OK (sigh), it's time to look at the horserace

Now that the second-quarter money-raising figures are in for the presidential candidates, I will begin to focus on the primary race in detail in the coming weeks. I have been reluctant to do so, mostly because it's just too damn early, but with the primaries only six months away, I just can't continue to ignore them.

The only time I have previously dipped my toe into these waters was back in April, when I ran a two-part series on all the Democratic candidates the media weren't telling you about. Since the media are still ignoring them, the articles [Part 1, Part 2] are worth reading for anyone interested in the "other" candidates.

Since I haven't covered them yet, my first articles will examine the differences between the three frontrunners. I will use the same format I used previously to examine their positions, policy ideas, and websites.

I feel that such scrutiny is necessary, since the mainstream media are currently running in-depth stories from John Edwards' hairstylist. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not.

OK, to be fair, there was an interesting story in the same paper on how the Romney campaign has hired the same marketing experts used in both Bush campaigns to microtarget voters. It's a long article, and rather chilling, but at least it is actual "news," rather than a "personal grooming story."

Scooter Libby followup

Three reactions to the Scooter Libby story are worth noting here. The first is from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow himself, who wrote an opinion piece for USA Today. Of course, Tony sees nothing wrong with what Bush did -- but then again, he's paid to say that, so it's exactly what you would expect him to say.

While Tony's piece has some amusing statements, none could top this whopper:

Many analysts cleverly avoid grappling with either of these issues, and instead try to analyze the commutation as a raw political exercise. That sort of analysis is off-base. The president was not motivated by politics in making this decision. If he had made the decision based on opinion polls, he wouldn't have lifted a finger.

OK, Tony. Right.

The second reaction was a surprising one to read, coming as it did from Reverend Sun Myung Moon's newspaper, The Washington Times, usually a reliable staunch conservative voice of support for President Bush. They actually took the intellectually honest position that since they had made such a big fuss out of Clinton, the only thing they could support for Libby was reducing Libby's prison sentence to what the parole board had recommended as the minimum -- 15 months. Now, I'm not normally a fan of the Washington Times, but I do salute them for risking the wrath of conservatives for such a consistent stand.

But none of this exonerates the commutation. Perjury is a serious crime. This newspaper argued on behalf of its seriousness in the 1990s, during the Clinton perjury controversy, and today is no different. We'd have hoped that more conservatives would agree. The integrity of the judicial process depends on fact-finding and truth-telling. A jury found Libby guilty of not only perjury but also obstruction justice and lying to a grand jury. It handed down a very supportable verdict. This is true regardless of the trumped-up investigation and political witch hunt. It is true regardless of the unjustifiably harsh sentence.

Had Mr. Bush reduced Libby's sentence to 15 months, we might have been able to support the decision. Alas, he did not.

Wow. Even Tony Blankley's editorial writers say Scooter should have gone to jail.

I saved the best one for last. Keith Olbermann, the day before our national birthday, called loudly for Bush and Cheney to resign. His remarks, read on the air on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC, can be read at Salon (where he used to work).

It's a rip-snortin' good read, and it ends with the following:

Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign. Would that you could say that, Mr. Bush. And that you could say it for Mr. Cheney. You both crossed the Rubicon yesterday. Which one of you chose the route no longer matters. Which is the ventriloquist, and which the dummy, is irrelevant. But that you have twisted the machinery of government into nothing more than a tawdry machine of politics is the only fact that remains relevant.

It is nearly July Fourth, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a king who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them -- or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them -- we would force our independence and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time -- and our leaders in Congress, of both parties -- must now live up to those standards which echo through our history. Pressure, negotiate, impeach: get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our democracy, away from its helm.

And for you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.

Keith's not exactly mincing words. He's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore!

On a final note, it appears the public's already made up their minds: Rasmussen reports that the public now believes Bush is only 1% better than Richard Nixon. But then, he's got 18 months to try to top Tricky Dick's all-time record!