The guys with the ear buds cast their vote

Early exit polls of the quiet men in dark glasses are clear.

I wonder what his SS name is.

Josh Marshall does Bush's math homework for him again. Pitiful.

"The president is pleased that on his watch the economy can't even produce enough jobs to keep up with a growing population? Can't he set his sights a bit higher?"

TPM also has some thoughts on what Dahlia Lithwick, in a typically clear analysis of the relative points of law, calls "Memogate."

"So say a referral is made to the Justice Department. If that happens, how can they not appoint a special counsel? Not only is the issue at hand inherently political, but the political appointees at the DOJ work with the White House Counsel's office and the Judiciary Committee Republicans to plan and coordinate strategy for judicial nominations. The whole issue here is whether their colleagues on the Senate staff side were purloining Democratic staff memos to aid that planning. It seems like a classic case where the folks at Justice would need to recuse themselves.

"Now we come to the White House Counsel's office. Remember, what we're talking about here is planning and strategizing on how to get judicial appointments through the Senate confirmation process. On the Republican side that involves Senate staffers, people at Justice, and the White House Counsel's office. Indeed, the whole process is quarterbacked out of the Counsel's office.

"We already know that at least two Senate staffers accessed and archived the Democratic staff memos for more than a year. We know that thousands of documents were involved. And we know that the contents of at least some of those memos were leaked to conservative journalists. Those memos provided invaluable assistance in planning strategy on the Republican side.

"How likely is it the existence and/or contents of those memos were discussed in the regular meetings Senate staffers held with members of the White House Counsel's office to plot strategy for getting through their judicial nominees?

"And if a special counsel is appointed ... well, you see where this is going."

This could get intriguing. It will be interesting if this rises to the level of the mainstream media, so generally content to simply report whatever the White House press releases tell them. And if it, like the Plame conspiracy does come to a head, what will Rove do to ensure that they don't see the light of day until, say December?

But when even Orin Hatch is shocked by the his fellow party members' behavior (and who is in turn, roundly attacked by rabid conservatives for his seeming weakness and for putting Senate rules and the law ahead of his own party's ambition), then this points to something so base, so power-crazed and ideological, that we really are seeing a nadir in GOP political conduct. Fortunately, many of Bush's recess judicial appointments have expiration dates.

Speaking of the Krazy Klown Posse that is the Bush administration, this from the Journal's "Washington Wire" today:

NOT OUTSOURCED YET
Chief White House economist Gregory Mankiw, lambasted both for hailing the economic benefits of outsourcing jobs and for high job-creation estimates, is "not really" in trouble, says a senior White House official who expects Mankiw to be on the job six months from now.

And this, from the same column:

WHAT A JOKE
"The Daily Show" executive producer Ben Karlin is shocked to learn that Halliburton advertises on the Comedy Central program in Washington D.C., even though the satiric show regularly skewers Cheney's old firm. "What are they doing advertising on Comedy Central? Can't they just buy Comedy Central?" he asks. A Halliburton spokeswoman says, "We are cleaning up the record" through such TV ads.

Wouldn't you just love to attend one of Halliburton's PR planning sessions?

This is just beautiful. Drudge and Rush are outraged that big media didn't run with the story that was...not...true.

Oh, man. I'm getting dizzy.