Groaners (Puzzle No. 3,255)

I got 1a right off the bat(*), though it took me a few minutes to understand the wordplay.  I groaned at it: the puzzle constructor's equivalent of a sight gag.  Some puzzles are full of awful puns, so I'm thinking of adding a groan index to the weekly post.  Sound like a good idea?

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/170310/puzzle-no-3255

Hozom's comment (posted Saturday): "Political Puzzling"--Hot and Trazom wonder whether they ought to be scrupulously non-partisan in composing the puzzles.  The answer that solvers tell them: "If not in The Nation, then where?"  Spot on.  You'll see some of the earlier posts in this series keep track of political content befitting a left-wing magazine.  Such content keeps the editors and customers satisfied, and if you're afraid that conservatives would be offended at it, just consider that conservatives that are open-minded enough to pick up a puzzle published in a left-wing magazine aren't going to be upset at a few references in keeping with the rest of the magazine.

Now maybe we can find some liberals open-minded enough to lobby National Review to bring back their "Trans-O-Gram" acrostic.

Degree of difficulty:  Google should not be necessary.  Won’t be too hard if you’ve done Hot and Trazom’s puzzles before and know their cluing style.

Composer sighting?:  6d.

Political content: also 6d.

*--which by the way is a cricket term: there are a few fielding positions such as "short leg" and "silly point" where you stand 5 to 10 feet from the batter to try and catch little short pop-ups before they hit the ground.  You're just about taking the ball off the bat.  While I was a wicketkeeper later in my career, I played at some of those positions while I was in college and lived to tell about it, so I have a little more head start than most Americans when it comes to British cryptic clues with cricket references

Still curious about cricket?  You can watch the final of the ICC World Twenty20 (a made-for-TV version of the game: think of what baseball would be like if it were two innings long and players got five strikes instead of three--a home run festival) streaming live on www.espncricinfo.com Sunday morning at 9:30 eastern time: West Indies (the team I root for) vs. Sri Lanka.  If you're pressed for time, click over and just watch the video highlights of W.I. burying Australia today.  Chris Gayle of Jamaica hit 6 sixes (the cricket equivalent of a homer) including some upper deck shots, in an innings of 75.

Solution and annotation below the fold.  Use the comments below for hint requests.

Legend: "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed; "( )" letters inserted; "_" or lower case: letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue, “^” first letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters

Across

1a	THREE BLIND MICE	Pun: “Mickey, Minnie, and Mortimer” have all had their eyes (“I’s”) removed. The door to the referees’ dressing room at one of our area rinks is decorated with a picture of three mice in striped sweaters with white canes.
9a	WINE PRESS	Double definition
10a	_ZORRO_	“biarritZ OR ROme” (hidden word indicated by “appearing in.”)
11a	RO (B LOW) E	BLOW (†) contained in (“all around”) ROE (“fish eggs”) The clue is tricky, but within the rules: the division is within “blow/fish”)
12a	A (EROS) OL	AOL (“Internet pioneer”) containing (“concealing”) EROS (“love”)
13a	DIP | H | THONGS	DIP (“swim”) + H (“hot”) + THONGS (“skimpy bathing suits”)
16a	FAIR	Double definition
18a	*CONE	*ONCE (anagram indicated by “reconfigured”)
19a	*FLEA MARKET	*METAL FREAK (anagram indicated by “goes insane”)
22a	*V (I) SCERA	*CARVES (anagram indicated by “butcher”) containing (“outside”) I (“one”)
23a	*DEAL | T IN	*LEAD (anagram indicated by “process”) + TIN (†)
25a	A (X | IO) M	X (“10”) + IO (“10”, visual representation) contained in “in” AM (“morning”) Clever.
26a	K | ORE |AN WAR	K (“potassium”) + ORE (“mineral”) + ANWAR (“Sadat”)
27a	V (*ENTU | RE CAP) ITAL	*TUNE (anagram indicated by “out”) + RECAP (“summary”) contained in (“in”) VITAL (“essential”)

Down

1d	TO (WERE) D_	WERE (“lived”) contained in (“amid”) TOD_o (“bustle”, omission of last letter indicated by “for the most part”)
2d	R AND >B>	>B>RAND (relocated letter indicated by “demoting chief to the bottom”)
3d	EX | *PLOITS	EX (“former”) + *PILOTS (anagram indicated by “after a crash”)
4d	LI (EG) E	EG (“for example” contained in (“in”) LIE (“a story”)
5d	*NOSTALGIA	*LOST AGAIN (anagram indicated by “sadly”)
6d	M (OZ) ART	MART (“store”) containing (“stocking”) OZ (“Israeli author”) Amos Oz (b. 1939) wrote “A Tale of Love and Darkness” and is a regular contributor to The Nation.  He’s unusual among leftists for being unabashedly pro-Israel and for writing about the need for the nation to be able to defend itself.
7d	CARD SHARK	Heteronym: CARDS (“comedians”) + HARK (“listen”)
8d	HOWLER	Double definition
14d	PIN | K S | LIME	PIN (“skewer”) + KS (“Kansas”) + LIME (“green”)
15d	OI (L T | A) NKER	OINKER (“pig”) containing (“eats”) LT (“liverwurst”, first and last letters indicated by “casing”) + A (†)
17d	LA | VA (LA) MP	LA (“Los Angeles”) contained in (“is captivated by”) LA (French for “the”) + VAMP (“temptress”) Lava lamps do their thing because the polymer glob contained in them expands when warmed by the light bulb and rises, then contracts and sinks when it reaches the cooler fluid at the top of the lamp.
18d	CAVE | AT	CAVE (“stop resisting”) + AT (“@”)
20d	TEND | RIL_	TEND (“nurse”) + RIL_e (“get angry”, omission of last letter indicated by “nearly”)
21d	PER | MIT	PER (“for each”) + MIT (“New England university”)
23d	_DORIC_	re_DO RIC_hard (hidden word indicated by “...’s letters in”)
24d	TO WIT	Heteronym: TOW IT