Last night Fox celebrated the birth, ten years ago, of “Fox News Sunday,” with a star-choked alcohol-soaked party at Cafe Milano. And Wonkette Emerita Ana Marie Cox was there. Her exclusive party report, replete with celebrity encounters, the booze-aided dispensation of social niceties, and a subtly threatening Karl Rove (who “knows” us, if you know what he means), all provided free of charge, after the jump.

(Picture by Patrick Gavin/FishbowlDC)

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* Rove testifies for several hours in the CIA leak case; testimony “focused almost exclusively on his conversation about Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in 2003 and whether the top aide later tried to conceal it.” [WP, NYT, W$J]
* Tony Snow could be “the first outsider to become part of Bush’s revamped inner circle”; aides admit there is “broad agreement that the first-term strategy of largely ignoring the mainstream Washington media was a mistake.” Dan Bartlett: “There is a lot of value added in Tony coming on board and helping us internally with his own views and ideas.” [WP, NYT, USAT, WT]
* New spending bill brings cost of the war in Iraq to $320B; total cost of Afghanistan and Iraq missions will exceed the price of the Vietnam War. [WP]
* Approval of Congress in NBC/WSJ poll has dropped 11 points in the past month; respondents are increasingly pessimistic about the direction of the nation and the economy. 77% are “uneasy about the economy” and 44% are tired of partisan fighting. Pollster: “You have never seen such a sour mood in the country. It is sour, sour, sour.” [MSNBC, W$J]
* Senate report concludes FEMA should be abolished because problems are “too substantial to mend.” [WP, NYT, USAT]
* Rumsfeld, Rice visit Baghdad after prodding from Bush; “they were embracing perhaps the last chance the Bush administration had to turn around public opinion at home and to ensure that Iraq has a viable political future.” [WP, NYT, W$J]

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The mainstream media regularly decries the Bush White House’s communications problem. Much of the blame used to go to poor Scott McClellan, just replaced by Tony Snow as press secretary. Some of the attacks on Scotty were so harsh — e.g., Michael Wolff’s Vanity Fair article — that you couldn’t help feeling bad for the guy (at least a little). MORE »

These things can change quickly, but the latest word on the street is that Tony Snow of Fox News is the most likely replacement for Scott McClellan as White House press secretary. Rumor has it that Snow has essentially been offered the job and is negotiating the fine points with the White House. MORE »

We’d like to write about something else; really, we would. But the departure of Scott McClellan and the changing responsibilities of Karl Rove are all that people are talking about today. MORE »

Last month, we predicted that Scott McClellan would be gone as White House press secretary by the summer. That prediction has now come to pass. MORE »

Yesterday we asked you for guesses as to the identity of the senior administration official who confirmed, by email to the New York Times, “that President Bush had ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq, in an effort to rebut critics who said the administration had exaggerated the nuclear threat posed by Saddam Hussein.” MORE »

Yesterday, after Andrew Card’s resignation was announced, we speculated that Treasury Secretary John W. Snow might be the next Administration official to step down. A reader offered this support for the gossip: “I live across the street from Sec’y Snow, and I never see him or his security detail anymore. The guy’s fuckin’ done.” MORE »

• After successfully shifting its rhetorical strategy on Iraq, the Bush administration rethinks its plans for the second term; Dan Bartlett and Nicolle Wallace pressed for Bush to admit mistakes. Former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.): “I don’t think they realized that Iraq is the totality of their legacy until fairly recently. There is not much of a market for other issues.” Grover Norquist: “The lesson from this year is you cannot do anything dramatic unless you have 60 votes.” [WP]
• Jack Abramoff, “an ingenious dealmaker who hatched interlocking schemes that exploited the machinery of government and trampled the norms of doing business in Washington,” is at the center of “what could become the biggest congressional corruption scandal in generations.” Former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.): “This is at a scale that is really shocking. There is a certain kind of arrogance that in the past you might not have had. They were so supremely confident that there didn’t seem to be any kind of moral compass here.” [WP]
• Department of Homeland Security is crippled by mismanagement and financial problems, audit finds. Inspector general’s report: “The circumstances created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita provide an unprecedented opportunity for fraud, waste and abuse.” [WP]
• Officials deny that secret radiation detection specifically targeted Muslims. [WP]
• Iraqi election results are called “credible and good” by top official at the United Nations. [WP, NYT]
• Bush’s “authority to conduct the war on terrorism as he sees fit” is at the core of the debate over eavesdropping and the Patriot Act. [USAT]
• The relationship of Bush and Cheney is “closer than it has ever been,” says senior administration official. [WT]

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From today’s Note:

• “Scooter” Libby has “a problem” in the leak investigation, his attorney says. Robert Bennett: “Fitzgerald is putting together a big case, and he’s looking for little pieces of a puzzle.” [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• Rejection of the Iraqi constitution by two Sunni provinces “guarantees the guerrilla war will go on,” says one historian. “As one official put it, every time the administration appears on the edge of a precipice, it manages to cobble together a result that allows it to move on to the next precipice,” according to The Washington Post. Per The New York Times, “Senior officials say the intelligence reports flowing over their desks in recent months argue that even if democratic institutions take hold, the insurgency may strengthen.” [WP, NYT, USAT, USAT]
• House Republican leaders are preparing to cut up to $50b from ‘06 budget; fiscal conservatives win out. [WP]
• Miers will provide answers to Senate questionnaire today; strategists hope nomination will gain traction. [NYT]
• Some Republicans are concerned that Bush’s go-slow approach to rebuilding the Gulf Coast will create additional problems. [LAT]

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