We couldn’t help but feel yesterday that Salon got set up. The charges against Allen (used the N-word, dead deer head in black family’s mailbox) seemed a bit too good to be true and bit poorly sourced. Then journos looking into the story began getting flooded with refutations, character witnesses, and counter-accusations from Allen HQ. Then the good Senator’s blog had a couple remarkably well-researched posts responding to the charges by Monday afternoon. Suddenly the story was about Salon itself, or the trustworthiness of Scherer’s only named source, or that weird deer story, and it seemed like Allen’s guys had finally learned damage control. MORE »

The Post today runs the inevitable profile of S.R. Sidarth, the young man who followed Senator George Allen around with a video camera until Allen called him an obscure racial slur, which was bound to happen but has been entertaining for a week and a half nonetheless. “Sid” is, understandably, wary of his sudden national prominence — but not so wary that he isn’t willing to get a little of what’s coming to him: MORE »

• WP politics editor John Harris: “For all its interesting and useful features, some things I don’t like about the on-line crankosphere are its frequent humorlessness and tendency to blow issues way out of proportion.” FUCK HIM!!!! BOYCOTT THE WASHINGTON POST AND ITS BUSH-TOTING TOADY COVERAGE!!! [WashingtonPost.com]
• Dial-a-bite Sabato gets a couplet comeuppance: “need a quote/do not tarry/call U-Va. and ask for Larry.” [WP]
• “JON KLEIN LIKES SHOWTUNES.” [FBNY]
• Please be gentle with Arianna. [Esquire]
• Tom Shales lights into the new Nightline’s faux gravitas: “‘Shorter shorts — a sign of the times?’ Probably not.” [WP]

We’d like to welcome Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger to the Washington gossip world on this, the debut of their joint-bylined (”twice the gossip-power”!) “Reliable Source.” They jumped out of the gate awfully fast after being hired barely a month ago, leading with a piece on the quasi-possible-maybe-potential Senate candidacy of Ben Affleck, exclaiming “If you liked him as Bennifer . . . you’ll love him as Benator!” (Perhaps, though we suspect Ben Nelson will be pissed.) The debut is made all the more impressive by the inclusion of an on-the-record quote from the reclusive Larry Sabato. As Jackie Harvey might say: Item! MORE »