• Ratings dip at Fox News Channel completely unrelated to Americans’ growing distrust of administration. [TVNewser]

• Roger Ailes knows more war equals higher ratings, orders anchors to “Sell! Sell! Sell!” [Think Progress]
• Why is Joe “committed Democrat” Lieberman trying to ruin the party’s chance to take back the House? For spite, that’s why. [The Carpetbagger Report]
• The Office of National Drug Control Policy might as well roll-up their funding and smoke it. [DARE Generation Diary]
• Ted Steven’s spokesmen issues flimsy denial/lie about the pork hold, as the Senator doesn’t deign to answer bloggers directly, or know what a blog is, actually. [Instapundit]
• Handy new “lie-line” covers history of Iraq War from first bullshit uttered in August 1990 to falsities spread in March 2003. [Mother Jones]
• Paul Begala not happy with the direction of the country, fine with herpes. [Washington Fix]

Welcome back to the internet Mr. David Lat, former federal prosecutor, anonymous blogger, and, yes, co-proprietor of this very site. Mr. Lat is back in the warm, tubular embrace of the blogosphere with Elizabeth Spiers’ brand new legal weblog, “Above the Law” (rejected name: “Barely Legal”). MORE »

Team Wonkette Field Trip! From left: David Lat, the Comics Curmudgeon, Intern Nick (mostly hidden), and Alex Pareene.

Last night, Team Wonkette made its way out to RFK stadium for the annual Congressional Baseball Game, sponsored by Roll Call. The game was, well, sad and pathetic. The Republicans won 12-1 (Roberts recused himself). But man, what a trip. Drunk hill staffers everywhere, Katherine Harris wandering around, tight unis on middle-aged legislative paunches, and William Jefferson looking really intense. Pocket full of sandpaper, of course. But that’s another story — one for after the jump, in fact, illustrated with lovely pictures from Liz Gorman, Intrepid Girl Reporter.

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I’ve had my picture taken with Katherine Harris — in matching outfits, no less. My work here is done.

Greetings. It’s David Lat, one of your two editors here at Wonkette. And just like Star Jones, another ex-prosecutor-turned-sassy-personality, I’m using this week to say good-bye — at least for now.

As is usually the case, the gossip is true. I’m leaving the wild ‘n wacky world of politics, which I’ve enjoyed blogging about for the past five months, to return to my first love: the law. Not the practice of it, but writing about it; I’m going back to the legal blogosphere, from whence I came. Having spent a truckload of dough earnin’ a fancy law school degree, as well as several years in legal practice, I figure I might as well put it all to some productive use (with “productive” loosely defined).

The full details, plus teary farewells, after the jump (or just click here, then scroll down).

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Quick! Guess which one used to be lawyer! (Photo ? Nikola Tamindzic/AMBREL.net) MORE »

First off, let’s get things straight (so to speak). MORE »

Well, that

Perhaps you’ve heard rumors about a change in leadership at this weblog? To set the record straight, Wonkette herself took a moment from her book tour to relate the definitive word about her ascension to Wonkette Emeritus and those soon to take the helm…

Wonkette readers are always the last to know, eh? Sorry about that. Under the able leadership of the new Wonkettes-in-waiting, David Lat and Alex Pareene, I’m sure it won’t ever happen again. (How do I feel about replacements, you ask? I’m thrilled; until now the idea of Wonkette being taken over by two men only existed in my letters to Penthouse Forum.)

Yesterday’s Reliable Source item got most of the facts right regarding my retirement from this smutty spot; if you’re wondering what word they bleeped, the unadulterated quote about my reasons for stepping down as chief Wonkette was: “My ass is tired,” pause, “From the sitting, I mean.” Heh. Just for old time’s sake. Ass-fucking used to be the new black; I’m pretty sure that sodomy has now, uhm, jumped the shark. (Which is, of course, legal in Texas.)

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• “dear congress — the war in Iraq is going fine. how are you?” [Corporate Casual]
•“Which book will reveal more about disaster management, Michael Brown’s book or Shrummy’s?” [Last Call! (sub. req.)]
• Open Source Media launches. Remind us… “And why should anyone care what these bloggers think? Who are they?” [Althouse]
• Excellent news. Under Their Robes may be gone but A3G/David Lat is just fine and “still very much gainfully employed,”alive and well and working in New Jersey. [WP]
• What is this “lunch” that has so much “power”? [Gawker]

The adorably irreverent judicial blog Underneath Their Robes appears to have gone the way of “separate but equal,” just hours after the New York revealed the site author’s identity, sort of. The main page is gone, replaced by some Department-of-Justice-ish login/password thingee. Was there something about an Assistant US District Attorney blogging that was bad? Or wait, that’s David Lat. The blogger at UTR was “Article 3 Groupie,” no more the same person than “Vladimir Nabokov ‘was’ Humbert Humbert.” MORE »

This week’s New Yorker outs the author of the deliciously superficial and winkingly naughty judicial blog “Under Their Robes.” What’s under this blogger’s robe must have come as something of a surprise: That catty motherfucker is a boy! David Lat. This, after months of self-references what “she” likes in her hotties of the federal judiciary. Guess John Roberts isn’t the only cross-dresser on media’s j-dar. Or his he? Lat’s response to the NYer piece seems to be wanting to, ah, have it both ways. Lat argues that he is no more the “Article 3 Groupie” who is the blog’s narrator than “Vladimir Nabokov ‘was’ Humbert Humbert.” Lat also says that he emails A3G when he has an idea and that he often disagrees with A3G. Wow: such dedication, such consistency. Give that man a book contract. Or some Clozaril. Or maybe a political nomination: “My persistent denials of being A3G have been, in a technical and perhaps Clintonian sense, quite correct.” Hell, all of the above. Now if he’d just blog about getting paid for sex… MORE »