In The Snarky Spotlight

Lets check out the goings on over at the Southern Republican Leadership conference, an early look at some of the GOP's major hopefuls for the 2008 Republican Presidential Nomination

If things were this disorganized for what should have been a trouble-free production showcasing the best & brightest of GOP Presidential hopefuls, it's hard to see how the GOP's political woes have been obviated in the least

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At Republican Conference, the Future Is Now

The roster of prospective '08-ers in Memphis included Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sens. McCain, Sam Brownback, George Allen and Bill Frist.

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The Peabody is, of course, a celebrated Memphis landmark, known for the daily spectacle of ducks walking across the lobby, none of them lame. The poultry parade will inevitably cram the immediate area with onlookers to a point where, for hours before, guests can be seen staking out the prime viewing spaces by the elevators (from where the little critters emerge). And one hasn't lived, apparently, until sipping bloodys at the Peabody bar while watching duckies waddle out of the elevator to the rollicking tones of Chris Matthews.

Now, damn it, THAT'S what Snarky's all about,

It took exactly 23 minutes for a speaker -- RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman -- to declare that the next election will be "the most important of our lifetime," one of the great recurring tropes in American politics, though it's unclear if Mehlman was predicting that 2006 or 2008 would be the most important. His speech was a relentless assault on Democrats for what he says is their liberal agenda, their retreat in the war on terror, the taxes-raising, their cutting and running, all that.

Now we come to the ever-humorous "Clusterfuck" portion of the GOP Beauty Pageant

But one of the most stunning scenes of the weekend occurred late Saturday morning, when Allen submitted to a live interview with Fox News in the back of the ballroom while Brownback was in the middle of his speech. As the Kansas senator began a discussion on genocide in Darfur, Allen, who had just finished his own remarks, began gabbing away to Fox -- bathed in distracting TV lights and audible to a significant portion of the room.

The hubbub drew the notice of about 30 reporters, who proceeded to crowd around Allen's riser -- less to hear what he was saying than to marvel at this breach of protocol. At one point, Allen invoked Reagan's "11th Commandment" that Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Other Republicans -- though apparently there's no 12th Commandment that Thou Shalt Not Do Live Shots While Other Republicans Are Trying to Speak.

Brownback's speech ended, Sen. Lindsey Graham's began, and Allen was still doing Fox.

Finally done, Allen walked out of the ballroom and complained that "it's impossible to do an interview with all that going on in there."

Why, the very NERVE of those other candidates to actualy give their speeches during Allen's interview time, such perfidy & wickedness indeed!

Why, I'll bet proper GOP Southern Belles suffered fits of Mass-Swooning over such an ungenteel display towards the Courtly & Gentelemanly Senator Allen

And actually, Allen DID apologize, although that's only being mentioned to bring in the next example of said "Clusterfuck"

When a reporter asked if it was proper for Allen to give a TV interview during someone else's speech, Allen said, "I hated doing it," and then suggested that the question might be better put to Fox.

He was more sheepish than defiant. "It was impolite," Allen said, shaking his head. "I'm sorry I did it that way." Later, Allen said he thought others had stood for interviews during speeches also.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, South Carolina's Graham was hoisting himself onto the Fox set while Huckabee was trying to stir the crowd with a line ridiculing Howard Dean.

Please let there be someone who actually has this on video

Please