Last train from Pussyville... leaving now...

Erstwhile rethug toady Joe Klein, finally realizing he's been had, calls upon his colleagues to rejoin him in the once-respected land of journalism --

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis {before that shrill c*nt opened her yap, at any rate -- Ed.} is the McCain campaign’s war against the press. So what’s going on here? Two things. McCain is just plain angry at us. By the evidence presented in the utterly revealing Time interview, he’s ballistic. This is a politician who needs to see himself as the man on the white horse…any intimations that he’s gotten muddied in the process, or has decided to throw mud, are intolerable.

The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair – sexist (you gotta love it) – personal assault going on against Palin and her family.

Uh-huh. Because God knows the right treated "that bitch" Hillary with the utmost respect and professionalism.

This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the fact the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media – about the substance of Palin’s record as mayor and governor.

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.”

The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Heh -- even Roger Simon -- yes, repug shill Roger Simon -- agrees:

'The official theme of the convention’s third day was “prosperity,” but the unofficial theme was “the media are really, really awful.”'

On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry. We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice? Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

[W]e should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.

Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a “cloud of rhetoric.”

Whoa. Pinch me.