The Friday Political Thread: Special Kilted Edition

I wormed my way into another Inside Washington Weekly podcast over the weekend; the audio is here. Also,there is nothing political about this, but the thread over at the Onion AV Club review of Mike Myers' colostomy bag-cum-motion picture The Love Guru made me laugh a few times. Please turn your attention to when commenters come up with names for sequels. Some favorites: Love Guru 2: Shit Gets Real, Love Guru 2: Bigurious, Love Guru 2: Mumbai Drift, and Love Guru and Robin.

The Week in Brief
- Arizona became the 20th state to say "Uh, no thanks" to REAL ID.
- Habeas Corpus was brought back to life, and John McCain got pissed.
- A criminal surfaced to accuse Barack Obama of breaking the law, then got arrested. (If you want to see the video of the guy's lawyer bragging about his enormous crotch, it's here.)
- Barack Obama destroyed the public financing system.
- California gays got hitched.
- The Democrats caved on FISA, like you knew they would.

Above the Fold
Not So Vast. Jonathan Martin has a must-read piece on the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy's agenda to stop Barack Obama. Short take? There isn't one.

Conversations with more than a dozen Republican strategists find near unanimity in the belief that, at some point, there will be a real third-party effort aimed at Obama. But not one knows who will run it, who will pay for it, what shape it will eventually take or when such a group may form. More worrisome for Republicans who believe such an outside attack apparatus is essential to defeating Obama, some key individuals and groups who were being looked to for help say they won't be involved.

This was, you'll recall, part of the rationale Obama gave for going off public financing: Scary Republican 527s. But if that argument was overblown in 2004 (lefty 527s actually spent more than right-wing ones, but lacked dynamite like the Swift Boat ads), it's utter vapor now. Even worse:

Richard Collins, a wealthy Dallas-based entrepreneur, bankrolled "StopHerNow," an entity set up to defeat the former First Lady.

"For six months, it's been do we stop her, stop him or stop somebody else?" he notes.

"We spent 18 months and millions of dollars making 'Hillary The Movie,'" laments David Bossie, head of Citizens United and a longtime Clinton tormentor. "We're incredibly proud, but the problem is the film has no relevance anymore."

Hate to say I told you so.

Below the Fold
- J.H. Huebert fails to pay his dues in the Cult of the Presidency.
- John Henke informs Barack Obama that Islam doesn't give you cooties.
- Thoreau tells Obama to sack up on FISA. (He kind of didn't.)
- Chris Cilliza ranks the 20 most volatile House races. (if every seat on his list flipped, the Democrats would gain a 244-191 overall majority.)
- Sarah Lai Stirland tells the sordid tale of how bloggers ended the "career" of Obama smear-er Larry Sinclair.

I stumbled across a video of Yes's "Onward" illustrated by paintings of the Stations of the Cross. Is it Politics 'n' Prog worthy? Ask Jesus, smart guy.