Wonkette

• McCain, in his big speech last night, vowed to end “partisan rancor.” He made this clear by using the word “fight” 43 times, literally. [New York Times]
• St. Paul police arrested 250 anti-war protestors — filled, presumably, with now-illegal Partisan Rancor — before McCain’s acceptance speech. [St. Paul Star Tribune]
• Bob Woodward’s new book alleges that the US spied on the Iraqi Prime Minister and asserts that the Surge didn’t work. Why would Bob Woodward rather win the election than lose the war? [Washington Post]
• Charles Rangel failed to report the $75k he earned from renting out his $500/night lush Dominican villa. [New York Times]
• Dick Cheney promised Georgia it would someday be included in NATO, and threw Ukraine in there too while he was at it. [Los Angeles Times]
  
• McCain and Obama are tied in the mostly meaningless national polls. [Politico]
  
• Ike and Hanna are not the last of the summer’s terrible hurricanes, in fact, hurricane season might last until October-ish. [Tampa Bay Tribune]

Hey everybody, what if your favorite newspaper reporter paid to have sex with a hooker? Oh, you don’t have a favorite newspaper journalist? What about copy editors? Just think what would happen if one of the top copy editors got caught using the services of an escort agency. Oh, right. Nothing would happen. Nobody would care. MORE »

Some hippy on DailyKos has revealed puzzling details from a mysterious book-tour stop by noted spook Bob Woodward. MORE »

It was 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday — June 17, 1972 — that five burglars were arrested at the Watergate offices of the DNC. Later that day, hippie Carl Bernstein was working on the story — but Republican naval intelligence spook and “rookie reporter” Bob Woodward was quickly assigned to “help.”

Let’s celebrate America’s Favorite Birthday, after the jump.

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* It’s almost as if National Review guys knew what they thought before the verdict. [Think Progress]
* Sully thinks the outcome of the case is plain ol’ peachy. [Daily Dish]
* The Cheney “blood clot” is just cover to get someone in the VP slot that can run for president. Come on guys, keep up. [Blogs For Bush]
* We’ve seen Clive Owen’s movies, and you, Joe Wilson, are no Clive Owen. [C&L]
* Bob Woodward is making scratches on the wall to count the days until Scooter goes in to prison. [The Left Coaster]
* William F. Buckley called Gore Vidal a “goddamn queer” on teevee back when people still watched teevee, so STFU about that horse-faced skank. [Sweetness & Light]

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The Post today takes a look at how jury selection’s going over at the Scooter Libby trial. It ain’t easy, it seems, to find impartial jurors in Washington, DC. MORE »

It’s always been assumed that Nixon selected Ford simply because he was confirmable, and that Ford pardoned Nixon because… well, because he was a nice guy and a bad President. Today, Bob Woodward (writing for a “newspaper”!) reveals that the two were the best of friends for years, which helps explain both those acts a little better. When you’re friends with Nixon, though, you end up looking like a dick every now and then: MORE »

Confused by everything and at war with the Modern World, Larry King is semi-living proof that CNN needs to immediately implement a mandatory retirement age. On his special program about Gerald Ford, the King of Teevee fought a brave battle against clear, simple statements. Here’s the transcript hilarity, starting with Bob Woodword’s recent recording of Gerald Ford very clearly hating on the Iraq Occupation:

FORD: I don’t think if I had been president on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly, I don’t think I would have wanted the Iraqi war. I would have maximized our efforts through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That was a little difficult to understand…

WOODWARD: He had…

KING: He was, in essence, saying what about Iraq?

WOODWARD: Well, he said specifically — and this is in 2004 — that he wouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq if he had been president. He said, “I don’t think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly, I don’t think I would have ordered the Iraq War. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer.” He made it very clear that he did not agree with the reasons that President Bush laid out for the war, namely the belief that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or that there was some obligation that the United States or the president had…

KING: Tom…

Larry King Live [CNN]

* Ford, dead, disagreed with Iraq war while alive. Also, Woodward might’ve written something for the Post that wasn’t directly adapted from a book. [WP]
* All the criminals are in Crawford to plan their Iraq “surge.” Gates is said to have a “comprehensive plan.” [WP]
* No terror threats for New Years, so feel free to drink, puke on America’s bridges, tunnels, major infrastructure, and national icons. [AP]
* John Edwards’ carefully-managed ‘08 campaign gets off to a hilariously inept start. [WP]
* Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon has heard from other, unnamed Republican Senators who share his belief that Iraq was all a horrible mistake. [NYT]