GOP's celeb-Obama message gains traction  —  Barack Obama's critics laid down the foundations of the strategy months ago: The Republican National Committee started the “Audacity Watch” back in April, and Karl Rove later fueled the attack by describing the first-term Illinois senator as “coolly arrogant.”

GRAHAM AND LIEBERMAN DEFEND AD  —  From NBC's Ken Strickland and Andrea Mitchell  —  Responding to criticism of McCain's recent TV ad depicting Obama as celebrity without substance, two of McCain's key Senate allies fired back in an unrelated news conference.

Where did Barack Obama's mojo go?  —  Something's going on.  Or some things.  —  A new CNN/Opinion Research poll out Wednesday shows that despite nine solid days of blanket media coverage from overseas with Barack Obama cheered by adoring throngs of Germans and parlez-vousing with the French …

Management By McCain  —  Kevin Drum's not the only liberal upset by a political press that can't seem to hold John McCain responsible for John McCain's campaign tactics.  But isn't the image painted in today's stories — of McCain as a kind of passive bystander to decisions being made on his behalf by his staff — sort of more damning?

The McCain Behind the Curtain  —  The saddest sight on “Straight Talk Air,” the sleek flying successor to John McCain's one-time rolling caravan of candor, is the couch.  It's a soft, tan leather shelf, custom-fitted for high altitude truth-telling when McCain, a former Navy pilot, took his act from the road to the skies this summer.

As Aides Map Aggressive Race, McCain Often Steers Off Course  —  Sen. John McCain last week delivered one of his sharpest critiques yet of Sen. Barack Obama's Iraq policies, carefully reading a prepared speech that accused his Democratic rival of failing the commander-in-chief test …

Barack Hitler Obama  —  It's remarkable what those fiendish GOP operatives can squeeze into thirty seconds: Not only does McCain's “celeb” ad have “Barack Obama will rape yo daughters overtones,” says Rick Perlstein (who's apparently under the impression that most Americans think of Paris Hilton …

Judge Rules White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush's top advisers must honor subpoenas issued by Congress, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in a case that involves the firings of several United States attorneys but has much wider constitutional implications for all three branches of government.

This is Really Pretty Amazing  —  In a 93-page opinion in the Miers/Bolton contempt case, Judge Bates not only rejects all of the various Administration arguments against justiciability, but goes so far as to reach the merits and hold that there is no basis for the DOJ argument …