Wonkette

After Benazir Bhutto’s assassination yesterday, Hillary and Barack got into one of their little spats over how the other one was politicizing it for a last-minute gain. Hillary’s statement on the assassination offered regrets and also mentioned that she knew Bhutto as first lady. Barack’s statement just offered regrets, because he didn’t know the lady. But the big politicizing came later in the afternoon, when Barack’s senior foreign policy adviser David Axelrod went meanypants on Hillary: She authorized Iraq, which diverted our attention from Pakistan, which grew into further turmoil, which is where Bhutto was assassinated. Now, if you’ve been following Andrew Sullivan’s blog the last few months, you’ve noticed that he’s not only supporting Barack — which obvs is fine, go for it — and slamming Hillary in every post for her gutless attacks, but he won’t say a friggin’ word when Barack pulls out the Nasty. Check out how he handled yesterday’s Clinton-Obama repartee, and then someone please tell him to go back to libertarian land, where he belongs. MORE »

Andrew Sullivan has decided to play “libertarian wingnut Sullivan” today instead of “Obama-loving faux liberal Sullivan” and has endorsed Ron “iz moneybomb” Paul for the Republican nomination. So that’s a nice way to engage the current political reality and choose someone with any sort of chance. [Daily Dish]

The December issue of The Atlantic hits newsstands across the galaxy November 20th, within which Andrew Sullivan has penned his pseudo-hyped first cover story for the magazine since leaving Time earlier this year. Congrats, Andy! And way to be modest and not horribly self-indulgent. For example, check out this nuanced approach to the upcoming election: “It is a war about war–and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama–and Obama alone–offers the possibility of a truce.” Yikes! MORE »

Andrew Sullivan:

Outside the extremist, activist base, regular GOP voters turn out to be relatively tolerant when it comes to sexual minorities and private sex lives. They’re not well represented by their party leaders, as far as policy is concerned. This is good news for Fred Thompson. The man has had a colorful and wide-ranging sex life, as I’m sure we will soon find out.

Translated: COUGH COUGH GAY COUGH COUGH FRED THOMPSON IS GAY GAY GAY COUGH COUGH

But that’s not all.

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* You can take Michelle Obama out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of her. [The Hill]
* Photo of Christopher Hitchens posing with Family Research Council replaced with dead kitty in HuffPo prank/web etiquette lesson. [Evangelical Outpost]
* Andrew Sullivan gets his giant neck twisted around. [Heading Right]
* Pissed off mil-vloggers rant about censorship while chewing, spitting ‘backy. [Blackfive]
* Right-wing anger scores another Lindsay Lohan movie for your next trip across the pond. [Hotair]
* Walnuts! changes crazy trains, from Iraq to Gay. [The Carpetbagger Report]
* Oliver Stone produces ad for MoveOn, he thinks. [Election Central]

It’s all Andrew Sullivan all the time! Well, not really. But rastafarian blogger Matthew Yglesias is moving to the Atlantic Monthly website and leaving This American Life or wherever he used to work. MORE »

Congratulations to Andrew Sullivan, who’s set a date to wed his long-time partner Aaron Tone. While the New York Observer doesn’t actually know Mr. Tone’s name (it was written as Eric and subsequently corrected), Diner-frequenting Washingtonians have come to know the amiable, large-necked pundit’s partner well over the two years they’ve been living together. MORE »

Why does South Park get away with every possible racial and sexual and religious and whatever-other-things stereotype, week after week — while poor Don Imus is out of work and only has like $100 million dollars? Andrew Sullivan has cracked the code: It appears the South Park characters are not actually living creatures but simply cartoons of some sort. MORE »

This week’s Wonk’d hits close to home, as everyone spotted looks spaced out and bitter. Laura Bush’s face lets George know that if she’s gonna be up early she better have a drink in her hand, and Dennis Kucinich may not need that particular poison, but he’s got his own way to relax. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer party at South East’s most deluxe Chinese joint, George Stephanopoulos shows he has almost mastered the art of exchanging money for goods and services, and Andrew Sullivan pays for WiFi from The Man just to avoid being spotted at the free place down the street, and ends up here anyway. These aggravated big-shots and last week’s douchiness explained — if you can begrudge us another click.

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You ever wonder what David Bradley thought about Andrew Sullivan? Or about David Bradley? Here’s a hint: he loves them both! An operative sent us one of David’s periodic rambling company-wide memos, this one announcing the (here’s the news, by the way) hiring of Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic, and the moving of his blog there from Time’s NEW AND IMPROVED website.

My Colleagues:

Probably lifting the thought from someone else, though I’ve long forgotten, I’ve spent my adult years believing that life is a sine curve of inevitable highs following inevitable lows. What is new to me, in this second career, is that the highs are much higher in journalism and the lows much lower. I had not understood, before, how wide could be the band of emotions.

This afternoon is one of the high highs for me. Andrew Sullivan has accepted James Bennet’s and my offer to join T he Atlantic as Senior Editor. Andrew will publish his blog, The Daily Dish , exclusively on The Atlantic website and contribute longer-form pieces to the magazine. To say this is a lift to our internet work hardly honors what Andrew has accomplished. Ranked in that highest priesthood of American bloggers, Andrew has a monthly following of over two million readers.

The entire crazy letter, including baked bribery, after the jump.

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We know a guy who’s perfect for the position!
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There’s a pretty good li’l blind item in Michael Kinsley’s column this week (thesis: people on the Internet sure are full of themselves MySpace MySpace blog bloggy blog): MORE »

I’ll be on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 tonight, talking about this very dirty election campaign - and how the web may have made things worse than usual.

-Andrew Sullivan, the man who, according to the New York Times, has a penis for a head. MORE »

Friday

• “Late last week, one of the bartenders from the Argonaut was shot in the head and critically wounded on his way home from work. The Argonaut is hosting a benefit for Quike (pronounced Key-K) on Friday October 13, 7pm-late at the Argonaut, located at 1433 H St NE. There will be a silent auction and a DJ.” [The Going Out Gurus]

• GET READY FOR THE PANDA MOTORCADE. If you are very good and wander around DC all weekend, a man dressed as Butterstick may bring you down the Asia Trail and then give you a quarter. [National Zoo]
• Howard Homecoming party at Felix. Free before 11PM with RSVP. Free food before 10PM. Possible free drinks. Dress nicely. [Upcoming]
• 1973’s The Day the Music Died at the LOC. If you thought Woodstock 1999 was a laugh riot, you’ll love this. Performances by Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Country Joe & The Fish, Jim Morrison, Van Morrison, Mountain, Dionne Warwick, Steppenwolf, Jan and Dean, Otis Redding, etc. Free at 7PM. [LOC]

Saturday

• HerbDay! at the beautiful US Botanic Gardens. Learn how to promote the diversity and potency of your home cannabis strains. HerbDay! Festival]

• Bob Mould DJ’s shirtless at the 9:30 Club. $12 at 11:30PM. [9:30 Club]
• AFI is showing new films from France through the 22nd. Saturday features beaucoup de choix: Riviera, The Case of the Grinning Cat, In Paris, Comedy of Power and Le Petit Lieutenant. Vous êtes autorisé pour fumer des cigarettes dans le théâtre. [AFI]
• Andrew Soul-livan at Politics & Prose talking about The Conservative Soul. We suggest visiting HerbDay! beforehand as Mr. Sullivan’s talk involves the Bible. [P&P]

Sunday

• 39th Annual Dupont Circle House Tour. It’s a self-guided tour of 12 homes, and then a Victorian tea party at the Washington Club. $30 from 12PM- 5PM. [Dupont Circle Citizens Association]

• Telograph, Black Tie Revue and Velvet at the Black Cat. $8 at 9PM to benefit the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. [Black Cat]