Chuck Todd wrote on Wednesday about McCain's disheartening recent moves to the right:

The most under-covered transformation in the month of August happened in the state of Arizona. During his end-of-summer trip home, McCain put to rest any rumors/hope some had that he would buck both parties and start his own presidential movement for 2008. How?

(Warning: to all our friends in the media who believe McCain is the great savior against the rise of religious conservatives, the following information may make you spit out your coffee.)

In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star, McCain came out in favor of the teaching of "intelligent design" and supported one of the most strict anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives in the country.

This made me laugh.

[Anderson] Cooper is among a handful of TV figures who boosted their profile during and after Hurricane Katrina. Others oft-praised by critics include Shepard Smith of Fox News Channel and Brian Williams of NBC News.

I've got no particular problem with Anderson Cooper, and I like Brian Williams, but come on: Shepard Smith as "oft-praised"? Give me a break.

Poor Santa.

The Danish air force yesterday said it had paid about $5,000 in compensation to a part-time Santa Claus whose reindeer died of heart failure when two fighter jets roared over his farm.

How great would it be if Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were both indicted, say, tomorrow? With Tom DeLay currently under indictment, and Bill Frist just a heartbeat away,* indicting Rove and Libby would be the icing on a particularly tasty cake (sort of a righteous version of the Saturday Night Massacre).

* - I don't really believe that will happen, or even that it's necessarily called for. But it's fun to dream.

Make sure your sound is on, and check out Bob Odom's campaign website from 2003. (Odom - for what it's worth - won, possibly on the strength of his jingle.)

Strange James Rosen strangely interviews an unusually-strange Condi Rice:

MR. ROSEN: Madame Secretary, I'll be blunt. Did you ever do drugs?
SECRETARY RICE: (Laughter.) James, why don't you go back to Iran? (Laughter.)
MR. ROSEN: (Laughter.) I don't think they'd like me there either. (Laughter.)

"(Laughter.)," indeed.

Great profile of Rick Santorum. (I'll grant that it's not hard to make Santorum look like an ass, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't appreciate it when someone takes the time to do it.) Quotage:

"Not much athletic ability but as much heart and desire as anyone on the team," [said high school teammate Larry Goettler.] "He was not afraid to take it on the chin. Rick could take an elbow under the boards with the best of them."
...
"Rick was a funny guy," wrote [one of Santorum's cousins]. "He sported a bushy moustache for a time, wore Hawaiian shirts and smoked cigars. He liked to laugh, drink and call things 'horsey-assey.' He was very popular and fun to be around. I think the change happened when he met Karen."

The Washington Post has an epiphany:

The wild day of maneuvering made clear that beneath the image of lockstep discipline in the House - which DeLay himself enforced for years - the GOP caucus is rife with ambitious personalities in not-so-subtle competition.

Silly tourists: Trix are for reporters.

DeLay soon emerged and explained that he would have a statement shortly.

It came less than two hours later in DeLay's primary office on the first floor. Outside the door, reporters were told to line up, confusing tourists who thought it was another queue to see more of the historic building.

Yesterday's Note sussed out the identity of Bush's next nominee. In a manner of speaking.

As for the identity of Mr. Bush's pick, we can't tell you exactly whom he will choose. But we have devised a matrix of questions that will lead all Note readers inexorably to the right answer.

If you put these statements in order from 'most on the President's mind' to 'least on the President's mind,' you will know his choice:

A. 'Harriet Miers is Al Gonzales in a skirt with size six shoes and without the vexing paper trail.'

B. 'Bushie, I promise, my third pick will be a woman.'

C. 'I think the 90% of the base would like to see a little Sister Soulja'ing of the other 10% of the base.'

D. 'Steve Schmidt can sell anything.' (Note to Senator Alexander: read that as 'almost anything,' and remember that Steve was young and inexperienced then.)

E. 'She was on WHICH side of the Michigan affirmative action case???!!??'

F. 'Are we SURE that Portugual is an Hispanic country?'

G. 'I think old Harry could stand a stick in the eye at this point.'

H. 'So John Lewis, Paul Wolfowitz, and Clarence Thomas will go on 'The Daily Show' together defending him?'

I. 'I understand: under no circumstances can I call her 'Owenie' or 'Sissy' at the announcement.'

J. 'The white-Catholic-male-from-New-Jersey quota is not quite yet filled, right?'

Oh, the greatness. DeLay indicted.

Mitt Romney goes water skiing.

He's actually pretty good, but as Last Call! asked, "Is 'Mitt Romney' Mormon for 'John Kerry'?"

I swear, sometimes it seems like this administration wants to lose my respect:

First lady Laura Bush is scheduled to visit the Gulf Coast today to participate in the filming of the ABC reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Michael Brown resigns in disgrace, and they keep paying him? That just doesn't seem right.

Brown told congressional investigators Monday that he is being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a senior official familiar with the meeting.

How is it that no one noticed the fifty-two extra seconds that appeared from thin air during the fourth quarter of the New England-Pittsburgh game?

Disclaimer: I was actually watching the game at the time, and I did not notice it.

Move over, Nellie! There's a new Benator in town:

Affleck spokesman Ken Sunshine said the rumors are baseless, though "he would be a superb candidate for public office in the future. Right now, he's very busy directing his first feature movie for Disney, 'Gone, Baby, Gone.'"

"Can we wrap this scene, please!? I've got a caucus in fifteen goddamn minutes!" (Or, perhaps more accurately: "Can we wrap this caucus, please!? I've got a scene in fifteen goddamn minutes!")

Follow-up: Mark Warner hears the Ben Affleck rumor. Laughs.

This is sappy, but I have to admit that it makes me like Charlie Weis.

Steven "Loneliest Man in the World" Stough. A Dover (Pennsylvania) Republican who believes in evolution.

"You can dress up intelligent design and make it look like science, but it just doesn't pass muster," said Mr. Stough, a Republican whose idea of a fun family vacation is visiting fossil beds and natural history museums. "In science class, you don't say to the students, 'Is there gravity, or do you think we have rubber bands on our feet?'"

From the Amazon review of Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!

"This full-color illustrated book is a fun way for parents to teach young children the valuable lessons of conservatism."

Sounds like a hoot.

Britain's Observer headlines an article: "Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina." And I though the Idaho weatherman story was a trip.

Bill for First Lady. Nicely done.

From a long San Francisco Chronicle article about Pat Tillman's life and death:

Baer, who served with Tillman for more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, told one anecdote that took place during the March 2003 invasion as the Rangers moved up through southern Iraq.

“I can see it like a movie screen,” Baer said. “We were outside of (a city in southern Iraq) watching as bombs were dropping on the town. We were at an old air base, me, Kevin and Pat, we weren’t in the fight right then. We were talking. And Pat said, ‘You know, this war is so f— illegal.’ And we all said, ‘Yeah.’ That’s who he was. He totally was against Bush.”

An undoubtedly-former intern learns the importance of dialing carefully.

"You are a fishmonger."

Randomly-generated Shakespearean insults. Great fun.

(Another great insult generator can be found here.)

David Brooks writes a good piece contrasting Kerry and the Fightocrats with Edwards and the Poorocrats.