[NY Post]

“Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.” —An “ally” to Thatcher on Palin’s wish for a visit. [Guardian UK]

As America enjoyed its Weinergate Money Shot yesterday afternoon, a curious trend emerged in our Twitter stream: Liberal Defensiveness.

“What about the lying-to-get-us-into-war story?” asked Harry Shearer. “But we still have Clarence Thomas bribery,” observed Steve Weinstein. “Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, & John Yoo and Jay Bybee, when they okayed & ordered torture? Fully erect,” snarked LitBrit. “I don’t remember Weiner campaigning as a Conservative Christian without faults. Newt did though,” observed Anomaly100. “Weiner has been identified for sending topless pics of himself, just like Bush was identified for killing thousands and ruining the economy,” grumbled TLW3.

All of which is true.

And none of which matters.

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Apart from four retirees in south-western Pennsylvania the American people know well enough about Santorum’s ‘Google problem’. But do they know that he also hates wrestling, even though the WWF was his most important client as attorney/lobbyist? To exempt the Federation from noxious state oversight Santorum claimed that since it was not a sport it should not be regulated as one and that steroid use never harmed anyone.

Now I’ve made no secret around here of my general detestation of Sport. Most particularly when balls are involved: whether bounced, dribbled, or smacked with any kind of bat thingy. I don’t care how tight your pants are, or even if they do go transparent in the rain, it’s not enough to make up for the horror of having to watch you run about on astroturf for two hours. But I think I can enjoy watching two (or more) nearly naked men, sweat glistening on their straining bodies, grope and maul each other in public as much as the next chap. Even with his impressive record in the senate—named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals and one of the 20 most corrupt—to label such a virile display as some kind ‘entertainment’ can only harm his chances.

We Americans like contests. And strength. And blood. Wrestling gives us all of this and more. Fair play. Struggle. Triumph in the face of odds that seemed overwhelming. A true reflection of life as we know it. To label such a noble Sport as a mere entertainment is to question our values as a nation. An apology must be forthcoming.

And more pictures of his adorable family.

So, we were thinking the other day, this “scandal” doesn’t really work unless there’s a pattern of naughty behavior…

• Big Government: “Déjà Vu: Another Congressman Bares Naked Torso (and More) for Online Pal”
• Radar: “Weinergate Grows: Another Woman Provides Sex Messages From His Account”
• Capital Tonight: “Rep. Anthony Weiner’s office appears to be on lockdown in the wake of new reports of his exchanging of explicit on-line communications with a woman who is not his wife.”

We don’t have the time to read through the barrage of purported exposés, but if they turn up true, that explains Weiner’s noncommittal remarks about the Mysterious Package.

Update: Weiner confesses…

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 From CBS Face The Nation, May 29, 2011:

HARRY SMITH: Let’s talk about the cutting. You meet with Vice President Joe Biden twice a week, several hours each meeting. The rumblings we’re hearing from it is that you’re actuallymaking progress. Have you really isolated a trillion dollars in– in budget deficit reductions?

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR: Those– those talks which actually we’ve– we’ve been meeting for I think over three weeks now, they have been, I think, all po– all positive. Everything is on the table. We’ve said as Republicans we’re not going to go for tax increases. [Emphasis mine]

HARRY SMITH: Mm-Hm.

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR: I think the administration gets that.

HARRY SMITH: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR: But we’ve also put everything on the table as far as cuts. And I can see, yes, we– we can accomplish well over a trillion dollars in cuts.

 This is what “everything is on the table” means to a Republican. This is what compromise means to a Republican: The revenue side of the Federal budget remains off limts, un touchable, sacrosanct so don’t even ask. But Eric Cantor and his Republican cohorts will graciously allow Democrats to participate in the process by which spending on senior citizens, the poor, our schools, our roads and other physical infrastructure, our public safety, our parks, environmental enforcement and cleanup, and our national defense is slashed and burned.

That’s compromise, Republican style.

And, no, you didn’t need to ask if Harry Smith pointed this absurdity out to Cantor. Of course he didn’t. And you knew that, without even reading the transcript.

Accounts differ regarding the method of alerting the colonists; the generally accepted position is that the warnings were verbal in nature, although one disputed account suggested that Revere rang bells during his ride.

A sentence added to the Paul Revere Wikipedia page at 2:31 p.m. Sunday by user Tomwsulcer.

2:46 p.m. User Dajames, Paul Revere talk page: “In the article on Paul Revere, someone has added false information in an effort to support Sarah Palin’s FALSE claims about Paul Revere… This must be removed as it is a LIE designed to mislead.”

2:50 p.m. Tomwsulcer: “A lie? If you follow Wikipedia’s rules, we must maintain a WP:NEUTRAL position, representing the mainstream position as well as disputed versions. I think the addition represents this fairly — the mainstream position is that Revere’s warnings were verbal, but there are differing accounts that the warnings were done with bells — with two sources: WDHD television plus a live interview, with a highly influential US politician relating these facts.”

2:50 p.m. Sentence deleted by CutOffTies.

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