The Friday Political Thread: No Recess!*

David Weigel | August 8, 2008

Unconvincing Quote of the Week
"The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking."
- Arizona Rep. John Shadegg (R), crediting the House GOP protest for a drop in the trading price of oil.

The Week in Brief
- Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, TN beat back an opponent who accused him of supporting the Klan and hating Jesus. (For all of the attention this campaign got, he won by 60 points while Republican Rep. David Davis lost his primary in a race no one paid attention to.)
- Barack Obama became pro-energy exploration, all of a sudden. But he said the pledge of allegiance!
- John McCain whined about the negative turn of the campaign. Why didn't somebody do something about it?
- Anti-abortion zealot Phill Kline got the back hand from voters, for the third time.
- The ACLU sued to get Bob Barr on the Massachusetts ballot. (The circumstances that kept him off are ridiculous.)

Below the Fold
- George McGovern blasts the Employee Free Choice Act.
- Tim Carney tips his fedora to his boss, Robert Novak.
- Ben Smith notices the subterranean theory that mocking Obama as "the One," as McCain has done, is a soft pitch to eschatologically-minded evangelicals.
- Eric Zimmerman watches the Democrats tweak their abortion platform plank.
- Nope. (A bit of an explainer here.)
- Joel Stein offers up some needed sanity to the "foreign oil is killing us!" crowd.
- Julian Sanchez smacks around the House GOP and their fellow travellers.
- Tom Bemis tells the press to cover John Edwards's scandal.

I've heard Republicans compared Nancy Pelosi to Marie Antionette this week, which obviously reminded me of this.

*Headline explained here.