The embarrassment over at the Associated Press grows with the widely-read-within-the-Beltway Politico newspaper's Michael Calderone reporting on the pushback to Ron Fournier's McCain-talking-point-laden hit piece on Joe Biden, which Calderone calls "Drudge-worthy."

Now the AP is doubling down, pushing out a story across its wires under the heading "Biden pick draws Democratic praise, GOP criticism." Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

News items are supposed to be man bites dog, not the other way around. It's not at all newsworthy that Republicans are attacking Barack Obama's decision to choose Joe Biden as his running mate. That's their jobs as Republicans.

What is newsworthy, however, and what the AP buries well below the lede -- way down in the ninth graf, and only in a passing manner even then -- is the fact that Republicans are actually praising the Biden pick, a story that cuts against the grain, one that doesn't merely fall into the normal and expected course of events in a political campaign.

Sen. Chuck Hagel: U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel issued the following statement today following Senator Barack Obama's selection of Senator Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic Vice Presidential nominee:  "Joe Biden is the right partner for Barack Obama.  His many years of distinguished service to America, his seasoned judgment and his vast experience in foreign policy and national security will match up well with the unique challenges of the 21st Century.  An Obama-Biden ticket is a very impressive and strong team.  Biden's selection is good news for Obama and America," Hagel said.

Sen. Richard Lugar:  Tbilisi, Georgia - U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar made the following statement today en route to Tbilisi. "I congratulate Senator Barack Obama on his selection of my friend, Senator Joe Biden, to be his vice-presidential running mate. I have enjoyed for many years the opportunity to work with Joe Biden to bring strong bipartisan support to United States foreign policy..."

Sen. Arlen Specter:  Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, a Republican who serves on the Judiciary Committee with Biden and often rides Amtrak with him to Washington, also offered praise.  "No one on the Democratic side knows more about foreign policy than Sen. Biden," Specter said. "He's been an articulate spokesman on the subject. He also knows about domestic policy. He's been a leader on crime control."

It's going to be an awfully long fall campaign if the AP Washington bureau under Ron Fournier insists on shoddy journalistic techniques and merely regurgitating the spin from the McCain campaign. If you want to help push back and let the AP that this is totally and utterly unacceptable -- just as it was unacceptable for Fournier to falsely assert that Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet, or to have editorialized against Howard Dean in what were supposed to have been straight news reports -- shoot off an email to Kathleen Carroll (Fournier's boss) at kcarroll@ap.org or (212) 621-1500. Be POLITE, but be FIRM. Let them know that you don't want to see them serve as stenographers and amplifiers for pure spin by the McCain campaign.

Note, too, that MoveOn is launching its own similar effort in this direction. So get active today.