The Friday Political Thread: As Serious as Hillary Clinton on Energy Policy Edition

Unconvincing Quote of the Week
"Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours."—Karl Rove (caught by Jon Chait) reversing, oh, 10,000,000 words of White House blather about what is and isn't torture. Pay attention, kids, if you want to become America's #1 pundit.

The Week in Brief
– The phrase "throw under the bus" jumped the shark as Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright took turns betraying one another.
– Ron Paul's new book hit the shelves and hit #1 on Amazon's bestseller list.
– Hillary Clinton and John McCain came out swinging for the deeply silly "gas tax holiday."
– McCain rolled out his health care plan, but Jeremiah Wright had no comment so it got ignored.

Below the Fold
– Bob Tyrrell, who has his own motives, mourns for the post-racial, 2007-vintage Barack Obama (cudgeled by the Clintons).
– Peggy Noonan defends Obama, too.
– Hugh Hewitt, no longer so concerned about "religious tests" now that Mitt Romney's hit the mulch pile, has a list of religious questions for Obama.
– Daniel Larison disagrees with me.

Ladies and gentleman, Rick Wakeman!

SATURDAY UPDATE: Two pieces of news.

– Libertarian Party Executive Director Shane Cory has left the LP after a stupid controversy over the party weighing (not subtly) in over the Mary Ruwart story.

– Democrats seized a Republican House seat in Lousiana: Once-promising Republican Woody Jenkins is probably done with politics. A side note: Black state Rep. Mike Jackson lost the Democratic primary to white Democrat Don Cazayoux, then grumpily promised to run in November as an independent. His thinking is that the 35 percent black district could go his way in a three-way race with Barack Obama on the ballot. To drive down turnout in Baton Rouge, he ran a TV ad telling voters not to worry, he'd run again, implying that they could stay home this time. It might have shaved a few points off the total, but the white Dem won anyway. That's got to be comforting to Democrats who worry about the aftershocks if they cudgel Obama.