Wonkette

This week, Tommy Thompson, Tim Russert, Dennis Kucinich, George Stephanopoulus, Anthony Kennedy, Jeff Daniels, Ariana Huffington, and Ben Bernanke were all spotted being various degrees of famous at various places by our spies and operatives. Voyeuristic fun, as always, is after the jump. MORE »

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was on Capitol Hill yesterday, hitting the Senate up for money for federal judges. Apparently $165,200 a year, though more than what 95 percent of Americans make, isn’t enough for these black-robed money-grubbers, despite perks like their ability to mandate gay abortions for everybody and confiscate all churches for transformation into temples for the Cult of Reason. They’d rather work for fancy-pants law firms where they can bill by the hour. MORE »

• Page Six: Donald Trump defends the biggest, swankiest flag ever [NYP]
• Cindy Adams: Cindy predicts Michael Ripoff’s demise. [NYP]
• Liz Smith: Anthony Kennedy whoops it up with Lally Weymouth. [NYP]
• The Reliable Source: Hillary Duff, Nicollette Sheridan and Michael Bolton spotted in the area. [WP]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Will Bloomberg run for President? Signs point to… maybe! [NYDN]

Today Wonkette took a field trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. We were all excited, ’cause we — like many others — thought it might be the last day of the Term.

The Court would hand down decisions in all its big-ticket cases — like the Texas redistricting case, and the Guantanamo Bay detainee case. Maybe a justice would announce his or her retirement. We might be present for the making of history.

As it turned out, the SCOTUS faked us out. Moving into overtime, they announced that tomorrow will be the last day of the Term. Perhaps their recent night at the movies caused the justices to fall behind in their work.

Nevertheless, our visit to the Court was worthwhile. Even though the decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld will have to wait until tomorrow, we did get to watch Justice Kennedy try to explain the confusing raft of opinions in the Texas redistricting case. And we swooned when the hunky Chief Justice started talkin’ dirty to us, about Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on “Consular Relations”…

After the jump, part one of our two-part photo essay on our day with the Supremes.

Update: Part Two is available here.

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And we bet that Justice Thomas has a special weakness for streaming video: MORE »

* Washington Whispers: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy complains about making six figures: “We are patronized when we meet judges from England, the European Union, or Malaysia, whose salaries double that of ours. They say, ‘We’re so sorry about your salaries.’”. . . Kerry’s PAC has raised $1.1m in the past three months. . . Ted Kennedy is “pretty close” to Margaret Spellings. . . George Allen claims he cuts his own grass. [USN&WR]
* Inside Politics: Kerry says his biggest mistake was using federal financing after the convention: “I think the most important thing would have been to spend more money, if we could have, on the advertising and responding to some of the attacks.”. . . Boehner is optimistic for GOP chances in ‘06. [WT]
* Inside the Beltway: Joe Klein is re-releasing his book, “Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who Think You’re Stupid.” [WT]
* Liz Smith: Sandra Bernhard on the Bush twins: “You think those girls abstain?” [NYP]

A couple of your comments that made us laugh, made us cry, and, most importantly, made us think. MORE »

* Reliable Source: Condoleezza Rice plays a duet with Marvin Hamlisch at International Women’s Day celebration attended by Laura Bush, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Chertoff, and John Negroponte. . . John Ashcroft and wife Janet attend mandatory ethics course to complete their induction to the D.C. Bar. . . Jack Abramoff shows Vanity Fair photos of him with Newt Gingrich, who denies knowing the former lobbyist. . . Ann Richards, former Texas governor, has cancer of the esophagus. [WP]
* Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: The James Carville and Luke Russert sports show launches March 17th on XM Radio. [NYDN]
* The Scoop: Madonna supports Hillary ‘08: “I don

* Senate votes 72 to 25 to hold roll call on Samuel Alito’s confirmation today; Sen. Kerry defends his filibuster attempt. [WP, NYT, LAT, WT, USAT]
* Bush will promote alternative fuels and nuclear power in tonight’s State of the Union. Senior official: “What’s interesting about this discussion is that he isn’t talking about oil exploration at home. Nobody wants to get bogged down in those arguments again.” [NYT, USAT]
* 76% of Americans deem health care “an absolute priority” for ‘06 and only 28% support maintaining the current force in Iraq, according to new WSJ-NBC poll. Bush’s approval rating is steady at 39% as leadership and honesty numbers have fallen over the past year; 63% say Democrats lack a “clear agenda.” [WSJ, MSNBC]
* Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) questions Attorney General Alberto Gonzales‘ statements on warrentless eavesdropping. During his confirmation, Gonzales said the practice was “not the policy of the agenda of this president” and offered to tell Congress if that changed. [WP]
* Administration official explains White House strategy on Alito: “Any time they are yelling, preaching, lecturing, and you are cool and calm and breathing deep, you are winning. What that means on television sets where the American people are watching this is, you look good and they look bad. It was the central operating premise.” [NYT]

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• Reliable Source Top guns Karl Rove, John Negroponte, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Michael Chertoff, Carlos Gutierrez, John Warner, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Myers celebrate the Marines’ 230th birthday. . . Bodyguard reportedly followed Dr. Phil to the bathroon of the Capital Grille. [WP]
• Under the Dome: The WB is developing a D.C.-based soap opera that will show “the town