TAYLOR MARSH: Many Hillary supporters can’t see voting for Obama — at least not right now.

MUCH MORE ON ANGELO MOZILO and the Countrywide loan scandal.

UPDATE: John Galvin emails:

The linked Times article says: “In an interview, Mr. Conrad said he was unaware of any special effort on his behalf and called his credit rating “spotless” in suggesting that he was eligible for favorable loan terms. He said he turned to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Mozilo because he was buying a property in Delaware and did not know where to get a mortgage in that state. After the phone call with Mr. Mozilo, a Countrywide loan officer called Mr. Conrad.”

Can you imagine a a member of the Senate Finance Committee who’s too bloody stupid to google “Delaware Mortgage”, too stupid to ask the real estate agent who sold him the house to recommend some lenders, too stupid to simply ask any of the legions of DC folks who have beach houses at Bethany Rehoboth, and Lewes? If he can’t even handle such a simple finance matter, how’s he supposed to handle the finances of the USA?

New excuse from senators caught dirty: “I’m the dumbest asshole ever born – but vote for me anyway”.

That seems popular. But Conrad may be lying there:

Unless they asked, V.I.P. borrowers weren’t told exactly how many points were waived on their loans, the former employee says. However, they were typically assured that they were receiving the “Friends of Angelo” discount, and that Mozilo had personally priced their loans. . . . Senator Conrad borrowed $1.07 million in 2004 to refinance his vacation home with a balcony and wraparound porch in Bethany Beach, Delaware, a block from the ocean. Mozilo instructed a subordinate to “take off 1 point,” or $10,700, according to a March 17, 2004, email.

Later that year, Conrad refinanced an eight-unit apartment building that he and his brothers owned in Bismarck, North Dakota. According to the former employee, the loan violated Countrywide’s normal policy of providing loans for buildings of four units or fewer. In an April 23, 2004, email, Mozilo encouraged an employee to “make an exception due to the fact that the borrower is a senator.”

Possibly Conrad didn’t know he was getting special treatment here, but that goes back to the “dumb” part, doesn’t it?

A GUILTY PLEA in the Goose Creek terror case. Gateway Pundit has more on the case.

3G AFTERGLOW: A roundup of Apple and iPhone news.

JOHNATHAN PEARCE: “Anyway, the fact that the Guardian regards what Mr Davis has done as a ‘stunt’ is, I suppose, a nice example of how the idea of a man taking a principled stand on something and endangering his political career is outside the frame of reference of parts of the media class.”

MAKE YOUR KIDS play in the dirt.

DIPLOMACY: Bush and Sarkozy looking to bury “freedom fries” era. Relations with European governments seem to be doing a lot better than you’d think.

Meanwhile, Gerard Baker thinks that Europe will miss Bush: “The US President is a useful bogeyman – but his successor’s policies may not be much different.” Hmm.

A RIGHT TO SPANK? This case is statutory, but in Tennessee there’s a good argument that parents would have a right to spank under the state constitution.

PAUL KRUGMAN GETS A ROTTEN TOMATO. As usual, Krugman picks a political conclusion, and as usual, the data are otherwise.

MORE THOUGHTS ON INFRASTRUCTURE:

Even before today’s fires and power outages disrupted downtown D.C., it had been a rough week for transportation infrastructure in the area. Commuting by the Metro’s Orange line was a disaster because of a derailment — and Metro officials bungled the back-up plans for shuttle buses, completely mishandling communications — even as high fuel prices push riders onto mass transit. And the MARC trains were the usual unreliable selves.

Plus this:

But the planning and much of the construction took place before the Great Society, before Medicare, before Medicaid, before welfare, before Food Stamps, before the Conservation Reserve Program, before the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program, before the Community Development Block Grant Program, before the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, leafy spurge management grants, before HUD, the EPA, the Department of Education, etc., etc., etc….that is, before the explosion of federal spending and programs that now draw dollars that might have been spent on infrastructure.

Yep. It’s not a money problem, it’s a priority problem.

UPDATE: Col. Douglas Mortimer emails:

Um…all that spending and construction was before something else, too. It was before the NEPA and the ESA. Before EAs, and FONSIs, and EISs were required before the federal government could do anything. Any big federal construction projects can, and probably would be, tied up in environmental compliance litigation for years before a spade of dirt is turned.

Absolutely right.

JEFF JARVIS: “We are only now — a bit late — beginning to face up to sexism as a factor in the Democratic race and as an ongoing problem in America.”

BETTER DRUG DELIVERY, using nanotechnology.

SOMETIMES A PICTURE really is worth a thousand words.

UH OH: Poll: Fans Believe NBA Is Rigged.

SO I NOTICED THAT SLATE wasn’t carrying its “Today’s Blogs” feature this week, and emailed to find out what happened. Apparently, it’s been canceled. Too bad — I’ll miss it.

IN TOLEDO, A TERROR CONVICTION: “A federal jury on Friday convicted three Toledo-area men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting attacks against U.S. troops overseas and other terror-related acts. Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum, all of whom are Muslim, were convicted on all counts of conspiring to kill or injure people outside the United States and face sentences of life in prison.”

FRED THOMPSON IS UNHAPPY WITH THE SUPREME COURT: “Upon reading the opinion in Boumediene v Bush, one must conclude that the majority knew where they wanted to go and simply had to figure out how to get there. “

INSTAPUNDIT: At the center of all things.

Natch.

FACTS ON THE GROUND: “Senior Brookings fellows Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack gave a report today and entertained questions at a Brookings briefing on Iraq. It was the single most illuminating presentation I have witnessed on the status of Iraq and the potential way forward.”

Read the whole thing.

IRISH VOTERS REJECTED THE E.U. TREATY: Richard North has some thoughts. “Already, the European Commission president has declared that the treaty is still ‘alive,’ even though it is technically dead. However, there will be no overt attempt to make the Irish vote again, although the project will sail on.”

UPDATE: Dave Kopel: How the Irish saved civilization, again. “Treaty proponents lamented that Ireland, with only 1% of the EU population, could derail a 27-nation treaty. But the very fact that only 1% of the EU’s population was allowed to vote on a treaty which would massively reduce national sovereignty and democratic accountability was itself an illustration of the enormous ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU in general, and the Lisbon Treaty in particular. According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Lisbon Treaty would be defeated in every EU nation if referenda were allowed.”

TIM RUSSERT has died.

UPDATE: Richard Miniter remembers Russert. “He was two things that most Washington journalists are not: tough and fair.”

NASA AWARDS new spacesuit contract.

FROM MOOG, a “revolutionary” new guitar.

PROOF THAT THE WAR WASN’T FOR OIL: Donald Rumsfeld buys a Vespa.

LARRY KUDLOW: “Who can figure out what Sen. John McCain really stands for on the economy?”

UPDATE: No confusion here: Obama: Payroll tax on incomes above $250,000.