Something strange has been happening at the Washington Post the last few days.  They're giving very prominent coverage to the smears of Obama's VP committee.

They posted the stuff about Johnson high on the front page of the website.  Now they're picking up conservative attacks on another member of the committee.  Again, prominently on the front page.

This is a attack clearly orchestrated and spoon fed to the media by conservative partisans.  Why is the WaPo so willing to run with it?

I support marraige rights for gays and lesbians 1000%.  I hope that they have these rights recognized and respected and theyir unions are equal to hetero marraiges in every way.

Having said that....

Ay ay ay!  The timing of this gay rights court decision!  This is the reddest juiciest possible red meat to throw in front of Conservatives in an election year.  What a disaster.  Now Obama is going to be forced to go through endless interrogation on the issue and get on the record for this and that.  Dispirited GOP base voters will have something to go vote against.  The rightwing attack machine will have something to tie Dem candidates to in every ad.

The sad thing is that these attacks work.  The timing of suddenly allowing gay marraige in San Fran, Portland and other places in 2004 was a gigantic disaster for the Dems.  Our greatest hope this year is that the GOP voters have nothing compelling to drive them to the polls.  This is exactly the kind of stuff that works for Rove and Co.

Again, the court decision and the movement in the right direction on equal rights is laudable, but the timing is Gawd Awful.

American left:
1)  Point gun at foot
2)  Pull trigger

Hi, I am your jungle guide.  I instructed you and your family to leap into this pit of quicksand with me.  We are now up to our necks.

At this point, we gain nothing by talking about who got us here - who made "mistakes", who is or isn't competent, whether or not I was ever qualified to be a jungle guide in the first place.  That's just rehashing the past - in fact, it borders on "revisionist history."

No, these questions get us nowhere.  What's important now, is that you trust everything I tell you and have total confidence in my ability to get us out of this quicksand.  I think I've earned at least that much respect.

You see, getting out of this quicksand has become a "must win" for all of us, and when you propose taking a quick or "precipitous" route out of the quicksand, you're being disloyal to me, your jungle guide, and frankly to your entire country (by the way, are you wearing a flag lapel pin?)

The problem here is that the quicksand is not the right consistency.  We need to try to firm it up, until it becomes nice solid ground, so then we can just walk right out of here.  So while it may seem that you and your family are "drowning", what we're really doing is treading for awhile, stirring things up.  After awhile, this quicksand will start to "set".

So that's the plan.  You guys keep treading - you're doing a great job.  I'll keep giving you reports on our outstanding progress. 

One more small thing to mention.  I'm just a temp jungle guide, and my time ends in January.  So at that time, a chopper is going to come airlift me out of this quicksand.  Unfortunately, there's not room for all of us (well, really just for me). 

But I'm positive that by then your quicksand treading will be opaying dividends.  Corners will be turned.  Lights will be coming on in tunnels.

So sorry that the jungle tour didn't turn out as planned.  But don't worry about payment.  I've got your grandkids' credit card, so I'll just put it on that.