Being our semi-regular weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, as we know, is what the Beatles would have come up with had they sung, "Derp Prudence."

I have a modest proposal, devised this past Sunday, when The Sunday Showz proved for good and all their essential worthlessness, particularly as regards this particular presidential campaign. Now that the NFL is starting up again, why not just cancel these wheezing dinosaurs and expand the pregame shows? After all, how much different would four hours of The NFL Today be from two hours, especially if we lock Boomer Esiason out of the studio for a good portion of the proceedings? At least we would be spared the spectacle of watching the putative cream of American political journalism abase itself the way we did this weekend.

Quite simply, neither the format of the shows, nor whiskered journalistic traditions, nor the collective gumption of the hosts is up to confronting the fact that a ridiculous campaign of lies, constructed on behalf of a vulgar talking yam, is within a whisker of controlling all the levers of political power in Washington. The examples were sadly plentiful. And, though we usually do not deal with the cable shows in this semi-regular weekly survey, we have to mention Jake Tapper's CNN encounter with Chris Christie, Donald Trump's leather slave.

Christie simply lied right in Tapper's chops.

Christie: "It's just not true that he kept it up for five years."

Tapper: "Sure he did."

Christie: "It's simply not true."

Tapper: "It is true."

Christie: "No, Jake. It wasn't like he was talking about it on a regular basis ... And when the issue was raised, he made very clear the other day what his position is."

OK, so here's what should happen. First, the segment gets shut down immediately after the first outright demonstrable lie that Christie tells—"It's just not true that he kept it up for five years." Boom. Gone. Second, it is explained to the viewers first, and then to Christie, that he no longer is welcome on the CNN broadcasts for a lengthy period of time because CNN is under no requirement, ethical or otherwise, to help him catapult lies into the public airwaves. Third, this is explained, at length, to the viewers, who are owed an apology. If you find that you can't locate a single Trump surrogate who can play by these simple rules, then that should tell you all you need to know about this ridiculous campaign.

And that brings us to the horror show that broke out at broadcasting's Overlook Hotel, where my man Chuck Todd always has been the caretaker. Apparently, Lloyd the bartender mixed everyone triple shots because the bloody mayhem was everywhere. First riding his Big Wheel down the empty corridors was Alex Castellanos, whose mere appearance on television should nauseate any decent person, but who took the opportunity to demonstrate why elite political journalism in this country is in desperate need of a visit from the Orkin man.

CASTELLANOS: And by the way, well, there isn't—there's an answer here. I think the big question about Obama is not where he was born or his faith. The big question about Obama has been—has he considered himself more of a globalist than an American? There is an otherness to this president. And people have tried to exploit that politically in different ways. The Clinton campaign tried to exploit it this way, the way their strategists said, by saying his lack of American roots is an issue.

Of course, this was on top of Castellanos's insistence on the ur-whopper that HRC started the birther controversy because memos, OMIGERD SID BLUMENTHAL. But he got back to his longtime happy place with that "otherness" riff, which reminded me, and should have reminded all his fellow panelists, of Castellanos's long career as a race-baiting troll. But, since the panel included Maureen Dowd, presumably with her ankles tied to the chair so she didn't float to the ceiling of the studio, this history was blissfully ignored.

DOWD: Right. Well my friends, one of my friends, Leon Wieseltier, calls it a national emergency. And my friends won't even read, if I do interviews with Donald Trump, they won't read them. And basically they would like to censor any stories about Trump and also censor any negative stories about Hillary. They think she should have a total free pass. Because as she said at that fundraiser recently, 'I'm the only thing standing between you and the abyss.' Oh, and they're taking—Democratic strategists are taking antacids.

Dear Maureen Dowd's Friends: Are you really that big a bunch of meatheads? Operators are standing by.

Over on CBS, where John Dickerson has been handed the scepter once wielded by former Chaldean scribe Bob Schieffer, obvious anagram Reince Priebus made an appearance, and the emptiest suit in American politics got himself all puffed up because, dammit, he has designs on the lovely ballgag that Chris Christie currently is sporting. Priebus lied about the birther issue after Kellyanne Conway had lied about the birther issue, and neither of them was shut down immediately, but then Priebus got down to business, kissing the whip.

PRIEBUS: Those people need to get on board. And if they're thinking they're going to run again someday, you know, I think that we're going to evaluate the process of the nomination process, and I don't think it's going to be that easy for them.

DICKERSON: It—would the party itself penalized somebody who does not make good on the pledge that they made to support the party's nominee?

PRIEBUS: I think these are things that our party's going to look at in the process. And I think that people who gave us their word, used information from the RNC, should be on board. I mean why take part in the process—

DICKERSON: John Kasich?

PRIEBUS: Sure.

Dude, if you had that kind of clout, Donald Trump wouldn't be the nominee and you wouldn't have spent the last six months as a human chewtoy. This is just the way it's going to be, from now until November. Racism, dishonesty, and outright deception are now normalized as legitimate political tactics in 2016. It's far too late to expect these people to do anything about it now.

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

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