I’m going to be migrating everything from my old computer to my new one in just a wee bit … so am posting somewhat quickly now.  Hopefully you’ll hear from me again. If not, you’ll know that things went badly here … 😦

A bailout agreement has apparently been reached.

I read some excellent debate analysis in the TPM Cafe this morning.  These are the observations of an eight-year-old.  It would be very interesting to hear what the eight-year-old child of a right-leaning Republican would observe about the debate.

Meanwhile, the NY Times is breaking a story on the relationship of McCain and some of his key advisors with the gaming industry.  It further debunks the McCain-as-Washington-Maverick myth and appears to raise some very interesting questions about what actually drove his pursuit of Jack Abramoff.

Mr. McCain portrays himself as a Washington maverick unswayed by special interests, referring recently to lobbyists as “birds of prey.” Yet in his current campaign, more than 40 fund-raisers and top advisers have lobbied or worked for an array of gambling interests – including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies and online poker purveyors.

The DOJ report on the US Attorney firings is going to be published on Monday, and according to an article by Murray Waas on The Atlantic website,  Gonzo could, in attempting to protect himself, end up throwing Dubya and others under the bus if he’s not very careful. Apparently this dream-come-true, for myself and many others, is not viewed that way by the White House.

One scenario feared by the White House is that the IG or OPR could send a public report to Congress concluding that Gonzales or some other official may have committed a crime. At a minimum, that would make the conduct of Gonzales, or of any other official deemed to be under suspicion, the subject of a criminal investigation.

If the report also raised unanswered questions about possible misconduct by other senior administration officials, or even the president, that could lead to the appointment of a special prosecutor. Some consider this unlikely; Attorney General Mike Mukasey has said that he is not an advocate of special prosecutors, and his critics in Congress have said that Mukasey tends to use his position for the political benefit of the White House. But in the hands of congressional Democrats, a public report accusing Gonzales and other administration officials of misconduct could make it difficult for Mukasey to resist their calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Inside the White House, this is what is called the “nightmare scenario.” White House Counsel Fred Fielding, who served in the Nixon White House during Watergate and as a White House counsel during the Reagan administration, has told others in the White House that although he does not consider this a likelihood, it should not be ruled out, and Bush and his staff should be ready for such a contingency. In addition to the Justice Department’s IG and OPR investigations regarding the surveillance program, Gonzales is also under investigation by the IG as to whether he lied to Congress about the politicized firings of nine U.S. attorneys. Fielding has told White House colleagues that there is an outside possibility that a special prosecutor could be appointed to conduct a broader investigation.

In other campaign news, apparently the GOP powers that be are getting nervouser and nervouser about the Palin pick.   And Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were back at it on SNL.  I must admit that I hope that Sarah P. at least sticks around long enought for Thursday night’s debate.  Given her thoroughly despicable views and her thoroughly obnoxious performance at the RNC, watching her humiliate herself on the big stage is just fine by me.  (Biden will have to be careful to come across as solid and capable and experienced – but not condescending.  That may be tough – as just about any educated/articulate member of the Toastmasters has the potential to look a lot more qualified to be VP than the Divine Ms. P. does these days.)

Oh yeah … and the Phillies clinched the NL East.  Bring it!