Junior High Journalism

From Joe Coscarelli at Press Clips (blog) at the village VOICE:

As interest in Anthony Weiner’s penis and the dirty messages that brought it out to play begins to wane, we focus instead on the media coverage of Anthony Weiner, thereby proliferating Anthony Weiner coverage. Hm! It’s a conundrum, especially for those who go on television to proclaim, “The degree of piling on: the way it hijacks cable news, the way it hijacks the morning shows, the way it is all over the Internet says to me that we are more interested in covering salacious topics than matters of the economy, on matters of war and peace,” while simultaneously writing for a news organization doing just that. Oh, hello there — Howard Kurtz, is that you? Why yes, it is.

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Tom Coburnt

From THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR:

The sordid tale of former Sen. John Ensign (R) of Nevada is casting its dark ethical – and perhaps legal – shadow wider and wider in Washington.

Aside from the likelihood that Ensign will face criminal charges, recent revelations don’t paint a very good picture of Sen. Tom Coburn, former senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum, nor the Justice Department.

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The Hot Seat

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

The resignation of scandal-plagued Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), and the expected appointment of current Republican candidate Rep. Dean Heller to the seat, could portend a political mess of a wholly different sort: A special election for Heller’s House seat — and the conundrum for Republicans posed by the potential candidacy of their losing U.S. Senate nominee from 2010, Sharron Angle.

Angle, who lost the 2010 Senate race despite the national Republican wave — due to controversy over extreme statements about “Second Amendment remedies” to Democratic policies, and her statements in favor of phasing out Social Security and Medicare — has already been running for the House seat, along with retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, who was chief officer of the U.S.S. Cole when it was attacked by al Qaeda in 2000. In addition, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and state GOP chair Mark Amodei are reportedly considering the race.

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Cindy Hampton Isn’t the Only One John Ensign Screwed!

From 8NEWSNOW:

LAS VEGAS — The pieces continue to fall into place for a political shake up like Nevada has never seen.

Senator John Ensign is stepping down, Congressman Dean Heller may take his place and the chain reaction is now uncharted territory that could cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Governor Brian Sandoval said Friday he will name a replacement for Ensign before May 3rd. If Heller is the selection, as has been expected, state leaders actually have no idea of what exactly to do next.

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Ensign Family Values

From the Los Angeles Times:

Nevada Sen. John Ensign, facing an ethics investigation stemming from an affair with a campaign aide, said Monday he would not seek reelection because he wanted to spare his family from an “exceptionally ugly” campaign.

“At this point in my life, I have to put my family first,” Ensign told reporters at a news conference in Las Vegas.

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A Few of My Favorite Zings

To the tune of My Favorite Things (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein):

Health care and midterms and all kinds of fighting,
Rallies and scandals, it was so exciting,
Tea party darlings were at it again,
All this shit happened in 2010.

Nothing but heartache for millions of Haitians,
While dumb old Pat Robertson hurled accusations,
John Roberts’ activist band of Supremes,
Were simply the court of a lobbyist’s dreams.

Hello Dollies!

Since it’s the holiday season, I’m thinking about toys, specifically dolls. We’ve seen a few of them in the last few posts, but I thought I’d find some others we might have forgotten about and brush the dust off them. There are all different kinds of dolls. For example, there are the ones that talk…and talk…and talk…

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…even when they have nothing of value to say.

Food for Thought: Fast Food Edition

How much more American can you get than fast food?  Just don’t have to get all bent out of shape over condiments like Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Mark Steyn do…

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