Wonkette

Even though it was the 800th debate in the last 24 hours, and it overlapped with the premiere of Lost, the Hollywood Liberals Debate last night “drew 8,324,000 million total viewers, making it the most-watched primary debate in cable news history, and the second-most watched on TV this election cycle (ABC’s Democratic debate on Jan. 5 drew 9,360,000).” John Edwards was not one of these 8.3 million people tuning in, as it was his first night shift back at his old employer, The Mill. [TV Newser]

Variety recently looked at who the Hollywood power elite support. Who knew glittery power ballad singer Barry Manilow backed Biden? Apparently he’s a fanilow! After the jump, see who’s straddling the fence and hedging their bets: MORE »

Hollywood glossy Fade In has entered the political slipstream with celebrity one-on-one interviews with presidential candidates. In its current issue, the mag teams Gigli star Ben Affleck with Hillary Clinton, grinning coke monkey Oliver Stone and John (His hair was perfect) Edwards, and Bermudian Michael Douglas with the overlooked and understated Bill Richardson. Celebrities and Politicians? Hmmm…if only we could tap that sort of synergy! We could, like, launch a magazine named after a president or something. MORE »

Today, flags are at half mast — including Ronnie’s, in this undated publicity photo — and America is mourning as we say a fond farewell to America’s First Lady, actress Jane Wyman. Ms. Wyman was one of the wives of our greatest president, Ronald Reagan, before he replaced her with Nancy “Reagan” Davis. MORE »

We’re always terribly excited when Washington gets some real Hollywood star power — who doesn’t get a little thrill from spotting a celebrity in our neck of the woods? We know we’re thrilled to report this list of Tinseltown stars hanging around our humble district today: MORE »

Despite being the only party to repeatedly get actual Hollywood actors nominated and elected, Republicans like to whine about “Hollywood values.”

Somehow, criticizing the idiocy, divorces, obesity, dumb religions and drug addictions of the famous makes regular Americans feel better about being dumb divorced obese Jesus-freak OxyContin addicts who are also poor and ugly, so every GOP candidate for every possible office has to dedicate at least one commercial or mailer to the pursuit of “traditional family values” as seen only on Little House on the Prairie reruns.

Anyway, draft Fred Thompson! Learn about how he’s not a complete amoral scumbag like the declared Republican presidential candidates, after the jump.

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* Hank Paulson carries the budget flag up to the hill, and by the end of the day is looking for an ATM to fully fund every program. [WP]
* President Bush has a sense of Morissettian irony over the Senate’s support of Gen. David Petraeus while opposing the surge. [WP]
* Luckily, Robert Gates has a back-up to the back-up plan. [LAT]
* Thanks to Walnuts, Ill Hill, and Barry Hussein the ‘08 election will likely cost over a billion dollars. [WP]
* MPAA uses actor from West Philadelphia to illustrate their blue-collar base. Patrick Leahy really liked The Queen. [NYT]
* Military wants civilian agencies to “step up” and “get ‘r done” in Iraq. [NYT]
* Which six states want to expand death penalty powers? Exactly the ones you think. [USAT]

HBO’s got a new documentary all about how you might as well stay home Tuesday because the vote totals were probably programmed in the e-voting machines months ago. The movie premieres Thursday night. MORE »

The Billings Gazette reports that Senator Conrad Burns’ reasoned, calm criticism of America’s Favoritest Heroes Evah (aka “firefighters”) was, in fact, a little more strongly worded (and blasphemous) than the official report indicated: MORE »

An exclusive report on George Clooney’s National Press Club visit from our embedded operative: MORE »