Wonkette

Here’s a new thing from MoveOn.Org, which links vaguely troubled North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole to that bastard John McCain, who is leading in North Carolina. They give money to oil companies! And in case someone saying “in the pocket of Big Oil” is not stark enough of an image, this ad actually shows a man in a suit whose tie says “Big Oil” carrying photographs of each John McCain and Liddy Dole in his hanky pocket. The image would’ve been much stronger (and more adorable!) if it was an actual Fat Cat wearing the suit. [YouTube via The Plank]

GODDAMMIT. You get an email from the DNC saying “Hey check out our new video, it is called ‘Puppet Masters,’ and it is about –” and you don’t even read to the end because shit, it is an ad with puppets in it, you are already clicking the clicky. Then: misery and heartbreak. This ad starts with a shitty kind of animated John McCain gesturing robotically but NO ACTUAL PUPPETS in the classical sense of, you know, some sort of three-dimensional figure operated either via strings or a hand up the butt. Jim Henson is puking with disgust somewhere in Puppet Heaven. [YouTube]

• Senate passes $109B in emergency spending by vote of 77 to 21; bill is rifled with earmarks that Bush threatened to veto. [WP, NYT, WSJ]

• House approves $7.4B for port security by vote of 421 to 2. [WP]
• Rumsfeld confronted by harsh criticism from audience members. Asked a former CIA analyst, “Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?” [AP]
• Administration increases rhetorical push for “democratic reform in Russia”; Cheney’s comments could “reflect a growing impatience with Russia’s unwillingness to back stronger measures, including sanctions, against the Iranians.” [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• Republicans “are struggling to marry a newfound zeal for energy conservation with their traditional loyalty to big cars and Big Oil.” [NYT]
• The proposed $100 gas rebate “offers a window on how Washington sometimes works in a slapdash way” and shows how Sen. Frist “has stumbled at the pinnacle of Senate power.” Sen. Thune: “I never was in favor of that. We all got out there and tried to put our best face on it.” [NYT]

* Ben Bradlee says Richard Armitage probably revealed Valerie Plame’s identity to Bob Woodward. [NYT]
* Sen. Feingold’s call for a censure of Bush has caused a “fierce debate on Capitol Hill that is likely to persist throughout the congressional campaign season.” [WP]
* Fellow Democratic senators refuse to comment on censure resolution; Sens. Clinton and Kerry deflect inquires. [WP]
* Rumsfeld suggests that troop levels in Iraq could temporarily increase to coincide with religious pilgrimage. [NYT]
* Senate Judiciary Committee takes testimony from executives of top oil corporations, this time under oath. [WP, NYT, W$J]
* Bush, on brief tour to tout Medicare, says drug plan is “a good deal” and “makes a lot of sense.” [WP, NYT]
* FBI photographed Pittsburgh antiwar group in 2002. [WP]
* House Republicans support temporary restrictions on lobbying. [NYT]
* Senate Republicans reject new budget rule that would have made fiscal changes harder to pass. [NYT]

• Senators, by vote of 79 to 19, pass a resolution marking next year as “a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty. . . thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq.” Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.): “Staying the course will not do.” Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): “It’s a continuation of the oversight we’ve been conducting for years in the United States Senate.” WP, NYT, WSJ, USAT]
• Senators from both parties “are demanding that the administration show that it has a strategy to turn the conflict over to the Iraqis and eventually bring U.S. troops home.” [WP]
• Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) defends critics of the war: “[T]he Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. . . to not question your government is unpatriotic.” [WP]
• Oil executives did meet with Cheney’s energy task force in 2001. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.): “The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force.” [WP]
• Alito tries to downplay conservative remarks from 1985. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Rice reaches deal on access to the Gaza Strip. [WP, NYT, NYT, USAT]
• Lewis Libby plans to “seek testimony from journalists beyond those cited in the indictment and will probably challenge government agreements limiting their grand jury testimony.” [NYT]

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• Approval of Bush slips to 37%, a new low in WSJ/NBC polling; 79% believe the leak investigation is “a serious matter” and a majority say Bush “deliberately misled people” to war. [WSJ]
• House Republicans scrap ANWR drilling to ensure passage of budget. Schumer: “If you are a moderate Republican, you are starting to say, ‘I am not going to follow George Bush over the cliff.’” [WP, NYT]
• Republicans fear implications of Tuesday’s elections; Democrats have their own lessons to learn. Pollster: “The waning of enthusiasm for Bush and his presidency is national.” [LAT, WP, WT]
• Senators press top oil executives about their profits; “if the hearing had an air of the theater, the public resentment articulated by the senators was real.” Milbank: “[I]nstead of calling oil executives on the carpet yesterday, senators gave them the red-carpet treatment.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, USAT, WT]
• Bush splits with Republicans over ban of abusive treatment of detainees. [USAT]
• Judith Miller leaves The New York Times. [WP, WP, NYT]
• Chalabi denies misleading the U.S. and offers to testify before Congress. [USAT, WP]
• Senate Judiciary Committee considers televising Supreme Court proceedings. [LAT]

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