Satire or For Reals -- You Make the Call

Republican officials are blaming tonight's GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have engaged in a wide variety of "aggressive, premeditated, anti-Republican campaigns" over the past six-to-18 months. "We have evidence of a well-organized, well-funded series of operations designed specifically to undermine our message, depict our past performance in a negative light, and drive Republicans out of office," said Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who accused an organization called the Democratic National Committee of spearheading the nationwide effort. "There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us." Acknowledging that the "damage has already been done," Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.

OK, OK... it's from The Onion.

Speaking of Mr. Mehlman, seems that Bill Maher broke a taboo when discussing the Republican National Committee leadership roles filled by gays on CNN's Larry King show, outing Mehlman on live national TV. This is something I've heard about ever since the 2004 election, but it's usually kept on low volume.

And it looks like CNN is in fully CYA mode, deleting that section of the interview on repeat showings late last night and even scrubbing the transcript of the offending statement. John Aravosis over at AmericaBlog had a YouTube video of the segment posted, but received a cease and desist order from CNN. Meanwhile, the HuffPo has their own non-YouTub flash video still up (with original and edited versions) as well as the full transcript.

Wish I had HBO -- this week's Real Time with Bill Maher should be a barn burner. Maybe someone will post some of it to YouTube...