The GOPers Must Be Crazy

Larry Craig shows he's a man of principle:

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig defiantly vowed to serve out his term in office on Thursday despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.

"I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively," Craig said in a written statement certain to disappoint fellow Republicans who have long urged him to step down.

Craig had earlier announced he would resign his seat by Sept. 30, but had wavered when he went to court in hopes of withdrawing his plea.

Mitt Romney shows his love for Mitt Romney 'cause not to many other did:

The headline on the press release from Mitt Romney's campaign today: "Romney for President Totals Over $18 Million in Total Receipts for the Third Quarter."

The quote from Romney's campaign spokesman: "Our campaign made considerable progress this quarter expanding Gov. Romney's support across the country ... Gov. Romney has built a nationwide network of volunteers and supporters that are energizing our efforts as we work towards the first votes being cast in January."

The fact it all obscures: Of those "$18 million in total receipts," $8.5 million came from Romney himself.

The context Team Romney wouldn't mind if you'd miss: The amount Romney raised from people who aren't named Mitt Romney is a bit lower than what Rudy Giuliani is reporting today. The Giuliani campaign says it raised more than $11 million in the third quarter.

The context Romney and Giuliani both would like you to ignore: The money Romney and Giuliani brought in together is about what Barack Obama brought in on his own and substantially less than what Hillary Clinton has collected. Maybe more embarrassing, Romney and Giuliani have each managed to raise only twice what cold-day-in-hell GOP candidate Ron Paul did.

The GOP media: as fair and balanced as they want to be (then again, what does fair and balanced even mean to the faith-based?):

The Clear Channel affiliate that airs Rush Limbaugh's show in Palm Beach, Fla., is refusing to run VoteVets.org ads dealing with Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" remark on the ground that the ads "would only conflict with the listeners who have chosen to listen to Rush Limbaugh."

Pat Buchanan, in his magazine, slags Gen. Betray-us -- but that's apparently okay (of course, one must say he was slagged based on his own "facts"):

Maybe it's not as biting as MoveOn's "General Betray Us?" line, but the latest American Conservative magazine features a cover photo of Gen. David Petraeus under the blaring headline: "Sycophant Savior." And there's no question mark in the title, either. It's a must read.

The searing piece by Andrew Bacevich, a Boston University international studies professor who lost his son fighting in Iraq, accuses Petraeus of being a political general "of the worst kind." While Bacevich acknowledges that questions were raised about the accuracy of some of Petraeus's claims of progress, for the purpose of his essay he suggests we set them aside and take Petraeus at his word: The surge has worked modestly. Violence and killings are down in the last six months, though they remain too high.

"What then should he have recommended to the Congress and the president?" Bacevich asks. "That is, if the commitment of a modest increment of additional forces —the 30,000 troops comprising the surge, now employed in accordance with sound counterinsurgency doctrine —has begun to turn things around, then what should the senior field commander be asking for next?

"A single word suffices to answer that question: more. More time. More money. And above all, more troops.

"It is one of the oldest principles of generalship: when you find an opportunity, exploit it. Where you gain success, reinforce it. When you have your opponent at a disadvantage, pile on…Yet Petraeus has chosen to do just the opposite. Based on two or three months of (ostensibly) positive indicators, he has advised the president to ease the pressure, withdrawing the increment of troops that had (purportedly) enabled the coalition to seize the initiative in the first place.

"This defies logic."