Quotes of the Day

Charlie Pierce on Fred "cornpon" Thompson. After noting his qualifications for government (hint: zip):

Therefore, all of the earnest speculation about his manly-man appeal to the base is based on how much utter bulls**t the man can sling between now and the first primary. He's a performance piece, nothing more. There isn't an ounce of authenticity to him that isn't storebought. He actually is the complete fake that the Cool Kids pretended Al Gore was in 2000. He's even from Tennessee and, it is said, he once dated cute li'l Maggie Carlson, the chipmunk-cheeked lightweight in the moonman glasses who once famously thought Gore was talkin' too smart for the likes of her vaporous self.

I would personally be willing to purchase, for viewing, a copy of the DVD "A Face in the Crowd" for every Washington reporter and pundit. They need to see it, savior it, and maybe even learn something.