Joe Klein on McCain’s (too little talked about) health care insurance tax increase.

The latest on Trooper-Gate is that Gov. Palin is moving to have her ally, the state’s Attorney General move to quash subpoenas of her aides in the investigation.

Can anyone else think of a major political figure who’s done only Barbara Walters-style prime time celebrity interviews rather than appearing on actual news shows? I can’t. And really a political campaign will do whatever it can get away with. But what news organization has ever done that? What an embarrassment.

James Carville still mourns the McCain he once knew — and is struggling to move past the denial phase:

From an Obama supporter who’s gunning for a fight …

3.2 million for Seal DNA?

People love this. One thing that captures the imagination. It’s the new Bridge to Nowhere. That should be the talking point. 3.2 Million for Seal DNA? Is that the kind of change we need? “Do I hear lipstick on a seal?”

Former AZ Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ) on why the press’s judgment problem about McCain ….

[McCain] has a problem of judgment. I think that has been clear, as the campaign goes on, that his judgment is flawed. He paints it as a “maverick” position, but in fact he has a problem finding good judgment and staying with it.

He likes to paint himself as a man of convictions that stays with it. But if you served with him, as I did, and if you have followed him since I have left, and I have done that, you see his positions changed [with] whatever is needed. Whether it’s on taxes, income tax cuts; whether it’s on drilling in Alaska, or offshore, or you name it — and John McCain has been all over the map.

And he will continue to do that, and that’s why he has been able to be successful because, in my judgment, mostly. not all of the media, but much of the media kind of lets him get away with it.