CNN

Looks like Fox is giving the Tea Party Convention their official wingnut stamp of approval: The revolution will be televised. Planners of the National Tea Party Convention, billed as a coming together for the conservative grassroots groups who sprang up in anti-stimulus protests last year, announced late Sunday that they would broadcast main parts of the convention, including the keynote by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday night.

As you may have heard, in an interview on CNN’s Showbiz Tonight, Martha Stewart had some less than flattering things to say about Sarah Palin. Stewart said of Palin She’s very boring to me, very boring. And a very, to me, kind of a dangerous person. I mean, she’s dangerous. She speaks, she’s, she’s so confused. And anyone like that in government is a real problem. Well, I don’t have to tell you that those are exactly the type of fighting words that can make a former Alaskan Governor go rogue! And rogue she went!

One of the Republican Party’s most respected and relied-upon consultants has serious reservations about two the party’s biggest names. Alex Castellanos, a conservative media strategist and regular presence on CNN, raised questions of Sarah Palin’s viability for office and took major swipes at Florida Senate candidate Charlie Crist during an appearance at Bloomberg News’ Washington Summit Thursday. The harshest lines were saved for Crist, who Castellanos said was not really a Republican.

Republicans, to be sure, seem to have an endless reservoir of outrage these days. Among the latest smallish things to get the right wing’s underpants into a collective twist was a poll released several days ago by ABC and the Washington Post . There was much within the poll for the GOP to be concerned about. It had the “generic ballot test” for next year’s midterm election at a twelve-point Democratic edge (generally speaking, an even wider edge than was found in October surveys back in 2008). It showed a striking level of support for the Public Option.

Fox Network’s numbers speaks for themselves. In the first quarter Fox was the second-most-watched network in primetime. It bagged the top spot among nine out of ten cable shows. It made CNN and MSNBC look like amateurish high school student broadcast facilities. In the second quarter Fox did even better with an astonishing ratings jump more than thirty percent higher than the first quarter. Their runaway number one audience, ad, and ratings recruiter is President Obama. Yet, Obama keeps pitching Fox. First he publicty tried to shoo everyone away from the network.

Sen. John McCain acknowledged on Sunday tensions between his vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin, and his top aide, Steve Schmidt, during his failed bid for the White House last year, yet said that the former Alaska governor gave a boost to the campaign.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) demurred once again when asked to divine the kind of candidate for president his former running mate, Sarah Palin, could be in 2012. “I have a degree of clairvoyance,” the Arizona Republican said, “but in 2009 to predict what would happen in the 2012 election is — I’m not capable of.” While McCain wouldn’t wade into presidential politics, he did offer a bit of retrospection.

Last time, we were not only lied into war, but those who did the cheerleading and lying neither volunteered themselves nor did any of their children. So, this time, before Michelle Malkin, or Eric Cantor, or Liz Cheney, or Rich Lowry, get a nanosecond on any other network but Fox to plump for escalating the Afghan War, let them demonstrate their belief in its importance, and rightness, by first volunteering to fight it.

Where were you a year ago today? If you are a political journalist — or media hanger-on — chances are you were living out of a suitcase at the 2008 Presidential Conventions, with the Dems nominating Barack Obama in Denver and the GOP nominating John McCain in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Remember those heady days? I sure do.

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