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This Sunday’s shows undertook a major military operation. Between the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and “Operation Swarmer,” talking heads all but saluted. Russ Feingold managed to grab some of the spotlight, and his motion to censure President Bush gave Bill Kristol another chance to rock Chris Wallace’s world: Feingold “is smarter than the Democratic congressional leadership” and “deserves credit for taking a principled stand, and I honestly think he’s winning this debate.” That sound you heard is Nancy Pelosi’s head exploding. Dick Cheney did “Face the Nation” but did not make much news beyond the world’s most awesome Freudian slip: “Most of my predecessors spent a good part of their time as President–Vice President running for President.

Also, debuting this week on ABCNews.com was “The Green Room,” a brave attempt to wring every possible bit of hot air from the “This Week” panel while they stand around uncomfortably after the show wraps in the nondescript, motel-ish decor of ABC’s DeSale St. digs. Personally, I have always found pre-show green room chatter more interesting (everyone’s trying out their lines) and the whole thing strikes me as an empty attempt to show us another side of people who are basically one-dimensional, but I applaud this Taylorite approach to news content and hope that less practiced pundits do something stupid and/or inspired backstage in the future.

Top topics: Iraq, Feingold’s censure motion and by extension the NSA wiretap program.

One-hit wonders: Boston College’s Sweet Sixteen chances (”Meet the Press”); Joey Cheek, humanitarian (”This Week”); Mark McClellan, TREKKIE (”Fox News Sunday”)

Quotes to live by:
• Dick Cheney admits that shooting someone in the face is “one of those situations that’s difficult, that generates controversy.”
• Chris Wallace, SUPER GENIUS: “It seems to me that the Senators who are most critical of [the NSA wiretapping] program are the ones who know the least about it.”
• George Will lays it out: “We need to define victory down.”
• Sam Donaldson is totally high: “Russ Feingold threw the long ball… but it might connect, as the Washington Redskins learned in the mid-70s.”

Also, Shorter Chris Matthews Show: David Gregory observed that “George Bush is the George Clooney of Washington… but that’s a little bit of a patina.” Wha?

Full rundown appears after the jump.

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Yesterday we shared with you several sightings of the Bush twins, in the provocatively titled “Wonk’d: Barbara Bush’s Full-Frontal Body Rub.”

Today we bring you sightings of, well, everyone else. You can check them out — including a sweaty Chuck Schumer (don’t say we didn’t warn you!) — after the jump.

Please continue to send us your sightings, by email, with either “Wonk’d” or “Sighting” in the subject line. Thanks!

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• Reliable Source: Laura Bush on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s plantation remarks: “I think it’s ridiculous, it’s a ridiculous comment. That’s what I think.” [WP]
• Rush & Molloy: The National Enquirer stands by its story that Sen. Ted Kennedy has a 21-year-old “secret love child”. . . George Tenet, dropped from Crown, gets picked up by Harper-Collins. [NYDN]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: David Wade, Sen. John Kerry’s spokesman, issues feisty defense to upcoming GQ article that says Kerry “blew his best chance and that he’s ‘delusional.’” Wade: “I won’t lose sleep over the inside-the-beltway musings of a reporter too young to shave and the Chardonnay-drinking pals he met on the cocktail party circuit.” The reporter, though, is older than Wade. [NYDN]

• Cheney was first to tell Libby about Plame, but not necessarily by name; notes taken by Libby contradict his own testimony. Cheney’s information came from Tenet; it’s unclear whether Cheney or Libby knew of Plame’s undercover status. [NYT]
• White House advisors use lessons learned by Reagan and Clinton to survive the “darkest days of the Bush presidency”; Bush will reiterate the necessity of staying on the offensive in Iraq and will urge fiscal discipline at home. [WP]
• Ben Bernanke, senior White House advisor and renowned economist, nominated to succeed Greenspan; noted as “the economic equivalent” of John Roberts. [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT]
• Bernanke has “unassailable credentials and enough distance from the White House to blunt charges of cronyism or ideological motivations.” [WP, LAT]
• Bush will not release documents related to Miers‘ White House work. Bush: “It’s a red line I’m not willing to cross.” [NYT, LAT, WT]
• Coalition of conservative groups calls for Miers to withdraw in a “dramatic escalation in the battle over her nomination.” [WP, WSJ, WT]
• Iraq approves draft constitution; American death toll reaches 1,999. [WP, WP]
• Frist “has also been deeply involved in legislation affecting his family’s business” since arriving on Capitol Hill. [NYT]
• Parties ready talking points for possible indictments. [WSJ, WT]
• CIA leak scandal is rooted in disagreements over Iraq between administration officials and the “permanent bureaucracy of Washington”; Brent Snowcroft and Lawrence Wilkerson provide details of administration’s decision-making process. [WP]

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The WaPo’s Dafna Linzer examines Porter Goss’s troubled one-year reign as CIA director, which has seen a steady stream of high-level resignations among veteran analysts and officers. It seems Goss, himself a 1960s agency operative and a fierce critic while in Congress of George Tenet’s handling of terror intelligence, has a rather, uhm, idiosyncratic view of the job’s demands. MORE »

A forthcoming report from the CIA Inspector General puts forward a proposal to investigate former agency director for an official rebuke. Tenet is accused of not effectively sorting through disputes between the CIA and the National Security Agency concerning shared intelligence on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda activities. This recommendation is a very delicate matter of adminstrative etiquette, report Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball: MORE »

Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, interviewed for the upcoming CNN documentary “Dead Wrong–Inside and Intelligence Meltdown,” tersely characterizes his role in the preparations for his boss’s historic Feb. 14, 2003 UN speech making the case for invading Iraq and unseating Saddam Hussein. “It was,” Wilkerson says, “the lowest point of my life.” The unsourced materials the administration gave to Powell to present were, Wilkerson recalls, “were anything but an intelligence document”; rather, they were “sort of a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose.” MORE »