While we have the Wayback Machine warmed up, our inaugural post on September 25, 2008, was “Looks Like We Picked the Wrong Week to Quit Campaigning”. And lo, the inspiration for that post is back in the news:

McCain said Bush called him in off the campaign trail, saying a worldwide economic catastrophe was imminent and that he needed his help. “I don’t know of any American, when the president of the United States calls you and tells you something like that, who wouldn’t respond,” McCain said. “And I came back and tried to sit down and work with Republicans and say, ‘What can we do?’ “

Of course, Hank Paulson doesn’t remember it that way:

Read more »

Let’s set the Not-So-Wayback Machine for last Wednesday and drop in on the National Journal…

The first skirmish in the war over the GOP WH nomination takes place this weekend among thousands of conservative activists, and veterans of previous straw polls see a tight battle between ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney and ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin developing at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

In an informal survey of GOP party leaders, strategists, activists and pundits representing backers of virtually every potential candidate in the field, a narrow plurality say Palin will win this weekend’s straw poll. 22 of 48 GOPers surveyed chose Palin, while 20 chose Romney.

Whoops!

Of course, nobody expected Ron Paul to deny Mittens a fourth straight win as Biggest CPAC Loser. Nobody except the Paultards who punked the vote, of course.

And while we’ll agree that past failures are no guarantee of future failure, the only reason we paid attention to the CPAC Straw Poll was because everybody told us to.

So enjoy the disarray, gang. We’d enjoy it more ourselves, if Demrats only had a clue how to take advantage of it.

CPAC Vets See Tight Romney-Palin Race [Hotline On Call]

Ron Paul Runs Away With CPAC Straw Poll [Village Voice]

Title: “Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda”

Authors: Sean Hannity

Rank: 14

Blurb: “Barack Obama and his radical team of self-professed socialists, fringe activists, and others are trying to remake the American way of life. They have used their new Democratic majority to launch an alarming assault on our capitalist system — while abandoning the war on terror, undermining our national security, and weakening our position in the eyes of our enemies. The ‘candidate of change’ is threatening to change our country irreparably, and for the worse — if we don’t act to stop him now.”

Review: “Either you’re not paying attention or you’re also a liberal statist.”

Customers Also Bought: “How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America,” by David Kupelian (“managing editor of online news giant WorldNetDaily”)

Footnote: Obama seems to be defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda just fine. Get back to us when he does something that reflects why we elected him.

Conservative Victory [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

Alexander M. Haig Jr., Commanding White House Aide, Dies at 85 [NYT]

[Stinque Reader Advisory: No snitching.]

Following the CPAC news that Dick Armey is endorsing Mike Lee, we cornered Mike Lee for an exclusive interview.

Please note: These are real, attributable, on-the-record quotes by Mike Lee. You can’t make up this shit.

Stinque: When did you learn that Dick Armey was endorsing Mike Lee?

Mike Lee: Somewhere between googling for gay porn and masturbating on ChatRoulette.

Stinque: Is it true you’re challenging incumbent Senator Bob Bennett in the Utah primary?

Mike Lee: Who? What? Utah? Are you fucking kidding me? I don’t think I can afford enough Purell to shake the hands of all those pigfuckers.

Stinque: Don’t you wear magic underwear?

Mike Lee: It’s not as magic as advertised, unless God loves racing stripes.

Read more »

We’ll skip the Shillong jokes, mainly because they’re better heard than written:

The government in the Indian state of Meghalaya has confiscated textbooks showing pictures of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette and a can of beer.

The book has been used for primary classes and has caused a furore in the north-eastern state, where more than 70% of the population are Christians…

The controversial picture of Jesus was discovered in cursive writing exercise books being used at a private school in the state capital, Shillong.

As it happens, that particular image is not hard to find online, which makes us wonder whether there’s an innocent mistake involved — we could easily insult Hindis or Muslims if we weren’t paying attention.

On the other hand — dayum. Now there’s a dude we could have a conversation with.

Indian state confiscates ‘blasphemous’ Jesus textbooks [BBC]

Tim Pawlenty, second-string veep contender to Sarah Palin, shows that maybe John McCain made a better choice than we thought:

Conservatives could learn a lot from Tiger Woods’ wife Elin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said at the Conservative Political Action Conference today.

“She said, I’ve had enough,” Pawlenty said. “We should take a page out of her playbook and take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government.”

Read more »