"Hi, my name's Brendan Skwire. I'm a constituent calling from Philadelphia PA.  Is it true that the Senator compared the New England Patriots' spying on other teams to the destruction of the CIA tapes?"

"Yes, he was quoted in the New york Times."

[pause]
[longer pause]
"Sir?  Do you want me to pass along a comment?"

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just trying to get my head around such a monumentally stupid statement.  Yeah...yeah, I would like you to send him a comment.

"Tell him that I'm looking forward to him writing legislation that gives the Pats retroactive immunity from prosecution for spying,just like he did for his buddies at AT&T."

Specter's office didn't like that too much, but when I related the story to Bob Casey's office, the guy who answered the phone couldn't stop laughing.

John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

first The San Francisco Chronicle, now TPM links to Los Angeles Times

Barack Obama for Democratic nominee

On policy, Obama and his rival Democratic candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, are a hairsbreadth apart. Both vow to pull troops from Iraq. Both are committed to healthcare reform. Both offer candid critiques of the failed George W. Bush presidency, its blustering adventurism, its alienating stance toward other countries and its cavalier disregard for sacred American values such as individual liberty and due process of law.

With two candidates so closely aligned on the issues, we look to their abilities and potential as leaders, and their record of action in service of their stated ideals. Clinton is an accomplished public servant whose election would provide familiarity and, most important, competence in the White House, when for seven years it has been lacking. But experience has value only if it is accompanied by courage and leads to judgment.

Nowhere was that judgment more needed than in 2003, when Congress was called upon to accept or reject the disastrous Iraq invasion. Clinton faced a test and failed, joining the stampede as Congress voted to authorize war. At last week's debate and in previous such sessions, Clinton blamed Bush for abusing the authority she helped to give him, and she has made much of the fact that Obama was not yet in the Senate and didn't face the same test. But Obama was in public life, saw the danger of the invasion and the consequences of occupation, and he said so. He was right.

Obama demonstrates as well that he is open-eyed about the terrorist threat posed to the nation, and would not shrink from military action where it is warranted. He does not oppose all wars, he has famously stated, but rather "dumb wars." He also has the edge in economic policy, less because of particular planks in his platform than because of his understanding that some liberal orthodoxies developed during the last 40 years have been overtaken by history. He offers leadership on education, technology policy and environmental protection unfettered by the positions of previous administrations.[.]

Super Tuesday could make or break one of these candidates.  Saving his powder for later doesn't seem like a good strategy.