpalatable choice. This is one reason why the parliamentary system has some advantages over the U.S. representative system. (But we have what we have, and that's a subject for another post, anyway.)

So, here's the deal. If we still lived in Florida, we'd walk into that polling place on Tuesday and punch the ballot for Gay Charlie. Anything to keep the monstrous Marco out of the Senate.

But we PURR that we don't have to make that choice.

Perhaps It Should Be "The Rally to Restore Balance"

By Sniffles

We cats are planning to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity on Saturday. (Yes, they'll have a special section for feline bloggers. Please note, however, that this does NOT mean that other rally attendees should bring their pets.)

"Sanity" seems like such a lofty goal in American politics these days that we're tempted to look to other countries, and other eras, for some answers. We find ourselves thinking a lot about Canada. Not just because this month is the 40th anniversary of the October Crisis, but because our neighbors to the north often seem to engage in the kind of national conversations we Americans should have — but which we always, out of fear or laziness, manage to avoid.

Specifically, today, we in the U.S. are struggling between reason and passion. On the "reason" side, we have a cerebral man in the White House who the Beltway media insist is disconnected from his constituents because he's too intellectual and remote. On the "passion" side, we have right-wingers demanding their country back and stomping on the heads of people with whom they disagree.

So in the middle of all this comes 'The Daily Show," asking the famous Rodney King question of whether we can't all just get along.

We cats think we're all missing the point: Reason and passion are not separate from one another. In fact, to successfully govern ourselves as a nation and a society, the two must go hand in hand.

Which brings us back to Canada. One of its most influential Prime Ministers — a famously remote intellectual, in fact — was long believed to advocate reason over passion. But it turns out that for years he was misunderstood.

"This is.... what I've tried to express for years," Pierre Trudeau said. "Reason shaping, controlling passion. Not thinking without passion. [But] reason and passion together... The uniting of mind and heart. A rational person has all this in balance."

We cats aren't seeing a lot of this balance in America today. But we can dream of a better tomorrow.

Not a Pretty Sight

By Baxter

We cats feel overwhelmed today by the ugliness of the other side. So we address this afternoon's post to Republican voters.

Folks, we'd just like to know why you want to elect people:

• Whose supporters stomp other people on the head for exercising their First Amendment rights?
• Who threaten to sue media outlets for reporting the news?
• Who handcuff and restrain reporters for trying to ask them questions?
• Who run away from TV and print journalists rather than talk about what they believe in and why?
• Who lie about ethics violations, and then try to cover up the lie?
• Who engage in violence against women?
• Who carry signs that imply racism and threaten violence?
• Who dress as Nazis for fun?
• Who advocate defeating public servants because of their religion?
• Who don't believe in the Constitution?

We cats invite responses, but somehow we don't think we'll hear any. Time for a nap.

Stomping for Votes

By Zamboni

This video pretty much speaks for itself. Just one note in case you're confused: The woman whose head got stomped was carrying an anti-Rand Paul sign. And the stomper is a Paul supporter whom the Paul campaign has belatedly fired.

So, then. Here's the state of the GOP — the party that analysts say has a good shot at taking the House of Representatives next week.

Their Senate candidate in Nevada has called for "Second Amendment remedies." A supporter of hers punched out a supporter of Harry Reid's at a campaign event. Their Senate candidate in Alaska handcuffed and detained a reporter. One of their House candidates likes to dress as a Nazi. And now, this.

These teabaggers are uncouth political thugs. But the truly scary thing is the Republican Party that coddles, promotes and excuses them.

UPDATE: We cats can't believe that we forgot to mention Carl Paladino threatening to "take out" that journalist from The New York Post. We also neglected to cite that nutty Republican pastor who wants to overthrow the U.S. government. WHAT is it going to take for ANY member of the Republican Party to speak out?

UPDATE #2: Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway has called on Rand Paul to man up and apologize to the stomping victim. "A boot stomp to the head of a woman is never appropriate. Rand should apologize to her, stop blaming others, and identify the others involved in this thuggish behavior and disassociate his campaign from them immediately."

"Meg" In A Mess

By Miss Kubelik

So, how long have the Brown people had this up their collective sleeve? Talk about rope-a-dope!

We cats think this has not been a good week for "Meg" Whitman. First, a new poll came out showing Jerry Brown leading her by 13 points in the California Governor's race. And now, this brilliant ad.

How we approve. Republicans spout things we Democrats could zap them on all the time, but we rarely do it. So we PURR in the direction of the Brown campaign for their moxie and their vision.

But what's particularly hilarious about this is that "Meg" has spent $163 million of her own money to buy the Governor's mansion for herself. Even if she threw in another $20 million, in our judgment it won't do her much good. She's reached the point of diminishing returns on her media buy already, so additional spending will probably cost her votes instead of taking 10 percent of Brown's support away.

So what to do? Although we're mindful that Brown hasn't won this election yet, we cats think that "Meg" has only four hopes left:

• Brown commits a massive and unrecoverable mistake between now and next Tuesday.
• The Whitman campaign has something huge on Brown that they've been waiting until the last moment to reveal. (Given how long Brown has been in public life, we think this improbable.)
• The Whitman campaign pulls off a massive GOTV effort, coupled with a successful sabotaging of the Brown GOTV machine.
• Whitman takes down all her current ads and replaces it with a final spot in which she talks directly to the camera, apologizing for running such a piss-poor campaign, for spending an unseemly amount of money, for hiring an illegal immigrant, for not voting, and for treating her employees badly when she was head of eBay.

If we cats were running her campaign, we'd tell "Meg" to go for that last one. Oh, and cue the tears.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Countdown to the Midterms

By Sniffles

It's a little over a week until the midterm elections. We cats won't make any sweeping predictions, although we may try to call some individual races between now and November 2. In the meantime, the following thoughts have occurred to us.

Another misfortune has befallen poor, unshaven teabagger Joe Miller in Alaska: A judge has ruled that he cannot keep private documents pertaining to his employment as a part-time borough attorney. See, Joe wanted to keep 'em under wraps because it's been averred that while in that job, he used his office computer for political purposes. Sigh. Joe hasn't run a very good campaign, has he? That's the thing about these teabaggers — no adult supervision.

You might lump TP'er and all-around insane person Sharron Angle in that category, too. What Senate candidate in his or her right mind receives $14 million in contributions and promptly plows it into direct mail? As Carly Fiorina would say, that is so yesterday. Goodness gracious, but Republican political consultants must be getting rich off these midterms. We wonder if the GOP will get the bang they want for their bucks?

Speaking of which, we cats have had more thoughts along the lines of whether the latest polls, which show interesting Democratic gains in several races, are right. We said earlier that we think Democratic voters are coming home. But we wonder if it's not just our side of the aisle that's starting to stir.

Allow us a couple of historical allusions. We well remember the elections of 1980 and of 1998, in which voters shifted strongly in the week before Election Day. In the first instance, they decided they'd had enough of President Carter and hostages in Iran and were willing to take a chance on Ronald Reagan. In the second, they determined that Newt Gingrich and his fellow Clinton persecutors had overreached, and they denied the GOP their expected Congressional sweep.

Is it possible that voters in 2010 will decide the teabaggers — and the Republican Party that warily embraces them — are too nutty after all?

Perhaps Jon Stewart will help answer that question next weekend. Stay tuned.

Our Eyes Have Not Seen the Glory

By Baxter

Hooray. Just when we cats were despairing that ignorance would indeed not only be deemed fashionable but also be allowed to run rampant in Virginia's schools, sanity appears to have prevailed.

At least, in Loudoun County. School officials there have pulled a wildly inaccurate textbook, Our Virginia, from their fourth-grade classrooms.

Why? Only because the book included a bald-faced lie: That thousands of African Americans fought as Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Sorry, everyone, but there was no Southern equivalent of the 54th Massachusetts.

As fairly new residents of the Commonwealth, we cats are puzzled as to why Virginia can't seem to get the Civil War right. We are a purple state with a diverse population, but the folks in charge — currently Republicans, wouldn't you know — are throwbacks to another era. They want to look moderate, but in reality, they're trying to rewrite history to suit the descendants of former slaveholders, not former slaves.

We cats PURR in the direction of Loudoun County Schools, and urge the rest of the Old Dominion's school systems to follow suit. In the meantime, we're looking forward to all the 150th anniversary events here next year. Should be interesting!

Protesting Too Much

By Zamboni

We cats have long been disenchanted with Juan Williams, but deep down we understood that our displeasure wasn't a reason for National Public Radio to fire him.

On the other hand, why any serious journalist would regularly appear on FOX "News," we had no idea. Because of that, and because of Williams' wildly offensive caricature of Michelle Obama as "Stokely Carmichael in a dress," we long considered him a right-wing jerk and secretly hoped that NPR would can him.

Today, we got our wish.

And the right wing is going crazy. (As if they ever listen to NPR in the first place.)

You know what we cats think? That the over-the-top "outrage" of the famous quitter from Alaska, Fat Mike Huckabee and other Limbaugh Loonies confirms what we always suspected: Juan Williams was their pet. One of their own.

The wingnuts didn't complain like this when CNN fired Rick Sanchez. Why? Because they didn't want to appear to endorse anti-Semitism? Sure. But also because Sanchez usually attacked them for their hypocrisy and stupidity. In contrast, Juan — a fellow FOX "News" traveler — allowed them the public pretense of being objective.

Well, now their cover's been blown, and we cats think it's hilarious. We also PURR in the direction of NPR. But overall, we're weary of people demonizing one another on the basis of ethnicity. If it takes a couple of high-profile firings like Williams and Sanchez to make folks think twice about doing that, great. In the meantime, can we just stop?

UPDATE: Coincidentally, an ex-FOX "News" tech is suing the network, alleging harassment and racism. Why aren't Palin, Huckabee and the gang screaming about that? We cats think we know.

UPDATE #2: We cats had no intention of participating in NPR's fall fundraising drive, because we are already members. But thanks to Juan Williams, we just went online and gave an additional gift to our local NPR station. Prediction: Now that FOX "News" has rewarded him with a cool $2 million and guest-hosting privileges on "The O'Reilly Factor," watch for Williams' rhetoric to sink even deeper into the right-wing cesspool — further proving our point.

Poll Cats

By Miss Kubelik

Recent survey results from several states have gotten our attention in a big way.

The following Democratic candidates are now leading or are statistically tied with their Republican opponents: Jack Conway for Kentucky Senate, Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, Alexi Giannoulias for President Obama's old seat in Illinois, and Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania.

Are these polls accurate? Don't get us wrong — we're happy — but it's hard to know. First, the turnout models are broken. Second, assuming they get turnout correct, it's almost impossible for pollsters to get an accurate voter sample because they aren't calling cell phones. Third, both political parties are using partisan pollsters to move media coverage. And finally, whether for PR or prestige value, organizations that have little business polling something as complicated as a midterm are jumping in with their own surveys. Marshall University, anyone?

The good news is that if the turnout models are indeed broken, pollsters are probably undercounting the Democratic vote. But that said, we cats think that this flurry of recent surges for Conway, Feingold, Giannoulias and Sestak is possible evidence of our fellow Democrats coming home.

Yes, we know the media have predicted a huge GOP sweep — thanks to poll responses to generic ballot questions and the perception that voters are mad as hell. But as an old political sage we know has observed, the only way to know what's really going on is to have intelligence on each and every race.

See, There Was This Dude Named Thomas Jefferson...

By Sniffles

The word "dummies" translates into French as "les nuls." Today, Christine O'Donnell has proved herself a nul in any language.

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" she demanded in a radio debate with her Democratic Senate opponent, Chris Coons.

The audience laughed, and Mr. Coons somehow managed to answer in even tones that it was, um, in the First Amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Oh — that First Amendment.

Okay, so we always knew that Christine O'Donnell was an idiot. But now that she's managed to reach her personal tipping point on the Moron Meter, we think that her fellow teabagger candidates — heck, all Republican candidates, plus Michael Steele, Karl Rove and every Republican talking head on cable T.V. — should be asked the following questions.

• Do you know where separation of church and state appears in the U.S. Constitution?
• Can you quote the passage by heart?
• Do you think the Republican Party should nominate for federal office people who aren't familiar with the U.S. Constitution?
• If not, if you were a voter in Delaware, could you vote for Christine O'Donnell?
• Have you given money to Christine O'Donnell? Have you endorsed her?
• Do you believe in separation of church and state?
• If not, what do you believe in? Should Washington favor one religion over another? Or tell us what religion to practice? If so, which religion would that be?
• Are there other parts of the Bill of Rights that you don't agree with? If so, why?

Maybe we cats are getting a bit carried away. But we can dream, can't we? And one thing we do know for sure: The Constitution makes no law against being a fool. Which must come as a relief to Christine O'Donnell.

And Women Are Supposed to VOTE for These Guys?

By Baxter

Everyone is missing the point about Jack Conway's new Rand Paul attack ad.

It's not about religion. It's about what Rand Paul did to a woman.

We cats don't know too many female friends who would find it amusing to be bound and forced to do things by a bunch of rowdy guys. As Mr. Conway asked in his recent debate with Paul, "When is it ever a good idea to tie up a woman and ask her to kneel before a false idol?"

After he initially tried to deny it, Paul now is implying that the episode was just a harmless prank from his long-ago college days. He doesn't get it, either. Too many well-meaning "pranks" — whether it's frat hazing that gets out of hand or Webcamming your roommate having sex with another man — end in tragedy.

We cats can guarantee you that no woman pictures herself in the "Aqua Buddha" situation with unbridled delight. No female thinks that it's an innocuous event and wishes she could have been there.

This is just the latest example of the disturbing thread of violence that lurks beneath the Republican veneer. Their rhetoric and their past actions are scary indeed. They invoke the need for "Second Amendment remedies." They dress up as Nazis. They threaten to "take out" reporters — even handcuff them. They tie women up for fun.

But what we're upset about is that Jack Conway had the guts to put it in an ad?

Well, we cats SNARL at that idea. It's not Jack Conway but the GOP that needs to learn a new meaning of the word "restraint."

Anchorage's Finest

By Zamboni

So the Alaska Senate race has declined to this: Thugs from Joe Miller's campaign detained and handcuffed a reporter for trying to ask the teabagger candidate a question.

In short, to paraphrase Abraham Ribicoff, Miller has used Gestapo tactics against a journalist who was merely attempting to do his job. Good heavens!

Since Miller and his fellow teabaggers Rand Paul, Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle believe that they're above answering queries from the Fourth Estate, we cats have a proposition for them.

Teabaggers, if you refuse to submit to reasonable questions from the press — who serve as the people's representatives — we cats will assume that the answer to ALL of the following questions is "YES":

• Did you mock Christianity during your college days?
• Have you not paid your federal income taxes — or paid them late?
• Have you fraudulently received unemployment compensation?
• Have you fraudulently received agricultural subsidies?
• Have you lied about your academic record?
• Have financial institutions initiated foreclosure actions against you?
• Have you declared personal bankruptcy?
• Have you been arrested?
• Has the police responded to a domestic violence call about you?
• Are you a self-righteous hypocrite who's putting one over on the needlessly angry and frightened people who say they believe in you?

Groom & Doom

By Miss Kubelik

Did you know that every time we cats groom ourselves, the little scratchy papillae on our tongues catch and pull out loose hairs? Well, those papillae are going to have to do double-duty now, because tonight we feel like tearing our hair out.

Chris Cillizza's to blame. It's hard for us to believe that in this revolting era of teabaggery, political writers like him dare to pen pieces with headlines like "Did Jack Conway Go Too Far?"

Cillizza — who we've always felt is a young man with a lot to learn — clearly has no political memory. Not only are the Republicans way over the top in their recent rhetoric — they've been outrageous and disgusting for a long, long time.

Chris doesn't seem to remember Jesse Helms' racist "white hands" ad against Harvey Gantt. And perhaps he has trouble recalling the despicably slanderous campaign in 2002 against Max Cleland, a triple amputee war hero whom Saxby Chambliss tarred as a traitor. Compared to those egregious (and, unfortunately, successful) efforts, Jack Conway's latest commercial about the two-faced Rand Paul is positively tame.

We cats are tired of Democrats being criticized when they don't respond, and then criticized when they do. And we're tired of lazy journalists who don't do their homework. We SNARL at Chris Cillizza. No scratchy kisses for him.

Tales From The Crypt

By Sniffles

Ahhhh, at last. We cats have been longing to use this wildly unflattering photograph of Lisa Murkowski for simply ages. Now, thanks to a couple of recent developments in the Alaska Senate race, we can.

Alaskans Standing Together, an organization founded by the state's Native regional corporations, just pumped $600,000 into Senator Murkowski's write-in campaign. Seems that members of the First Nations — conservative or not — have a few concerns about teabagger Joe Miller's, um, feelings about them. Gee, ya think? While we cats intend to shoot a few dollars in Democrat Scott McAdams' direction today, this generous PAC donation to Murkowski should keep things interesting. (By further fracturing the Alaska GOP, of course.)

Also, Murkowski has finally decided that the time has come to run those ads that Ted Stevens recorded days before he died. She declined to use them in the primary because she allegedly didn't think it was tasteful. (Actually, she didn't appreciate the danger that her teabagger opponent posed at the time, but never mind.)

We cats think this is great — how appropriate for Halloween! But one caveat for the Senator: As proven by Minnesota — a seat that we've thankfully since recaptured — we'd just caution Ms. Murkowski not to rely on the coattails of a guy who died in a plane crash.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Post-Gay-Wedding Edition

By Baxter

We cats are in a particularly good mood, having attended a simply wonderful wedding last night. Now, in the bright light of day, we have a few questions on the following topics.

Nuptials: Can somebody please explain to us how the vows we witnessed yesterday are supposed to threaten straight marriage? Nobody on the Republican right really goes into detail, and as you know, we cats are curious. And the two straight couples who attended woke up this morning, we presume, just as married as they were before. Hm.

Nincompoops: How can you debate Sharron Angle and NOT score a knockout punch? Incredible.

Nuts: Can we now dispense with the phrase "man up"? When Angle said it to Reid the other night it gave us the cheaps. The super cheaps. Coupled with the famous witch's admonition about "man pants," we cats feel like we've all gone back to the seventh grade.

Numskulls: An idiot on FOX "News" declares that "all terrorists are Muslims"? Now we cats have heard everything. How quickly these right-wingers forget the KKK — not to mention a charming young man named Timothy McVeigh. 

What She Said / What She Should Have Said

By Zamboni

Okay, we cats have had enough of the "I'm sorry to anyone who may have been offended" crap.

Now, it's White House adviser Valerie Jarrett who has done the dirty deed. It just goes to show you that Democrats can be as guilty of this idiocy as Republicans (and Rick Sanchez) are.

After implying in an interview that sexual orientation was "a lifestyle choice," Ms. Jarrett issued an otherwise eloquent mea culpa that she e-mailed to The Washington Post. "I meant no disrespect to the LGBT community," she said, "and I apologize to any who have taken offense at my poor choice of words."

Aaaaarrrrggghh. We cats wish we'd been present to jump on Ms. Jarrett's keyboard when she typed that statement. But since we weren't, allow us to fix it.

"I meant no disrespect to the LGBT community, and I apologize."

See how easy that is?

UPDATE: Oops, the Republicans have just eclipsed Valerie in this department. The NRSC has fired its media company over the West Virginia "hicky" commercial with the following statement: "We apologize to any West Virginia voter who may have been offended by this firm's actions." First, we cats find it unsurprising that a company hired by Republicans would insult those they're trying to manipulate. Second, it's a heck of a lot simpler just to say "We apologize to the voters of West Virginia." What is so difficult about this, people?

Memo to Joe: It's Not Just Newt

By Miss Kubelik

The GOP is so extreme these days that the only way to describe what's going on in the party is to use — well, extremes.

Joe Scarborough — who in 1994 came to Capitol Hill as what we then defined as a conservative Republican — has employed some vivid language to describe the antics of one man: Newt Gingrich.

Scarborough targets his former Speaker, we cats suspect, not just because Newtie's been so nutty but also because Joe must be beyond disillusioned with his erstwhile boss's behavior. Here's a list of the adjectives that, in just one column, Mornin' Joe attaches to Gingrich:

"Cartoonish," "shrill," "cheap," "bizarre," "overblown," "outrageous," "oblivious," "childish," "crazy," "dangerous," and "intemperate." (On that last one: Gee, Joe, ya think?) He also accuses Gingrich of "get[ting] rich off political hate speech."

What Joe doesn't say, and what's truly alarming, is that Gingrich is far from the only Republican living up to these terms. When it comes to GOP candidates like Angle, Paladino, Miller, Toomey, Whitman, Fiorina, McMahon, O'Donnell, and the rest of the 2010 nuts — well , we're truly running out of words.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Canadian Thanksgiving Edition

By Sniffles

Today, our neighbors to the north celebrate Thanksgiving — and as it helpfully coincides with a U.S. federal holiday, we cats are enjoying a three-day weekend. But we've been thinking. Here are some things we are decidedly not thankful for in 2010:

The number of repugnant people who have invaded our consciousness (and therefore, our lives) since the teabaggers hijacked the Republican Party and managed to nominate them. Case in point: Carl Paladino. Our experience is that politicians and religious leaders who target the alleged evils of homosexuality are usually doing it because they are closeted homosexuals themselves.

Eric Cantor. Eric, you're Jewish — why are you a Republican? Get out of that party already. They're a bunch of Nazis.

The foreclosure mess. We cats hate to sound like a bunch of old fuddy-duddies, but didn't there used to be a time when Americans could do anything? Achieve nuclear fission, pass the G.I. Bill, make the middle class accessible to nearly everybody? Now it feels as if most folks think that even a C or D grade is acceptable. Maybe they all work in the home financing industry.

Karl Rove and all shadowy right-wing election spending groups. Thanks a lot, Supreme Court.

So, are we cats in a bad mood this Canadian turkey day? Indeed not. U.S. politics are in a dispiriting state, but we've one thing to be very thankful for: Our pied-a-terre "escape hatch" in Quebec. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Positively Plouffeian

By Baxter

We cats have noticed that the messaging from the White House has become crisper of late.

And we think we have David Plouffe to thank for it.

We always did believe that it was a mistake for President Obama to allow his sharpest political guru to remain in Chicago during the first two years of the Administration. So Plouffe didn't want to leave his family and move to Washington? Tough patooties. The President should have put his foot down, and the Plouffe children should have been doomed to grow up neglected and resentful. After all, the future of the country was at stake.

But better late than never. In the meantime, we cats will admit to being pleased at Plouffe's canny comments about the famous quitter from Alaska's possible run for the Presidency. We also thought that today's Washington Post story — about the teabaggers helping Democrats next month — had Plouffe's fingerprints all over it.

We think this augurs well — both for the next three and a half weeks of campaigning, and for the prep for 2012.

So welcome back, David. We cats PURR in your direction. But you never should have been gone in the first place.

The Republicans' Bad Week

By Zamboni

All is certainly not perfect these days for us Democrats. But we think that Michael Steele and the GOP shouldn't be celebrating quite yet.

Let's see, where do we begin?

• With Christine O'Donnell's "I am not a witch" T.V. spot? (Monty Python: "But you are dressed as one.")
• With the teabagger chair in Nevada who quit because of the Sharron Angle tape?
• With the Joe Miller-Todd Palin cat fight?
• With Meg Whitman's precipitous drop in the polls?
• With Barbara Boxer opening up a lead in the California Senate race?
• With Jim DeMint saying that gays and unwed pregnant women shouldn't teach school?

We give up. We can't pick. But by the way, where is The Missing Mehlman on that last bullet item?

(IMAGE: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," of course.)

UPDATE: We cats were remiss to omit the infamous GOP "hicky" ad from this list. Two days ago, all everyone was talking about was how the Republicans were surging in the Mountain State. Now, to say the least, the story has shifted. We hope that this incident will help the voters of West Virginia realize the high contempt in which the GOP holds them.

"Strangler" Than Fiction

By Miss Kubelik

Oh, goodness, we can hear the caterwauling now. Vice President Biden has said something that surely will alarm the hypocrites on the Republican right.

We say "hypocrites" because the GOP and their teabagger friends have spent the last two years bleating so outrageously we can barely believe they've maintained any kind of a serious presence in the political discourse. And they've only gotten worse, not better. Today, a mere month before the midterms, we have one statewide Republican candidate starting a campaign ad with "I'm not a witch," and another saying he'd like to take away Americans' ability to directly elect their Senators.

With all this nutty behavior as backdrop, it seems silly that anyone could take umbrage at the Vice President wanting to strangle a few Republicans. After all, we don't recall the GOP getting very upset when Grover Norquist said he wanted to do the same to the federal government. In the bathtub, no less.

GOP Fraidy Cats

By Sniffles

Jack Conway is the Democratic candidate for Senate from Kentucky. We cats have been impressed with him for awhile, now.

Apparently, the voters of Kentucky might agree. What used to be a yawner for teabagger Rand Paul has turned into a much tighter race than expected. (Gee, where are all the media folks on this one? Are they still too busy touting the single poll that showed Carl Paladino within striking distance of Mario Cuomo in New York?)

Here's something else about the Kentucky race that got our attention. Mr. Conway agreed to debate Rand Paul on FOX News. And he did. Normally, such an action wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but in a year in which Republican candidates have refused to appear with their Democratic opponents on, say, MSNBC — indeed, at a time in which Republicans and teabaggers have literally run from the press — we think that Mr. Conway has the cojones that the famous quitter from Alaska is so fond of talking about.

Good for Jack Conway. We cats PURR in his direction, and we're going to send some money that way, too.

P.S. This is our 1,000th post. If we do say so ourselves, congratulations to us!

Taxing Our Patience

By Baxter

After a busy weekend, we cats are finally catching up to comment on the pending Supreme Court free-speech case involving the Fred Phelps "church." You know the dirtbags who show up at soldiers' funerals.

We have no doubt that these foul cretins comprise an anti-gay, anti-Semitic hate group, but we wonder whether going after them by denying them their lawful First Amendment rights is wise. Not to mention a losing battle. Make no mistake, we resent them — but not the fact that the Constitution protects their right to despise and defile.

Rather, our question is this: Why hasn't anyone questioned whether this group of haters has the right to be tax-exempt as a church? (Of course, we cats don't believe in churches being tax-exempt in the first place, but that's a subject for another post.) At the very least, the Internal Revenue Service should be all over these Phelps clowns' finances. If they're hiding assets and income in a tax-free shelter, we cats say, throw the book at 'em.

Maybe even the Good Book. After all, the Phelpses deserve to be clobbered with a few Bibles — since they obey none of the commandments contained therein.

Okay, This Is Depressing.

By Zamboni

Canada has a new Governor General, and it's an old white guy.

We're sorry, but that's a bummer. One of the refreshing aspects of liberal governments is that they tend to appoint people who reflect the glorious diversity of humanity. Conservative governments give us the same old, same old.

We may not always have agreed with Michaelle Jean — especially when she allowed Stephen Harper to prorogue Parliament — but we loved the fact that, as a Haitian immigrant to Canada, she didn't look like any of her predecessors. And we were impressed by her evident joy when she welcomed newly minted U.S. President Barack Obama to Ottawa in February 2009.

Ah, well. Perhaps next time, Prime Minister Ignatieff will appoint someone as interesting as Jean. We cats live in hope.

Happy Birthday (and Get Well Soon), Mr. President!

By Miss Kubelik

When we cats saw President Carter in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, he apologized that he was appearing at our event solo. Rosalynn Carter, he said, had returned from their recent trip to China with influenza, and she was home resting in Plains.

The President also said that Mrs. Carter's flu was contagious. So, he joked, if he came down with it himself, we would know that he and Rosalynn had — well, you get the idea.

All righty, then. Seeing as how Mr. Carter ended up in a Cleveland hospital this week with a stomach ailment, we would say that, um, the cat is out of the bag.

At any rate, we're pleased that the President was sprung from MetroHealth in time for his 86th birthday today. And we hope that since they're both now immune, the former First Lady greeted him with a big, wet kiss.