Oh, how embarrassing.

Like roll-up-the-tinted-windows-and-slouch-down-in-your-seat embarrassing.

The new chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee was criticizing Republicans who opposed President Obama's bailout of the American automakers union, oh, no, make that American automakers.

"If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, "we would be driving foreign cars. They would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes."

So The Hill newspaper went and checked what kind of automobile loyal-American-car-supporter Debbie Wasserman Schultz owns.

Yup, you guessed it -- Japanese.

Drive as she says, not as she does.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Nissan.com (a 2010 Infiniti FX35 similar to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Japanese car).

Sarah Palin, who admitted recently that she had the fire in the belly to run for president, now has a bus tour to go with it.

The Republican former governor, who wandered all over Alaska in a motorhome last year for her Discovery Channel reality series, will do the same starting Sunday at a biker rally in Washington.

According to Scott Conroy at RealClearPolitics.com, an essential daily read for politics fans, the tour will, of course, involve members of the Palin family and first focus on the Northeast. That's a seemingly unlikely place for Republican political kickoffs, unless you can say 'the first primary state of New Hampshire is a whole lot nicer in June than January.'

The trips could last for weeks and are guaranteed to attract many media trailing along in the bus exhaust fumes. Like the NASCAR race she attended last year, Sunday's annual ...

Someday it'll be a man, but for now the presidential spouse sent off for gentler human relations appearances during the chief executive's official talks is a woman, Michelle Obama.

She went to Oxford University ON Wednesday to meet with schoolgirls also visiting from Elzabeth Garrett Anderson School. The first lady's prepared remarks were the usual thrill at being there, appreciation to several people who'd made it possible and her favorite plea for increased volunteerism, even while growing up.

But then came questions from the young women, none impertinent, of course, and mostly adulatory about her husband, the political pioneer. Obama's full remarks and responses are posted over here.

We were particularly struck by two of the first lady's down-to-earth, spontaneous....

This being Chicago, there's usually a political corruption trial underway, usually involving federal prosecutors and Democratic politicians.

And, oh, look, here's the retrial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and there's his old buddy, the brand-spanking new mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, taking the stand.

First, some background: In the 1980s, Emanuel and Blago were both aspiring young Chicago pols in that inbred political machine when they became friends, the way young athletes come across each other in high school competitions and then in college and then maybe later in the bigs.

Both men made the bigs, by Chicago standards, which means running things in Illinois after some tutorial time in Washington. Emanuel became national finance chair for Bill Clinton and then a White House aide and then a millionaire and then a member of the House.

And Blago, who married the daughter of one of the City Council's most powerful aldermen, somehow found a job as an assistant county prosecutor and somehow got elected to the state Legislature. Then he ran successfully for the House from the North Side of Chicago.

The men were familiar with the main money people in the city's politics and, of course, they knew this state Sen. Barack Obama from the South Side. Then Blago decided to run for governor in 2002; more opportunities there and greater clout. And both Emanuel and Obama offered advice and endorsements.

Blago won the Springfield job and, by golly, Rahm then took over the new governor's old House seat.

He immediately made a name for himself on Capitol Hill as a $%&*#@ tough operator and savvy, successful recruiter of candidates (see 2006 Democratic takeover of the House).

Seeing the possibilities, both Rahm and Blago helped Obama win an Illinois U.S. Senate seat in 2004 and offered advice for his long-obvious run at the White House in 2008. A lot of Chicago politicians have reputations, but Blago's was focused on fundraising. He was obsessed with it.

Not that anyone in Chicago Democratic circles would tell anyone else how to behave or what to do unless they had the leverage to ensure success. But smart people usually watched what they said in any phone conversations with the governor or his people.

So, Obama wins the 2008 election, names the little North Side rep Emanuel as his chief of staff, Blago gets in trouble with some incriminating federal wire taps over possibly maybe who knows seeming to perhaps put his replacement pick for Obama's Senate spot up for bids. Which he, of course, has denied on pretty much every conceivable TV and radio talk show.

The first trial produced a hung jury on all but one of dozens of counts. So, here we are again with the big-mouthed Blago threatening to testify and name big names, etc. Today, the defense called Emanuel, freshly sworn into office.

You might not be surprised to learn that under very precisely worded questioning, Emanuel swore today that no one had ever asked him in the calendar year 2006 to ask his Hollywood brother to set up a fundraiser for Blagojevich in exchange for releasing a $2-million grant to a school in Emanuel's House district.

The new mayor was also asked if anyone had ever requested that he set up a nonprofit organization to hire Blagojevich in exchange for naming to Obama's vacant seat former Mayor Richard Daley aide Valerie Jarrett, who hired Obama's wife, Michelle, to work in City Hall and is now a top aide to President Obama, traveling in Europe with the president's second chief of staff, William Daley, who succeeded Emanuel in the White House and is the brother of Richard Daley, who just retired as mayor and was succeeded by Emanuel.

Emanuel said, "No."

Three minutes and Emanuel was out of there.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Associated Press (Blagojevich and Emanuel in sunnier times); Associated Press (Blagojevich and Obama in happier times).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Speech to a Joint Session of Congress

I am deeply honored by your warm welcome. And I am deeply honored that you have given me the opportunity to address Congress a second time. Mr. Vice President, do you remember the time we were the new kids in town?

And I do see a lot of old friends here. And I do see a lot of new friends of Israel here. Democrats and Republicans alike.

Israel has no better friend than America. And America has no better friend than Israel. We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism. Congratulations America, Congratulations, Mr. President. You got bin Laden. Good riddance!
  
In an unstable Middle East, Israel is the one anchor of stability. In a region of shifting alliances, Israel is America’s unwavering ally. Israel has always been pro-American. Israel will always be pro-American.

My friends, you don’t need to do nation building in Israel. We’re already built. You don’t need to export democracy to Israel. We’ve already got it. You don’t need to send American troops to defend Israel. We defend ourselves. You’ve been very generous in giving us tools to do the job of defending Israel on our own. Thank you all, and thank you President Obama, for your steadfast commitment to Israel’s security. I know economic times are tough. I deeply appreciate this.

Support for Israel’s security is a wise investment in our common future.  For an epic battle is....

Just watch, sometime soon -- maybe even this morning -- some lamestream journalist will start collecting all the gaffes from President Obama's latest foreign jaunt.

The funniest so far was his not knowing what day or year it was in London on Tuesday when he signed the guest book at Westminster Abbey. Obama reportedly asked someone nearby what the date was and they told him "May 24," assuming incorrectly that the leader of the free world would know what year it was (2011).

Instead, Obama wrote in his leftist scrawl "24 May 2008."

Understandable in a way. Those were heady days back then when the ex-state senator was not crawling along with approval ratings in the 40s and he was fixing to tie up the Democratic nomination and make Oprah Winfrey cry off her false eyelashes in Denver.

Although, to be accurate, on May 24 2008 Hillary Clinton had yet to ....

Gee, these Chicago guys just won't lay off George W. Bush.

First President Obama and then, Monday night, the catcher for Obama's favorite team, the White Sox.

Adrian Beltre of the Rangers, Bush's longtime favorite team, was at bat in the bottom of the sixth. (See video below) He hit a 3-0 pitch, a high foul off toward the Rangers dugout, which also happens to be by team owners' box.

White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski ran over, reached around the screen and missed the catch, as spectators ducked for cover.

Only then did Pierzynski realize he was halfway into the lap of the 43rd president, who was laughing. So was former First Lady Laura Bush. Nolan Ryan, Rangers president, was sitting nearby and his wife, Ruth, can be seen covering her head

A chuckling Bush made some light-hearted comment and Pierzynski lingered for a comeback.

"I told him just 'cause he was the president doesn't mean I wouldn't jump on top of him," Pierzynski said later. Good luck with the Secret Service on that play.

It turned out great for the president, however. His team downed Obama's team 4-0.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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ICYMI, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver have separated after 25 years of marriage.

The story was broken here on LATimes.com.

ICYM the Los Angeles Times follow-up here, they are separated because Schwarzenegger admitted fathering a child a decade ago with their family maid.

Now Mark Barabak, the news organization's top political reporter, explains how the story came to be reported by a team, written, verified and published.

In this video below, the veteran Barabak talks with CNN's Howard Kurtz about the old-fashioned "shoe leather" used in researching the stories and why the news organization chose not to name the maid in its initial coverage.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Harpo Productions (2003).

It was a happy occasion Monday during President Obama's hasty visit to Ireland to see what is deemed his ancestral hometown of Moneygall and stop by Ollie Hayes' pub for a pint.

Yes, during all the official hoo-hah in Dublin the president's motorcade had a limo problem that paralyzed its movement briefly, driving the security folks crazy for a few minutes (See full video below) because a POTUS is not supposed to be exposed to unsecured public like those who videoed the accident.

Thousands had waited hours in Moneygall (Pop. 298) to see the Dunham descendant and Obama worked the crowd's perimeter several times. Obama is a beer fancier and has flown in some favorite Chicago brews at times. And remember when he tried to patch up that confrontation between a Cambridge cop and professor? That wasn't a Tea Summit.

Monday it's what happened inside the Moneygall pub that may not go down too smoothly with the American distributors of Ireland's world-famous Guinness.

The president got to reminiscing good-naturedly about a previous encounter with the tasty liquid.

"The first time I had Guinness," Obama said, "is when I came to the Shannon airport. We were flying into Afghanistan and so stopped in Shannon. It was the middle of the night. And I tried one of these and I realized it tastes so much better here than it does in the States."

Oops.

Then the commander-in-chief blithely added: "What I realized was, is that you guys are -- You’re keeping all the best stuff here!”

And now the video.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Pool, Getty Images

Sarah Palin.

A judge would rule it hearsay.

The entertainment industry would label it gossip.

But for New York magazine, it's a perfectly usable quote featuring some Republican-or-other who's "close to (Roger) Ailes" -- could be his tailor or the guy who does his taxes, for all we know -- saying, among other things, the Fox News Channel boss "thinks Sarah Palin is an idiot. He thinks she's stupid."

This little bomb was tucked into a long, rambling article about Ailes, Palin, Glenn Beck and the familiar topic of the possible future implosion of Fox News. FNC fired back in....

The media spotlight has moved on from Indianapolis now, after Gov. Mitch Daniels aborted his anticipated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in a Saturday midnight email that shocked supporters across the country.

Daniels acknowledged that his family was opposed to the grinding run, so he dropped it.

Now most of the attention focuses on Newt Gingrich's campaign here and Tim Pawlenty's newly announced bid here and Jon Huntsman's informal campaign swing through New Hampshire.

But little noticed as the political parade marches toward the state fairs this summer and the Iowa caucuses and primaries next winter are the newly abandoned supporters of Daniels.

"Well," said Max Eden, head of the Student Initiative to Draft Daniels, "the rapture took Mitch from 2012. His better angels had the last word, and he put his family first. His choice attests to half the reason why students at 65 colleges rallied to urge him to run: He is a good man."

Among those students is Hannah Thoreson, a 21-year-old physics major at ....

Tim Pawlenty

Thanks, Mary, for your very kind words and for your tremendous love and support. After serving eight years as Minnesota's governor, I was very much looking forward to life with Mary, and our daughters, in the Midwestern home we love. 

But with Mary's encouragement and wise counsel, we came to a different conclusion. And that brings me here today with this announcement.
           
I'm Tim Pawlenty, and I'm running for president of the United States.
 
We live in the greatest country the world has ever known. But, as we all know, America is in big trouble, and it won't get fixed if we keep going down the same path. If we want a new and better direction, we need a new and better president.
 
President Obama's policies have failed. But more than that, he won't even tell us the truth about what it's really going to take to get out of the mess we're in.
 
I could stand here and tell you that we can solve America's debt crisis and fix....