Being our semi-regular weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, as we know, is what Stevie Wonder would have come up with, had he composed "Ma Cherie Derp More."

It's an abbreviated survey this week because Momma Nature's going to have a little fun with the process prior to the New Hampshire Primary, so we're restocking the shebeen and installing more security cameras because we know some of these cheap bastids will try to beat the check. Therefore, we will only comment briefly on the fine attempt by the folks at the Overlook Hotel, where my man Chuck Todd always has been the caretaker, to legitimize further the presence of Hugh Hewitt as part of what we here at the shebeen try to do for a living. To the untrained eye, this would not seem to be going all that well.

HEWITT: Because he's running a general election campaign before he's secured the nomination. I'll tell you what amused me last night on the Twitter feed. Is every Democrat out there is eager to bury Marco Rubio because they are afraid of Marco Rubio. They are desperately afraid of him. Therefore, I think what we've got is a South Carolina brouhaha that will follow this mix up. And it will go to the convention. It's going to be an open convention because Rubio's not going away.

Well, that's one interpretation. Another would be that, given what we saw Tuesday night, if he ever got hooked up with Hillary Rodham Clinton in a debate on foreign policy, there wouldn't be anything left of Young Marco but a spot on the sidewalk. Still another would be that the reaction in the Twittersphere was the sudden realization on the part of many more people that Young Marco Rubio can be stopped by anyone who can say, "Klaatu barada nikto" loudly enough. And, as we generally say around here while discussing all things Marco, whap.

As we said, this was a very good try, but we're handing the House Cup this week to This Week With The Clinton Guy Shocked By Blowjobs, because they got Young Marco on and he took the opportunity (again) to come within millimeters of charging the president with treason.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But even after Chris Christie called you out for what he called canned speeches, 25-second canned speeches, you repeated again, he says, there you go again. That was not a good moment for you, was it?

RUBIO: It's what I believe. And it's what I'm going to continue to say because it happens to be one of the main reasons why I am running. I—this is the greatest country in the history of mankind because of a certain set of principles. Barack Obama wants us to abandon those principles that he has spent seven years putting in place policies that rip them from us: undermining the Constitution, undermining free enterprise, undermining our standing in the world, weakening America, apologizing for us on the global stage. The reason why I'm running is if we elect someone like that for the next four years, I think it may be too late for America to turn around.

The next question was about something unflattering that was said about Rubio's debate performance by the marginally relevant Senator Huckleberry J. Butchmeup.

This is spectacular. A one-term pipsqueak who was exposed as a cardboard cutout pretty much accuses the president of being a traitor and nobody bats an eye. Not The Clinton Guy, nor the Powerhouse Panel, a nickname ABC News copped from the morning-shift dancers at a strip club in Placquemines Parish. Take, for example, Matthew Dowd, who is one of those people who foisted C-Plus Augustus on the republic, and who has not cleaned nearly enough bedpans at Walter Reed to be taken seriously, but nonetheless is.

DOWD, ABC NEWS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think he went in, having won almost every single debate coming up until Iowa. And he lost the most important debate in his momentum campaign. I think, one, it stalls any momentum he had here. And his ability—

STEPHANOPOULOS: That serious?

DOWD: —yes, I think it stalls any momentum in his ability to get second place is now in peril. I think the second thing, more importantly than that is this kind of thing, is this kind of thing a virus that he can't get rid over the course of the campaign? Now will everybody see him through this lens? Is he prepared? And is he only a canned speech? And that's what I think they're most worried about.

That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about a guy who can charge a sitting president with treason on the basis of a health-care reform bill and a financial reform package, because that clearly means he has no judgment and is not only as complete a lightweight as the guy for whom Dowd once worked, but who also generally is, in the immortal phrase of the late bard, George V. Higgins, "as soft as church music."

Also, whap.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io