These pathetic wimps offer nothing but unattributed quotes to Vanity Fair saying they felt she wasn't up to snuff and whining that she refused to properly study up on policy issues.

McCain aides who actually go on the record offer their support for Palin. Randy Scheunemann, director of foreign policy and national security for the McCain-Palin campaign, told the Washington Times "It's disheartening and dishonorable that anyone that worked for John McCain would participate in this kind of character assassination against his running mate."

Off the record quotes almost always come from somebody with an agenda. That's why you will rarely see them on this blog. And there are plenty of potential GOP rivals against Palin who have an incentive to feed derogatory quotes to the media.

It seems more fair to stick with what former McCain aides say on the record.

Thus, it makes sense that Cheney was a tad grumpy yesterday. Cheney suggested that our troop withdrawals could make a "waste" of the sacrifices to date if Iraqis cannot hack it on their own.

You'd think he would want to claim credit for this development and portray it as a sign of success for what the Bush administration put in place.

But once again, Cheney is covering his bases in case everything falls apart. He's warned that Obama has made us less safe, preserving an "I-told-you-so" stance in case we are attacked again. Now, if Baghdad goes up in flames he'll get boasting rights.

Funny how the only way for Cheney to look good is for America and its friends to suffer.

CQ's Emily Cadei reports that the libertarian congressman's proposal to audit the Federal Reserve is gaining significant support from across the political spectrum. It seems that plenty of Democrats and Republicans would welcome public scrutiny of bank regulators, especially as the Obama administration is proposing to give the Federal Reserve even more power.

In a recent speech to the Cato Institute (see video below), Paul argues that there can be no meaningful monetary reform without real transparency from those who are regulating the money.

Paul's feisty bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination could not catch a break out of the pack, despite its fundraising strength, internet savvy and an intensely loyal following. Paul supporters are rallying around his latest cause with a non-profit group, Campaign for Liberty, which claims a quarter-million members and $3 million in fundraising.

Bringing his presidential campaign tools to bear on an issue like messing with the elitist Federal Reserve could pay off this time.

Maureen Dowd got a whole column out of it. PETA is outraged, calling it an "execution." Stephen Colbert is mock outraged.

Dowd speculates that the incident resonates because "Americans fear that President Obama is too prone to negotiation, comity and splitting the difference."

Sure enough, only PETA seems to want a president who wouldn't harm a fly.

For more on the exploits of our Superhero-in-Chief,
check out Politics Un-Seriously

 Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared that his deranged puppet, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won the election, ordering protesters off the street.

But it looks like the unsatisfied Iranians aren't taking it. Too bad the American people did not show more gumption when our Supreme Court elected George W. Bush despite overwhelming evidence that he actually lost the 2000 election.

• Netanyahu declines to second-guess Obama on Iran
• GOP calls Obama timid as he seeks footing on Iran
• Congress Backs Iran Protests
  

CQ's Andrew Satter reports: Health care tops the agenda this week.

President Obama, who canceled the program earlier this month, once called the Bush  Administration's helicopter binge "an example of the procurement process gone amok."

But CQ Politics reports that the House Armed Services Committee is still trying to push the Pentagon to buy some of the helicopters that were to become Marine One's next generation, despite already agreeing to pay $85 million in termination costs to the manufacturers. (John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff)

This boondoggle started when the Bush White House got all dreamy about building a futuristic craft that could fend off terrorist attacks and resist the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear blast.

But when the price tag for the Bush copter craze nearly doubled (from $6.8 billion to $13 billion), the program faced the budgeting equivalent of a nuclear blast, that old bugaboo of federal procurement -- the cost overrun.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign, always first in line to call for the resignation of scandalous colleagues, reveals his own sexual affair with a staffer and only relinquishes a relatively meaningless Republican Party leadership position. Presumably, he will continue to pursue his presidential ambitions.

What happened to GOP claims that voting against Iraq war funding is nothing short of unpatriotic? Only five House Republicans voted in favor of yesterday's measure to provide $106 billion in funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The GOP health reform plan is out. All four pages of it. The outline claims it would put the nation on a path to universal health insurance by reforming Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Frankly, it makes no sense.

C'mon GOPers, even George W. Bush could do better than this.

So much for the quaint idea that the White House is the people's house. It's only for the people who get clearance and enjoy complete anonymity, thanks to Obama's veil of secrecy.

This matters because it's important to know who is getting access to the President and his immediate staff. What are they hiding? Probably less than it seems, but it's difficult to know when the logs are classified.

Letterman apologized again last night for cracking a tasteless joke about Sarah Palin's daughter. Panetta, through a spokesman, tried to recast his words in a recent magazine interview implying that Dick Cheney would welcome a terrorist attack.

"The Director does not believe the former Vice President wants an attack," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a statement. "He did not say that." Here's what Panetta did say about Cheney in the New Yorker interview: "It's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."

Panetta's claim that he didn't mean what he said is less believable than Letterman's explanations. Letterman clearly was joking about Palin's adult daughter -- even though the Alaska governor accused him of targeting her underage child. But the late night comic still ended up apologizing.

The CIA chief might also find that if you cannot convincingly explain your words you'll probably have to take them back.