Sen­a­tor Brown­back decid­ed to back down on his wacky cru­sade against a judge who attend­ed a les­bian com­mit­ment cer­e­mo­ny. Whether this will help him or hurt him in Iowa and espe­cial­ly South Car­oli­na is unclear.

I con­tin­ue to find it deeply dis­turb­ing to find Sam Brown­back being treat­ed as an increas­ing­ly seri­ous can­di­date for pres­i­dent. I guess that just shows how remark­ably shal­low the GOP bench actu­al­ly is. 

The bloom is even off the rose that was St. McCain:

Ear­li­er this year a close friend of John McCain gave me [Richard Cohen] fair warn­ing: McCain was about to become much more con­ser­v­a­tive, and I would not like what was com­ing. He was right. I did not like McCain’s speech at Jer­ry Fal­well’s Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty, and I think his sup­port of intel­li­gent design is — sor­ry, John — just plain brainless.

I hope to start a meme about McCain by repeat­ing that “Like all great indie acts, his ear­ly work was bet­ter.” McCain-Fein­gold was well-inten­tioned and at least it brought us ads with the fun­ny tagline: “I’m so-and-so and I approved this mes­sage.” What has he done for any­one since?