Ever wonder how the other half lives? Here’s your chance to find out. Just join Johann Hari as he slouches along with a marauding boatload of neo-cons for a farcical summer junket:

I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, ” Of course, we need to execute some of these people,” I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. “A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country,” she says. “Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that’s what you’ll get.” She squints at the sun and smiles. ” Then things’ll change.”I am travelling on a bright white cruise ship with two restaurants, five bars, a casino – and 500 readers of the National Review. Here, the Iraq war has been “an amazing success”. Global warming is not happening. The solitary black person claims, “If the Ku Klux Klan supports equal rights, then God bless them.” And I have nowhere to run.
Ship of fools: Johann Hari sets sail with America’s swashbuckling neocons – Independent Online Edition > Americas

We all knew this was coming, didn’t we. Not more than a few days after a court decision clearing the release of the D.C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s, phone records, the first politician fesses up:

Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, apologized Monday night for “a very serious sin in my past” after his telephone number appeared among those associated with an escort service operated by the so-called “D.C. Madam.”…
“Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.”
Senator sorry after number appears on D.C. Madam’s list – CNN.com

how many more will follow?

UPDATE: Just found this on ABC News:

In 1999, after designated House Speaker Rep. Bill Livingston, R-La., abruptly resigned after disclosures of numerous affairs, Vitter successfully ran to succeed him representing suburban New Orleans.
Asked whether she could forgive her husband after an extramarital affair, as Livingston’s wife had done, Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: “I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary [Clinton]. If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”
ABCNews | Sen. Vitter Apologizes for His Link to ‘D.C. Madam’

It’s also worth noting that as the Rudy Giuliani campaign’s “Southern Regional Chair”, Vitter becomes the third high ranking official in Rudy’s campaign to fall afoul of the law …

I wish for a day when every four years the citizens of this country impose upon one of their own, unbidden, to serve for four years as their president: “Well, if I must…”

While he scores well in national polls, John McCain has had anemic fund raising performance and is doing very poorly in key early voting states, such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, where his more monied competitors are getting high numbers. Now comes the second (or is it third) shakeup.

Republican John McCain reorganized his campaign Monday, cutting staff in every department as he raised just $11.2 million in the last three months and reported an abysmal $2 million cash on hand for his presidential bid. ”We confronted reality and we dealt with it in the best way that we could so that we could move forward,” Terry Nelson, McCain’s campaign manager, said. Once considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination, McCain trails top Republican rivals in money and polls. Some 50 staffers or more are being let go, and senior aides will be subject to pay cuts as the Arizona senator bows to six months of subpar fundraising, according to officials with knowledge of the details of the shake up.
Behind in Money Race, McCain Reshapes Campaign – New York Times

Let us not forget, however, that at roughly this point in the 2004 campaign cycle, John Kerry was being similarly shellaced by Howard Dean, and shock up his campaign. He went on to clean Dean’s clock and take the nomination. So, don’t count McCain out.

Pawn met McCain in Washington shortly after he became the first Vietnam veteran to receive the National POW award, back in 1987, and we can assure you that this is not a man who shrinks from a challenge.

Pawn will admit to being a little surprised when talk turned to Tony BLair being given the role of some sort of über-envoy to the Middle East. Now Robert Fisk, in his trademark no-hold-barred style lets loose a fusillade of invective on the issue:

I suppose that astonishment is not the word for it. Stupefaction comes to mind. I simply could not believe my ears in Beirut when a phone call told me that Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara was going to create “Palestine”. I checked the date – no, it was not 1 April – but I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating being “our” Middle East envoy.
Robert Fisk: How can Blair possibly be given this job? – Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk