Call it The Passion of the Bloggers as the Mel Gibson story set HuffPost humming this week. Don't miss the Gibson takes of Bob Cesca, David Mamet, Seth Greenland, Harry Shearer, Alec Baldwin, Merrill Markoe, Norm Ornstein, Adam Hanft, Nina Burleigh, Rachel Sklar, and Peter Mehlman (Mine are here and here). This week's other hot topic was the stretch run of the increasingly significant Lieberman/Lamont race. Check out Matt Stoller, Ari Melber, Jane Hamsher, Taegan Goddard, Eric Alterman, Bob Geiger, and Ned Lamont's video blog. And for this week's developments in the Middle East: Steve Clemons, Eric Boehlert, Ben Zogby, Etgar Keret, James Heffernan, Pachacutec, and James Zogby. All that and the Sunday Roundup below.

After much hand-wringing and midnight oil burning, Lieberman's advisors finally convinced the Senator that in order to have even a shot at breaking his downward Joementum, he'd have to at least soften his bellicose stance on the war. You could almost hear their plaintive pleas: "C'mon, Joe, Hillary just called it a failure -- can't you at least say something like, 'Iraq: it wasn't the best idea America's ever had'?" But the best they could do was convince Lieberman to play the "let's agree to disagree" card. A shift from his previous criticize-the-president-and-imperil-the-nation rhetoric, to be sure... but a new set of Democratic talking points? Please... how low are we going to set the bar?

While kicking the will of Democratic voters to the curb, Joe Lieberman has the nerve to insist that he's mounting his indie campaign "for the sake of... my party". That's right, the same party that he rejected this morning. Party leaders now need to return the favor by doing everything in their power -- publicly and privately -- to pressure Lieberman to drop his For the Sake of My Ego run. And that includes removing him from his committee assignments. Bottom line: all Democrats (and, yes, that includes you Bill Clinton) should immediately begin treating Joe Lieberman as what he is: a party-ditching, party-pooping, control-of-Congress-risking spoiler, ie a danger to the Party.

Ned Lamont's historic victory over Joe Lieberman (only the fourth time in 26 years an incumbent Senator has lost a primary), and Lieberman's decision to run as an independent were the hottest topics on HuffPost this week. Don't miss the Lamont/Lieberman takes of Margaret Carlson, John Conyers, Stephen Schlesinger, Gabriel Rotello, Jane Hamsher, Eric Boehlert, Jayne Lyn Stahl, Rick Jacobs, Trey Ellis, RJ Eskow, Eric Alterman, and Taegan Goddard (Here's mine). For this week's developments in the Middle East, you'll want to read Tom McCarthy, Max Blumenthal, Suzanne Nossel, Eugene Jarecki, Deepak Chopra, Nina Burleigh, Kathleen Reardon, and Philip Slater. And be sure to check out this month's Contagious Festival. Plus, our Sunday Roundup below.

Accountability -- it's all the rage. At least you'd think so if you've been following the story of the Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj, who doctored photos from the war in Lebanon and was quickly exposed and canned. Hooray for accountability. But before we start popping champagne corks, let's take a look at the gigantic double standard when it comes to journalistic deceit. When will the mainstream media finally start holding elected officials and fellow journalists accountable for fraudulent words the way they rightly held Hajj, Reuters, and others accountable for fraudulent images? And how about starting by holding accountable Chuck Roberts, who referred to Lamont as "the Al Qaeda candidate"?

There is a tipping point where the debate becomes so divorced from reality that the spin becomes outright deception. Given that the campaign season just kicked off with a CNN anchor calling Ned Lamont "the al Qaeda candidate," I'd argue we are at that point right now. So during the campaign season (and, possibly, beyond), we'll be doing our small part by periodically giving out the Orwells. And we'll give them not just for the most fraudulent statements, but also for speaking the truth. So, for the first installment, the envelopes, please... READ MORE

Fraudulent Words and Images: The Accountability Double Standard

The Clinton Doctrine I wrote about yesterday clearly runs in the family. In fact, you might say it's becoming the Clinton family business. Take today's Times story, according to which, "In the Hamptons on Saturday, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Lieberman had more than a 50-50 chance of winning re-election." Since when is it Hillary's job to go around giving odds on Senate races? What about also refusing to give quotes that not-so-subtly undermine the candidacy of the guy she supposedly supports? The only appropriate response is working to help create the conditions necessary for Lamont to win. Not offering up meaningless odds, which have a not-so-odd way of becoming self-fulfilling.

At 7:30 this morning, John Bolton was having breakfast at Oscar's at the Waldorf with Judy Miller. I wonder whether his upcoming confirmation battle was on the menu. Here's a reminder of what is at stake in this fight: John Bolton, who embodies this administration's dangerous, arrogant, and increasingly costly imperial foreign policy is up for confirmation in mid-September, having failed to be confirmed back in July 2005, and getting his job only because of a presidential recess appointment. If the Democrats want a simple clear narrative in their opposition to the Bush foreign policy, they must filibuster Bolton's nomination. Who among the Democrats has enough moral spine to take the lead in this looming battle? As for Judy Miller's relationship with Bolton, it goes a long way back...

In the same way that the race for the Democratic nomination in 2008 is shaping up to be Hillary vs the non-Hillary, the race on the Republican side looks like it could turn out to be McCain vs the non-McCain. READ MORE

John Bolton and Judy Miller Breakfast at the Waldorf... As His Confirmation Battle Looms At 7:30 on Thursday morning, John Bolton was having breakfast with Judy Miller. I wonder whether his upcoming confirmation battle was on the menu. READ MORE

The Clinton Doctrine and Why There is No Third Way In Connecticut So the best Bill Clinton can do is state the painfully obvious: that voting for Ned Lamont is not a vote for terrorists? READ MORE

And the Winner is... READ MORE

Fraudulent Words and Images: The Accountability Double Standard READ MORE

The Lamont/Lieberman race and the lack of unanimity among Democratic leaders in endorsing and defending their own Party's candidate dominated the HuffPost blog this week. Don't miss Bob Geiger's Lamont-support tote board, along with takes from Taylor Marsh, David Sirota, RJ Eskow, Pachacutec, Joe Palermo, Eric Alterman, Dave Johnson, Cenk Uygur, James Boyce, Byron Williams, and Bennett Kelley. For everything else -- Iraq, Israel/Hezbollah, the judge's ruling on Bush's domestic spying, etc., etc. -- check out our Sunday roundup below. Oh, and for non-stop coverage of JonBenet, just turn on the television. And if you want to read about just how pathetic this obsessive TV coverage is, check out Rachel Sklar , Jeff Cohen, and me.

Thank God for the JonBenet story. We may not be getting any closer to solving the disaster in the Middle East, but at least we didn't have to hear much about it last week. Hezbollah, Hamas, Sunnis, Shiites, Iran, Iraq, it's all so complicated. Yes, I know: that the media jumps full-bore into a lurid story is not that surprising. But as much as we may have expected it, the sheer obsessiveness and monotony of the JonBenet coverage were still shocking. Another story last week that did not involve a "Six-Year-Old Beauty Queen" was the news that in July the death toll in Iraq was the deadliest since the start of the war -- over 3400 people, or about 110 a day. I don't know if any of these 3400, or of the tens of thousands who have been killed since the beginning of the war, were prepubescent beauty queens, but with numbers like that, it wouldn't be out of the question. Maybe MSNBC can be "first" on that one, too.

It says all you need to know about the horrific state of affairs in Iraq that 22 people dead and over 300 wounded during an attack on Shiite worshipers is considered "an extraordinary success." In today's Iraq, "Mission Accomplished" has been replaced by "It Could Have Been Worse!" READ MORE

It's News, Right? [Updated] Thank God for the JonBenet story. The wall-to-wall coverage of it guaranteed we didn't have to hear much about how the July death toll in Iraq was the deadliest since the start of the war -- over 3400 people, or about 110 a day. I don't know if any of these 3400 was a prepubescent beauty queen, but with numbers like that, it wouldn't be out of the question. Cartoonist John de Rosier graphically nails this point here. READ MORE

Hillary Clinton is meeting with Ned Lamont in the next few days on her home turf in Chappaqua. As usual, Hillary is precariously balancing on the tip of a triangulation strategy. She's offered Lamont her perfunctory "following the will of the people" support but she's not raising money for him and she's yet to schedule any campaign appearances with him. It's not by accident that their meeting is in Chappaqua, not Connecticut. The mountain/Mohammad casting is clear. But triangulation isn't really an option this time around when the GOP is doing all it can to ensure a Lieberman victory. Republicans already know how to beat Lieberman Democrats (see 2000, 2002, and 2004). Lamont Democrats are a whole different story. Hillary has to choose.

1967 brought us the Summer of Love; 2006 has brought us the Summer of Apologies. We've had George Allen's week-long installment apology for calling a Democratic campaign staffer "macaca," Andy Young's discount apology for accusing Jewish, Arab, and Korean grocers of selling black customers "stale bread and bad meat," Mel Gibson's mea gulpa for getting drunk and somehow blurting out that the Jews were "responsible for all the wars in the world" (you know what they say: beer before liquor, never been sicker; liquor before beer, raging anti-Semitism), and Rep. Tramm Hudson's apology for positing that "blacks aren't the best swimmers." Detect a theme here? On the non-racial mea culpa front, we've had CNN's Chuck Roberts sorry for calling Ned Lamont "the al-Qaeda candidate," Sen. Conrad Burns sorry for dissing firefighters, and Ehud Olmert sorry for the civilians killed in Qana. But the summer's not over yet. And it's a good thing, because there's one apology we still haven't heard: President Bush saying he's sorry for screwing up the world -- and that's the sorriest thing of all. Our Sunday Roundup awaits below -- no apologies needed!

When my 15 year-old daughter returned home from sleep-away camp this summer and began recounting her typical day, I was surprised to learn that it started not with swimming or camping or arts and crafts -- or even breakfast -- but rather with her fellow campers lining up to get their "morning meds." That's right, popping prescription pills for attention deficit disorder, depression, anxiety, and mood disorders has become standard operating procedure at camps all across America -- as much a part of the summertime ritual as campfires, color wars, and "I wanna come home" letters.

With the one-year anniversary of Katrina bearing down on us -- and Ernesto giving us a creeping feeling of deluge a vu -- I thought it would be useful to take a look back at how I saw the disaster and its tragic aftermath as it unfolded. But this is not meant as a blast from the past; in this case, the past should indeed be prologue. Paging George Santayana! READ MORE

Be sure and check out the Katrina anniversary takes of Sen. Russ Feingold, Harry Shearer, Susan Feeney, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Norm Ornstein, Chris Mooney, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Andrei Cherny, Michael Shaw, Trey Ellis, Stacy Parker Aab, Linda Cronin-Gross, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Greg Saunders, Anya Kamenetz, Byron Williams, Kimberly Brooks, David Sirota, Carl Pope, and Jeremy Pikser.