Bait & Switch

Had enough of anti-gay constitutional amendments and Swift Boat Veterans ads? Well, you're in luck, pardner, 'cause today will mark the official beginning of the Repulicans' campaign to convince you that they are the party of McCain, Schwarzenegger and Giuliani, rather than the party of DeLay, Cheney and Santorum. As evil bastards from across the nation converge on NYC, make sure to ask yourself if you really buy it.

I saw Bush interviewed by Matt Lauer (aka Mr. Hardball) this morning, and he assured Lauer that by the end of his second term, the deficit will be sliced in half. So he's going to go from surplus-spending Bush to deficit-slicing penny-pincher, just by getting "Washington to tighten its belt" (apparently, W. still doesn't consider the White House to be part of "Washington"). With no end in sight to the occupation of Iraq, shouldn't we expect Bush will be bullying Congress into another $87 billion check by the end of the year? Oh, that's right -- if it comes to that, Bush won't care what you or I think anymore. He'll be Mr. Second Termer at that point.

In the meantime, Republican-slash-gay-outcast Andrew Sullivan is back from his annual sabbatical blogging away on his own site:
www.andrewsullivan.com

He's one of the few remaining voices of reason on the right, and he's always worth checking out. I liked his column for The Sunday Times this weekend. I thought it summed up nicely the whole Swift Boat bullshit:
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/main_article.php?artnum=20040828