Closing some tabs.

* Terrible news, everyone: International Science Fiction Reshelving Day has been canceled.

* Still mad at SIGG for lying about the BPA content in its canteens? Don't worry; there's BPA in everything.

* Having solved all the world's ills, the Catholic Church paid $500,000 to see marriage equality go down in Maine.

* I was hoping Ned Lamont would make another run against Joe Lieberman. Too bad.

* And Neil sends in a fun Flash application about scale.

Midday links while I wonder whether tonight's elections will go long or short.

* Open Left wisely points out that today's elections don't really tell us anything about national politics while Kos's Jed Lawson pre-spin takes a different tack in arguing that Owens wins even if he loses. Steve Benen points out that a district in California that is essentially a mirror image of NY-23—historically very Democratic, though significantly less one-sided than NY-23's century-and-a-half Republican streak—is having a special election tonight that doesn't count (UPDATE: Think Progress, too), while TPM debunks in advance the bogus assertions of electoral fraud already erupting anywhere Republicans could lose tonight.

* Virginia is never enough: McDonnell 2012? Really? Even Sarah Palin managed to serve a few months before seeking national office.

* Reid too is saying there's no deal with Lieberman. Maybe not anymore.

* Why do humans kiss? To spread our germs.

* A brief history of innoculation.

* And MetaFilter wishes happy birthday to Sputnik and the Blob while saying goodbye to Claude Lévi-Strauss and Laika the dog.

Harry Reid's office is telling people Reid and Lieberman have a "private understanding" regarding cloture on health care:

The unpredictable Democrat-turned-Independent last week publicly stated he would join Republicans in filibustering the Democratic legislation after Reid (D-Nev.) announced he had included a government-run health insurance plan in the bill.

But sources said Reid's staff is telling liberal interest groups that Lieberman (Conn.) has assured Reid he will vote with Democrats in the necessary procedural vote to end debate, perhaps with intentions to change the bill.

"At the end of the day Sen. Lieberman will vote to cut off debate," said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager of Healthcare for America Now. "He'll do what he has to do. He's making a lot of noise."

Take it for what it's worth.

UPDATE: Lieberman's office: "Senator Lieberman's clear position is that he will vote for the motion to proceed to the health-care bill because he supports health-care reform that will control costs and insure people who don't have it now, but will oppose cloture on a final bill if it contains a public option."

The big news yesterday was, of course, Joe Lieberman's threat to join the Republican filibuster on the health care bill, proving right my suspicion of everything that guy does. Never a popular figure in the progressive blogosphere, Lieberman is especially loathed today; see Steve Benen, Open Left, Steve Benen, Nate Silver, Steve Benen, Kos, and Steve Benen, for starters. I confess that Jonathan Chait's take is pretty close to my own:

He's not a Democrat and won't be running on the Democratic ticket in 2012. Moreover, my read on him is that he's furious with the party, resentful of President Obama (who beat his friend in 2008) and would relish a Democratic catastrophe.

Lieberman strikes me as a creature of spite with a long list of enemies, and I think he'd happily be the lone vote to scuttle the sixty-year dream of health care reform if he thought it would hurt Ned Lamont voters. I've never trusted him as a reliable vote and I question the wisdom of continually bending over backwards to keep him "happy" when it makes no apparent difference in his actions. The man spoke at the Republican National Convention, for heaven's sake. He's not on our side.

For what it's worth, Ezra Klein says it's probably a bluff, and I hope he's right.

Sadly, Lieberman's threats are emboldening the other conservative Democrats to make similar threats.

I sure hope reconciliation is still in the tank if Reid's miscalculated.

News keeps rolling out about the public option today; ABC is reporting that a public option is likely to be in the final Senate bill (about which Max Baucus is said to be "apoplectic"), and Open Left's informal whip count has 58 votes for cloture. (Most Important People in the Country by this count: Mary Landrieu and Evan Bayh.)

Open Left also discusses reports that suggest Pelosi's "robust" version will pass the House. Genuine health care reform seems very close today.

UPDATE: Steve Benen has some thoughts on Mary Landrieu and her stated opposition to the public option. Of course the real question is not whether she'll vote for the bill but whether she'll vote for cloture—and call me a pie-in-the-sky optimist but I find it hard to imagine, when push comes to shove, that any member of the Democratic caucus would cast the lone vote to destroy health care reform by denying it a floor vote. (Landrieu or Bayh would basically have to switch parties if they did, and no one jumps onto a sinking ship.) Because he's a proud member of the notoriously independent Connecticut for Lieberman caucus, I've been much more worried about Lieberman's loyalty than anybody else's—so I'm glad to see he's already confirmed he'll vote for cloture.

UPDATE 2: Apparently Landrieu announced today that she won't support a Republican filibuster. If Open Left's count is right, that just leaves President Bayh.

By popular demand, Politics Thursday.

* Health care madness: Olympia Snowe says she won't vote for cloture if there's a public option in the bill, while Ben Nelson says he'll support an opt-out. (By my calculations this once again makes Joe Lieberman the Most Important Person in the country.) It seems clear we'll get some sort of health care reform, but its specific content is still really unpredictable. Fingers crossed.

* Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Daggetmentum has topped 20%, with Jon Corzine now slightly leading Chris Christie as a consequence.

* Nate Silver crunches the numbers on the marriage equality referendum in Maine and concludes it all comes down to turnout.

* When You Marry: a 1962 handbook.

* Ryan's Facebook feed had this link to a random manifesto generator. I now feel ready for any particular revolution that comes along.

* T. Boone Pickens explains why the U.S. is "entitled" to Iraqi oil. Could anyone have doubted it?

* And an increasing number of Americans want to legalize it.

Bad Democrat dance-off! Ben Nelson signals his support for a "trigger" that would create a public option later—because seventy years of broken health care just isn't enough—while Max Baucus goes him one better in stripping out the public option, the trigger, and even the co-operative alternative floated a few weeks ago by Reid and others.

Look forward to the Joe Liebermann No Health Care Reform At All Act of 2009, coming soon. It'll be bipartirrific.

The netroots blogs are already talking about a primary challenge to Specter, despite apparent party-boss promises to the contrary. Right now most of the talk centers around the Employee Free Choice Act, which Specter recently decided he opposed back when he was still trying to protect his right flank from Pat Toomey. There's been speculation that Specter's reference to EFCA in his statement earlier today referred only to voting against the bill itself, and that he'd vote to invoke cloture—but it's looking now as if he won't vote for cloture either. In that case put money on the idea of a "miraculous compromise" on EFCA that modifies the language just enough to give Specter cover to flip-flop back. A Ned-Lamont-style primary challenge backed by Labor and the netroots would otherwise be almost inevitable, Rendell's promises notwithstanding, and unlike Connecticut Pennsylvania has a "sore loser" law that would prevent a Liebermanesque run as an independent.

P.S.: Don't miss Steele's response to all this invoking the ugly specter of Arlen Specter's mama.

I have an unpleasantly busy day today, and the open tabs are already building up. Here's a few links just to relieve the tension.

* Lieberman saved the stimulus? I guess the people who said we should be nice to him despite everything he's done may have had a point.

* Four Tennessee state representatives, all Republicans, have signed up to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, aimed at forcing him to prove he is a United States citizen by coughing up his birth certificate. Good lord. How many times do we have to do this one?

* George Will v. climate science. Spoiler alert: Science wins. More (including charts!) from Nate Silver. I did a post like this over the weekend, if you missed it.

* Relatedly, from Marginal Revolution: What if all the smart people are in one party?

* Do not attempt to eat the world's hottest peper. That's just common sense. (Via Neil.)

Too magnanimous: Obama wants Lieberman to remain in the Democratic caucus. As John Orton notes, this statement obscures more than it clarifies: it leaves open the possibility that Lieberman can retain his chairmanship, which is absolutely a bad idea.

Lieberman likely to lose committee chairmanship.

Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley pulls it out to knock off incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith. With a run-off expected in Georgia, a coin-flip in Alaska, and a recount in the razor-thin Minnesota race, Democrats actually have an outside chance to run the table and get to 60—though that would basically force us to let Lieberman off the hook...

Waiting for the Obama infomercial, a few links.

* To the right, your picture of the day.

* Lieberman to lose committee chairmanship? Yes, please.

* A recording contract for Joe the Plumber? Good lord, no.

* And MoDo writes her greatest column ever.

Manes Julii Caesaris paucis diebus aderant — “O, most bloody sight!” — cum Ioannes McCainus, mavericus et veteranus captivusque Belli Francoindosinini, et Sara Palina, barracuda borealis, qui sneerare amant Baracum Obamam causa oratorii, pillorant ut demagogi veri, Africanum-Americanum senatorem Terrae Lincolni, ad Republicanas rallias...

Friday evening links.

* Joe the Plumber...for Congress?

* New Jersey's Star-Ledger cuts it newsroom staff by half.

* Joe "Let's Assume the Best" Lieberman hits another Sarah Palin question right out of the park.

[W]hen asked by The Advocate if Palin is ready to be president from day one, Lieberman said “thank God she’s not going to have to be president from day one. McCain’s going to be alive and well.”

* Palin 2012? The buzz continues!

* Republicans are at each other's throats, and the rats-off-a-sinking-ship watch hits a new high water mark with the first Obama endorsement by a McCain advisor.

* And Barack Obama is well ahead of both Kerry and Gore, eleven days out.

Stephen Colbert is stealing all my best material: two-thirds of my YouTube portfolio wound up on the Colbert Report last night.



Officially, of course, we can't be certain that someone from the Report saw the Lieberman clip as I tried to disseminate it all around the Internets. Officially. Unofficially, it's clear that Stephen Colbert personally reads this blog.

The Daily Show, doing what it does best:



Colbert's segment from Monday on Palin's qualifications was pretty exemplary as well. The Lieberman gag from last night was great too.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the seriousness with which the mainstream media has handled John McCain's veepstakes roll of the dice: there's negative pieces on the poorly vetted, poorly thought-out selection in the New York Times, Washington Post, and L.A. Times today. However, I'm not hopeful this attitude of diligence and responsibility will last past tonight—Palin's ability to read a speech to an adoring crowd will be taken as "proof" that she's ready to take over as president if something happens to John McCain. (And yes, thank you, I'm already fully aware of the irony.)

I had high hopes the caught-flat-footed Lieberman video I uploaded last night would go viral and destroy McCain's credibility for all time. That hasn't happened (yet!), but so far it has been picked up by Washington Monthly / CBS Online, Cynical-C, and Crooks and Liars. Alongside the Daily Kos diary I hope that means it's catching some eyes. It's an incredibly revealing, damning, and best of all self-inflicted indictment of McCain's gamble from one of his top supporters; I can't say enough good things about it. Show it to anyone you can.

LATE UPDATE: I've uploaded video of this. It has to be seen to be believed: Lieberman acts as if "let's assume the best ... let's assume that nothing bad will happen" is a remotely reasonable thing to say about a vice-presidential pick. Even putting aside McCain's age and health, the entire reason for vice presidents is the fact that bad things can and do happen.



The fact that he feels he must frame his answer in this way indicates how uneasy even stalwart McCain supporters are about the idea of Palin actually taking office as president. The rest of us know after eight years of Bush that hope is not a plan.

--
I just heard Joe Lieberman explain on MSNBC that we don't need to worry about Sarah Palin's qualifications for the vice presidency because, and I'm quoting as best I can, "let's assume nothing bad will happen."

Seriousness.

I hope that video is on YouTube soon.

UPDATE: (from the comments)

Andrea Mitchell: Do you feel Sarah Palin is qualified to be commander-in-chief if God forbid, something should happen to John McCain?

Joe Lieberman: Well…you know…let’s assume the best (chuckles uncomfortably). John’s in great shape, he’s gonna be the president and let’s assume that nothing bad will happen…why should we? But if it does…yes, she’ll be ready.

Last words for a while on Palin.

* Andrew Sullivan of all people has been absolutely brutal, all day, hitting just about every objection to Palin in order. He's also pushing the gambling meme, which I'm convinced is the key frame through which to view this very reckless, lunatic choice.

* More gambling: Dan Gerstein, a former adviser to Sen. Joe Lieberman, in the New York Daily News:

"In picking an unknown, untested, half-a-term woman governor from Alaska to be his running mate, John McCain is following in a long line of reckless men who have rolled the dice for a beauty queen. Except in this case, McCain is taking one of the biggest, boldest gambles in modern American political history."

Sometimes you have to roll the hard six?

* Sullivan and Ben Smith together point out the worst vetting lapse I've heard thus far, that Palin supported Pat Buchanan for president in 1996 and 1999. That's mind-boggling. Was she vetted at all?

* Maybe not: as of Sunday, he'd still wanted Lieberman, and the final decision was only made last night.

* Ezra's been good today too, particularly on the cable news coverage.

* Robert Elisburg's verdict: The Worst Vice-Presidential Nominee in U.S. History.

Democrats will be glad to know that our party retains its crucial Photoshop advantage in 2008. (There are a few more good pictures in the comments.)

In comparison, the RNC's Hillary-themed Valentine misses anything resembling humor by a mile, though I must admit that the Barack one is actually sort of funny.