Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

We've lately witnessed the breaking of many barriers: the first major female presidential candidate, the first major Hispanic candidate, the first black presumptive nominee, the first septuagenarian presumptive nominee. Ten years ago, we even saw an ex-wrestler win the job of Minnesota governor, and, five years ago, we saw an ex-body builder/action hero take on the role of California governor.

But is it really possible that a political satirist can ascend to the U.S. Senate?

That question is troubling a lot of Democrats this week, now that Al Franken has nailed down the party nomination (on the first ballot, at a state convention) for the autumn Senate race in Minnesota. Over the course of his 35-year comedic career, starting with his stint as a writer on the original Saturday Night Live, Franken has left a long trail of irreverent remarks, any number of which are potential grist for the Republicans - who, in their desperate straits, are only too grateful for any kind of ammo.

-- DICK POLMAN

If controversy brings viewers, Fox News’ latest will get it some new viewers. But Fox Newsl’ latest headline-making and blog-rage-sparking controversy is now bringing it under fire as an institution that displayed racist inclinations in a headline referring to Democratic Senator Barack Obama’s wife as “Obama’s Baby Mama.”

This comes days after a Fox News anchor set off a mini-firestorm by suggesting that some thought the Obamas little fist punch was seen by some as terrorist signal. But the latest flap is bad news for Fox because the controversial words were literally plastered on the screen for all to see. And although some of the networks defenders now point to how Michelle Obama referred to herself, she never quite used these words.

-- JOE GANDELMAN

Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a "Media Hall of Shame," starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter.

But many in the news media — with a few exceptions, including Katie Couric, the anchor of the "CBS Evening News" — see little need for reconsidering their coverage or changing their approach going forward. Rather, they say, as the Clinton campaign fell behind, it exploited a few glaring examples of sexist coverage to whip up a backlash and to try to create momentum for Mrs. Clinton.

-- KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JULIE BOSMAN

Whether by design or random chance, there is so much information, on so many and diverse subjects, flooding the politically astute citizen currently that it is hard to keep track. It seems like we are drawn from one crisis and seminal issue to another with the passing of not every day, but with the passing of every hour. And yes, they are all pretty much that important; but there are some that portend not just how we do in our lives, but who we are and what we stand for in the first place. Chief among those is the question of whether we are a nation of men freelancing in the public trough of goodwill, or a nation of laws in which men operate within the rule of law and under the edicts and guidance of our founding fathers and the Constitution they bequeathed us.

-- BMAZ

The John McCain campaign would rather you think of McCain as a POW than a longtime Republican senator. In a radio ad McCain is running in South Florida, the narrator says, "As someone who has survived the harsh conditions of the Vietnamese prisons, John McCain knows that freedom in Cuba won't be achieved with concessions to dictatorships." That's a pretty dumb formulation. First, the decades-old anti-Cuba embargo that McCain (and Barack Obama) supports has done nothing to achieve freedom in Cuba. One can even argue it has helped the repressive, thuggish regime of the Castro brothers continue its dictatorial ways. (Embargo fans appear to take the position that failure is an option.) Second, McCain's stint as a POW is not relevant to this policy debate. If McCain's time in the Hanoi Hilton has convinced him that you shouldn't talk with tyrants, then why does he not call for ending all dialogue and trade with China? When it comes to freedom, the capitalist communists of Beijing are just as nasty as (if not more so) the socialist communists of Havana. But expect more of this: "As someone who has survived the harsh conditions of Vietnamese prisons, John McCain knows that American corporations ought to be taxed at lower rates."

-- DAVID CORN

To be clear, [Barack] Obama voted against [John] Roberts. But he believed him suboptimal, not a radical. Sadly, Obama -- like many informed folks -- was dead wrong on this. Every court reporter I know has been stunned by the way Roberts has run the Court to the right. He has indeed been trashing civil liberties and overturning civil rights. Hell, the Court has literally attacked the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education.

-- EZRA KLEIN

The crux of the matter is that most voters think Bush has been a bad president and would like to see different policies implemented. Obama goes out on the campaign trail, says Bush has been a bad president, and then proposes policies that are different from Bush's.

John McCain could do this, too!

But he doesn't say Bush has been a bad president. He campaigned for Bush in 2000 and even more so campaigned for his re-election in 2004. He seems to have no regrets about that. On the trail, he's made continuing Bush's Iraq policies the centerpiece of his campaign. At the heart of his economic agenda is extending Bush's tax policies and his health care agenda is the same as Bush's. He joined Bush in opposing the Climate Security Act, endorses Bush's approach to Iran, and agrees with Bush that no action should be taken to provide people with viable alternatives to driving. Consequently, he's got this 200-pound ball and chain around his leg. But he could cut it off easily enough. The trouble is that his substantive views seem to be very similar to Bush's and he's dependent on the financial and logistical support of a very similar interest group coalition to the one behind Bush.

-- MATTHEW YGLESIAS