South of the Suwannee

And you thought Andrew Sullivan and the other misogynists who's hatred of Hillary Clinton knows no bounds are bad?

You ain't seen nothing yet -- same sentiments, just more bluntly expressed.

James Wolcott wonders if the Obama phenomenon is a Republican plot:

I've never bought the pre-championship palaver that the Republicans were itching keen to face Hillary Clinton in the fall, that her mere presence in the race would energize their white-dumpling demoralized base into mobilizing into peasant mobs ready to storm Frankenstein's castle. The party's true savants had underestimated Hillary when she first ran for Senate and saw Rick Lazio's ears get pinned to the mat, and were unlikely to duplicate that error. I believe that they're far more wary of the Clinton machine than the Obama phenomenon because a phenomenon can be pricked or pop of its own accord, leaving behind a melting iridescence, whereas a machine like Clinton's feeds on the negativity thrown at it, a juggernaut nightmare designed to keep the opposition guessing over every move. . .

Say what you will, Wolcott is rarely far off in his estimation of the Republican's capacity for duplicity and dirty tricks.

"It may be that voters conclude that Spitzer’s indiscretions have nothing at all to do with whether Hillary Clinton can effectively serve as president."

This brilliant observation was made by Peter Baker in the Washington Post.

Really?

And it may be that voters conclude that the Miami Heat trading Shaquille O'Neal to the Phoenix Suns has nothing to do with her abilities, either.

(via The Daily Howler)

Since the right-wing bloggers are always advising the Democrats on how they should run their campaigns, Roy Edroso returns the favor:

I really think McCain's best hope is to tell Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, and everyone else to go fuck themselves. He should exacerbate every fight he's ever picked with the Republican Party, and as soon as the nomination is sewn up start telling people how happy he is to have reclaimed the GOP from the scoundrels and con men who had given it such a bad name. At the convention, he should ask Huckabee to pray extra hard for him on his frequent visits to church, because McCain will be too busy kicking ass to attend services. He should tell the bloggers who have complained about his economic positions that he really doesn't know what he'll do in office because he assumes Bush has been keeping two sets of books and he won't be able to tell what measures may be necessary until the team of forensic accountants he will send to Treasury has issued their report.