Wonkette

President George Bush Jr. today lifted the executive ban on domestic offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, the same ban that his liberal father instituted 20-ish years ago. Take that, old retreating hack! But before the oil companies can start drilling off of your dock, Congress must lift its ban. Well that should be tough! We predict that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will whine about this for a good week, maybe 10 days, but should have a piece of drilling legislation ready for Bush’s Rose Garden signin’ desk by next Friday. [Bloomberg]

Our nation’s beloved Senate Majority leader compared Republican filibusters to stabbing today, saying that it didn’t matter if you got stabbed/filibustered 65 or 72 times, the point is that either thing is bad. Just go to any DC area hospital and look at the emergency rooms, full of filibuster victims! Stop this violent legislating, America. [The Crypt's Blog] MORE »

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced last night that he was giving up his efforts to pass a so-called overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) bill before Christmas. The Administration’s wiretapping authority expires in February, but between Dodd’s supposed willingness to damage his chances at the Presidency to vote against it (you, know, do his actual job as a sitting Senator) and the recalcitrance of other Dems to provide blanket immunity to the phone companies for illegal cooperating in illegally tapping our phones, Reid just couldn’t get it done in time to drink some egg nog. So, they’ll come back in mid-January, dick around with it until the last possible second and then pass something that doesn’t do much to change the status quo, like usual. Aren’t we all glad we voted for a change in leadership last time? We got new faces but didn’t have to worry about a dizzying change in direction! [Washington Post]

While not quite as powerful as the NRSC’s holiday delight, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is urging members of its spam list to send a lump of coal to Senate minority leader Mitch “Grinch” McConnell. Because, you know, Harry Reid has been doing just a perfect job trying to give Bush whatever he wants. MORE »

In order to stave off the recess appointments that the White House informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were inevitable, the good Senator has taken the unusual step of not actually shuttering the Senate for Thanksgiving. Because Bush can only make the appointments when the Senate is in recess, the Senate will instead be conducting “pro forma” sessions each day in which the Clerk opens the session and a Senator (guess it’s luck that there are 3 Democratic Senators from the 2 neighboring states) gavels it immediately closed. This means that if you work for the Senate, well, I guess you won’t be clogging the roads for the rest of us this week. Political gamesmanship is more important that holidays, especially if, as the President and the Senate Majority Leader, the gamesmanship affects your holiday not at all. [CNN]

Rush Limbaugh, the old scourge, today put on eBay an Oct. 2 protest letter from 41 Democratic senators to Clear Channel, which syndicates Rush’s show. He did this because he’s a shithead and thought it would hurt the Dems’ feelings or something. He did promise, however, to donate the winning bid to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, which gives scholarships and stuff to people whose families die in the line of duty. Hey now… that last part is…. That’s kind of nice, right? Donating money from the sale of a letter to charity — who doesn’t like that? This is pretty much what Harry Reid took the floor of the Senate to announce this afternoon: Smart idea, Fatty Arbuckle. Hugz. MORE »

The good old days of wacky parliamentary bullshit are long gone in the Senate — you don’t even have to actually filibuster to filibuster any more, how lame is that — so we were kinda half-heartedly excited for this all-night session thing that Harry Reid was going to force everyone to do. Then he pussed out and they set up cots and he changed the times of the roll-call vote so everyone could get a couple hours of sleep, stripping his useless political stunt of what little slightly-comprehensible symbolism it possessed. After all, if we could’ve forced Orrin Hatch to stay up all night, we might’ve finally won (lost?) in Iraq. Now, nothing.

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* WALNUTS! thinks it’s his staff’s fault he’s not raising any money. [Political Insider]
* Tom Delay’s word of the day: treason. [Horse's Mouth]
* Nevada rednecks want to exile Harry Reid. [Battle Born Politics]
* Dana Rohrabacher puts terror-curses on people if he detects even a hint of an eye-roll at some dumb shit he just said. [Think Progress]

* Clarence Thomas doesn’t want the EPA to act on global warming, cause he likes it hot. [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT]
* Antonin Scalia doesn’t want to address the legality of holding detainees at Guantánamo, cause he hears cries of innocent men in his dreams at night, and likes it. [WP, NYT]
* No one hates America more than Harry Reid. [WP]
* Mitt Romney is an “aggressive fundraiser,” John McCain has “a host of shortcomings.” [WP, WSJ]
* Even intelligence reports in Italy are luxuriously handcrafted, accurate. [WP]
* NASA Inspector General Robert Cobb could end up fired — into space on the back of a photon torpedo. [WP, NYT]

GOP Senator John Sununu (as in Son of Bush 41 chief of staff John Sununu) says Alberto’s gotta go, now, and Bush Jr. has to fire him. Sununu released this statement today: “The President should fire the Attorney General and replace him as soon as possible with someone who can provide strong, aggressive leadership prosecuting the war on terrorism, running the Department of Justice, and working with the President and Congress on important homeland security matters.” MORE »