Wonkette

John McCain brought his silly bus back this week — you remember the one, the STRAIGHT SHOOTIN’ INDEPENDENT NO-NONSENSE MAVERICK EXPRESS — and it’s pretty much exactly like his magical 2000 campaign that everyone loved except for the bit where he has more money and is an administration stooge now.

Everyone loved his bus back in 2000 because he’d let reporters sit in it and get drunk and chat with him all day long about whatever they wanted and sometimes McCain would say “gook” or “kike” or “colored” and they’d all laugh and then maybe someone would report it and McCain would say he’s sorry he’s such a STRAIGHT TALKER and everyone would laugh some more.

MORE »

Do you want to read a lengthy profile of former DCCC head Rahm Emanuel? Of course not! What about after we share this anecdote: MORE »

Over in the Times, our buddy Adam Nagourney has a brilliant “Political Memo” which straight-up says it: even if the Democrats win, they will still be losers. So true! We’ve been saying it for months. Charlie Cook predicting mass suicide! Preemptive blaming of Howard Dean! It’s so beautiful. MORE »

If you’re the type of 18-35-year-old who leaves comments wondering why we didn’t include tonight’s Middle Distance Runner show at DC9 in the To Do list, you’ll flip over newest Gawker Media property Idolator. It’s a music blog, but, like, a Gawker Media music blog. The blurb: “When the internet came, we overthrew the pasty white tastemakers, the duplicitious music marketers and the manufactured pop idols. And then they all came back. This is Idolator. We’re so disappointed.” MORE »

• Express makes their own 36 Hours: DC, including the Brewmaster’s Castle, Saloon and Tabard Inn. Ours is just an eight-ball, a couple bottles of Turkey, and Gaucho on repeat. [Express]
• Patsy Cline started her career with DC’s country music scene in the late 40s. [Metroblogging DC]
• DC man dies in Kentucky crash, coworkers coincidentally given toy airplanes. Rod Serling unavailable for comment, due to death. [Conversations with Mud]
• Fun with tourists: “They recently passed a law about using cell phones on the Metro. It’s actually a $25 ticket.” [Sandblower]
• “There are bad people with guns and drugs that live on the unit block of Todd Pl.” [Eckington Blog]

36 Hour Party Person. (Photo by Liz Gorman.) MORE »

• Parts of DC “unfamiliar to a typical NYT travel section reader: 1. Any part with black people. 2. Except for a club in a gentrifying black neighborhood that features a mostly white clientele.
  Thanks, New York Times, for helping me plan my weekend.” [why.i.hate.dc]

• Same article says, “The city is not as safe as it once was…keep an eye out around you,” Cafe 227 asks: “Adam, how old are you? 16? 17? Because the only acceptable excuse for making such a dumb statement is that you simply weren’t alive or sentient during the late 1980s-early 1990s when DC was known as the ‘murder capital’ of the United States.” [Cafe 227]
• Heathers sequel to be set in DC, with Christian Slater and Winona Ryder. This is totally unsubstantiated and terrifies us. [The DC Universe]
• Maureen Dowd smiles, shops inappropriately for her age. [DC Chai]
• DC is 20th Drunkest City. Out of 35. “Some will be cheered to hear that DC beat NYC, #32, if this is an important contest to you.” Duh. [Metroblogging DC]

Last night, Team Wonkette rubbed elbows with the D.C. media elite, at the third annual presentation of the Michael Kelly Award:

The $25,000 award is given annually to a journalist whose work exemplifies a quality that animated Michael Kelly’s own career: the fearless pursuit and expression of truth. Kelly, who was the editor of two Atlantic Media publications, The Atlantic Monthly and National Journal, was killed while covering the war in Iraq in 2003.

It was a delightful evening, definitely one of the better parties that we’ve crashed attended lately. As media junkies, our heads were left spinning from all the star-spotting: Peggy Noonan! Adam Nagourney! Howard Fineman! Gwen Ifill! Matt Cooper! (But where was FROOMKIN???)

After the jump, additional commentary on the evening — plus fabulous photos, by Liz Gorman. Enjoy!

MORE »

Do you want to write a must-read? Sure, we all do! Guess what? It’s not as hard as you think! Here are some tips from your buddies at Wonkette: MORE »

• The latest indignity to be visited upon disgraced blogger Ben Domenech: a put-down from the Washingtonienne. Jessica Cutler to Ben: “Eat it.” (Careful, Jessica — he might take you up on that.) [Jessica Cutler Online]
• It’s confirmed: Justice Scalia used an obscene gesture, but not that obscene gesture. [E&P]
• First we got Dick Cheney’s rider, followed by John Kerry’s. Now: Donald Rumsfeld’s? [The Satirical Political Report]

This Times piece provides the absolute best in bullshit speculative “reporting” that the Press Corps has to offer. From the desperate attempt to claim to that the President’s dismissive answer to Ms. Bumiller’s “gray-beard” question on Tuesday (”Look, [Congress] have got some ideas that I like and some I don’t like”) could be construed as a vague affirmative, to the classic “there is no news in this news story” disclaimer that comes in graf 6: MORE »