In his latest ad, John McCain hits J.D. Hayworth for his ties to the Abramoff scandal.

Former Rep. Rick Lazio is in a race with racist-emails third party candidate Carl Paladino over who hatest the “Ground Zero Mosque” most.

Rand Paul was a member of a secret irreverent society at Baptist Baylor University when he was a student there back in the early ’80s, according to a new article in GQ. The group was a real thorn in the side of the straitlaced administration: If the school learned of your membership in the group, you faced expulsion. Sounds harmless, maybe even admirable. But things get a bit hairy when a female student from the time recounts to GQ the story of Paul and another member of the group kidnapping her, trying to force her to take hits on a bong, and eventually making her bow down in a creek and worship the false idol “Aqua Buddha.”

Last week John McCain announced that he too was opposed to the Community Center and Mosque to be built a couple blocks from Ground Zero. To his credit, unlike many others, he noted that as a Senator from Arizona, it wasn’t entirely clear what relevance his opinion should have. But that development did point up a little-watched trend in what we might call, for lack of a better phrase, the anti-Ground Zero Mosque jihad. Conservatives across the USA are increasingly aggrieved not only at the sponsors of the Muslim community center project, but at New Yorkers themselves. I mean, how can they not be when the primary shrine of our national racial-religious holy war is in the custody of America-hating, terrorist coddling squishes who just don’t ‘get’ 9/11? Read More

Megan Carpentier takes a closer look at the ethics allegations against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

The Top 10 town halls to watch this August recess.

Mark Penn is hosting a fundraiser this week at his Georgetown home for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

Right-wingers open new front against liberal bias behind Theory of Relativity.

Democrat Joe Sestak is trying to keep the Green Party candidate off the ballot in the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.

Scenes from the big political hoedown this weekend in Kentucky:

That’s Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway talking with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell while Conway’s Senate opponent Rand Paul looks on. More here.