IF THEY CAN SAY THAT WITH A STRAIGHT FACE, they can say anything with a straight face: Media Matters is “nonpolitical.”

LARRY LESSIG ON ending government corruption.

I, FOR ONE, WELCOME our new Civil Service overlords.

SOUNDS YUMMY, but I’m keeping my underwear on.

GOOD NEWS ON JOBS, just right for Wall Street: Well, good.

SO I’VE NOTICED A SUDDEN SURGE OF ACTIVITY IN THE TIPJAR — a change, since I don’t really mention it much anymore — and wondered why. My guess is that it’s side-scatter from The Corner’s pledge drive. I guess.

Anyway, thanks — whatever the reason!

PEGGY NOONAN ON OUR DYNASTIC POLITICS OF LATE:

It is the nature of modern politics. A political family gains allies–retainers, supporters, hangers-on, admirers, associates, in-house Machiavellis. The bigger the government, the more ways allies can be awarded, which binds them more closely. Your destiny is theirs. Members of the court recruit others. Money lines spread person to person, company to company, board to board, mover to mover.

The most important part is the money lines. Power is expensive. The second most important part is the word “winner.” The Bushes are winners; the Clintons are winners. We know this, they’ve won. The Bushes are wired into the Republican money-line system; the Clintons are wired into the Democratic money-line system. For a generation, two generations now, they have had the same dynamics in play, only their friends are on the blue team, not the red, or the red, not the blue.

They are, both groups, up and ready and good to go every election cycle. They are machines. There are good people on each side, idealists, the hopeful, those convinced the triumph of their views will make our country better. And there are those on each side who are not so wonderful, not so well-meaning, not well-meaning at all. And some are idiots, but very comfortable ones.

Is this good for our democracy, this air of inevitability? Is it good in terms of how the world sees us, and how we see ourselves? Or is it something we want to break out of, like a trance?

It would be understandable if they were families of a most extraordinary natural distinction and self-sacrifice. But these are not the Adamses of Massachusetts we’re talking about. You’ve noticed, right?

I think most people have.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Are the best journalists kind of, well, sociopaths?”

Plus this: “I’d say another emerging problem in journalism is that journalists and the people they cover are becoming more and more concentrated in a few cities. And that means that they’re all each other’s friends.”

MICKEY KAUS: “It looks like the only Republican who’s not quitting the Senate is Larry Craig.”

HILLARY — WARLIKE ENOUGH TO PLEASE TOM SMITH? Maybe: “She certainly understands the concept of enemies and the need to destroy them.”

ERIC SCHEIE: Nothing is true. Everything is permissible.

DEROY MURDOCK on the Hillary juggernaut.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM RADIO LAST NIGHT, you can listen online today. The latest episode of PJM Political is up!

YEAH, THE SITE’S BEEN UP AND DOWN all day. I don’t know why. Even when it’s up, I can’t always post. Stay tuned; if it gets bad enough I’ll post at the backup site.

STEPHEN MOORE: “GOP Tax Dilemma: After years of waste in Congress, voters aren’t buying the party’s fiscal message.”

The problem isn’t so much the message as a loss of credibility.

DAN RIEHL: I want my Waco!

TENNESSEE FLAGS IN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICAL ADS? It’s just more of that Volunteer State imperialism. Soon, everyone will be drinking Jack Daniel’s and worshiping Dolly Parton.

THE RAW STORY: Senate passes intelligence bill after Democrats back down on presidential briefings, CIA jails.

DUKE LACROSSE PLAYERS sue Nifong and Durham police.

UPDATE: More from K.C. Johnson.

THOMPSON/LIMBAUGH 2008? But can Rush take the paycut?

ANOTHER BLOW TO THE NETROOTS: “Who owns your party now, baby?”

More here: “By putting O’Hanlon on her team, she’s let the netroots know that she doesn’t need their support, and more to the point, she doesn’t want their support. How can she afford to be so dismissive of this powerful constituency? Maybe because they aren’t as powerful as we’d thought.” Or, at least, she’s reached the point where they can’t hurt her any more.

A DRAFT AL GORE website.

THOUGHTS ON PATRIOTISM AND POLITICS, from Armed Liberal.

IN THE MAIL: Raymond Feist’s Into a Dark Realm, the latest in his Midkemia books beginning with the excellent Magician: Apprentice. Like Diane Duane, I remember Feist from the old days of CompuServe’s Science Fiction Forum, where he was a regular participant.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE G.O.P.? Among other things, one of their education priorities is to pressure colleges on illegal downloading, endorsing a proposal that Harry Reid had already floated and withdrawn in the face of pushback from colleges.

Message to Republicans: The entertainment industries are your enemies. They’re one of the main sources of money for Democrats, and provide a lot of valuable free media for them, too. Why help them out? Especialy when you might actually pick up some youth votes by taking a different position?

Jeez, this has been obvious for a long time.