• Heard on the Hill: Sen.-elect Bob Casey flew into DC first class… Most of the challengers who appeared on Stephen Colbert’s show lost. [Roll Call]
• Reliable Source: Marie Claire photoshopped the picture of Elizabeth Vargas breast-feeding at her anchor’s desk… A couple days before the election, Terry McAuliffe walked into a Syracuse bar, ordered a round of drinks for the house, told everyone to vote “early and often.” He neglected to say who for, and the Democrat lost the district. [WP]
• Yeas and Nays: More Shelley Sekula-Gibbs: Nick Lampson won’t be getting her office… Lady journos find Maryland Governor-elect Martin O’Malley hot hot hot! [Examiner]

* Duke Cunningham gets the longest sentence ever given to a congressman: 8 years and 4 months. MORE »

“Do you watch that show Desperate Housewives? Laura likes it. Anyway, you kinda remind me of that Eva Longoria…”

Okay, we’ll ‘fess up: we kind of loved Elizabeth Vargas’s delightfully substance-free interview of President Bush. We analyzed some parts of the transcript earlier today; after the jump, we continue our parsing of presidential pronouncements.

Remember, these are just excerpts. You should really read the entire transcript, to get a complete sense of how inarticulate the president was — and how, even though he was incapable of speaking in complete sentences, Vargas was fawning all over him.

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“You’re much prettier than Brit Hume, I don’t know why Dick didn’t talk with you instead.”

We’ve had a few things to say about Elizabeth Vargas’s exclusive ABC interview with President Bush. But a media event of this magnitude merits more detailed analysis and multiple posts (just like yesterday’s big news, Anna Nicole Smith’s trip to the Supreme Court).

For a selection of the interview’s highlights, check out the Hotline. For a selection of the interview’s lowlights — our favorite inanities, along with running color commentary — continue reading this post, which resumes after the jump.

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“Get a little house in Basra — nothing fancy, of course, just a roof over our heads… just you, me, and the lighting designer.” MORE »

• Animatronic anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff (hybrid models with auto-shutdown and cruise control) will continue to host ABC’s “World News Tonight,” winning out over standard transimission hostbot Charlie Gibson, who still runs on diesel. [ABC]
• Hacktasatic Jon Friedman calls “The Week” journalism’s “first blogazine.” No, wait — it’s a magalog! A Zlog? What does that make “The Best Week Ever”? A blogedy? And the “Nightly News” — that’s a blogcastnewslog. CNN’s Blog Report is a bloport. And Times Select still sucks. [CBS Marketwatch]
• Anchlogger Brian Williams is a “dog person.” HOW CAN HE BE A BLOGGER THEN? [WaPo]
• FishbowlDC on the quitting/re-hiring of Postie Gabe Escobar: “Escobar is one of the Post’s only Hispanic editors (the only other one we can think of is Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Assistant Managing Editor/Sports.” National Book Award Finalist American Chica author and editor of Washington Post Book World Maria Arana, on the other hand, is just a girl who likes to read. [Fishbowl DC]
• Howie Kurtz on why the MSM blogs (Mblogsmers): “Actually, we’re just trying to look cool.” [WashingtonPost.com]
• David Corn hearts Viveca Novak, can’t guard her husband. Perhaps her conversation with Rove’s lawyer sparked a revelation: “maybe my client did not tell me everything.” [DavidCorn.com]

• Reliable Source: Bill Gates, Russell Simmons, Snoop Dogg, Cyndi Lauper will be in town this weekend for various events. [WP]
• Inside Politics: Gingrich on 2008: “There are circumstances where I will run.” [WT]
• Cindy Adams: Rumors predict Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas will anchor “World News Tonight”. . . Barbara Walters‘ interview with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will air tonight; he asked her to chat. . . Miers nomination has split conservatives into “economists” and “culturalists.” [NYP]
• Page Six: Terror threat doesn’t keep Dean from riding the New York City subway. [NYP]