Wonkette

* Washington Whispers: The Bushes have reportedly been promoting Sen. McCain’s presidential ambitions to top strategists. . . Clinton documents are now available through FOIA. . . Fired White House chef Walter Scheib brings menu and presidential anecdotes to high-end catering customers. . . Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee may run in the Little Rock Marathon as #2008. . . Bill Clinton is joining C-SPAN’s classroom initiative. . . Wolf Blitzer loves the GW basketball team. [USN&WR]
* Inside Politics: Ann Coulter tells Conservative Political Action Conference: “I make a few jokes about Muslims; they killed 3,000 Americans — I think we’re even.” [WT]

• Reliable Source: Barbara Bush sparks speculation that she’s engaged after she’s seen with a ring on the third finger of her left hand. [WP]
• Inside the Beltway: Laura Ingraham tells Brian Lamb to get “Queer Eye” to redesign the C-SPAN set. [WT]
• Page Six: Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate claims about Jenna Bush’s lost wallet; White House issues denials. [NYP]
• Cindy Adams: If Jeannine Pirro drops senate campaign in favor of running for attorney general, will Bill Weld run against Hillary? . . . Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s hair is lighter. [NYP]
• Rush & Molloy: Mike Wallace wants to question Bush: “What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world?

•  Is Condi gay?!?!?!?!??! Only the National Enquirer knows for sure. But we refuse to subscribe to find out. So much better to imagine… mmmm…. [National Enquirer]
• Bush lurves Tina’s gams. [AP]
• “Velcro Veep” bounces off me and sticks on you. [USAT]
• Wal-mart opposition has “bamboo” in the lobby. Yeah, yeah…. “bamboo.” [USAT]
• Condi Rice’s media guy. (Ask him about the gay!) Brilliant about image, total cheapskate on the minibar. [NYT]
• C-SPAN totally biased! On “Washington Journal,” “just 3 percent were women of color.” Well fuck. [FAIR]
• Washington has a gap between the “haves and the haves-power.” But we have awesome boots. [WP]
• “I’M HOME FROM HAVING A COLONOSCOPY — everything went fine, but I think I’ll let the drugs leave my system for a while longer before doing any serious blogging.” Pretty much the definition of TMI. [Instapundit] MORE »

Ah, C-SPAN! The closest thing to blogging that you can achieve, using nothing more than basic cable, a telephone, and a fistful of questions about Castro’s whereabouts on November 22, 1963! Tomorrow, the cable network with the high water pants and the pocket protector celebrates 25 years of viewer call-in segments, with a 25-hour marathon of viewer call-ins. They will also interview, every hour, winners of the C-SPAN viewer’s call-in essay contest. Given that all Washington usually offers on Friday nights are third or fourth viewings of “March of the Penguins” at the Uptown, we predict that marathon-viewing parties will break-out citywide. Souter will have Harriet Miers over on a mom-supervised stopover–though curfew is of course at 11. David Gregory and Mike Isikoff will prank call Brian Lamb with “Seymour Butts” jokes from the den at Maureen Dowd’s pyjama party. It’s gonna be wild! Especially when you get a load of the schedule, which marches through the last 25 years of American political history hour by hour, with a year-appropriate personage fielding calls in the studio. Kicking it off is a way-meta throwdown between Phil Donahue and Pat Buchanan on the question “Have call-ins changed the political discussion?” Punches will be thrown, we guarantee it. Also, look for the Saturday 5-6 am segment, when we hit 1989, and Christopher Hitchens discusses the role of the US in the world. Cause, you know, we’ve been convinced for some time that Hitch reaches his peak epiphanies about US power just before sunup Saturday–and we’re dead sure that 1989 was the last time he went to bed before 5 am. — HOLLY MARTINS MORE »

• Washington Whispers: Trent Lott found his refrigerator three blocks from his house and inside were two sentimental bottles of champagne. . . D.C. television viewers are sick of Barack Obama. . . George H.W. Bush’s presidential library plans to add mock press briefing room. . . Robert Bork jokes, “How do you pronounce Souter in Spanish? Gonzales.”. . . News-addicted actor Joe Pantoliano likes “the girls” on MSNBC, especially Natalie Morales. . . [USN&WR]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Brian Lamb marries someone named Victoria. Spokeswoman: “They were married in a small, private ceremony in the Washington area and Brian was in the office all week”. . . Hillary supporters hope “Inside the Bubble,” a new documentary about the Kerry-Edwards campaign, will end his chances in ‘08. Kerry flack David Wade: “The 20 poor souls subjected to this movie will be reaching for caffeine and begging for old Lamar Alexander tapes on C-SPAN2. Michael Moore has nothing to fear. I think the working title was ‘The Snore Room.’” [NYDN]

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Great news! C-SPAN is broadcasting tomorrow’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote on John Roberts TOTALLY LIVE at 9:30am ET tomorrow on C-SPAN3. WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN!?!? Oh, and if you miss it (I’m kinda busy, too.), well they’re rebroadcasting it on C-SPAN2 at 9pm. Don’t tell us how it ends!

Need an opinion? We have several. Take one, please. MORE »

• Bush squashes “global struggle against violent extremism” phrase: “Make no mistake about it, this is a war against people who profess an ideology, and they use terror as a means to achieve their objectives.” [NYT]
• Congress skims $8.5b from highway bill. [WSJ, NYT]
• Roberts admits not disclosing that he registered as a lobbyist in 2001. [LAT, NYT]
• Bush lauds the economy in new effort to raise his approval rating by claiming responsibility for “economic vitality.” [WP, LAT, WT]
• Democrats plan to quiz Roberts on discrepancies in his stated opinions. [WP]
• Roberts aided gay activists during Supreme Court case in 1996 with pro bono work. [LAT]

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What can we say? We started drinking early yesterday. MORE »