Marc Ambinder continues his almost wall-to-wall McCain coverage:

MANCHESTER, NH — On the eve of yesterday’s campaign shake-up, McCain aides and volunteers retired to the Strange Brew taverns to try and forget, just for a moment, the day when their world collapsed. One McCain aide said he was “physically there” but “mentally gone.”

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Given his passionate biases, it’s not often I find myself persuaded by a Dick Morris column. But in The Hill today he writes a fairly cogent and sober piece arguing that President Bush’s only hope of saving the GOP from devastating losses in 2008 is to begin withdrawing troops now. Despite Morris’ intemperate loathing of Sen. Clinton, …

My corporate overlords graciously lent me out this week. Here are the results:

Jamie Malanowski’s debut novel about a palace coup in the White House has some sizable flaws, but for all the preposterousness of the plot—which pivots around a bachelor tech genius lothario Vice President, Gordon Pope, who can only exist in the

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As a presidential candidate, George Bush promised over and over again that he would be guided by “sound science.” But almost from the outset, his Administration has come under repeated accusations that it has distorted or quashed science in favor of political or ideological considerations. Now comes this testimony from the man who served …

Before today’s staff massacre, a frequent complaint one heard from the McCain campaign in recent months was that the national press had turned against them, that the coverage of their guy had become hostile, unfair and unbalanced. Putting aside the irony of that charge (in 2000 McCain and his aides used to say, only half in jest, that …

Our colleague Adam Zagorin has new details on the scandal, including an interview with the alleged “DC Madam,” Deborah Jeane Palfrey:

“Why am I the only person being prosecuted?” she told TIME over the phone. “Sen. Vitter should be prosecuted [if he broke the law]”

As pointed out in comments, Sen. David Vitter — DC Madam client — was a Giuliani supporter, doing outreach to the evangelical community. (Hindsight hilarity alert!) He has, of course, apologized for his “serious sin.” (Frivolous sin, in the Vitter doctrine, is apparently a-okay.)

As if you couldn’t already tell, Vitter is something of …

The McCain campaign is attempting to walk back a very mangy cat: Mark Salter is not leaving, they say. He went to pro-bono status at the end of Q2 as part of the campaign’s general cost-cutting, and will remain there. He’ll continue to write speeches and be a senior adviser to the senator.

The campaign’s insistence on this continuing …

Marc Ambinder is reporting that McCain has also lost Mark Salter. The departure of Salter and Weaver marks the end of one of the most charismatic and legendary political braintrusts this town has seen — especially considering that they never actually won the presidency. Journalists regarded Salter as McCain’s alter-ego and he was the …

Which just issued this statement, even as John McCain speaks from Senate floor about Iraq:

ARLINGTON, VA – Terry Nelson, Campaign Manager and John Weaver, Chief Strategist for John McCain 2008 issued the following statements:

“This morning I informed Senator McCain that I would be resigning from his presidential campaign, effective

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