Not that the supplemental bill was primarily about Homeland Security, but if you read the whole thing, you’ll get where they’re going with this. The left-hand column represents a campaign promise and the right-hand column represents the alleged breach. But you don’t know this until you’ve actually read it (and even then it may not be crystal clear). Now try this:

I don’t know about you, but if I understand what each column means before I read it, the chances are a lot better I’ll start reading in the first place — and then continue to see how the compare-and-contrast plays out. You don’t need to dumb down your materials, but you do need to organize them with the expectation that your readers lack patience. That’s just the nature of the medium.

P.S. What does it mean when, after the first day the site is public, the most popular site linking to it is an upper-middle tier liberal blog, the second-most popular site linking is a Beltway news site? Just asking.

Carl Forti, I’m so sorry for ever doubting your prowess, your skill, your utterly amazing intestinal fortitude at being able to convince yourself that what you utter is The Truth™. Ironic, since I just watched “Thank You for Smoking” this weekend — throw it in the queue, it’s worth it.

And onward to a display of balls so awesome that I think Stephen Colbert would choke had he been watching. Here’s Forti on the 10/8 edition of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal (go to 33:40):

Steve Scully: Carl Forti of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Is the Foley situation managable?

Carl Forti: I think definitely. I think if you look at newspapers around the country and look at individual districts, it’s really not having that much of an effect.

Bam! Shake it Up! Shake it Up! and on to the next mothaf*&#! question. He didn’t say, “Well Steve, I think it’s really not having an effect” — he informs the viewer that they must read regional papers and look at individual districts before they can come to the conclusion that “it’s not having much of an effect.” A display of omniscience any mouthpiece would be proud of.

So awesome.