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As John Aravosis noted here, if we weren't already sure what Lindsey Graham has been up to with exploiting the tragedy in Libya, we have our answer now -- GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham running campaign ads on Benghazi tragedy:

For anyone still wondering why Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has taken the lead for the GOP, along with John McCain, on trying to exploit the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya two months ago, we now have our answer.

Lindsey Graham is using our dead ambassador for his re-election campaign.

Even Mitt Romney wasn’t this morbidly brazen.

But the evidence is incontrovertible. Lindsey Graham is running campaign ads about Benghazi. One such ad was found by Alvin McEwen of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters on the Talk Points Memo site, and another on Daily Kos (Alvin forwarded them to me): [...]

And when you click on the ad, it takes you to a petition on LindseyGraham.com, the Republican Senator’s campaign site that asks you to “sign the petition if you want answers”: [...]

Oh we’d like answers all right.

Starting with why the Republicans keep treating the deaths of four Americans as if they’ve won the lottery. Who does Lindsey Graham think he is, Mitt Romney?

As Steve Kornacki at Salon informed us this spring, Graham is likely to face a "tea party" primary challenger in 2014. So here he was on Meet the Press this morning, continuing to beat the drum on Benghazi and demanding that a select committee be formed, even though he and McCain's third amigo, Joe Lieberman already threw them under the bus -- Lieberman: Select Committee on Benghazi Not Needed.

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On this week's Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol suggests that the Occupy Wall Street protesters need to have an "electoral strategy" and help to defeat Democratic legislators in primary races, just like their AstroTurf "tea party" so heavily promoted by Fox did. Naturally no one else on the panel reminded him that the people out there in the OWS movement protesting, don't have any of that Koch brothers money funding them.

This was also yet another example of the very derisive type of coverage of the OWS movement we've seen from Fox in general, and where most of them were dismissive of the idea that anyone on the Democratic side of the aisle either will or should pay attention to the protesters concerns, or just more or less mocking them as Kristol was doing here. It really is just night and day from their fawning promotion of the "tea party" protests and whether or not Republican legislators should have paid attention to them.

WALLACE: What do you think of how the two parties are playing this?

KRISTOL: I think Republicans should be quiet. I mean, these are demonstrations against the party in power, which last I looked, was the Obama administration. They hate the current regulation of Wall Street which is being governed by a law called Dodd-Frank. Last I looked, Dodd was a Democratic senator and Frank was a Democratic congressman.

Wall Street is represented by a Democratic congressman, Jerrold Nadler. So I'd say Republicans and conservatives should step aside and let the left fight this out. I mean, who knew the left was suffering from such Tea Party envy? That's what strikes me.

They want their own Tea Party. You read these leftist columnists, they need the energy.

Weren't we being told a year ago or even a few months ago that the Tea Party was the worst thing that could have happened to the Republican Party, it's a bunch of extremists, it's going to destroy the Republican Party? And now they realize that, because the Tea Party strengthened conservatism, and they wish they had their own version of it.

But, what did the Tea Party do? This is A.B. -- what did the Tea Party actually do in 2009 and 2010? They defeated a whole bunch of Republicans in primaries, right? They elected people, or, in some cases, defeated people that didn't win in the general.

They had real electoral clout. And if I were running Occupy Wall Street, they need to defeat. They need to defeat Senator Gillibrand in the Democratic primary in New York, or Congressman Nadler in the Democratic primary in lower Manhattan, or someone.

WALLACE: And move the party to the left?

KRISTOL: Yes, they can't -- otherwise, it's just talk. I mean, they need to have an electoral strategy.

Full transcript available here.

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As was already reported here, the Republicans in Wisconsin got caught planning to recruit fake Democrats to run primary races against the Democrats in the upcoming recall elections. It now appears they have their third candidate -- Former GOP lawmaker Otto Junkermann to run as Democrat against Nancy Nusbaum in Rob Cowles recall primary:

A former Republican state representative plans to run as a Democrat against Nancy Nusbaum in an attempt to thwart her efforts to unseat Sen. Rob Cowles in a recall race.

Otto Junkermann, 82 of Allouez, said he thinks “very highly” of Cowles, a Republican also from Allouez, and will run against Nusbaum as a “conservative Democrat.”

“I respect Rob a great deal. I’ve known him, I followed him into the Assembly and took the position he had when he went into the Senate, and I always admired him,” Junkermann said.

Junkermann served in the Assembly as a Republican for one term from 1987-88. He was also a Brown County supervisor from 1982-87 and ran again in 2002, 2004 and 2008 but lost.

Asked if he was a so-called “spoiler candidate,” Junkermann said: “I don’t know how I could avoid being considered that.”

So they don't even care who knows that they're willing to win an election by any means necessary. As Rachel pointed out, even the National Review is saying this could backfire on them:

If both Hopper and Kapanke lose, that leaves only one more seat Democrats have to pick up to retake the Senate. In order to delay recall elections, the GOP has planned to run fake Democratic primary candidates against the GOP challengers, which would push the elections back another month. That would give Republicans an extra month’s worth of distance from the collective-bargaining imbroglio that got them in this situation, and would allow more time to campaign.

Yet this will almost certainly be seen as a “dirty trick” by media and some voters. It certainly appears like an admission that Republicans are struggling. And while it can be argued that the recall elections in themselves are merely dirty tricks, enough of a double standard exists that this ploy could backfire.

Here's more from TPM -- Octogenarian Former GOP State Rep To Run As Fake ‘Democrat’ In Wis. Recalls:

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President Obama might have given Donald Trump some heartburn tonight at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers just stuck a fork in him. He's done. Meyers got after the entire line of potential Republican presidential candidates here, but he was brutal to Trump.

Some of the funnier lines.

Donald Trump said he will run as a Republican, which is surprising because I thought he was running as a joke.

Trump said he's friends with the blacks, but unless the blacks are a white family, I think he's mistaken.

The night started out bad for Trump and went downhill from there.

Stephen Colbert isn't too impressed with most of the field of potential Republican presidential candidates, but he has decided he likes tough-talking Donald Trump. Colbert also thinks Trump is the only one who can cut into Obama's base, because of his relationship with "the blacks."

COLBERT: See? He has a great relationship with the blacks. He must. How else could he get away with calling them "the blacks?"

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A lot of Republicans are none too happy with Jim DeMint for his support of uber-conservative Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. I'll be curious to see how that plays itself out in the months to come if the Republicans fail to gain a majority in the Senate. Politico has more on some of the infighting among Republicans right now.

Soul-searching time: a GOP torn:

If nothing else, the 8 primary election defeats suffered by NRSC-favored candidates this year indicates the lack of a unified command structure within the GOP now. It has, in effect, become an uncontrolled and ungoverned party in which the powers that be in Washington are mere bystanders.

“Where are the adults?” one strategist wondered.

Davis put it bluntly: “The Republican establishment has no cache right now.”

Those regular Republicans lashed out Tuesday night at the man they view as largely responsible for credentialing so many of the tea party hopefuls this year, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)

“It speaks volumes that in Jim DeMint’s world, the ‘principles of freedom’ are more important than a candidate who pays their taxes, is honest with voters and who isn’t a complete fraud,” said a senior GOP aide. “Senator DeMint may be patting himself on the back tonight but many Republicans look forward to post-November 2nd when he has to explain why he helped the Democrats retain the majority for yet another two years.”

John King asked DeMint about his statement that O'Donnell's win might be worth losing the Senate seat in Delaware. And one last side note, did anyone else almost choke when they heard John King ask DeMint if he was considering a future presidential run? I'm not sure where King thinks this man has any appeal besides the deep South and a few other extremely conservative areas of the country. I can't see him having any nationwide appeal with anyone but the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, but then I guess you could say the same thing about a lot of their potential contenders.

KING: Republican Senator DeMint of South Carolina has the golden touch, endorsing conservatives who in most cases have turned into winners. Christine O'Donnell being the latest example last night in Delaware. Some Republicans aren't happy. One Republican source telling CNN they're frustrated with Senator DeMint because in their view he pushes purity over the practical. Senator DeMint joins us now to go one on one. How do you answer that point among your colleagues? You've heard it throughout the primary season, that you're a guy who wants conservatives who think like you at all costs, even if, your critics would say, the nominee is someone one who can't win.

SEN. JIM DEMINT: My critics always seem to be these anonymous people that don't talk to me directly. I haven't heard that from my colleagues and I'm certainly not interested in purity in the party.

KING: Let me help our viewers understand a bit more about you because more and more people around the country are hearing about you. Is it your view, then, that Jim DeMint would rather be in the minority than to, say, elect a Mike Castle in Delaware or a Charlie Crist in Florida who you view as too prone to deal making? Would you rather be in the minority than in the majority with Republicans like that?

DEMINT: I came into the Senate with 55 Republicans. A strong majority. Majority of Republicans in the house. Bush in the white house. We spent too much. We borrowed too much. We lost the faith of the American people. And we got thrown out. So there's no need in focusing on the numbers if we don't have any principles to back it up. Again, it's not about purity. It's about pretty commonsense ideas now that I think are right at the mainstream of where America is. We can't keep spending our way into prosperity, growing the government. We can't keep taking over auto industry and the health care industry. These things have Americans alarmed. So it's not about the trivial political labels of moderate or conservative or liberal. It's about survival or bankruptcy right now in our country.

KING: I want you to listen. Hear the voice of someone who knows you well when it comes to Christine O'Donnell. Karl Rove has worked on many conservative campaigns over the years. I want you to listen to Rove's take on Christine O'Donnell.

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As Rachel Maddow reported last week, the infighting among Republicans hasn't gotten any better after some of these very bitter primary races but since it doesn't play into their media narrative of how wonderful things are going for the Republican Party and how we're going to see the Democrats get wiped out this coming mid-term election, most of the beltway Villagers are completely ignoring it... still.

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As Rachel Maddow pointed out in this segment, the media narrative that Republicans "are on the march" may not necessarily be true, because after a number of these very heated primary races, they're at each others' throats instead of uniting as a party and as her guest E.J. Dionne wrote about this week, the Republicans are in the midst of "an insurrection" from the right wing of their party.

The Primary Differences:

Republicans are in the midst of an insurrection. Democrats are not. This vast gulf between the situations of the two parties—not some grand revolt against "the establishment" or "incumbents"—explains the year's primary results, including Tuesday's jarring outcomes in Florida and Alaska.

The agitation among Republicans is not surprising, given the trauma of the final years of George W. Bush's presidency. After heavy losses in 2006 and 2008, it was natural that GOP loyalists would seek a new direction.

Liberals who saw Bush's presidency as a failed right-wing experiment thought Republicans would search for more moderate ground, much as Britain's Tories turned to the soothing leadership of David Cameron to organize their comeback. But this expectation overlooked the exodus of moderates over the last decade, which has shifted the balance of power in Republican primaries far to the right.

As a result, the main critique of Bush in Republican ranks saw him as insufficiently conservative—too inclined to support federal action on education and in expanding prescription drug assistance to the elderly, and too ready to run up the deficit.

That the deficit increased primarily because of two tax cuts and two wars did not enter their calculation because acknowledging this was ideologically inconvenient. In the meantime, the election of President Obama by a demographically diverse coalition anchored among younger voters helped unleash the furies inside an older, overwhelmingly white and Southern-leaning GOP coalition. Read on...

And as Rachel noted, here's just one example in Florida.

Republicans scrap unity rally after brutal primary season

But according to the media, get ready for a blood bath for Democrats come this November because Democratic voters aren't enthused and thus aren't going to come out and vote. I hope to hell they're wrong since the prospects of the GOP controlling the House and what it would mean for economy make me shudder. Having to deal with the obstruction in the Senate is bad enough right now.

I agree with Rachel that they're largely ignoring the divides within the Republican party and whether voters are going to want some of the really extreme candidates the right has managed to get pushed in there during the primary process. It is worth asking whether those extreme candidates are going to turn off Republican voters when you're looking at what she pointed out here, and the losers of those primaries were not willing to support the candidate that won and some of them are trashing each other even after the primary races are over.

I guess time will tell soon enough. I hope to hell the Villagers are wrong because as Bill Mayer said, we've got one party that's friendly to corporations and actually cares about still governing and another party that looks like they've lost their collective mind. The Republican Party needs to go the way of the Know Nothings with the track they're following now, and yesterday could not be soon enough.

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Keith Olbermann talked to Sam Seder about this report from The Hill where it looks like the DSCC is cutting their losses with Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas who is about 20 points behind her Republican challenger. As Keith and Sam discussed, it's expected for the party to back incumbents as they did here, but there was no excuse for the antagonistic attitude towards the unions for them backing Halter. He was the better candidate and would have had a better chance of winning than Lincoln. They would have been better off listening to their base in this case.

And Bill Clinton was one of the worst out there campaigning for Lincoln. I didn't post any of the video back in June because about all I really could have mustered at the time would have been one bleeped expletive after the other ending with telling him to bite me. I was really angry after watching him out on the stump for Lincoln. How's that union bashing working out for you now Bill?

Looks like the unions were not the ones wasting their money, the party establishment was. And now they're throwing their hands up in the air and admitting she can't win. But then we knew that back when we were backing Bill Halter. No one can say he'd have won either but he would have had a better chance than Lincoln does and Halter might have generated some enthusiasm from the base to vote for him. It looks like Arkansas is going to get a Republican that has an R behind their name instead of a D this time around.

DSCC must decide where to cut losses as tough races add up:

Democratic leaders face tough decisions on how much to spend on the campaigns of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and other party candidates whose chances for winning in November seem dim.

Money that goes to Lincoln rather than Democrats thought to have better odds at the polls may be seen as wasted. And it could upset one of the party’s biggest financial supporters, labor unions, which spent millions in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat her in the primary.

Four public polls this month showed the two-term incumbent, who chairs the Agriculture Committee, trailing her Republican challenger by an average of more than 20 points.

Where to prioritize Lincoln’s race is one of several difficult decisions Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.) has to make to fend off an anticipated anti-incumbent wave in November. Read on...

Transcript from last Friday's Countdown below the fold.

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With a little over a month to go before the Arizona primary election on August 24th, John McCain finally faced off against his rival J.D. Hayworth and Tea Party candidate Jim Deakin in their first debate. As I wrote about back in March when J.D. Hayworth appeared on Rachel Maddow's show, John McCain's willingness to cover up Hayworth's involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal when he chaired the Indian Affairs Committee is coming back to bite him once again.

Once again Hayworth claimed that McCain not bringing him up during the hearing proved his innocence in the matter and he went so far as to chastise McCain for calling him corrupt in one of his campaign ads. As I asked back in March, how's that cover up working out for you now John?

Moderator: When you were in Congress you were one of the biggest financial recipients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, then there is you acting as a pitch man, which has been brought up from a questionable firm promoting free government money. Your critics such as Senator McCain have questioned your character, in fact today the McCain campaign sent out a release calling you J.D. Huckster. How do you respond to that?

Hayworth: Well, you know it’s really sad to see John McCain who should be revered as a statesman basically reduced to a political shape-shifter. John you’ve changed positions so much in this campaign, maybe we ought to set up an extra podium for you depending on which John McCain is going to answer which question.

Now the fact is rather than dealing with insults and I invite everyone because of my limited time here to go to the website jdforsenate.com to see extended explanations of that, but let me explain, this should be about the issues, about Mr. McCain’s record, yes on amnesty, coauthoring cap and trade, yes on the bailouts and the accompanying earmark spending involved there and of course no to tax cuts that help reinvigorate our economy.

John has a record that he does not want to run on. That’s why he’s engaged in this kind of attack ad and frankly it’s really unbecoming to you John. You’re not a statesman any longer. You’re simply a political shape-shifter.

Moderator: Senator McCain.

McCain: There you go again. Just as I predicted at the beginning of this debate, facts are stubborn things. Congressman Hayworth was one of the big spenders. He told people like Jeff Flake and me who were fighting against this earmark and corruption, he called us jihadists. He sponsored earmarks. This is corruption in Washington. My friend Dr. Coburn says it’s the gateway drug to corruption and that is one of the reasons why J.D. Hayworth was voted out by his constituents, because Republicans let spending get out of control. I fought against my own President and against my own majority to eliminate pork barrel earmark spending and I’m proud of my record.

[…]

Hayworth: John if you had told the truth about Barack Obama the way you’re spreading falsehoods about me, you might be President of the United States right now. The fact is John McCain is caught in cynical attack politics in Washington D.C. and one other note John; you chaired the Indian Affairs Committee hearings into undo influence of lobbyists. Never did my name come up. Never was it uttered.

John it’s sad you’d stoop to this. Shame on you. Arizona deserves better.

As I noted back in March, for more on McCain's cover up of Hayworth's role in the Abramoff scandal go read Dennis G's excellent post at Balloon Juice The Grifter and the Coward…. McCain should be ashamed alright, but not for calling Hayworth a huckster.