By DoubleSpeak guest contributor Todd Henkin

At a local pub the other night, I struck up conversation with a few raggedy dressed guys sitting near me. One looked to be about seventy years old and the other maybe twenty-five. Though of completely different ages, they had a similar look in clothes, in mannerisms, and in the dark circles under their eyes. My friend nudged me and told me they came often. They were coming from the Veteran’s Hospital nearby. They drained their beers over little words before we started speaking, eyes pasted on the television, four elbows on the beer-wet counter.

We were watching the national news, a rare break from sports at an Irish pub. This was evidence of a new interest in America; politics. These primaries have been like the NCAA tournament as we approach March-Madness with no clear candidate. The sport has especially intensified on the democratic side as the two candidates spar with each other in training for the championship fight. Each is secretly throwing extra power behind their bruising body shots. There are usually no knockouts in sparring bouts, but recently we are seeing something different.

Leaning in to hear our conversation, the younger veteran decided to join us with a comment. He told us he’d just gotten back from two tours in Iraq and found it to be a completely useless and un-win-able war. He said he’d vote for whoever would get us out quickest. Having identified himself on the Democratic side, we then pushed him to a decision between Clinton and Obama. His answer struck up a new topic. Both he and the older veteran agreed that Obama seemed like a worth candidate except with one major drawback. “He’ll never make it through a full term if he wins. Someone will definitely shoot him. They always assassinate guys like him. They’ll find a way.”

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This pretty much says it all when it comes to Ralph Nader’s decision to run again for President in 2008.

In what could be the most critical days remaining in the race for the Democratic nomination it appears, as Senator Obama said in last night’s CNN debate, that it is truly “silly season in politics.” During the debate, Sen. Clinton continued her line of attack concerning alleged “plagiarism” by Sen. Obama and hit him hard, calling his lines, “change you can xerox.”

Obama’s use of Governor Patrick’s rhetoric does not constitute plagiarism therefore rendering her attacks false and pretty truly silly. Americans are looking for solutions, not canned attacks.

Yet, it’s still worth noting that Sen. Clinton has done the exact same thing over the course of her campaign - a glaring example taking place just last night:

Hillary Clinton: “You know, the hits I’ve taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country.”

Bill Clinton 1992: “The hits that I took in this election are nothing compared to the hits the people of this state and this country have been taking for a long time.”

I think people are really tired of this story. It truly is just silly.

UPDATE on the silliness: CNN has picked up the story

Video compliments of the great Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.

DoubleSpeak would also like to offer a hearty congrats to Talking Points Memo for recently being awarded the George Polk award for legal reporting for coverage of the US Attorney scandal. Great work!

The New York Times has a breaking story on supposed improprieties between presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain and telecom lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 31 years his junior:

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, in his offices and aboard a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s clients, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

DoubleSpeak will most certainly continue to cover this story.

UPDATE: McCain Says Report on Lobbyist Not True

This quote says it all. Hillary Clinton must win Ohio and Texas.

“If she wins Texas and Ohio I think she will be the nominee; if you don’t then I don’t think she can.”

– Bill Clinton, quoted by ABC News, on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

During Hillary Clinton’s concession speech last night in Youngstown, Ohio, the gloves came off…way off! Clinton surrogate Tom Buffenbarger, who is president of the machinists’ union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) went wild. Not only did he go nuclear on Obama, he angrily went after his supporters, calling them, “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies.”

Politics is a dirty game, but this stuff is just insulting. Using right-wing frames to insult Democratic Party voters is not lifting up the party, it’s tearing it down.

MSNBC’s First Read has more.

Buffenbarger called Obama a “thespian,” and he sarcastically referred to the junior senator from Illinois as a “wunderkind.” He compared Obama to “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times.” And he pleaded with the crowd to boo Obama’s labor record.

Early in his speech, Buffenbarger asked, “So now we have a decision to make. Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor? The silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois? The man in love with the microphone?”

Taking off the gloves, he said, “Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate. He took a walk more than a 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he never steps into the ring.”

But it was Obama supporters for whom Buffenbarger saved his most vitriolic contempt, and he proved that the Democratic Party’s coalition is nothing if not fragile. Channeling Howard Beale from the movie “Network,” he yelled into the microphone, “Give me a break! I’ve got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won’t last a round against the Republican attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter.”

Looks like the folks at The Caucus Blog are fans!

H/T to listener Rachel Adler for always having DoubleSpeak on her mind!