Morning Quick Hits

The feeding frenzy surrounding McCain grows with the Washington Post printing a corroborating article this morning.

Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who was McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe at Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

For those thinking the media is giving Obama a pass, check out Chris Matthews grilling State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-TX) on Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments. Watch the video. Claire McCaskill was on Hardball the following day to do damage control.

Think Progress covers how Rove used his talk at Penn last night to defend Bush's use of signing statements. The DP coverage of the event is here.

Here are some morning tunes (Evermore vs Dirty South - Its too late)

~BT

All's quiet at Penn

It is a Wednesday afternoon, the day after a major victory by Obama in Wisconsin and Hawaii, and all seems quiet on the University of Pennsylvania campus as we await the arrival of Turd Blossom.

I wasn't planning on going to see Karl Rove speak tonight at Irvine Auditorium partly out of protest and disgust that he was probably being paid upwards of $40,000 by the Social Planning and Events Committee (SPEC) to spew his crap directly to 1,500 Penn students.

Of course, I'm only guessing about the $40,000. Here's what I do know:

• SPEC Connaissance's budget for the spring speaker is $50,000.
  
• Rove recently received $40,000 from the University of Iowa
  

Other than those two facts, SPEC will refuse to release any information about how much they paid Karl Rove. Or at least they wouldn't tell the DP. I guess I'm just hoping that we aren't paying him any more than 40k.

Well, plans change. A friend called with an extra ticket, so I'm going to hear what 'the architect' will have to say and will be curious to see if there are any protesters and what questions are asked.

Stephen Krewson wrote a great column in yesterday's DP expressing his disappointment with the choice of Rove as the spring speaker.

Look forward to a post about tonight's talk as well as my thoughts on Obama's blowout win yesterday.

I'm listening to DIRTY SOUTH/MYNC PROJECT - Everybody Freakin' (you can listen to the long sample. I couldn't find this song anywhere else on the internets)

~BT