• John McCain is still tilting towards earmark windmills, and shaking and asking his magic Twitter, rhetorically?, if, um, hellooo? it’s ever heard of another type of Internet called the Wikipedia and if so, why should the government endow public arts programs? [Hotline On Call]
• Those purple ticket people, the ones whom you might remember were inhumanly inconvenienced during Barry’s Inauguration, have for whatever reason demanded and received commemorative Joe Biden sex pin-ups from Diane Feinstein. [Ben Smith]
• Huffington Post comedy site DemocraticCongressionalCampaignCommittee.com has created a fun novelty form in which users “role play” as one of the many Republicans who were forced to apologize to Rush Limbaugh recently. Meme! [Top of the Ticket]
• Gordon Brown, dauphin of the forgotten island nation of Great Britain, addressed our Congress this morning and gave a special English-accented hello to Ted Kennedy, who was just today crowned the Governor-General of the British East India Company. [CNN Political Ticker]
• Obama is keeping his promise to Nevada, and is probably not going to dump America’s nuclear waste in its mountains after all. [Washington Post]

WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT? WHAT? WHAT?: Suck it, Drudge! Apparently Hillary is meeting with superdelegates in a magical secret meeting at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in our Washington D.C. right now. [Marc Ambinder]

* Heard on the Hill: Joe Biden has a history of saying crazy, stupid stuff… Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) thrilled to be mentioned by the blog of Bon Appetit magazine… Harry Reid forgot when Valentine’s Day is! [Roll Call]
* Reliable Source: Geraldine Ferraro’s back! With some lobbying firm. [WP]
* Yeas and Nays: Would you like to read the insane ramblings of consistently-wrong pundit Dick “Hillary Is a Lesbian Vampire” Morris? Here they are, enjoy… Creative Coalition party sounds like a good time. Frank Luntz called himself “the ugliest person in this room.” … Jim Talent’s back! Eatin’ some pizza, talkin’ about god. [Examiner]
* Under the Dome: Chuck Schumer has imaginary friends. They’re called the Baileys. Last year, they were called the O’Reillys. That’s “too ethnic,” apparently… Gerald Ford had way more nasty things to say about everyone that he didn’t want anyone to hear until he was dead. [The Hill]
* Shenanigans: The DCCC is $9 million in debt. Nancy Pelosi spent $30k on her Holiday Party! [Politico]
* Page Six: Bill Clinton doesn’t want to be president of your stupid university. [NYP]
* The Sleuth: More Ford stuff: NYDN reporter got Ford drunk. It has some terrible secret from 1974. [WP]

* Heard on the Hill: “On Friday afternoon, Capitol Police put out an all-points bulletin indicating that ‘multiple individuals were harassing or being too forward with Sen. [Barack] Obama (D-Ill.)’ inside the Hart Senate Office Building.” … The first 100 hours were neither first nor 100 hours… Senate still lazy, not working 5 day weeks. [Roll Call]
* Reliable Source: Famous women who’ve done famous things are approvingly listed and described. [WP]
* Yeas and Nays: FDR’s car auctioned, fetches less than a NAZI CAR… Moby was here. He dislikes DC, which should cheer up Washingtonians. Also, Alexandra Pelosi calls him “Baby Mo.” [Examiner]
* Washington Whispers: New DCCC head is trying to be BFF with DNC head Howard Dean… Michael Chertoff picked Beta over VHS. [USN&WR]

When we last checked in on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s ad, it was to note that, “The DCCC is so committed to the environment they’re recycling stock photos and a Bill Clinton quote for America’s ‘new direction.’” Since then, the National Republican Congressional Committee has branded the unmemorable piece of filmmaking “despicable” and is spamming inboxes around the country with daily updated lists of Dems who have and have not “repudiated DCCC fundraising ad that dishonored fallen heroes.” MORE »

• The DCCC is so committed to the environment they’re recycling stock photos and a Bill Clinton quote for America’s “new direction.” [DCCC]

• Rahm Emanuel hates Blake Gottesman as much as you do. [K Street Blues]
• Also, just like you, Vladimir Putin thinks, “shot a man in the face,” is a punch line that doesn’t get old. [Mother Jones]
• Jon Stewart is unfazed by the possibility that expanding his empire will dilute the brand. [Gawker]
• Mark “Tool-y” is so far to the right he makes Genghis Kahn look like, “Ted Kennedy in a pot haze after a James Taylor concert.” [Evangelical Right]
• If “She-Jack’s” office was in a gilded crystal spire in the sky it would still feel like a dungeon. [The Hill]

• Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, hurls expletives at Dean over election strategy; Emanuel fears Dean is spending too much money too soon: “This is a historic opportunity, and we can’t squander it.” [WP, NYT]
• The NSA is “amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime”; calls made by tens of millions of Americans are logged. [USAT]
• Bush is losing support among his base at a “rapid” clip; Gallup registers “a 13-percentage-point drop in Republican support for Bush in the past couple of weeks.” [WP]
• Republicans seek to gain upper-hand on energy issues with a “whole series” of measures. [WSJ]
• National issues are shaping local races this year; “Republicans are swimming against a national tide of voter unrest.” [WSJ]
• House passes $70B tax package mostly along party lines, 244 to 185. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• National Archives violated rules when White House lawyers looked at John Roberts‘ files; papers on affirmative action are missing. [WP]

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And the wrestling pictures keep coming in.

We asked earlier which end of the political divide has the cuter operatives — the Republicans jumped to answer our call, sending in more goofy pics of them and theirs with giagantic, unshaven wrestlers/future Governors. Ah, the lovely ladies (and one guy) of the RNC — above, Angel Paulson, Gabi Plumlee, and Mina Nguyen (and a wrestler).

So, Democrats — what’s up? The rest of your competition is after the jump:

MORE »

Hotline is way, way more fun than usual today. Apparently, the WWE, tired of mere “rocking” of the vote, has gone the next step and started “Smackdown the Vote,” which provides the funniest method yet for political strategists to desperately grasp at the youth vote. They had an event last Monday night. Hotline went stayed home. But someone sent in the pictures:

Bill Burton, the DCCC’s communications director, Ali Wade, the campaign director, and Jon Vogel, the northeast political director, are pictured here with wrestler Mick Foley. MORE »

• White House, worried about surprises, delays release of tens of thousands of documents related to Roberts. [WP]
• 9/11 commission members seek answers after revelation that some hijackers were under surveillance. Lehman: “I think this is a big deal. The issue is whether there was in fact surveillance before 9/11 of Atta and, if so, why weren’t we told about it? Who made the decision not to brief the commission’s staff or the commissioners?” [NYT]
• Bush uses dead of August to gain ground. Strategist: “They’ve really perfected the art of spending time in Crawford. They do a good job of driving the agenda every day they’re down there. They push the story and keep the people in the other party out of the news.” [WSJ]
• Recent speech by Roberts offers indication of his political orientation. [LAT]
• Roberts is quizzed by Wyden about end-of-life care. Wyden: “His answer was, ‘I am concerned with judicial independence. Congress can prescribe standards, but when Congress starts to act like a court and prescribe particular remedies in particular cases, Congress has overstepped its bounds.’” [NYT]

MORE »