Conservative economist and AndrewSullivan.com guest blogger Bruce Bartlett giving thanks for the new Michael Gerson take-down piece in The Atlantic …

Judging by Scully’s account, no bigger phony than Gerson ever walked the corridors of the White House–and that’s saying a lot. Apparently, Gerson spent just about every waking hour trying to figure out how to take credit for anything good that came out of the West Wing and had any number of gullible accomplices in the press corps that were happy to oblige him in his effort … Another reason I’m grateful to Scully is that I could never understand why the Washington Post gave Gerson a column when he clearly has nothing interesting to say about anything. Apparently, it is payback for all the leaks Gerson was spilling to the Post all these years. Unfortunately, the Post erred by not also hiring the speechwriters who did all the work Gerson took credit for as well.

Obama and Clinton explain “old school” opposition to gay marriage; Edwards says he isn’t “uncomfortable” around gays; and Richardson stumbles over whether being gay is a “choice.” That and other items in today’s Election Central gay issues debate roundup.

In Ohio yesterday Rudy said, inter alia … “I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. … I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.”

I think this is going to be a real problem for His Rudiness. And unlike many gaffes, which are just offhanded statements that tell us little about the person in question, I think this one points to an underlying contempt for the folks who ended up sacrificing their health or even their lives during the clean-up process.

Dick Cheney makes the case for strikes against Iranian forces.

Turns out fear isn’t just an RNC campaign strategy. It’s also useful, apparently, to spook up contributions.

The political parties use a variety of tactics in fundraising pitches to try and grab attention. But here’s a letter from the RNC that seems particularly beyond the pale. It styles as a “Voter Registration Verification and Audit Form” and warns the voter about “irregularities” in his/her party affiliation.

Check it out. And thanks to TPM Reader Dennis Sidwell for sending it in after it succeeded in spooking his 83 year-old father.

I think it’s a measure of how brain dead the Republicans have become on the “war on terror” that their big puffing or policy statements on the issue now most often amount to bizarre and sometimes incomprehensible grammatical reformulations or, failing that, reorderings of sentence structure.

So for example, now you have Mitt Romney saying, “There’s not a global war on terror. There’s a global war being waged by the terrorists and if I am president, there will be a global war waged on the terrorists and we will win.”

This comes after Rudy’s insistence on rebranding the War on Terror as the “Terrorists’ War on Us.” (see the video)

Their perplexity and paralysis in the face of reality is making them look like one of those alien computers or robots at the end of one of the old Star Trek episodes where Capt. Kirk hits them with too much kick-ass logic and smoke starts to come out of their ears and then they explode.

Late Update: Alternative Headline: Emerging GOP consensus that War on Terror is being waged in the passive voice!

If you’ve been following the Scott Thomas Beauchamp Affair, I strongly recommend reading the latest update from The New Republic. The short version is that the Army’s investigation of the case appears to be confined to a) releasing no information about their investigation or details of its findings, b) leaking alleged details to the Weekly Standard, which no one will confirm on the record and c) keeping Beauchamp himself in communications lockdown where no one but family members in monitored conversations can communicate with him.

Perhaps Beauchamp made this stuff up. And that’s not a throwaway line; I freely concede it may turn out to be the case. There’s no getting around the fact that the legacy of the Glass Affair puts an extra hurdle of credibility in TNR’s way.

But the behavior of the Army Public Affairs Office suggests that what they are pushing is not an investigation that would pass any muster in the light of day but a war against a particular article and publication.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but going back over recent years — the WMD stories, al Qaeda link, the Iraq War and more — when you’ve got the goods, you take it to a real press outlet. When you’re blowing smoke, you take it to the Standard.

Fibbing goof Bill O’Reilly can’t understand why John Edwards won’t give any love to Fox News after they’ve given him such fair coverage on Fox. Take a look. It’ll start your weekend on a good note …

Also nice to see the Foxies crying a river about the hard shake they’re getting from the Democrats.

Mitt Romney is expected to win tomorrow’s Ames straw poll, but he really has to win big. That and other straw poll and political news in today’s Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, confirmed by the Senate in June to serve as the president’s war advisor (aka, the “war czar”), has kept a remarkably low profile. NSA Stephen Hadley told reporters a while back that Lute would be “up close to the president” to work “full time, 24/7” on implementing Bush’s war policy, but that apparently includes practically disappearing from public view.

In fact, Lute has not been mentioned by Bush, Cheney, or any White House spokesperson, in any context, since he was confirmed. I was beginning to think we may want to put his face on milk-cartons.

Yesterday, Lute finally emerged — and immediately sparked a controversy.

Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush’s new war adviser said Friday.

“I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

“And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another,” said Lute, who is sometimes referred to as the “Iraq war czar.” It was his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

And with that, we may not be hearing from Lute again anytime soon.