In which we present a colloquy between Wee George Stephanopoulos and Michele Bachmann, who is Not a Flake.

Stephanopoulos: Earlier this year you said that the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence worked tirelessly to end slavery. Now with respect Congresswoman, that’s just not true. Many of them including Jefferson and Washington were actually slave holders and slavery didn’t end until the Civil War…

Bachmann: Well if you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that’s absolutely true. He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father’s secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery…

Stephanopoulos: He wasn’t one of the Founding Fathers — he was a president, he was a Secretary of State, he was a member of Congress, you’re right he did work to end slavery decades later. But so you are standing by this comment that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery?

Bachmann: Well, John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy but he was actively involved.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Quincy Adams was 9.

John Quincy Adams a Founding Father? Michele Bachmann Says Yes [ABC]

It might come as a surprise that Arizona has — well, had — one of the more interesting campaign-finance laws in the country. If you signed on, the state would hand you a pile of cash, as is customary. But the state would also hand you more cash if your non-subsidized opponent money-bombed yer ass. And the state would hand you even more cash if a third-party group money-bombed your opponent — or decided to go all Willie Horton on you.

In other words, Arizona served as an aggressive retailer, meeting or beating any opponent’s offer. The more they raised, the more you got.

Until Monday, when the Supreme Court deemed that unfair competition.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated. Next, please clear all liquids from your throat. Finally, we ask you to grip the edges of your table to provide proper support. Because, folks, we’re going on a ride:

Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne.

The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo’s John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer.

Thank you all. Please exit to the right. Souvenir photographs will be available in the lobby.

The wrong John Wayne [Washington Times]

“A Chicago jury has found former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich guilty of 17 of the 20 charges in his corruption trial. Blagojevich was found not guilty on one of the counts, and the jury deadlocked on two.” [TPM]

“The Supreme Court on Monday struck down on First Amendment grounds a California law that barred the sale of violent video games to children. The 7-to-2 decision was the latest in a series of rulings protecting free speech, joining ones on funeral protests, videos showing cruelty to animals and political speech by corporations.” L33t Hax0r Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion. [NYT]

“Michele Bachmann isn’t accepting an apology from Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace for asking her yesterday, ‘Are you a flake?’” [Politico]

The cruel reality of Popular Entertainment is that it needs to be entertaining before it can be popular. Your mileage may vary with the next tentpole comic-book movie to desecrate your local multiplex, but as the producers of the Spider-Man musical have learned, it’s not as easy as it looks.

Which is why we’ve never had much patience with the Liberal Hollywood Conspiracy complaint. Yes, Norman Lear wore his politics on his sleeve, but All in the Family was funny, and Rob Reiner certainly wasn’t an untouchable youth hero. For that matter, jumping ahead a generation, we thoroughly enjoyed the fourth season of 24, which was so wonderfully over-the-top that we felt deprived if Keefer didn’t shoot somebody in the thigh on a given Monday night.

And hey, we still enjoy Mamet, even if he is a fucking asshole.

All of which is to say, the well-intentioned producers behind a new direct-to-DVD TV series are missing the point:

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