You can’t make this stuff up. It sounds like satire. President Bush told Mike Allen of Politico that he has a very personal way to honor the sacrifice made by soldiers and their families.

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Bush made this very personal, very tough, very sacrificial decision in August 2003 after a bomb that hit the UN headquarters in Baghdad killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top UN official in Iraq.

“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life,” he said. “I was playing golf - I think I was in central Texas - and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It’s just not worth it anymore to do.’”

What a great man! What empathy for our fallen soldiers and destroyed families! No golf. How does he do it?  What’s he going to give up next, weekends at the ranch?

Membership has doubled since he’s been president. 

Democrat Travis Childers beat Republican Greg Davis for a congressional seat in Mississipi’s first district, the first time it’s gone Democratic since 1994.  Bush won that district with 59% of the vote in 2000 and 64% in 2004.  Denny Hastert’s Illinois seat went Democratic in March, after Hasert’s 20 year run, and Democrats took a Louisiana seat in early May, one long-held by Republicans.

• LIVE coverage of the West Virginia Primary.
• Former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus, an Obama supporter, weighs in on tonight’s results.
• Amb. Elizabeth Bagley, Senior Advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton, discusses what’s next for her campaign.
• Astrologers Shelley Ackerman and Ray Merriman share their political predictions.

From: Bob
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 4:51 AM
To: Alan
Subject: (no subject)

Do the viewers a big favor and resign from the show. You and your stupid comments are an embarressment to common sense.Watch a re-run of the show and you will realize what a complete idiot you are.You could get ethier Larry,Curley or Moe to replace you.

Bob

From: Raymond
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 10:00 PM
To: Alan
Subject: Why

Why do you persist on taking the opposite stand on every issue?

I’m tired of hearing you say “The facts don’t support it”.

All you do is get people’s blood pressure up.

From: Alan
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 10:19 PM
To: Raymond
Subject: RE: Why

Did it ever occur to you that there are at least two sides to most issues and that many Americans agree with me?

From: RAYMOND
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:35 PM
To: Alan
Subject: Re: Why

Sorry Mr. Colmes, I can’t believe your comment that many Americans agree with you, not someone who is always so pessimistic as you are. I enjoy the show (H&C) but you get too antagonistic with your guests and try to come on as a know it all with the last word. I’m 69 years old and if I don’t know by now that there are two sides to most issues than shame on me (nice try).

From: JOE
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:15 PM
To: Alan
Subject: you

a, you are a stupid shithead. how does a dumbass like you live with yourself?

From: Martin
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:30 PM
To: Alan
Subject: Alan Colmes

Please tell me you are not as obtuse as you
present yourself. You are really just playing
Devil’s advocate to Sean’s conservatism.
Are you not?

From: Alan
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:32 PM
To: Martin
Subject: RE: Alan Colmes

Oh, you mean a liberal can’t express oneself without being obtuse? A liberal is a devil’s advocate to a conservative, but it never works the other way around?

From: Dan
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:47 PM
To: Alan
Subject: Sometimes

I am a Viet-Nam Veteran, near the 60 mark. I watch the Hannity and Colms show quite often. Hopefully you will actually read this.

In a nutshell Mr. Colms, sometimes your remarks lead me to believe you are retarded. How can you be so intelligent (and I believe that you are) yet so blind? Do you actually DO any real research for your arguments, or like most liberals, just spouting off and twisting things around as you see fit for the moment for the sake of argument? It’s your mentality and doctrine that has brought our nation to the sad state that it is in. Liberalism has ruined, and will finish off the nation. I’m sad and regretful I put my life in harms way for the sake of these pathetic, immoral and disgusting ideas in the disguise of “freedom of speech and freedom of choice”. Very carefully try to digest this statement: “Liberalism is quite literally, doctrine from hell”. Religious right? Fanatic? Maybe to you and your blind liberal friends, (no, wait, you can see all the way to the end of your noses sometimes) but it is the sad and solemn truth, one day you and all your crazy left wing will actually see that, I promise you that. The whole world thought Noah and Moses was crazy too, and we see where that went.

I could write pages here, but I know you wouldn’t read them anyways.

Have a great day!

Dan

From: Alan
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:55 PM
To: Dan
Subject: RE: Sometimes

When you thankfully defended this country, you were probably aware that you were defending even those who aren’t conservatives.  It’s truly sad that you have such contempt for the views of millions of Americans, many of whom also fought for our country.

From: Theresa
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 5:20 PM
To: Alan
Subject: You win Oriely’s Pin Head Award

You protect Reverend Wright and Senator Obama. They both believe deeply in Black Liberation Theology. Blacks who practice this belief want to kill all whites. That includes you. (At least I think it includes you. I have not quite made my mind up on that point yet.) That entitles you to Oriely’s Pin Head award. Stop protecting people who want to kill you. Does Reverend Wright’s famous phrase, “stuck on stupid,” come to mind?

Theresa

From: Alan
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 5:22 PM
To: Theresa
Subject: RE: You win Oriely’s Pin Head Award

So let me get this straight, Obama, Wright and I want to kill all white people? Does that mean I want to kill myself?

From: Ed
Date: May 13, 2008 12:30:56 AM EDT
To: Alan
Subject: Hannity and Colmes

Is it possible for you to open your mouth without making an intrusive ass of yourself? Try it sometime, or do the country a favor, and get the hell out of it.

Ed

From: Ken
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:52 PM
To: Alan
Subject: Alan, You Can’t REALLY Believe All The Insane Things You Say!?

Alan,

You want to decriminalize (i.e. LEGALIZE) illicit drugs and even provide fresh needles for addicts? ARE YOU KIDDIN’ ME? And your thinly veiled argument for wanting to lead our society further down the path to destuction is compassion for those who you’re afraid might catch AIDS or hepatitis? C’mon, Alan! Yes, the fight against illicit drug use is a difficult one, but is that difficulty reason enough to surrender to the problem and begin to actually ENCOURAGE it? Following that reasoning, we should have quit WWII long before so many hundreds of thousands of soldiers were lost on the battlefields of Europe and should have offered Hitler all the resources he needed to finish the job! Alan, drug use leads to other crimes, especially theft and murder. Making it easier for people to continue to use drugs and for even more people to head down that path will be essentially to contribute to increased crime and violence, as well as increased poverty, as if drug infested areas don’t already have poverty enough! Alan, what we need are better programs for getting people OFF OF DRUGS, not programs to encourage their continued use! ALAN, YOU AND OTHER LIBERALS LIKE YOU ARE EITHER COVERTLY IN FAVOR OF THE DISINTEGRATION OF OUR COUNTRY INTO CHAOS, OR YOU’RE COMPLETE AND UTTER MORONS!!!!!!!!!!
Ken

John Hagee, whose comments about the Catholic Church did not sit well with many Catholics and, specifically, the Catholic League, issued a letter of apology, declaring:

“Out of a desire to advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful,” Hagee wrote, according to an advanced copy of the letter reviewed by Washington Wire. “After engaging in constructive dialogue with Catholic friends and leaders, I now have an improved understanding of the Catholic Church, its relation to the Jewish faith, and the history of anti-Catholicism.”

The letter was sent to Catholic League president Bill Donahue, who previously released a list of grievances called “Veteran Bigot.” Hagee addresses some of his harsh remarks, saying,

“I better understand that reference to the Roman Catholic Church as the ‘apostate church’ and the ‘great whore’ described in the book of Revelation” - both terms Hagee has employed - “is a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary,” he wrote.

Donahue issued this statement:

“The tone of Hagee’s letter is sincere. He wants reconciliation and he has achieved it. Indeed, the Catholic League welcomes his apology. What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns,” Donohue wrote.

Will the next stop on the Apology Express be the city of New Orleans or the gay community?

When you’re 18.  She claimed innocence when the Vanity Fair photos came out.  But there are photos circulating that appear as though the Vanity Fair shoot did not require much persuasion. Just a few weeks ago, she said she was embarrassed by the Vanity Fair photos. If she was embarrassed about those, how must she feel about these?

• Alan talks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) about the 2008 presidential race and his new book, The Good Fight.
• Retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led our forces in Iraq and is author of Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story, reveals how political infighting led to battlefield chaos.
• On the eve of the West Virginia primary where Hillary could win big, are calls for her to drop out premature?

Mr. Family Values won’t attend family functions if his gay sister, Victoria Fossella, and her partner are present, reports the New York Daily News. Victoria’s brother, Staten Island congressman Vito Fossella, voted against funding adoptions for gay couples, and wanted housing funds held back from San Francisco until the city repealed its domestic partnership law. Fossella also voted for the Marriage Protection Amendment. Too bad he didn’t do too much to protect his own.

The interviewers get all the credit, but the bookers are the ones who have to arrange cars, put up with divas in some cases, do some handholding for high-maintenance guests, make sure all the green M&M’s are out of the green room dish, and know what the fine line is between being aggressive in pursuing a guest and risking being served with a restraining order. 

TV Week has a good run-down of some of the personalities producers deal with every moment of their working lives. Nuggets like:

The hardest to get:

Leading vote-getter: Vice President Dick Cheney. “He doesn’t give a s***. He’s checked out,” said one respondent. “I don’t know what he does all day,” said another.

Plays hardest to get:

Leading vote-getter: Former Clinton White House aide Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., once more visible on newsmaker shows and now “always uses the family excuse” to avoid appearing and stay behind the scenes. (”He is playing an inside game, not an outside game.”)

Also mentioned: Mr. (Howard) Dean (until late April); Sen. Kerry and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. (”You have to go through this long, arduous process.”); some surrogates.

Leaves their best stuff in the green room:

Leading vote-getters: Senators “jockeying for position.” “They all do.”

Also mentioned: Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; former presidential candidate New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (”He talks a good game and then thinks better of it on camera.”); Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic candidate John Edwards.

Highest maintenance:

Leading vote-getters: Rudolph Giuliani (”Is [wife] Judith coming or is she not coming?”); Rep. Pelosi (”won’t come to the studio,” “wants the grandeur of her Speaker’s office,” “the queen-spare me”).

Also mentioned: Mr. (Ralph) Nader (”bizarre,” “won’t be picked up at home”); Gov. Romney

Easiest to deal with:

Leading vote-getter: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is “always very accommodating.”

Also mentioned: “People who have been around for a long time,” including Sen. Biden, Rep. Charles Rangell, D-N.Y.; Sen. Dodd; Sen. Specter (”He comes on and makes his point,” “always interesting”); and Gov. Huckabee (”very low-key,” traveling often with “only a one-person entourage even as candidate”).

A quick survey of one of my producers says this is all mostly true.

h/t Think Progress.

Mitt Romney told Wolf Blitzer that McCain being Bush III “isn’t going to stick.” But McCain surrogate Congerssman Roy Blunt of Missouri said, “I think that’s a good thing.”

Or is it just that too many Democrats are?

Doug Goodyear was chosen by John McCain to manage the Republican convention in Minnesota this summer. The problem wasn’t just that Goodyear’s company was making millions lobbying for corporations like ExxonMobil and GM, even though that should have been enough of an issue for the supposedly anti-lobbyist McCain.  An even bigger problem, as revealed by Newsweek,  was Goodyear’s lobbying for the military junta in Burma, a government condemned by our own state department for human rights violations.

Another issue: DCI has been a pioneer in running “independent” expenditure campaigns by so-called 527 groups, precisely the kind of operations that McCain, in his battle for campaign-finance reform, has denounced. In 2004, the DCI Group led a pro-Bush 527 called Progress for America, which was later fined (along with several other 527s on both sides of the political divide) for violating federal election laws. Goodyear, however, says that DCI is “not in the 527 business anymore.”

Now, Goodyear is gone, “setting a new land speed record for shortest time lapsed between the ’story breaks’ and ‘ax falls’ phases of a political scandal.” 

Here’s how Goodyear explains his Burmese involvement: “It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago.”   I guess that makes it okay.

The president discussed this weighty matter during his Saturday morning radio address.

“Today is my daughter Jenna’s wedding day,” he said. “This is a joyous occasion for our family as we celebrate the happy life ahead of her and her husband Henry. It’s also a special time for Laura, who, this Mother’s Day weekend, will watch a daughter we raised together walk down the aisle.”

But just as well that I’m not going.  My food taster is off today.