Wonkette

Betsy Rothstein has learned a lot from running the “50 Most Beautiful People of Capitol Hill” contest, most of it we assume is unprintable. Then there’s this: “The experience showed that there is such a thing as being photogenic.” Also: “Startlingly, wherever we turned we found celebrity look-alikes,” which would explain that Howard Fineman impersonator we saw dart into the ladies room. (Impersonator, right?) One thing Rothstein’s reporting doesn’t seem to have taught her? There are not 50 beautiful people on the hill. MORE »

• Roberts hits Capitol Hill for meet-and-greet sessions with senators; day was carefully orchestrated by Ed Gillespie to monopolize the news cycle. Bush: “We’re lucky to have a man of such wisdom and intellectual strength willing to serve our country.” [WP, NYT, WT]
• State Department memo clearly designated a paragraph about Plame as “secret.” [WP]
• Bush reportedly “relied as much on chemistry and intuition as on policy and legal intellect” when interviewing candidates. Bartlett: “He likes to size people up himself, make his own judgment.” [NYT]
• Democrats resigned to Roberts‘ confirmation. Democrat staffer: “Bush won. . . A lot of people are feeling that this is probably a guy who gets confirmed.” [WSJ, LAT]
• Panel calls for repeal of alternative minimum tax. [USAT]
• Roberts‘ legal record “is simultaneously skeptical of federal power over the states and supportive of executive-branch power in foreign and military affairs, and his sparse judicial record resembles the conservatism of” Rehnquist; his words on abortion are dissected. [WP, WP, USAT]
• Confirmation debate likely to focus on just how conservative he is. Edwin Meese: “The president is convinced that he is a constitutionalist in the same way that Scalia and Thomas are.” [WSJ]
• Administration advocates extension of Patriot Act as Congress tackles issue today. [WP, NYT, WSJ, WT, USAT]

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• Bush surprises Beltway with selection of John Roberts Jr.; Reid cautiously praises “suitable legal credentials.” Bush: “I believe that Democrats and Republicans alike will see the strong qualifications of this fine judge.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT, WT]
• Analysis: Roberts “is at least good enough for conservatives, who hailed the nomination with a barrage of favorable reaction. . . yet someone who is genial and enigmatic enough to confound Democrats as they head into what they had long expected to be a difficult battle.” [NYT]
• Analysis: “Bush appeared to have the court’s future and the confirmation process in mind. . . Bush displayed his determination to put a more conservative stamp on the court.” [WP]
• Analysis: “Bush reaffirmed his commitment to a bold-stroke presidency

• Names & Faces: Lacrosse team criticized for wearing flip-flops on White House visit with Bush. . . Gore announces cast of Current are unknowns. [WP]
• Inside Politics: White House correspondent Raghubir Goyal complains about two-question policy for joint-pressers. . . RNC collected $59m in first half of ‘05, a record for an off-year. . . Buchanan says “White House press corps has begun treating McClellan not like a man who misspoke, but like some defiant inmate at Guantanamo.” [WT]
• Under the Dome: Sen. Conrad receives only one question at his press conference. . . Bork attacks Supreme Court as “one of the less attractive hangovers from the Sixties”. . . Democratic speechwriter Roger Wolfson now writes for TNT’s “The Closer”. . . Associate Senate Historian Don Ritchie was near the London tube during the bombings. [The Hill]

From an email sent out yesterday by Senator John Kerry’s office:

It’s unclear what, exactly, Kerry means by this (a reference to the bulge in “Bush’s Brain”?), but if we had to ask that question of the senator himself, we’d have to answer: Both. God, it feels good to run that picture again. It feels really good. MORE »

Darling Drudge, so quick to twist his panties into a bundle. Today’s shocking headline?

Guess those armed service committee meetings are pretty spirited, huh? No, seriously: We’re not even clicking through. Unless one of those boobies belongs to Hastert, we have trouble seeing how this hurts McCain. Worried about his presidential chances in 2008? With this, he’s got the Democratic nomination nailed. MORE »

Drudge reports: “The chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was overheard on a long cellphone conversation with an unknown political ally, declar[ing]: ‘We are contemplating how we are going to go to war over this.’” MORE »

We’ve never thought of Tom Delay as a real beacon of government ethics, but it’s true that his example has inspired more members of Congress to tell the truth than since that time Hastert spiked the cloakroom watercooler with Ecstasy. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is the most recent convert to full disclosure; on Friday she filed delinquent reports on trips paid for by “outside sponsors” going back to 2000. The three trips were worth about $8,580 — all but $540 of it for a trip to Taiwan, which strikes us as kind of chintzy but then again, you only get what you pay for. MORE »

• Bush moves beyond “empty symbolism and discredited policies” with $1.7b aid package to Africa, mainly to combat malaria; critics say he simply repurposed previous donations. [WP, WT, USAT]
• House approves 3.1% raise for federal workers. [WP]
• Senate passes CAFTA, 54 to 45. [WP, NYT]
• Column 32D of a parking garage at 1401 Wilson Blvd. was Deep Throat’s spot. [WP]
• Felt nearly revealed himself while under oath in 1976; he “was motivated by a desire to protect the FBI, disgust with the Nixon White House and the thrill.” [WP, USAT]

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The Washington Nationals’ ten-man pitching staff? Not a single lefty on it. Even so, liberal billionaire George Soros is part of a group of investors bidding on the team, and that has some Republican lawmakers dishing out the chin music:

Roll Call: “I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes,” said Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (R), the Northern Virginia lawmaker who recently convened high-profile steroid hearings. “I don’t think they want to get involved in a political fight.” MORE »