To Do: Life Is a Bowl of Cherry Blossoms

• Yes, it’s that time of year: cherry blossom season. The festivities kick off tomorrow. [WP; National Cherry Blossom Festival]

• As Dick Cheney might have said to Pat Leahy: “Go fly a kite!” (Note: if the weather doesn’t cooperate, the Kite Festival will be moved to Sunday.) [DCist; Smithsonian Kite Festival]

• If your allergies are bothering you, just stay indoors and watch sports on TV — including the NCAA tournament. [Deadspin]

READ MORE: NCAA Tournament, basketball, cherry blossom festival, kite festival, kites, to do

Chatology: Defining Victory Down

This Sunday’s shows undertook a major military operation. Between the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and “Operation Swarmer,” talking heads all but saluted. Russ Feingold managed to grab some of the spotlight, and his motion to censure President Bush gave Bill Kristol another chance to rock Chris Wallace’s world: Feingold “is smarter than the Democratic congressional leadership” and “deserves credit for taking a principled stand, and I honestly think he’s winning this debate.” That sound you heard is Nancy Pelosi’s head exploding. Dick Cheney did “Face the Nation” but did not make much news beyond the world’s most awesome Freudian slip: “Most of my predecessors spent a good part of their time as President—Vice President running for President.

Also, debuting this week on ABCNews.com was “The Green Room,” a brave attempt to wring every possible bit of hot air from the “This Week” panel while they stand around uncomfortably after the show wraps in the nondescript, motel-ish decor of ABC’s DeSale St. digs. Personally, I have always found pre-show green room chatter more interesting (everyone’s trying out their lines) and the whole thing strikes me as an empty attempt to show us another side of people who are basically one-dimensional, but I applaud this Taylorite approach to news content and hope that less practiced pundits do something stupid and/or inspired backstage in the future.

Top topics: Iraq, Feingold’s censure motion and by extension the NSA wiretap program.

One-hit wonders: Boston College’s Sweet Sixteen chances (“Meet the Press”); Joey Cheek, humanitarian (“This Week”); Mark McClellan, TREKKIE (“Fox News Sunday”)

Quotes to live by:
• Dick Cheney admits that shooting someone in the face is “one of those situations that’s difficult, that generates controversy.”
• Chris Wallace, SUPER GENIUS: “It seems to me that the Senators who are most critical of [the NSA wiretapping] program are the ones who know the least about it.”
• George Will lays it out: “We need to define victory down.”
• Sam Donaldson is totally high: “Russ Feingold threw the long ball… but it might connect, as the Washington Redskins learned in the mid-70s.”

Also, Shorter Chris Matthews Show: David Gregory observed that “George Bush is the George Clooney of Washington… but that’s a little bit of a patina.” Wha?

Full rundown appears after the jump.

READ MORE: NCAA Tournament, Personalities, ana marie cox, basketball, bill clinton, bill kristol, bob schieffer, bode miller, brit hume, censure, chatology, chris wallace, christopher hitchens, chuck hagel, cokie roberts, dick cheney, dick durbin, donald rumsfeld, eavesdropping, face the nation, fox news, george casey, george stephanopoulos, george tenet, george will, hunting accidents, iraq, jack reed, jackie spinner, joey cheek, john murtha, juan williams, mara liasson, march madness, mark mcclellan, meet the press, michael gordon, nancy pelosi, nsa, operation swarmer, original wonkette, ralph peters, russ feingold, saddam hussein, sam donaldson, ted kennedy, this week, tim russert, top

March Madness at the DNC: Howard Dean’s Standing in the Office Betting Pool

Poor Howard Dean! Republicans paint the DNC Chairman as out-of-touch, a loose cannon of the left — in a nutshell, crazy. Meanwhile, Dean can’t get no respect from his own party, with Nancy Pelosi et al. constantly second-guessing his decisions.

What’s a guy to do? Why, what any American male with a nagging wife would do: immerse himself in college basketball!

Dean appears to be quite the NCAA enthusiast, with not one but two entries in the DNC’s office betting pool. And even if his leadership skills are open to question, his basketball prognostication skills aren’t half-bad.

Find out how your favorite DNC staffers are doing in the office NCAA pool, by checking out the full standings — after the jump.

READ MORE: Democrats, NCAA Tournament, basketball, dnc, gambling, howard dean, march madness, top

Remainders: We’re All Bitches to the Bracket Edition

• Because it’s never too soon to talk about how having gays at the Easter Egg Roll will destroy the foundations of the nation. [GotDetroit?]
• To everyone who’s ever felt like the review of Def Leppard’s Hysteria that they wrote for their High School Newspaper was substandard, gaze on the writing of George Clooney, and take heart. [HuffPo]
• The Promise Keepers are apparently amassing an air force. [The Toilet Paper Blog]
• Who the fuck are we kidding. We know that you are all talking about something else today. [Deadspin]

READ MORE: Gay Easter Eggs, NCAA Tournament, airwolf, deadspin, def leppard, gays, george clooney, homophobia sure seems like a glittering stupidity, promise keepers, the closest wonkette will likely ever come to a post about Jan-michael vincent