Black Box Report

I own how many homes???

So, John McCain can’t remember how many houses he owns...I’m sure you can relate. Happens to me all the time. Lots of people I know have that problem. After all, as Matthew Yglesias points out, it’s a tricky question:

I was wondering yesterday how it is that you manage to spend almost $4.7 million on a condo in Phoenix, and the answer turns out to be that the McCains bought two luxury condos and combined them. The $4.66 million figure is the combined price of his cribs.
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This is one reason why it’s a bit unfair to tag McCain as out of touch for being unable to remember how many homes he owns. When one of your homes is really a combination of two different luxury condos the metaphysical status of your property comes into question.

And that's just his primary residence(s) in Phoenix. Then there's McCain's Hidden Valley Ranch in Sedona. It's just one piece of 15 acre property, but it has 6 houses. Then there's the condo in Virginia, a few in California; some he lives in, some are just investments and...well, you can see it gets hard to keep of them all. Someone should share this link with the AZ senator so he can keep his answer straight. Maybe one of those staffers who he pays good money to worry about these things so he and Cindy don't have to. After all, people of McCain's class have more important things to worry about. So cut him some slack:

We shouldn't judge him too harshly. After all, a man who wears $520 Italian loafers, owns a million dollar parking lot, thinks the baseline for rich is making $5,000,000 a year and whose wife is worth $100M really can't be expected to recall such petty details on the spot.

Besides, Obama eats arugula, drinks gourmet tea and vacations in Hawaii! And even if that also describes your average lower middle class California college student, who cares if John McCain can't remember how many homes make up his $13 million+ real estate portfolio? As we all know, only Democrats are elitist:

He could bathe in rivers of Evian on a platform composed of platinum and rhino bones, and it wouldn’t particularly matter because he likes to look gruff and he’s white and he wants to cut taxes. The fact that he’s entirely removed from virtually all knowledge of his housing situation in the midst of a nationwide housing crisis, however, isn’t room for any concern of elitism because [noun] [verb] [POW].

And right on cue...

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

That was Team Maverick's response to the Obama campaign's newest ad, which came out, like, minutes after this story broke.

For some reason, Democrats think this could provide an opening to hit McCain on:

McCain has opposed increases to the minimum wage, he opposes universal healthcare, and he blamed the housing crisis on homeowners. At the same time, McCain thinks the economy is strong, that Bush has been a good steward of the economy, and what the nation really needs is more tax cuts for millionaires…It's not about wealth and elitism; it's about being out of touch.

Because not knowing how many million dollar homes you own shows you're a true Man of the People.

Wealthy, out of touch people.

Seperated at Birth?

In 2006, Joe Lieberman was in a bit of a spot. His stubborn and increasingly vocal support for the Iraq War and perrenial thorn in Democrats' side had a lot of Connecticut Democrats fed up and ready to give Joe the heave-ho. Faced with a tight primary battle against newcomer Ned Lamont, Lieberman needed some Dem street cred and begged another popular newcomer, Barack Obama, to campaign for him. Two years later, this is how Lieberman repays a fellow Democrat's kindness:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican official tells The Associated Press that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman will be speaking at the Republican National Convention.

The GOP official said Wednesday that Lieberman would deliver a speech as Republicans gathered in St. Paul to nominate John McCain for president.

Like anyone didn't see that coming.

Like former Georgia senator Zell Miller before him, Lieberman has followed a career arc from moderate Democrat scold to an Iraq war supporting, Republican talking point machine, such that anytime a Democrat felt a knife in the back, Joe's name was usually on the handle. And that's as good as it gets for an audition to play in St. Paul:

Maybe Lieberman will reiterate his claim that Obama has not always put his country first. It's awfully valuable to McCain and the GOP to have a so-called Democrat leading with such a smear, and there apparently is nothing Lieberman won't do for his new buds.

But is there anything they won't do for Joe? Actually, there's quite a lot, and Joe shouldn't get too comfy with his new chums:

I hope that when Lieberman gives his speech...he realizes that the delegates cheering him on are the same people who'd be rioting in the streets if their party ever gave Lieberman anything more than a symbolic honor...Lieberman's only use to the Republicans is as a sideshow act; and he, of course, has no use anymore to Democrats...He truly is a man without a political home. So sad.

There's not much hope for Lieberman keeping his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Although Harry Reid has let Joe do his business in the Democratic Party punchbowl for so long, even this may not matter. As Open Left says:

I still remain skeptical that they will actually strip him of his committee chair, since it will demonstrate self-respect and a willingness to stand up to conservative Democrats.

One way or the other, come November 5th, expect Joe to have a little more time on his hands, and for the Homeland Security / Government Affairs Committee to actually get some work done. After all, there's not much of a reason for Harry Reid to do anything sooner than that:

If (Reid) pulls the trigger, Lieberman gets to…tout it as evidence that partisanship has gone too far, that he was deemed perfectly qualified and capable of serving the American people on those committees until he stepped out of line, and that McCain’s the only maverick in the race willing to bridge that divide and put country first.

Lieberman's going to do all that anyway, but at least he won't be able to throw the rest of the Senate Dems under the bus as well.

Again, that is.

And so Lieberman is going all in for McCain. He has no other choice, really. The Democrats are highly likely to pick up at least one seat in the senate, making Joe's agreement to caucus with them irrelevant. And once Joe's no longer a Democrat in any way, shape or form, he'll cease to be of any interest to the media that loves them some Democratic infighting. A McCain victory is Joe's only shot at maintaining any relevancy or power, either on a committee or as part of a McCain cabinet.

As for even higher aspirations, given Joe's speaking slot on the first day of the convention (not to mention his ostensibly pro-choice position), it probably rules him out as McCain's VP choice. But the Associated Press was still mentioning his name as a possibility as of yesterday, so who knows?

Debate continues as to whether or not that was a typo.