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I apologize for not posting that the blog was shutting down for the weekend. Sure did feel good though to skip reading about the recall. I'm not going to catch up, or join the bloggers marking their return from holiday by taking a deep breath and giving their gathered thoughts. Dan Weintraub uses his return to put the campaign in perspective. He also promises, at the end of a later post on Bustamante, to comment soon on the MEChA thread that is white-hot on many Republican blogs, and just simmering in the print media. Mickey Kaus and Hugh Hewitt are flogging it hard, and along with Matt Welch are lambasting L.A. Times recall coverage, especially the MEChA reportage and Peter King and Tim Rutten columns.
CalPundit, meanwhile, pooh-poohs Hewitt's claim of blog superiority, and Mark A.R. Kleiman weighs in that membership in a campus militant group isn't disqualifying for a guy like Bustamante with a long record that is anything but militant -- but that proposing to regulate gas prices may be. (My thoughts: 1--MEChA is a real story, so cover it. 2--Those who equate the group with the KKK are awfully benign about the Klan -- or they [gasp] exaggerate for partisan gain.) Finally, both Patt Morrison and Rick Orlov mention in their Monday notes columns that Taco Bell rigged its recall "poll" for Arnold (his beef tacos cost 74 cents, Bustamante's the Davis chicken tacos cost $1.50), though only Patt lets Demo chief Art Torres sneak in the innuendo that Schwarzenegger holds stock in Taco Bell's former owner, Pepsico. [The LAT already had the Taco Bell-Art Torres item, in Friday's Recall Madness column by Roy Rivenburg.]
(Updated 10:10 p.m.)