Lazy as Hell

If you were going to interview a shill for McCain - for example one-time McCain campaign worker and Republican strategist Mark Murphy - wouldn't you do a little homework (or have someone do it for you) and be prepared for the most obvious talking points that any McCain supporter is going to try to pass off? You'd know that your guest was going to try and pass off the usual nonsense that McCain is a "maverick." Maybe you'd peruse the Arizona Republic's website and read up on their "analysis of his Senate votes on the most divided issues in the past decade [which] shows that McCain almost never thwarted his party's objectives." Okay, so maybe that article's a bit to wordy, so you could take a peek at Steve Benen's Carpetbagger Report on it which highlights the Republic's main points. And if that's too heavy on text, there's a nice clear table on the Progressive Media's website which shows how McMaverick voted over the last 8 years in relation to Bush (usually about 90% agreement - and 100% in 2008!).

That way you'd be ready for a little reality check when you're guest pops off with "the Democrat strategy is very simple, I'm not sure it's very authentic, but it's pretty simple: is kind of glue this third Bush term idea on to McCain. Now that might work with a lot of Republicans, but McCain does have a long history of independence, being a classic maverick - so I think it's going to be tougher to do."

And if you were feeling especially non-confrontational, and willing to let that slide, you'd be ready with some handy numbers when said guest really started slinging the BS: "the Obama campaign would say 'Well, If you support the President on 10% of things you're the President,' and I think that people in this election are going to see through that kind of a simple black and white and understand that it's often shades of gray, and that as Republicans go, there's no more independent maverick-minded person than McCain..."

10% of things! What hallucination did that number come from? And Siegel's response? Not a word...of course.