• Rahm Emanuel wanted Obama’s Senate seat for himself — it is a fucking object of inestimable worth — and asked Blaggy to save it for him. Still, he didn’t offer Blaggy any famous nine-fingered handjobs in return. [TPMMuckraker]
• Howard Wolfson is taking his porn and his Bon Iver mixtapes and his dumb blog to New York, where he will be bringing some of the old Clinton Campaign Magic to Bloomberg’s now-doomed re-election team. [The Caucus]
• Here is Brit Hume’s farewell ode to Brit Hume; the former and latter will be starting his depressingly vague-sounding new job as Fox’s “Senior Political Analyst” in 2009. [Michael Calderone]
• How much does America know about this C. Hussein Kennedy? Literally nothing, but things seem Muslim, don’t they? [The Fix]
• Oh hey Merry Christmas: The unemployment rate is the highest its been in 26 years. [Daily Beast]

Oh man, this is sort of sad! Brit Hume, by many measures one of the least offensive Fox News personalities in existence, is stepping down from the anchor’s desk after 12 years because he has lost his enthusiasm for the job. (Quick everybody, quit your job because you are bored!) Twelve years on Fox would be the equivalent of two decades with one of those companies that does the clean-up after a quadruple homicide or a sewer pipe explosion or an invasion of Mold Monsters. Not for the faint of heart. Brit Hume, we salute you! [New York Daily News]

This week, our omnipresent eyes and ears spotted Brit Hume, Jean Schmidt, Tony Snow, Ron Paul, Elvis Costello, Katie Couric, Patrick McHenry, Hillary Clinton, and Tom DeLay, then wrote about spotting them in emails, which they sent to us. And now all those emails are posted after the jump!

See someone sorta famous in DC? Tell us all about it in an email with the subject line “Wonk’d” or “sightings.”

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Radar reports a rumor today that is so poorly sourced, so speculative, and so hilarious that we wish we’d make it up first: Fox News’ Megyn Kendall Kelly is having an affair with Brit Hume. MORE »

Fox has been crap tonight, due to Too Much Talking and not enough giant TV screens and people calling a race every few minutes. (MSNBC hasn’t been so swell, either. CNN takes the prize, as much as we hate to admit it.) MORE »

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• Heard on the Hill: Ricky Martin on the Hill to talk about human trafficking, won’t break into song… The Distilled Spirits Council and the Scotch Whisky Association is throwing a party for Prince Andrew (not the Nazi). [Roll Call]
• Yeas and Nays: Heath Shuler, former Redskin, current Congressional candidate, owes a shitload of back taxes… LAT: “Bourbon drinkers tend to be Republican; gin is more often a Democrat’s drink.” Tell that that to… uh, us. [Examiner]
• Reliable Source: O Magazine declares David Gregory, Barack Obama, Fareed Zakaria, and Patrick Fitzgerald to be among the 50 “Sexiest Men Alive.” [WP]
• Rush & Molloy: Chaos at FoxNews as marital problems between Brit Hume and wife/DC bureau head Kim lead to her departure from the bureau. [NYDN]
• Under the Dome: Rep. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is Catholic, wife is Mormon. Dodd: “At Bob Jones University, we are now a two-cult family”… “Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) has proudly accepted a $1,000 contribution from a strip-club owner.” [The Hill]

We assumed the FoxNews promotional budget was a little higher, but no need to waste money on pro marketing when you’re always on top. MORE »

It’s hot as hell on the East Coast, and Brit Hume is hiking around Georgetown and sweating through his super 130’s suits. But Joe Lockhart and Ken Mehlman don’t play that game, they’re all about Air Conditioning and mint juleps. Jessica Cutler, on the other hand, stays cool in a nice pair of booty shorts. MORE »

Having finally recovered from Prom, Chatology returned to her perch on the couch to sit through 3.5 hours of bone-grindingly obvious talking points. We’re used to butt-punishing workouts, but this is not our favorite among them. That said, a surprisingly sexy Sunday morning. ALSO: Can’t get enough of that wacky Bush impressionist? We can.

Top Topics:
• Michael Hayden, spook or just creep? Rep. Pete Hoekstra makes news by negation: Hayden “is the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time.” McCain is more loving.
• ‘06 sickness/Congressional “culture of corruption,” with Republicans showing Reaganesque — which is to say, delusional — optimism.
• Goss’s departure: Not did he jump or was he pushed but rather, “Pushed, shoved, or run over with a truck and stomped on the face?”

Quotes to live by:
• Saxby Chambliss on Hayden: He is “just a class individual” (as someone who questioned the patriotism of a paraplegic, he knows class!)
• George Stephanopolous makes right wing bias hunters’ heads explode: “That was not one of the top four pieces of legislation that Speaker Pelosi…ah, I don’t know why I have that stuck in my head today…”
• Chris Wallace masters the obvious: “I don’t have to tell you, you are the chairman of the intelligence committee.”
• George Will teases the Kennedy story: “One reason this story touched all of this city’s erogenous zones…”
• Bill Kristol looks on the bright side: “I’m looking forward to getting more sex into this scandal.”
• David Brooks auditions to be Maureen Dowd: “This has more layers than a Tom Clancy novel.”

Your full-on weekend chat soup after the jump.

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* Tony Snow will be appointed White House press secretary as soon as today; he intends to “function as an advocate for reporters.” Brit Hume: “I think he’s excited by the idea of being on the inside. He believes he will be at the table when decisions are made. For someone of his bent, that’s too good to pass up.” [WP, NYT]
* Bush, “amid growing Republican unrest about the politics of $3-plus gasoline,” offers to investigate price gouging, stop shipments to the reserve, and ease environmental regulations. [WP, NYT, W$J, USAT]
* Bush seeks $2.2B for levee reconstruction and $14B in cost reductions from non-emergency spending. [NYT, W$J]
* Republicans block tax hike on oil company profits. [WP]
* Rumsfeld makes surprise trip to Baghdad; Senate Armed Service Committee may invite testimony from former generals who have called for his resignation. [WP, WP]
* Frist, Reid are optimistic that compromise on immigration can be reached by Memorial Day. [NYT]

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