Wonkette

When we read that young Sam Alito had supported the notion that “no private sexual act between consenting adults should be forbidden” — not he’s not even limiting to groups of two! — we thought we knew him. Sure he seemed sedate when Bush introduced him, but surely he must be set to trade video collections with Clarence Thomas and pick pubic hairs out of his tallboy. But it turns out this is not the case. Despite Judge Alito’s pansexual enthusiasm, he is a complete dork. Which we love. MORE »

Harriet Miers 2.0 appears to be getting off to a jerky start. First, she appears to have told Sen. Arlen Specter that the landmark privacy case Griswold v. Connecticut was “rightly decided,” when really she meant “you have the blood of the unborn on your hands, stem-cell killer!” She also told Sen. Chuck Schumer that when it came to some of the legal issues he wanted to discuss, she needed to “’sort of bone up on this a little more.” Indeed. We suspect she hasn’t boned much at all. At least we believe her that, when it comes to abortion rights, “nobody knows how I would rule.” That includes her. — WONKETTE MORE »

The White House, intent on getting people talking about something besides Harriet Miers’s clothes, religion, and cardiac fitness, brought up six former Texas State Supreme Court judges yesterday to chat with president and to give the press corps some insight on to the keen legal mind of Ms. Miers. And insight they gave, though as to into what area of the body is anyone’s guess: “I’d trust her with my wife and with my life,” said former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Hill. MORE »

Now, with Senator Schumer call him to testify? MORE »

We took the liberty of redesigning Harriet Miers’s, uhm, “look.”

In addition to the many other tweaks, we think the glasses add a “really, I’m just as smart as Roberts” touch. Now if we can just convince her to submit to the idea before Robin Givhan gets to her…

• Bush nominates Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court; seen as “a woman who broke barriers in the male-dominated Texas legal world but brings no judicial experience or constitutional background to her new assignment.” Bush: “I know her heart. I know her character.” [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ, WT]
• Miers likely to avoid partisan fight. Kristol: “It’s hard to explain why Harriet Miers is the right pick unless you’re trying to avoid a fight about someone who has expressed a conservative constitutional philosophy… it’s demoralizing for the president to pass over a host of publicly identified conservative constitutionalists.” [WP, NYT]
• DeLay is indicted for alleged money laundering; former majority leader says prosecutor “is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a ‘do-over’ since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate.” Punishment for money laundering can be life in prison. [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ, USAT]
• Many conservatives express skepticism, disappointment about Miers; responses range “from hostility to silence to praise.” [WP, LAT, NYT, WT, USAT, USAT]
• Nomination viewed as “more like a bunt than a bid for a home run,” writes Ron Brownstein. Bush “has no appetite, at a time when he and his party are besieged by problems, for an all-out ideological fight,” suspects Richard Stevenson. [LAT, NYT]
• Critics allege cronyism, the perception of which “is especially risky because it comes at a time when the White House has been accused of putting under-qualified political associates in top positions throughout the government.” [LAT, USAT]

MORE »

“Hold still, hold still… Jeez, I still can’t believe I’m totally in the Senate Judiciary Hearing! This is so cool!”

[Larry Downing/Reuters]

At Final Day of Roberts Hearings, Hatch Snaps . . . and Snaps [WP] MORE »

Never let it be said that the government cares more about rich people than the rest of us:

DURBIN: I sent a letter to the attorney general yesterday, applauding the fact that the Justice Department had, in fact, successfully prosecuted in Massachusetts a person who had hacked in and stolen the telephone records of Paris Hilton, and I ask the Attorney General to please ask our Special Counsel in this case to take a look at the precedent of the Paris Hilton case and see if he can perhaps protect our records as much as we want to protect that poor young lady’s telephone records.

RELATED: Paris Hilton Hacker Sentenced [PC World] MORE »

A few days ago CNN, due to the Katrina and Roberts hearings “situations,” expanded “The Situation Room” to, we dunno, 24 hours a day. Our question: When does it stop being a situation? As a correspondent pointed out, a “situation” that lasts for a long time becomes a “crisis” or a “castastrophe,” or a “debacle.” All of which do describe the show. Perhaps a name change is in order? “The Debacle Room”? “The Padded Mattress Room”? Make all those large plasma screens serve a double purpose. MORE »

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. . . but, Jesus, they could do better than this: MORE »