Let’s stop dancing around it. On “reconciliation” the Republicans are being such a gang of hypocritical liars it’s shocking even for them. It really is. The Health Care Bill isn’t being passed through reconciliation; it’s being used to pass a few amendments to the bill that’s already passed. The Republicans have used it numerous times and themselves and for bill’s that were far bigger in budgetary terms than this bill. The whole thing is just an immense crock. And it’s borderline scandalous that any of their nonsense is even being taken serious. E.J. Dionne has a great column explaining the whole thing. Do read it.

With so much other news today this didn’t get a lot of attention. But do you remember that episode of the original Star Trek where there’s one guy from the matter universe (Lazarus) and another guy from the anti-matter universe (anti-Lazarus) and they have to keeping doing battle for eternity because if the anti-matter guy wins it will tear apart the universe? Well, there was a similar situation on Larry King Live Wednesday evening when TPM fav Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) appeared together to debate the great and silly issues of the day. Our Eric Kleefeld has the story — with video.

Daily Show: GOP reveals back up plan to stop Health Care Reform: The Rapture. See the video.

Looks like being Obama’s attorney general requires putting your manhood in a blind trust.

Let me just make one point on the politics of this decision, since politics is clearly what’s driving it. If the White House retreats from a civilian trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the others, not only is it terribly weak optics in the short run, but it cements in the public mind for the long term all the worst fears Republicans have not just been able to sow, but will continue to sow.

Think of the worst possible scenario for what would have happened to New York City, no matter how remote, then insert that into a campaign ad. There’s no way to disprove what might have been. Human nature will be to focus on the bullet that we supposedly dodged. Whereas if you actually suck it up and proceed with the trial, it takes all the wind of out that sail. People still go to work, buildings don’t fall down, the ground doesn’t open up and swallow Manhattan. Democrats show they’re strong and resolute and the issue goes away.

That’s the real politics of this. Not that it should be decided on the politics. But since the White House is already going there, let’s be honest that it’s a terrible political misjudgment, in addition to the layers and layers of damaging legal precedent.

Getting dressed to go to work in the morning and finding an Ice Age action figure in your boot.

I’m always surprised at how many fiercely anti-gay politicians are not only gay themselves (that doesn’t surprise me at all) but living at least relatively open gay lives without news of their sexuality becoming public until some fortuitous event brings it to light. Yesterday I noted the case of California state Senator Roy Ashburn, a big supporter of Prop 8 and long-time opponent of gay rights, who was picked up early Wednesday morning on a DUI after leaving a gay nightclub in Sacramento with an unnamed man. It turns out that Ashburn has apparently been a regular at Sacramento gay night spots for years. That’s according to the openly gay Mayor of West Sacramento, Christopher Cabaldon. Read More

Seems like that planned GOP fundraiser down at the Blackwater compound in North Carolina is not to be.

Flashback to Attorney General Eric Holder talking about the civilian trials of detainees in his congressional testimony last November, back when we were still brave and strong and resolute:

We need not cower in the face of this enemy. Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is sturdy, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready.

Or not.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY): I caved on my filibuster because “Harry Reid and his minions that run around after him” promised me a vote. Watch.

J.D. Hayworth has rolled out a new ad mocking John McCain as “nominee for best conservative actor” and photoshopping him with Avatar-like war paint. McCain’s supporters have responded by invoking the McCain-may-not-be-mocked rule and demanding the ad be taken down.