At the end of Sunday’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert warmly remembered longtime New York Times reporter R. W. Apple, well known not only for his journalism, but for his love of fine food and his tendency to wear bright dress shirts (some looked like picnic table tablecloths). As he displayed an old clip of Apple in a very early 1970s long-hair-and-big-sideburns combo, Russert put it this way: "For 43 years, he wrote for The New York Times with brio and clarity...R.W. ‘Johnny’ Apple, one great writer, one very unique character."

May he rest in peace. It should come as no surprise that a famous Timesman like Apple would display a fair amount of Manhattan ultraliberalism in his public career. Here are a few examples culled from the Notable Quotables archives:

For Virginia voters who may want a story or two about where their Senate candidates stand on the issues, they may want to try a newspaper other than The Washington Post. Once again today, aggressively Allen-bashing reporter Michael Shear is skipping the issues and sticking to personal attacks. At the top of Metro, Shear once again tried to undermine Allen for wearing cowboy boots and riding a horse in parades. Byron York already made the case very effectively at The Corner, so here he is:

With a story in today's Metro section, the Washington Post's coverage of the Allen-Webb race has fully descended into farce.  In "Will Sen. Allen's Cowboy Boots Fit Virginia Voters? Detractors Call Cowboy Image a Shtick," reporter Michael Shear devotes 1,302 words to the question of George Allen's footwear.

Shear reports that "Allen's detractors" make fun of his fondness for all things cowboy. "To them, it screams phony," Shear writes.  Shear quotes one such detractor who says, "With all due respect, I know cowboys.  I grew up with cowboys.  I have nephews who bull ride.  I'm sorry, George, you're not a cowboy."

The story that no one has reported on. This is the story of how the DOJ had to request that charges be dropped:

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) begged the court to dismiss all charges against IRS victim Robert Lawrence in federal District Court.

They requested that the charges be dropped with prejudice, i.e., no reason given.

The reason is simple -- Form 1040 does not have a valid OMB identification which is in violation of the Paper Reduction Act (PRA). For all of the details read the story associated with the link.

What I find interesting is that this story was not covered in the MSM; not surprised though. So, I turned to 2 of my staples: The DrudgeReport and WorldNetDaily. I submitted the link and I felt confident that the story would be breaking in a day or two. Sadly, the story never came.

CNN Political Editor Mark Preston posted a 160-word item on the network's Political Ticker this afternoon celebrating with glee a seven-word smack-down from "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos to Republican Congressman Adam Putnam of the Florida 12th. The Congressman, participating in a round-table discussion with show host Stephanopoulos and Congressman Rahm Emanuel of the Illinois 5th, both of whom served in the Clinton White House, contrasted the Mark Foley flap with the Monica Lewinsky scandal that erupted during President Clinton's second term. "[Foley's] resignation was demanded within hours," Putnam said. "Contrast that to previous scandals, where, frankly, two people at this table have had to cover for their former boss' sexual misdeeds while in office, and did not demand his resignation." Stephanopoulos responded to Putnam by saying that he left the Clinton administration in 1996, two years before the Lewinsky scandal broke.

It goes without saying that HBO’s Bill Maher is no journalist. However, it doesn’t seem to be asking too much of the comedian turned political pundit in his own mind to exhibit some degree of impartiality when interviewing current members of Congress and former presidential candidates, especially four weeks before a major election. Sadly, that appears not to be important to Maher, who like his compatriot on MSNBC, has become an unashamed, predictable hatchet-man for the left.

As a result, his program disingenuously titled “Real Time” has degenerated into a safe harbor for Democrats to get free reign over the cable-waves to make any statements they want – regardless of accuracy or validity – without the risk of being challenged by the host.

Such was certainly the case Friday when Maher demonstrated an almost unbelievable lack of integrity and impartiality while interviewing Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). The questions couldn’t have been better positioned for the former presidential candidate if they had been posed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, or left-wing operatives Paul Begala and James Carville. In fact, this conceivably was even a new low for Maher, which for him is approaching abyss-like depths that would require liquid oxygen to be inhaled to prevent lung implosion.

In reality, there is so much that is disturbing about this interview that identifying lowlights would be as time-consuming as listing all the obscenities in a rap video. As such, what follows is the full transcript of this abomination (video link here) with a strong recommendation to have a bucket nearby just in case the virulence upsets your stomach beyond your expectations.

Conceivably one of the finest examples of hypocrisy and liberal media bias I’ve witnessed since this blog was created occurred on Sunday’s “The Chris Matthews Show.” The first subject for the panel – which consisted of Norah O’Donnell, Tucker Carlson, Andrew Sullivan, and Maureen Dowd – was – drum roll please – Mark Foley. As one would expect, there was tremendous disgust for Foley’s behavior, and the panel enunciated ties to Republican corruption and competence. Yet, when the discussion moved to Sen. Hillary Clinton running for president in 2008, and the possibility that she would name her husband as Secretary of State, no one on the panel, including Tucker Carlson, saw the inherent contradiction.

After all, the former president was sued, impeached, and implicated in several sex scandals. If Foley’s behavior was so atrocious to all four panelists, it quite appeared that such disdain was not shared for the former president’s behavior, and didn’t disqualify him from future service to the nation. For example, in the opening segment about Foley, Norah O’Donnell said:

Ann Coulter was interviewed Saturday on Fox News’ “Weekend Live,” and those who actually were out and about missed the outspoken conservative speaking her mind like few in America do while cameras are rolling. The subject was Mark Foley, and the somewhat hypocritical response to this sex “scandalette.” After all, this appears to be a sex scandal without a key ingredient – sex.

Early on, Coulter stated about the Democrats, “I’ve never seen them engage in such gay-bashing.” Since folks on the left typically have short memories, Coulter believes “we need to get it in writing.” After all, “this is going to rule out gay schoolteachers. Um, and I guess we can finally get [Democrats] on board for not allowing scoutmasters to take 14-year-olds in the woods if they’re gay.”

There are some other wonderful quotes which, due to their sensitive nature, will be left to the full transcript in the “Read More” section. However, Coulter fans are encouraged to strap on their seatbelts, watch the video here (courtesy of our friend at Ms Underestimated), and enjoy the wild ride.

A huge point has been virtually if not totally ignored since the announcement on Friday that the reported federal deficit for the fiscal year that ended a week ago was $250 billion -- The Bush Administration has done what it said it would do about the deficit three years ago, and has done it a full three years early, i.e., in half the time predicted.

This continues what has been a very difficult past few years have been for those who deride supply-side economics. If Washington, with a little help from the states, lets the supply-side engine continue to chug along for next several years, the results could be so positively stunning that it would become impossible for supply-side detractors in touch with any part of the real world to hang on to the comfort of their static-analysis fantasyland.

But first, let's recap what has happened in the past three fiscal years:

On a relatively slow news Sunday, perusing Google News in search of some morsel of MSM bias with which whip up NewsBusters readers, I came across these two stories, the first from CTV.ca, the second from the Hindustan Times:

"Jadakiss arrested for alleged weapon possession"

"Chikungunya visits Kerala after 30 years"

Both headlines left me baffled. Who is Jadakiss? UN diplomat? Star striker for Manchester United? Second cousin to Gene Simmons? Congressional staffer angry he didn't get an IM from Mark Foley?

And who or what is Chikungaya, and why is he/it visiting Kerala? For that matter, is Kerala a person or a place?

The TV networks have enough trouble noticing a single governor's race across the country. But for some reason, the attorney general's race in New York drew attention when Republican candidate Jeanine Pirro drew a federal investigation for wanting to have her cheating husband wire-tapped. (NBC's Today has aired five segments or mentions of Pirro in the last ten days.) Will NBC and others in national TV news report on her opponent, Andrew Cuomo, and his weird habit of investing campaign money in risky hedge funds run by supporters? The New York Times reported on page A-24 on Friday:

Two years ago, Andrew M. Cuomo put more than half of his campaign treasury into a hedge fund, making him one of the few New York politicians to invest campaign money in anything riskier than a sure bet.

In the case of Mr. Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, the hedge fund was directed by one of his largest financial backers, a man who also handled Mr. Cuomo’s personal money. The investment of $750,000 turned out to be all upside, with a return of nearly 20 percent after one year.

In his column on the decline and fall of morality on television this week, Brent Bozell applies scrutiny to the TV critics, a group of people often pushing and shoving the networks to shatter every moral barrier, break through every standard of taste. Showtime has a new series titled "Dexter," featuring actor Michael C. Hall in the title role, slobbered over by the critics for his role as the repressed gay funeral director in HBO's "Six Feet Under." This new show makes a hero out of a sadistic serial killer, because his insatiable desire to kill is channeled into killing other bad guys. During the day, he helps the cops catch other killers by assessing blood spatter patterns. Brent writes "He’s a sociopathic killer-slash-hero, with the emphasis on the slash – he carves his victims up to fit into Hefty bags." Here's more:

As pay-cable pioneers, always pushing the newest disgusting "edge" with an eye on extremely jaded TV critics, Showtime executives feel warm that they have brought more understanding to the world on behalf of the much-maligned serial killer. Said Showtime boss Robert Greenblatt: "This is a complex and fascinating look at serial killers, which, up to this point, have been marginalized and made two-dimensional."

Society has "marginalized" serial killers? Silly me. Here, all along, I thought those folks had done that to themselves.

Okay, this is not the typical rant about the 9th Circus Court or even about my personal favorite, Judge ADT (aka The Security Judge: Judge Anna Diggs Taylor).

This is about a little article in Reader's Digest (August 2006) called America's Worst Judges. The article discusses 3 judges and why they were chosen. The link will provide you with the details of their wrongdoings.

In light of all the partisan mudslinging going on, I decided to go one step further than RD and check on party affilliation. Here are my findings:

Brandt Downey (6th Circuit Court, Florida): Democrat

Dana Fortinberry (52nd Circuit Court, Michigan): Democrat

Richard Palumbo (5th District Court, Maryland): Democrat