Regular readers of my posts will note that I've not been very active over the past couple of weeks. The reasons are economic - gas prices are killing me!

My real-world employer refuses to consider putting us on a 4-10 schedule, because "only 5-8 works for our 7-24 operation". As a result, I took a second job as a fundraiser for John McCain.

McCain must be flush with cash now, because Carl Linger Jr. - who has given money to AUC and FARC, internationally recognized Columbian terrorist groups - gave the McCain campaign millions of dollars. I figured that I could expect that the check wouldn't bounce.

Ah, Summertime! And makin' the livin' is easy - NOT!

No one at the McCain campaign told me that wealthy conservatives feel that "McCain is really out of step with the strong majority of his party" and that McCain's platform - a 100-page document with all but nine pages mentioning Bush's name - is inspiring a convention revolt to block his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming the Republican Party's official principles.

About 300 of these disgruntled ex-faithful belong to The Lincoln Club of Orange County, which is telling the GOP leaders of both the House and Senate - as well as other Republican donor groups - that they are tired of financially feeding the ever-increasing destruction (via the practice of earmarking, which grew 285 percent when Congress was under Republican control) of their future governance prospects. Rich Wagner, the group's president, and Chip Hanlon, a board member declare, "we refuse to support a permanent minority."

Well, gee, just what brought on this pique? Could it be that Americans blame President Bush for the economy being in lousy shape? That is grossly unfair, because other politicians besides Mr. Bush - most of them Republicans - share the blame for the mess we’re in.

Paul Krugman pronounces "J'accuse!":

Mr. Bush will be lucky to leave office with a net gain of five million jobs... Bill Clinton presided over an economy that added 22 million jobs.

Bill Clinton’s attempt to reform health care... failed — and let’s remember why. ...it was Republicans in Congress who blocked reform...

Before you Republicans get upset about this assertion, allow me to state that it was a lousy plan and deserved to be defeated. I don't think that things would be better now had it passed. But I digress.

Back to Krugman.

...oil prices wouldn’t be as high as they are... if we had taken steps in the past to limit our oil consumption. ...conservative Republicans in Congress, aided by Democrats with ties to energy-intensive industries, blocked conservation measures.

John McCain has gone to great lengths to affirm his support for Republican economic orthodoxy. So he’ll have no reason to complain if, as seems likely, the economy costs him the election.

Stuart Rothenberg thinks that McCain's only chance is to heighten uncertainty about Obama, but McCain seems instead to be heightening uncertainty about his own leadership abilities.