It looks like some Senate Republicans forgot to eat their Lucky Charms before going on the Sunday talk shows this morning, because there were a slew of unlucky, unfortunate and even flat-out wrong statements made. From Sen. Hatch completely contradicting a key vote he cast on detainee abuse just last month to Sen. Coburn suggesting that his medical degree gives him some special insight into Judge Alito’s qualifications for the Supreme Court, this morning’s GOP statements fell into the loopy category!

1) ON TORTURE: DOUBLE-TALKIN HATCH TALKS OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF HIS MOUTH: When he was asked about the dispute between Cheney and McCain on the Senate amendment barring abuse of detainees, which passed the Senate 90-9. Hatch was asked, simply, “Are you on the Vice President’s side on this or are you on John McCain’s side?” Hatch replied, “Well, I’m on the Vice President’s side.” But on October 5, Hatch voted for McCain’s amendment to the Fiscal 2006 Defense Appropriations bill that would “prohibit cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.” [Vote #249, 10/5/05, Face the Nation, 11/6/05]

2) PHASE II IRAQ INTELLIGENCE PROBE: ROBERTS’ CLAIM TO HAVE HAD INTEL HEARINGS PLANNED ON PHASE II PROBE WHITE HOUSE USE OF INTELLIGENCE RINGS FALSE: Pat Roberts said: “We had it scheduled for this week. There was no need for the Senate to all of a sudden pop into an executive session or a closed session and then demand action when we were going to do it anyway.” (Note: The last scheduling notice from the Intelligence Committee that went out prior to the most recent one was on October 21 and made no mention of the Phase II investigation. It was only after Senate Democrats forced the Republicans to deal with the issue that Roberts hastily added three days worth of meetings on the Phase II probe twice a day and released a new schedule that suddenly had Phase II on it. [Face the Nation, 11/6/05, Senate Intelligence Committee Hearings Notices]

3) SCOTUS:

COBURN’S MAGIC POWERS: When asked if “as a physician you can tell whether a candidate for the Supreme Court is telling the truth?” Coburn said: “I think you can certainly tell when they’re ill at ease with a subject and sometimes telling the truth or not. […] Yeah, I think you can.” When asked if has used those skills to make judgments like that? Coburn said “Mm-hm, I certainly have.” [Meet the Press, 11/6/05]

COBURN SAYS ALITO LEGISLATED FROM THE BENCH? When Meet the Press’ asked Coburn if he thought Judge Alito was right to argue in a dissent that Congress had no role in regulating the sale of machine guns, Coburn said: “No, I think we [Congress] probably have the right to do it. But I don’t think a judge has the right to make that decision. […]Those aren’t decisions judges should be making. Those are decisions that legislators should be making.” When Russert asked if Alito’s dissent was wrong and whether he was legislating from the bench, Coburn said “sure.” [Meet the Press, 11/6/05]

4) CIA LEAK, BUSH CREDIBILITY PROBLEMS

HAGEL SAYS BUSH NEEDS TO STOP STONEWALLING: In response to what Bush needs to do to regain his credibility, Chuck Hagel said: “I think he gets it back by governing, putting a focus on competent, honest government. …Open it up; don’t stonewall.” [ABC This Week, 11/6/05]

HAGEL SAYS BUSH NEEDS TO BRING NEW BLOOD INTO THE WHITE HOUSE: When asked how Bush should deal with the CIA leak case, Hagel said, “…if I was the president, I think I’d want to enlarge and widen that group, and start making some serious review and inventory of what has happened in the last five years that’s gotten him into so much trouble.” [ABC This Week, 11/6/05]

MCCAIN SAYS ROVE SHOULD KEEP HIS SECURITY CLEARANCE EVEN IF HE SPREAD INFO ABOUT CIA AGENTS: When asked if “it should turn out that there is any evidence that Karl Rove spoke to reporters about a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, should he lose his top secret security clearance,” McCain said: “I don’t think so. I don’t know if that’s a reason to do so…” [Fox News Sunday, 11/6/06]

5) REPUBLICANS WARN THAT 2006 ISN’T LOOKING GOOD FOR GOP:

When asked about new poll results showing generic 2006 Republicans losing to Democrats in congressional races, Newt Gingrich said “I’ve been trying to tell everybody I can find on Capitol Hill and in the White House, if they don’t have substantial change by the State of the Union, and if they don’t convince the country that they’ve gotten the message, I think they’re in big trouble…” [ABC’s This Week, 11/6/05]

When asked about Bush’s low approval ratings, John McCain said, “…Congress’ approval ratings are lower than they’ve been in at least ten years as well, so the disapproval is spread pretty widely.” [Fox News Sunday, 11/6/05] (NOTE: Republicans control Congress)

“Honest Leadership” at its best in Virginia

In a move combining the sleaziest elements from the Rove and DeLay dirty trick playbooks, Northern Virginia voters are receiving automated calls they believe are from the Kaine campaign. These fake phonies use spliced audio and distorted facts to deceive voters. As it turns out, the calls are coming from a group called “Honest Leadership for Virginia".

It turns out that the aptly Orwellian monikered “Honest Leadership for Virginia” is a PAC housed at the Republican Governor’s Association who laundered $2.8 MILLION to the Kilgore campaign.

Also, using dirty trics Texas-style are the Virginians for Jerry Kilgore. They sent out a bogus “2005 Official Democratic and Progressive Voter Guide” that lists former Republican, now independent candidate, Russ Potts as the TRUE democrat and progressive in the Virginia race. Golly gee. Camp Kilgore is clearly worried about the moderate Republicans staying home, or worse, voting for Kaine. They must realize their hardcore rightwing dog won’t hunt in VA any more. Could this race be a harbinger for 2006?

With the polls saying the race is in a virtual dead heat, it really makes you wonder what other sleaze Kilgore campaign has up its sleeve for today and tomorrow.