Even politicizing the State Department. ThinkProgress shows how the State Department pressed a narrow interpretation of Department guidelines in restricting Foreign Service Officers in Berlin from any involvement in Sen. Obama’s visit to Germany (which I actually think was a good idea). But just last month Sen. McCain gave a political speech in Canada which was both attended by and arranged by the US Ambassador. Give it a read.

Late Update: And it seems McCain got the Foreign Service treatment in Mexico City too.

I was working on a draft of a post digging into all the problems with Sen. McCain’s explanation of why he’s all for Maliki’s 16 month timetable for withdrawal and dead-set against Obama’s 16th month timetable for withdrawal. But I think that sentence alone illustrates how thin a strategic branch Sen. McCain is now standing on.

As regular readers know, Election Central is TPM’s election and politics site. As we head into the thick of the 2008 election cycle, we’re considering staffing up a bit at Election Central. Particularly, we want a third blogger-reporter, mainly to dig deeper into House and Senate races around the country. This would be a temporary gig, basically for the last ten to twelve weeks of the election cycle. So the ideal person would be someone who knows Congress and elections, has reporting experience and is currently freelancing (so they’d have the flexibility to take the job). Of course, another prerequisite is wanting to hang out with us through the most insane part of the election cycle. So if you’re interested, send me an email at our comments email address on the upper right with the subject header “Election Central Gig”. Just a resume and email/letter explaining your interest in the gig.

Given what I do I mainly see youtube through the prism of political video — viral video, our short commentary pieces, etc.; when I have my publisher’s hat on I keep up on the latest business developments in advertising, distribution and so forth. But every once in a while, usually late in the evening, I stumble into the wealth of live performances just sitting there in this massive collection, waiting to be seen. I spend a couple hours overwhelmed by what I find. I’m amazed that I don’t spend hours poking around and listening every night. And then I get pulled back in by work or whatever else has my attention and it’s lost to me for months or more.

Here’s Louis Armstrong & Jack Teagarden singing Rockin’ Chair at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. Always been one of my favorite duets, never seen them perform it. There’s another live recording of these two singing this song that has just an edge more of the sadness in the intonation. That’s the one I like best. But this is pretty good …

An open microphone catches Barack Obama saying he plans to take a week off from the campaign trail in August. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Saturday Roundup.

Time, March 21st, 2008 …

Flanked by fellow Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, McCain noted they’d undertaken their week long fact-finding tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, England and France as members of Congress’s Armed Services committee — not as some sort of campaign foreign road show. Perhaps, but discussing international affairs with foreign leaders and enhancing McCain’s presidential hopes aren’t mutually exclusive. Still, McCain acted the apt pupil. “I wish every senator, every senator would make this same trip,” McCain said, noting several of the first-hand educational experiences he’d gotten. “They’d be better informed.”

Snatched from the memory hole by TPM Reader RB.

McCain’s new ad, which you can see here, is really beyond disgusting. At this point I think it’s clear that honor really doesn’t mean much to McCain. When things get tough, as it is in this election campaign, there’s no limit to what he’ll do.

How’s he doing, Joe?

Frank Rich on McCain: “a candidate so oblivious to our nation’s big challenges ahead that he is doubling down in his campaign against both Mr. Maliki and Mr. Obama to be elected commander in chief of the surge.”

Just think that a couple weeks ago the entire campaign was engulfed by scrutiny of Obama’s suggestion that he might be “refining” his plan for a 16 month timetable for withdrawal — a twitter, if that, on the seismograph of campaign course corrections. Now consider that over the span of a few weeks Sen. McCain has gone from predicting a decades long presence of American troops in Iraq and attacking any discussion of timetables for withdrawal to endorsing Maliki’s push for a 16 month timetable and tying himself in knots trying to explain why what Maliki’s endorsing is any different from Obama’s.

When confronted with Maliki’s own words saying that he supports what Obama supports, McCain now falls back on that last redoubt of philanderers, asking the American people, “Who you gonna believe? Me or your lyin’ eyes?”

For all the seismic shifts that have taken place over the last two weeks, we need to recognize that McCain has now abandoned virtually everything he’s been campaigning on for the last year. There’s really no more eloquent confirmation of that reality than the fact that McCain now appears determined to base his campaign on charges that Obama is unpatriotic and despises American soldiers.

Here, from Friday, is McCain’s big screen star turn with the shark …

John McCain tries to deny he ever used the word “timetable” in regards to leaving Iraq in 16 months, then spits out a list of even shorter timeframes that would be fine by him. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Sunday Roundup.