Best news of the convention: neither Bush nor Cheney was cut loose from the ticket. I'm still torn as to which of them is the weakest link, but no matter: They're stuck now, and Bush-Cheney 2004 will be going down together.

Time for some catch-up. So much good material out there...

• TAPPED, Jeffrey Dubner: "In the grand tradition of quotes that ought to be juxtaposed:
  Zell Miller, 9-1-04: 'They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself...'
  Jerry Falwell, 9-13-01: '...God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. Pat Robertson: Jerry, that's my feeling."
  
  
• This one's for Ted Koppel: Get Your War On, part 39: "That reminds me. How do you convince a Washington journalist that you're not slapping him in the face?" "I don't know. How?" "Tell him you're not."
  
  
• MSNBC First Read, 9/1: "At this morning's breakfast for Arizona and Colorado delegates, Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., served up a little more with breakfast than those in attendance might have anticipated... [he] said Kerry voters were "mentally ill." When we asked a gentleman leaving the breakfast about the speech, he simply explained, "Oh, he just got a little carried away." Reached for comment, a Shadegg spokesman said the congressman was just joking. "It was a joke. It was obviously a joke. And everyone in the room knew it was a joke."
  
  
• National Journal's Convention Alert: "CNN Passes On Gay Republicans' Ad: The Log Cabin Republicans [Monday] launched an ad protesting the GOP platform plank on marriage and same-sex unions. And while the spot is running nationally on Fox News and in New York on various stations, CNN is refusing to air it unless the group edits the final frames. According to LCR's Christopher Barron, the network took issue with pictures of Topeka minister Fred Phelps Sr. holding signs reading 'God hates fags' at the funeral for Matthew Shepherd, a gay man who was murdered in 1998. 'If CNN thinks that image is too controversial,' Barron said, 'Imagine being Judy Shepherd and having to see it at your son's funeral.'"
  
  
• Pandagon, live-blogging Bush's speech: "It says something that, first, this speech is essentially a series of bizarre anti-Kerry tangents mixed to a grouping of conservative hot-button issues...but this is the b-team of proposals. So far, the biggest cheers have been for tort reform, discriminating against gay people, and liking the USA. The last is at least Schwarzeneggerian in nature - I like stuff! You like stuff! Feel my thunderrod of justice!"
  
  
• Mark A.R. Kleiman: "Just wondering: After the disgusting spectacle of Republican delegates making fun of a veteran's war wounds, are we going to get a diagnosis from Dr. Krauthammer about the sources of irrational Kerry-hatred?"

Here's my question - would someone please ask John McCain if he brought his Republican-labeled "illegitimate black" (actually, adopted Bangladeshi) daughter Bridget to the 2004 convention? For that matter, has he ever introduced Bridget to Mr. Bush, or Mr. Rove?

Just curious. Some journalist could probably get a story out of that.