The RNC effort to help its candidate Bob Corker is no doubt designed to conjure up memories of Lily Belle in Neil Young's "Southern Man" for white voters in the Volunteer state. Even more certain, as I wrote back in September, is that the RNC ad is just the latest sign that racial bigotry is not the exception in the GOP, but perhaps the rule itself.

Reprinted in full below is "The Amazing Race Card."

With each passing week, Americans are provided more insight into the deeply flawed character and mounting sins of their President. The latest comes in the form of a study by the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University showing that more MBA students cheat than those pursuing other professions. In what should come a surprise to few, George W. Bush, America's putative first MBA president, is the poster boy for the country's most dishonest profession.

Ironically, the Duke University report appeared just days after Bob Woodward depicted an out-of-touch, duplicitous Commander-in-Chief and former Bush faith-based crusader David Kuo portrayed a Pastor-in-Chief manipulating his flock for partisan political advantage. The study of 5,300 students at 54 institutions found that 56% of MBA students acknowledged cheating, more than those in fields such as education (48%), social sciences (39%) or even law (45%). Apparently, it is our future business leaders, and not the GOP bogeymen the trial lawyers, that Americans should trust least.

These findings should help finally dispel the conservative hagiography of George W. Bush as "America's First MBA President." As US News and the New Republic previously detailed, by any objective measure Bush's management of the federal budget and the war in Iraq should have long since led to the firing of America's CEO. In comparison to his failing grades as President, the C's Bush manufactured at Harvard Business School look like a stunning academic achievement.

But more telling than President Bush's failure as our business leader is his personification of the MBA cheating culture itself. From working connections and claiming credit for the work of others to fudging the numbers and outright lying, George W. Bush is the picture of the MBA gone bad.

Consider the Bush family connections and all of the luck and good fortune that goes with it. When Dubya ran afoul of the SEC for his insider trading while at Harken Energy, it was Bush family consigiliere James Baker and his friends at the law firm of Baker Botts who kept him out of legal hot water. And during the 2000 Florida recount, those same connections, and not his competence, made George W. Bush the 43rd president of the United States.

George W. Bush has also excelled at another hallmark of the MBA cheat, claiming credit for the work of others. While Governor of Texas, Bush opposed a Patients' Bill of Rights. Facing a veto-proof majority in the legislature, Bush let the bill become law without his signature. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush took credit for the very measure he opposed. That pattern would continue to define his presidency, as Bush claimed ownership of the success of measures he initially opposed, including both the 9/11 and Iraq WMD Commissions and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

The B-School corollary to appropriating the glory of others' successes is to deflect blame for one's own failures. In April 2004, President Bush famously stated he could not think of a single mistake he had made during his tenure. For Bush and his amen corner in the conservative movement, the war in Iraq stemmed from "bad intelligence." The disastrous federal response to Hurricane Katrina was the MBA's version of "the dog ate my homework" or perhaps an act of God. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," America's MBA President wrongly declared.

Another arrow in the quiver of MBA dishonesty is fudging the numbers. Here, too, President Bush is a practitioner without equal. For example, his tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which delivered over 40% of their benefits to the richest 1% of Americans, were advertised as providing Americans a tax cut of $1000 "on average." In the last few weeks, the White House proclaimed its success in meeting its 2004 promise to halve the federal budget deficit. That claim was based, of course, on artificially inflated deficit estimates made prior to the '04 presidential election. And faced with stagnant wages, declining median incomes, and out-of-control energy and health care costs, the Bush White House touts the meaningless statistic that "unemployment rates are below the averages of the 70's, 80's and 90's."

When bogus numbers won't get the job done, the MBA President is perfectly content to lie. In late 2003, a White House desperate for an election year win on Medicare deliberately misrepresented the program's costs in order to ensure passage. On December 8, 2003, President Bush rolled out a program he claimed would cost $400 billion over 10 years. Within two months, however, the White House notified Congress that the real price tag would approach $550 billion. (When Medicare actuary Richard Foster sought to present the true price tag to Congress in late 2003, then agency chief Thomas Scully threatened to fire him.) In January 2002, Bush lied about his close with relationship with disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay. In 2004, he lied about his 2002 statement "I am truly not that concerned" about Osama Bin Laden. And just last week, President Bush denied ever having used the expression "stay the course" in regard to Iraq.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I should note that many of my close friends and business associates are MBAs and only a few them are duplicitous, lying scoundrels. But the fact remains, as Donald McCabe, the cheating study's lead author and a professor at Rutgers University declared, "Business schools have a significant problem that should be addressed."

America's problems, of course, are more profound than that. As with fish, the rot starts with the head. In this case, with our MBA President.

As it turns out, poorly crafted, soft-core pornography seems to be quite the cottage industry among America's conservative chattering classes. For example, Second Lady Lynne Cheney, who offered viewers an on-screen meltdown on CNN on Friday over the Webb novels, showed she could write - as well as talk - trash with her 1981 novel of lesbian love in the old West, "Sisters." (It is worth noting that Mrs. Cheney's White House biography omits any mention of "Sisters" among her writing credits.)

But Cheney is far from the only peddler of soft core among the hard liners of the right. As the New Yorker describes at length, PlameGate villain Scooter Libby, the right-hand man for staunchly conservative Vice President Dick Cheney, seemed quite comfortable writing about prostitution, deviant sexual acts and bestiality in his bizarre 2001 coming of age tale ("The Apprentice") set in 1903 Japan. No doubt Libby's "man-on-deer" and "bear-on-girl" forbidden love scenes would make Rick Santorum and friends cringe.

Much to the dismay of the family values merchants in the American Taliban, Fox News commentator and culture warrior Bill O'Reilly offers generous heapings of adultery and pre-marital sex in his 1998 trashfest, "Those Who Trespass." And speaking of conservative...um...mouthpieces, who could forget male escort turned White House press stooge turned blogger, Jeff Gannon?

With the looming midterm elections and the imminent report from James Baker's Iraq Study Group facing them like a double-barreled shotgun, Congressional Republicans are beginning to cut and run on President Bush's failed Iraq strategy. In recent days, Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and John Warner (R-VA) have garnered most of the attention with their critiques of a "stay the course" policy that has left Iraq "drifting sideways."

But it is Kay Bailey Hutchison from the President's home state of Texas who is now performing the greatest pre-election turnabout. And in seeking cover from the woes of President Bush, Senator Hutchison has paradoxically lauded President Clinton's intervention in the Balkans, a policy she once vehemently opposed.

Hutchison completed her desperate flip-flop with her endorsement of a plan to decentralize Iraq into distinct Shia, Sunni and Kurdish zones. In essence endorsing proposals such as those from Joe Biden (D-DE) and other to create a de facto, federated Iraq along religious and communitarian lines, Hutchison rejected the views of both the President and long time Bush family consigliere James Baker:

"We have to step back and stop trying to put our American ideas onto this problem and start trying to get an understanding of their views and strong-held prejudices and biases and ethnic preferences...Yes, it would be hard to do, but it would be worth trying. People say, 'Well, that would balkanize the country.' Well, things are pretty stable in the Balkans right now. It's looking better than Iraq."

For that, Kay Bailey Hutchison has Bill Clinton to thank. After all, it was President Clinton's determination in the face of staunch GOP opposition to end the ethnic cleansing and slaughter in Bosnia (and later, Kosovo) that made stability in the Balkans anything more than a pipedream.

Heading up the Republican opposition to Clinton's efforts to save Bosnia was none other than Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. On September 26, 1995, Hutchison proclaimed:

"I don't support the mission and I don't think the American people do. This is not where we should be taking the leadership role."

Just weeks later on November 30, 1995, Hutchison reiterated her opposition to the Dayton Accords plans for a federated Bosnia and the American presence needed to implement it:

"I think it is very important that we have an alternative because many of us feel that this is the wrong decision and that for us to exercise our responsibility as members of the Senate that we must speak out against deploying troops to Bosnia."

In December 1995, Hutchison sponsored a resolution stating the Senate's opposition to the Bosnia intervention. Defeated by a slim 52-47 margin, Hutchison's resolution expressed support for the 20,000 U.S. troops headed to the former Yugoslav republics while condemning their mission.

Hutchison's fierce opposition to Commander-in-Chief Clinton's Balkans policy did not end there. With the U.S. presence in Bosnia was reduced to 8,500 troops by May of 1998, Hutchison again called for their withdrawal following a tour of American forces there:

"The biggest picture that we saw is that we've got to take care of our troops [...] And speaking only for myself, I believe we're going to have to be more capable and more sure that when we send our troops out, it is for United States security interest or a commitment that we have to our allies."

While Hutchison's partitioning plan for Iraq is a non-starter at this late date, her born-again conversion to Bill Clinton's Balkans policy is long overdue. What a difference 10 years, a different commander-in-chief and the prospect of electoral annihilation make.

The Republican implosion over Iraq, the Foley scandal and the North Korean nuclear crisis has produced yet anothe bumper crop of conservative quotes, quips and catastrophes. A small sampling from the talking heads of the right:

"He [Rumsfeld] leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace, October 19, 2006.

"House Democrats plot to establish a Department of Peace, raise your taxes, and minimize penalties for crack dealers."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), October 18, 2006.

"If you look at the general overall situation [in Iraq], they're doing remarkably well."
Vice President Dick Cheney, October 17, 2006.

"As we go through the city of Baghdad, it was like being in Manhattan."
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), October 17, 2006.

"The stakes are too high for that kind of illogical behavior."
President Bush, regarding Iraq war criticism, October 17, 2006.

"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody."
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), October 13, 2006.

"I am, you know, amazed that this [Iraq] is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to - you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate."
President Bush, October 11, 2006.

"To link me to George Bush is like linking me to an Oscar."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, October 11, 2006.

"There must be no question among the administration, the Congress and the Iraqi unity government that staying the course is neither an option nor a plan."
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), October 10, 2006.

"I don't care if we offend our allies in the Middle East."
Senator Rick Santorum, October 10, 2006.

"It's a silly question."
Tony Snow, asked whether President Bush had many any mistakes in handling the North Korea crisis, October 10, 2006.

"Why should I care about North Korea?"
Candidate George W. Bush, to advisor Saudi Prince Bandar, 1999.

"We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea."
President Bush, May 23, 2006.

"I got paid in stock options which were worthless."
Senator George Allen (R-VA), regarding undisclosed Xybernaut stock options once worth $1.1 million, October 10, 2006.

"My first sin each night is the failure to forgive the [San Diego Union Tribune]."
Convicted Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham, October 6, 2006.

"It seems to me that the situation [in Iraq] is simply drifting sideways."
Senator John Warner (R-VA), October 5, 2006.

"A submarine could take this place out."
President Bush, at the dedication of the Clinton Presidential Library, November 2004.

"I change constitutions, I put churches in schools."
Karl Rove, November 2004.

"Just get me a f**king faith based-thing."
Karl Rove, as reported on October 15, 2006.

The last two weeks have produced a dramatic shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bite list. The exploding Mark Foley scandal, the disintegration of Iraq and the new terrorist detainee legislation sent a bevy of Republican ditties racing up the charts. Meanwhile, some old conservative standards have fallen by the way side.

Soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert now has three smash hits at the top of the charts. Hastert's hard-rocking cut "(Democrats) Pamper the Terrorists" from the GOP's pre-election Geneva Convention Blues release is this week's new #1. Two singles from the House Republicans' You've Got Male ode to Mark Foley follow close behind. Hastert's dance remix of Scott McClellan's 2005 smash hit "Ongoing Investigation," performed with Ken Mehlman, Tony Snow, Tom Reynolds and John Shimkus, catapulted to #2. Meanwhile, the haunting ballad "Democrats and Soros" comes in at #3.

The carnage in Iraq and the coming Iraq Study Group report from Bush family consigliere James Baker III have sent three GOP favorites plummeting down the rankings. Last week's #1, "Cut and Run," dropped to #4, while "Stay the Course" dipped to fifth place. The nonsensical Bush-Cheney rap "Adapting to Win," with backing vocals from Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice, fell to number 10. Other past monster hits from President Bush's Iraq Remix, including "Better to Fight Them There Than Here" and "We're Making Progress," have disappeared from the Top 10 altogether.

You can see the archives of the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites list in the Perrspectives Image Gallery here.

My email in-box this morning contained one of the more surprising political developments of recent weeks. Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, one of the early front-runners in the 2008 Democratic White House race, has decided not to run for president. The unanswered question is: why?

The email missive from Warner's Forward Together PAC offered only platitudes and pablum for the Governor's premature withdrawal:

I have decided not to run for President.

This past weekend, my family and I went to Connecticut to celebrate my Dad's 81st birthday, and then we took my oldest daughter Madison to start looking at colleges.

I know these moments are never going to come again. This weekend made clear what I'd been thinking about for many weeks - that while politically this appears to be the right time for me to take the plunge - at this point, I want to have a real life.

After raising $9 million for Democratic candidates and making 67 trips to 28 states and five countries, Warner was well-positioned for a competitive if not certain 2008 presidential bid. While Warner's statement does not rule out other future electoral efforts, it only serves to raise more questions than it answers regarding today's decision.

In the wake of the Mark Foley imbroglio, one can only hope that there is less here than meets the eye.

To help the Republicans extricate themselves from their current quandary, here some ads for the GOP we'd like to see:

• "The GOP: Turning Over a New Page in '06"
• "The Republicans: Standing Behind Our Children"
• "The GOP: Rewriting American History, One Page at a Time"
• "The Republicans: Stopping Mark Foley from Getting Married"
• "The Republicans: Do We Make You Horny?"
• "Republicans: The Other White Meat"
• "The RCCC: Putting the Pork Back in Politics"
• "The GOP: The Children Are Our Future"
• "The GOP '06: Jail Bait, Not Jail Time"
• "The Republicans: You've Got Male"

For reader suggestions on what "GOP" now stands for, visit the Perrspectives "Define GOP Contest."

Two new reports this week served to highlight the central role of the housing market in the U.S. economy and in driving the living standards of Americans. Coming on the same day the Dow reached an all-time high, the housing data is not good.

"It is now much more difficult for first-time homebuyers to get into the market, and for existing homeowners to trade up. This decline in affordability is the catalyst for the current sharp decline in housing activity. Until incomes catch up, the housing market is going to remain flat."

All of which brings us to the second gloomy forecast for the American housing market. The AP announced that Moody's will issue a report on Wednesday painting a bleak picture for the future. After five years of explosive growth, Moody's projects housing prices will tumble in over 100 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, especially those in the Northeast, Florida and California. The report, "Housing at the Tipping Point," predicts a 3.7% drop in home values for 2007, the worst performance for an entire year since the Great Depression.

The growing dysfunction in the housing sector is just another of the defining characteristics of the "Bush League Economy." While the White House touts strong GDP, productivity and unemployment levels, Americans' standards of living decline in the face of stagnant wages, falling median household incomes, stratospheric home, health care and energy costs, as well as a mountain of personal debt. With the U.S. Insecurity Index disturbingly high, the Bush economy is just a house of cards.

The past several days have produced yet another bumper crop of Republican gaffes, goofs and guffaws. The new Woodward book, Mark Foley's predilection for post-pubescent pages, the Congressional codification of torture and the chaos in Iraq helped bring out a bevy of new verbal offenses from many of the usual suspects of the right.

"I'm Mark Foley from Florida's 16th District. I'm co-chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, and I hope today's bill is a pedophile's worst nightmare and a parent's best hope."
Mark Foley (R-FL), as recalled by ABC News, October 2, 2006.

"I think had they overly aggressively reacted to the initial round [of Foley emails], they would have also been accused of gay bashing."
Newt Gingrich, October 1, 2006.

"We've got to get the [expletive] out [of Iraq]."
General John Abizaid, March 2005.

"We're urging people to buy the book [Woodward's 'Plan of Attack']. What this book does is show a president who was asking the right questions and showing prudence as well as resolve during very difficult times. This book undermines a lot of the critics' charges. "
White House Spokesman Dan Bartlett, April 21, 2004.

"I think as we worked with Bob on this project [Woodward's 'State of Denial'] from the very outset, it was unfortunate that we felt he had already formulated some conclusions even before the interviewing began."
White House Spokesman Dan Bartlett, October 1, 2006.

"The 130 most treacherous people, probably in the world, and they [the Democrats] want to put them and release them out in the public eventually."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, September 29, 2006.

"Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me."
Trent Lott (R-MS), September 28, 2006.

"The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton [for 9/11] is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don't think he deserves it."
Rudy Giuliani, September 28, 2006.

"This battle [to ban same-sex marriage] is the most important issue that we face today."
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), September 27, 2006.

"When the final history is written on Iraq, it [the growing violence] will look like just a comma."
President Bush, September 24, 2006.

"Nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton. If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."
Reverend Jerry Falwell, September 24, 2006.

"It seems that the President was very sad to have to come out negatively regarding Israel, but that they needed to mollify the Arabs for the upcoming war on Iraq."
Jack Abramoff, March 18, 2002.

For a comprehensive listing of the latest and greatest rhetorical meltdowns of the conservative ascendancy, see "Today's Mantra."