I’d forgotten about it, but M.J. Rosenberg’s post here reminded me of the existence of Michael Kinsley’s hilarious 2003 tour of anti-semitism on the AIPAC website:

It is my sad duty to report that this form of anti-Semitism seems to have infected one of the most prominent and respected—one might even say influential—organizations in Washington. This organization claims that “America’s pro-Israel lobby”—and we all know what “pro-Israel” is a euphemism for—has tentacles at every level of government and society. On its Web site, this organization paints a lurid picture of Zionists spreading their party line and even indoctrinating children. And yes, this organization claims that the influence of the Zionist lobby is essential to explaining the pro-Israel tilt of U.S. policy in the Middle East. It asserts that the top item on the Zionist “agenda” is curbing the power of Saddam Hussein.

On a more serious note, it occurs to me that some of these disputes about how powerful some lobby is or isn’t in DC get a little hard to resolve because the perception of power is, itself, an important source of power which creates a lot of ambiguity as to what it even means to ask how powerful a group “really” is.

We learned nothing new about the candidates during this debate, but it was a lot funnier than any of the previous Republican or Democratic debates. The candidates seem to have gotten some good joke-writers or something. The best part was when Romney said something like “this campaign is a lot like Law & Order — it’s got a huge cast, it seems to go on forever, and Fred Thompson shows up at the end” and then Thompson fired back: “I thought I was gonna be the best actor on this stage.” Laughs all around. Plus: I agree with both of them, Thompson is an empty suit and Romney is a pathetic liar.

Rudy Giuliani on whether or not it’s a problem that China owns so much of our federal debt: “the way to balance to books is to sell more overseas — sell energy independence, sell health care.”

John McCain on monetary policy: “I’m glad whenever they cut interest rates, I wish interest rates were zero.”

John McCain’s talking about how American workers are the “most productive in the world.” It’s true that American workers produce the most, but that’s because we work longer hours. By contrast, “measured as value added per hour worked, American workers dropped behind those in Norway where workers produced $37.99 per hour, compared to $35.63 in the United States and $35.08 in France.”

Dean Baker notes Fred Thompson misestimating by about $62 trillion . Naturally, the Wall Street Journal reporter who had the quote doesn’t notice the error. Felix Salmon wonders “Why is it that Saturday Night Live applies more critical judgment to Fred Thompson’s statements than the Wall Street Journal does?”

I’ve come, eventually, after many conversations, to believe the daily newspaper political reporters who swear to me that they’re doing the best they can. But if that’s right, the whole enterprise clearly needs to be radically rethought. Most people probably don’t know how much the infinite horizon cost projection for Medicare Part D is, and they probably know they don’t know it. But if they read this in the newspaper, they come to have beliefs on the subject:

“I know this probably isn’t a real popular thing to say, but we couldn’t afford this prescription-drug bill,” Mr. Thompson said last week on a swing through Iowa, home of Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, who helped push the program through Congress. “We basically put a $72 trillion commitment on top of an already-broken entitlement system. Not a responsible thing to do.”

Now you’re walking around thinking a $72 trillion commitment was made. You read it in the newspaper, after all. Except it’s wrong! But you shouldn’t be un-learning things when you read the paper.