Earmarks.

Senator John McCain is really rattling the cage this week about “earmarks” — those special requests in the federal budget that allow lawmakers to get a few hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars here or there for pet projects they claim their constituents need. McCain says he is SOOO against them. And to a certain extent, he’s better than many. But he’s not pure as the driven snow when it comes to extra money, no matter what his Twitter stream says.

Getting on his soapbox about earmarks is a great political move in this economic climate. When we’re all trying to make ends meet, who wouldn’t be against federal funds to buy a trolley or to pay for streetscaping? My problem is the whole ‘he who lives in glass houses’ thing.

McCain likes to split hairs over the definition of an earmark — he seems to think the term only applies if you’re trying to put a spending plan in the budget on the down-low. Somehow, if you’re up front about wanting to spend $10 million on some law school facility named for the late Supreme Court Chief Justice (from McCain’s home state) William Rehnquist that’s OK. Or you shouldn’t be painted with the bad brush of federal earmarks if you choose someone like Sarah Palin, a true earmark expert, to be your VP running mate.

It’s easy for Senator McCain to make excuses for why his requests and actions should be OK but not others. McCain (or his staff) is on a Twitter campaign to convince us that he has our budget interests at heart and that the Democrats are going on a wild earmark spree!

Don’t. You. Believe. It.

The Supreme Court is hearing a case challenging whether Barack Obama is a “natural born citizen” and eligible to be the next POTUS. This came up with John McCain too, but SCOTUS didn’t seem too concerned then.

Did MSM miss yet another opportunity to add some diversity to Sunday morning news shows?

One less politically incorrect doll on the market.

NY Times’ Gail Collins has a few things to say about the election and being a political columnist (yes, you are right — I DO want to be her!)

Is there a feminist revolution a-brewing in national security?

There, that should hold you!

And Cindy McCain does a great Carol Merrill impression, doesn’t she?

Then, it hit me — if Stevens still got more votes than his Democratic opponent, Alaska would then have to appoint an interim Senator until a special election could be called. And who might Alaska name to an interim term?

You know. Say it.

Senator Sarah Palin.

And now Palin has called for Stevens to step down, as well, even though she had been quoted earlier as saying Stevens would have to decide for himself what was “right” for the State of Alaska and his family. (Given that Palin also was found to have violated some ethics laws recently, I’m surprised she didn’t advise Stevens to just pretend that he was exonerated — sort of like she did).

And you know she wants it. She’s already been trying to throw McCain under the bus on the campaign trail, paving the way for a larger role on the national political stage for herself. She’s already gained diva status according to the media.

So what would a diva do if she can’t be number 2? A diva always takes matters into her own hands! Palin, as the Governor of Alaska, could appoint herself to the position since, if Stevens won as a Republican, Palin would be required by law to appoint a Republican to the interim seat!

Now THAT’S all neat and tidy and tied up with a shiny bow!

Um, I hate to mention political contributions again since I just asked the other day, but now might be a good time to make a small contribution to Stevens opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich?

I feel nervous pretty much every day, even though I think our family is in relatively good shape financially as long as nothing unexpected happens. The anxiety isn’t so much free-floating anymore — I can point to my concerns about how my parents are going to manage, especially with a new serious illness that has just come up.

So, as I’ve been watching the budget a little more closely, I hadn’t anticipated making any more political contributions this year, until I saw this little nugget from Republican Minnesota Congresswoman and McCain campaign surrogate Michele Bachmann:

Bachmann is now trying to back pedal, saying she was misunderstood and taken out of context. Mm-hmm. Sure. Her McCarthyism is coming back to bite her in the you-know-where and she’s not very comfortable with that.

The good news for her Democratic opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, is that as a direct result of those hate comments, his campaign raised — unsolicited — $800,000 in contributions in about 48 hours. I made a tiny little contribution because I was mad as hell and figured this was the best way to try to keep Bachmann’s “anti-American” comments from gracing the Congress for the next two years.

But what does it say about where we are as a nation if, when we are all cutting back, but then so many people — including some like me who aren’t even that voting district — dig a little deep and make a political contribution to someone whose notoriety doesn’t exactly extend beyond Minnesota’s borders? A PunditMom’s hear can only be warmed by such an outpouring.

A little bit of my faith in Americans and how seriously they take their politics and insults against their loyalty and patriotism has been restored. Even the national Democratic Party is now getting involved to try to push Tinklenberg over the edge and push Bachmann off the ledge.

Sure, the presidential candidates are able to raise gazillions of dollars, but in many ways, it’s the smaller races that can also have significant impact on how we’re governed, too. So, if you’ve got a few dollars to spare, even if you don’t live in Minnesota, think about whether it would be a good thing to send it to Elwyn.

Update: $1 million and counting! Keep supporting Elwyn, blogosphere!

Apparently, though, “Joe the Plumber” has convinced the McCain/Palin campaign that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are spooky, scary socialists! And just in time for Halloween!

Sarah Palin is doing her best mocking, frightening voice to talk with crowds about “spreading the wealth,” something she says with the same level of disgust one might use when talking about a poopy diaper.

Except she needs to be more careful about throwing those political stones. Sometimes they bounce back and hit you in the eye. I guess for her and John McCain, it’s OK if it’s their agenda.

So, “Jo” the working mom is here to set the record straight! No, I can’t snake your clogged drain or install a new spigot, but I do know a thing or two about socialism. And we are so far from it, there can only be one reason why Palin is tossing the word around so freely two weeks before the election — to instill more fear in us as voters.

The Obama as a terrorist claim didn’t work. The Obama as a maybe-Muslim, other-y sort of guy didn’t work. Hey, if the GOP invokes something that raises the specter of Karl Marx and the Soviet Union, then McCain can win a few more votes and get back to talking about his good old days and the Cold War!

The GOP will take votes any way it can get them, and if escalating fear among Americans is seen as a way to move people from the Democrats, I shudder to think what else they’ve got in that quiver.

Since we are both parents of daughters, I’m a bit confounded, Senator McCain, about your lack of interest in things that would benefit your girls directly. I know you probably won’t pay much attention, but here is the list of the things I want for my PunditGirl:

1. Equal pay for equal work. I know you seem to think that that’s all about more education and working harder, but that’s just nonsense and you know it, you just don’t have the spine to stand up to your GOP colleagues and vote for something that should be every daughter’s right in this country. Ask your daughters Meghan and Bridget — I’m betting they’d agree. Your oldest daughter Sidney, who’s an executive in the music industry, might also have some really enlightening things to chat about when it comes to women in the workplace. You might want to sit down with her about that … soon.

2. To be a feminist. I know you think that “feminist” is a dirty word. I can tell by the Dr. Evil smirk on your face in this clip with Fox News:

The funny thing is that the definition of a feminist is someone who advocates for the rights of women to be equal to the rights of men in all ways, including the social and political worlds.

Hmmm. That doesn’t sound especially liberal to me, especially since, Senator, you must, by definition, be a feminist since you apparently believe that Sarah Palin is as competent as you to be President. Otherwise, you would never have chosen her to be your running mate, right? Again, I’m thinking your daughters might have a few interesting thoughts on whether they think having equal rights is so horribly liberal.

3. Adequate paid maternity leave. You might be familiar with my reason for wanting this, because when Mr. PunditMom and I adopted PunditGirl, I was a federal employee — just like you! As a result, I did not get any paid leave, and it wasn’t because we adopted to form our family.

No federal employees get paid maternity leave, not even the parents who have their children the “old fashioned” way. I know when you and Cindy adopted Bridget, whether you got to take paid leave wasn’t an issue — Senators don’t get docked pay for taking time off and, of course, even if you had, Cindy is financially loaded, so it wouldn’t have been a problem for you. For me? It sure would have been helpful to have even part of my paycheck for those six to eight weeks.

Since she’s only in third grade, PunditGirl doesn’t have to make a decision yet about whether she wants to become a mother, but I know she wants to work at something, so it would be lovely if mothers in the future actually got some paid leave, like, say, the rest of the civilized world, so she won’t have to worry.

4. Access to safe and affordable birth control. I was lucky. I came of age at just the right time in terms of having access to birth control. I’m particularly happy about that because without it, there’s a big chance that my life would be a lot different today. You see, John, (may I call you John?), I made a pretty reckless decision and got married when I was a VERY young 19. The marriage didn’t last long because it turned out that my now ex-husband was pretty abusive in a lot of ways. I am thankful every day that we did not have any children that either would have tied me to him in some way for the rest of my life or would have exposed a child to an abusive father. Without access to birth control, I shudder to think how things might have turned out differently.

The Bush administration you are so cozy with is still in its waning days doing everything it can to take that right away. Now, in light of my recent birthday, that’s not something I have to worry about anymore. But don’t you and your conservative cronies dare take away from my daughter what she may want and need when she’s a young woman. Again, maybe you’ve neglected to chat with your daughters about birth control and how they feel about this?

Senator McCain, those are just a few of the things I want for my daughter that don’t have anything to do with being a conservative or a liberal, no matter how you try to paint it. What I would like, though, is for you to wipe that ‘I’m-so-far-behind-in-the-polls’ smirk off your face when you hold Sarah Palin up as the shining example of anti-feminist, conservative motherhood.

‘Cause, you know, without feminism, Palin couldn’t even be your running mate, right?

Thanks to Mom-101 who tweeted this video.

Sometimes, a little family intervention is necessary!

I know you’re probably all on pins and needles right about now, as Barack Obama and John McCain make their way to Mississippi for the first presidential debate. I know there were hours where you probably thought you’d either get to spend a night on the town in University, Mississippi or that it would turn out to be a one-on-one with Obama.

Notwithstanding McCain’s protestations that he would not, absolutely not, really not, attend the debate if an economic bail-out/recovery package had been not passed, now it turns out he’ll be there! I guess since he got his photo-op with Bush and all the presidential advisers, that’s all he really wanted. Nevermind about what’s going to happen to all us poor little voters who aren’t multi-gazillionaires like the McCains.

Tonight’s topic is supposed to be foreign affairs. But if you’re the kind of journalist you’ve always been, I know we can count on you to make sure questions about the current financial meltdown get asked. But could you please do us a favor?

Make sure John McCain actually answers those questions.

I’m not worried about Obama. I know he will. But if my gut is right about McCain (and it usually is), he will do his best to insist that it’s totally unfair to answer queries on a topic not pre-approved for tonight’s event and that it would shock the collective conscience to be so unfair!

I can hear it now: “It’s important to stick to the rules, my friends.” “Jim, I’m not prepared to answer questions about a deal that isn’t final yet.” “I’ll be happy to answer those questions at one of the upcoming debates. I’m sure the audience here was counting on hearing about foreign policy.”

Please don’t let him do it.

I know you can’t make words come out of his mouth, but you can make sure that your questions show him to be the kind of politician who uses crises as political opportunities, but then refuses to step up with anything more than prepared soundbites and reliance on a plan that is now part of last week’s news cycle.

Sincerely yours,

PunditMom