Wonkette

* Waning paranoia about the Patriot Act goes back up to “red” as the FBI is cited for surfing Americans’ personal information like you surf for porn. [WP, NYT]
* If an Iraq War spending plan gets rewritten a thousand times, then vetoed, will Nancy Pelosi cry on teevee? [WP, NYT, LAT]
* Alberto Gonzalez has never met a shady “fire ‘n replace” scheme he didn’t like. Arlen Specter has never met an Attorney General that he did like. [WP]
* Chuck Hagel asks John McCain, “Must you betray me with a kiss?” [WP]
* “Bush Doctrine” of suspicious first-punch throwing will influence the next President, whoever she is. [WP]
* Morally unassailable poor kids’ health insurance program woefully under funded. [USAT]
* Newt Gingrich: hate him for the hypocrisy, love him for the skirt chasing. [AP]

* Iraqi leaders claim the Iraq Study Group’s report fails to understand the cultural complexities driving the problems in Iraq…[WP]
* …Though they might just be pissed about all the haterific comments like “grave” and “deteriorating” the group made about their country. [WP, NYT]
* Robert Gates rides a wave of “not Donald Rumsfeld” to Senate confirmation. [WP]
* Election losses make Republicans think more conservative is the way to go. [WP]
* It’s been 30 days since the election and Democrats are now fully on the take from lobbyists, including Rahm Emanuel, who just loves those Wagyu burgers. [WSJ]
* FBI unsure if there has actually been a rise in public corruption, or if they are just more competent at finding it. [WP]
* Jimmy Carter: not such a loveable old granddad after all, and maybe a plagiarist and fact maker-upper. [WP, NYT]
* Dick Cheney: not such a hate filled gorgon after all, hints he may actually love his future grandchild. [NYT]

Silvestre Reyes is the new House Intelligence Committee head. His nickname is Silver. He is from Texas. And this is the funniest picture we could find of him on the internets. Nancy Pelosi, once again you’ve taken something potentially fun and drained the crazy right out of it. MORE »

Nancy Pelosi lost again as Rep. Alcee Hastings decided not to run for chair of the House intelligence committee. According to his statement: MORE »