Never saw anything like this. I went to Real Clear Politics tonight, and here's the top three headlines they're featuring, all in a row:

Obama: In Need of a Game Changer - David Gergen, CNN
Conventions Need a Believable Script - Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal
Obama Needs a Narrative - Steven Stark, Boston Phoenix

All of the sudden, everybody and his little dog is telling Obama what he needs, including Karl Rove.

Well, thank you all for your concern. But I already know what Obama needs, I already said so in a diary earlier this week--and thank God some people at the Obama campaign woke up and now agree. Look at this:
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More Please!  At the moment only airing in Georgia... CNN?  This is the first true Obama "Kidney Punch" of the season, lets see if the Media bites.  Clearly it indicates a foul quid-pro-quo... low blow yes... effective? YES  Finally some Chicago style bloodsport...

Script

"It was one of Washington’s biggest scandals. And the Republican power broker Ralph Reed was in the middle of it. In deep with convicted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"But when the Senate investigated, the senator in charge never even called Reed to testify....And that senator? John McCain. And who’s now raising money for McCain’s campaign? Ralph Reed. For 26 years in Washington, John McCain’s played the same old games. We just can’t afford more of the same."

On one side of Peachtree Center Avenue, members of Georgia's organized labor community held up "Teamsters for Obama" signs and picketed in front of the Mariott Marquis hotel chanting, "Bush, McCain, Same Thing."  On the other side of the street, anti-war protestors, armed with bullhorns, led several cadences of "McCain says warfare, we say healthcare."

There's no word if John McCain saw or heard any of the demonstrations against his Atlanta visit today but nevertheless, the several dozen protestors gathered downtown this afternoon intended to express their dissent at a John McCain presidency.

Among those in attendance at the protest were state Democratic Party Chair Jane Kidd and state Sen. David Adelman (D - Atlanta) who used John McCain's visit to highlight his ties to controversial Republican Ralph Reed.

"We are here today on the streets of Atlanta with real Georgians who are struggling and need our support. Later today, inside this fancy hotel, John McCain will be meeting with Jack Abramoff's colleague Ralph Reed and other lobbyists to hear about their clients," Kidd said at a press conference directly across the street from most of the protestors.

John Cornyn represents everything big. Big Business, big oil and most importantly himself Big John.

If you like Big - Big John is your man.

Big John also likes big corruption. Karl Rove the Big Bad Evil Genius held a fundraiser for him today in El Paso

Oh there is a big connection between Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Big John.

This guy is just big time.

Senator John McCain may have helped investigate the Jack Abramoff affair, but the stench of the scandal continues to engulf McCain's campaign and his Republican Party.  On Friday, convicted friend-of-Jack and former Ohio congressman Bob Ney was released from a Cincinnati halfway house.  And on Monday, McCain will attend an Atlanta fundraiser hosted by former Christian Coalition wunderkind Ralph Reed, who partnered with Abramoff in extracting millions of dollars from tribal Indian clients.

John McCain:

Anti-Bush but flip-flopped to join him!

Against cutting taxes but flip-flopped to please Conservative backers.

Prisoner Of War at the infamous Hanoi Hilton who flip-flopped on the use of torture.

So what else is new? Flip-flopping on Republican corruption!

Third Bush term? "Nonsense," say McCain's buddies in the press. "Don't you remember the McCain of 2000?"

Alas, that McCain has no resemblance to the McCain of 2008. The McCain of 2008 has no issue with Ralph Reed, recently implicated in an Indian gambling scandal with Jack Abramoff, fund-raising for him.

Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, was tied to the corruption scandal involving Jack Abramoff, the highly paid Washington lobbyist now serving a six-year prison term. Much of the Abramoff scandal was exposed by an investigation led by McCain when he chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

McCain's campaign said Tuesday that Reed has no official role in the presidential campaign. But that didn't stop Democrats from castigating Reed's participation in Monday's fund-raiser at the Marriott Marquis.

Anything to win, be it character assassination, acceptance of Rove's hirelings as campaign strategists, lobbyists running his campaign, and kissing the ring of lobbyists and crooks.

Reed, whose [GA Lt. Gov.] campaign was torpedoed by his affiliation with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, noted he's also agreed to serve as a member of the McCain Victory 2008 Team, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

That's the John McCain of 2008, Republican through and through. And since he's running a third Bush campaign, there's no reason to think his term in office won't be a third Bush term, except that McCain is far more undisciplined than Bush. But, as he reminds us every day, he loves hanging out with the same people Bush did, especially if it will get him elected.

There are some items up on News Unfiltered that may interest the community.

DNC released a new web ad on McCain's threat to Social Security titled "Roosevelt":

On the 73rd Anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act--creating a landmark program that has saved millions of Americans from poverty--the Democratic National Committee today released a new web video called "Roosevelt" that highlights the threat John McCain's radical, out of touch agenda poses to the retirement security of millions of Americans. The ad features President Roosevelt's grandson, James Roosevelt Jr., telling John McCain to "keep your hands off our Social Security."

Full release

Last month John McCain said that Americans are tired of the Internet. It's highly unlikely that he was actually speaking for all Americans, or even anything more than a small brood of Luddites. It is more likely that he himself is tired of the Internet, or perhaps just tired, period. He has never been particularly fond of it, even as he chaired the Senate committee responsible for regulating it.

Brought to you by...
News Corpse, The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.

Howard Dean makes a statement on today's shooting at Arkansas Democratic Party:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement on the shooting today at the Democratic Party headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas: "This senseless tragedy comes as a shock to all of us. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chairman Gwatney and his family and we pray for his full and speedy recovery. While the investigation of this shooting continues, and our primary concern remains with Bill and his family, we commend the courageous and speedy action of law enforcement officials in apprehending the suspect."

Read more.

John McCain is a Corruptionist. For those without a dictionary, that means that he is a politician who has protected and upheld corrupt practices throughout his political career.

His dirty work is obscured by his carefully constructed myth as a "maverick" and his false mask of a reformer. It is all hype. His reputation is built on a twisted web of lies and protected by a legion of well trained sycophants in the media.

Every now and then, a clear portrait of McCain emerges such as last week’s profile in the Phoenix New Times by Amy Silverman, who wrote about the sordid career of the Senator from Arizona—a man she has been covering for years. It is a must read.

Mark it down as yet more data points proving McCain’s deep corruptionist tendencies.

There are many more. His campaign is run by lobbyists and McCain’s bends over backwards to reward the clients of his staff with statements and policy positions.

And then there is McCain’s embrace of Ralph Reed.

WTF!

To the jump...

On Tuesday, Jon Stewart welcomed former Christian Coalition wunderkind and Jack Abramoff scandal figure Ralph Reed to the Daily Show to pitch his new book, Dark Horse.  But while the two discussed Reed's joining Scooter Libby, Bill O'Reilly and Lynne Cheney among the ranks of racy right-wing novelists, Stewart gave the disgraced lobbyist and failed Georgia Republican pol a free ride when it came to Reed's own close association with Abramoff.

I.  Background:  GOP Foreign Influence Peddling

Senator John McCain has proved to be Jack Abramoff’s best friend.  

As Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee from 2005-2007, McCain was instrumental in suppressing evidence of Jack Abramoff’s role in directing illegal foreign payoffs to ranking members of the Republican Party.

McCain also did a big favor for Abramoff’s principal partners in crime, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, identified in the 2006 Committee report as key players in the Choctaw Indian and Marianas Island scandals. Not one of the principal witnesses in the matter were compelled to publicly testify by McCain's panel.  The Committee also sequestered 99 percent of the documents it received, and these remain locked away, unseen by the public, in Senate files.

But there’s much more to the scandal than the Indian tribes rip-off McCain did disclose. The strand that runs through all the Abramoff-McCain relationship is foreign money – many, many millions – that Jack, Grover and Ralph funneled to GOP leaders from some of the world’s worst bad guys as part of a foreign influence-peddling operation.

FOLLOW MORE DIRTY GOP MONEY below . . . .

So Rove has advice for Obama?  I hope Obama both "rejects and denounces" any and all support and advice from Rove.  

"Bush's Brain" is the single greatest example of everything that is wrong with modern politics.  So tonight, Dan Abrams is discussing Karl Rove's increasingly ubiquitous presence on the Fox News Propaganda Talk Network, and questioning whether he is a legitimate "pundit" or a mere propagandist.   And there's Tucker Carlson, defending Karl Rove, calling him a guy with a "legitimate" point of view, a mere political "pundit"......  Yes, the same Tucker Carlson who was SO wrong, for SO long .... a guy I want to like, but who is clearly just arguing a point to play devil's advocate ....  maybe this time for the devil himself.

Karl Fucking Rove, a legitimate point of view?  I guess if you call Organized Crime a legitimate point of view, you'd be right.   Obama should reject the support of Karl Rove....should denounce the politics of Karl Rove.....and challenge the American public to expect and demand more.  And if the American Public wants to debate whether and how big a complete fraud Karl Rove is.....then have Karl Rove testify and  honor the senate's subpoena.

In conservative political circles, you can't keep a bad man down; he'll just come back and write a novel.  And so comes word that former Christian Coalition wunderkind, Jack Abramoff crony and failed Georgia GOP candidate Ralph Reed is joining Scooter Libby, Lynne Cheney and Bill O'Reilly among the pulp pushers of the right.

Yesterday's mini-explosion over Michelle Obama's comments:

"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."

What interesting about this isn't just Bill O'Reilly's idiotic ill-advised "not gonna start a lynching party" comments, - gee, thanks for the consideration Bill -  but really the very serious disconnect and failure to comprehend the very simple point Michelle was making on the issue of "Pride".

Turning to CNN during the election so far, it should be obvious that the producers have really gone all out to be the best and most effective reporting station for 2008.  They've spent a ton of money on graphics, and the coverage has been pretty good.

They have screwed up a couple of times.  See, for instance, the awkward floating bar graph during Iowa that Cooper juggled in mid-air while others were trying to speak.

But what is up with Ralph Reed?  We're talking about a guy who the most right of right people in the south rejected him mainly because of his dishonest tactics when he tried to run for office.

The list goes on.  You know how people are falling around Jack Abramoff?  Reed has been his buddy since 1981, and guess what: Abramoff is the honest one of the two.

I'm frustrated.  I don't want to watch Chris Matthews and I think Anderson is as handsome as a straight man could claim.  

And CNN really has the best coverage.  I wish CNN would ditch this ridiculous character so that Ralph Reed can go... go... somewhere else.