Last October when vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was busily stoking the fires of racism and Islamophobia across Real America, she uttered this wonderful line about how Barack Obama liked to “pal around with terrorists.” And all the liberals got so mad at her! But really they should have gotten mad at master puppeteers Nicolle Wallace, Rick Davis, or Steve Schmidt, because one or some combination of them came up with those FATEFUL WORDS. MORE »

The Republican equivalent of being sent to the gulag is babysitting Sarah Palin, and this thankless task has fallen to former Bush staffer and current McCain employee Nicolle Wallace. What unspeakable sin did Wallace commit in order to be saddled with this terrible burden? Only History will tell. But for now she insists it is awesome to hang out with Sarah Palin all the time, and also she did not buy her all those clothes like Fred Barnes said she did. MORE »

Lately we’ve been doing a lot of speculating around here about future personnel changes within the Bush Administration. And the rumor mill keeps on churning. MORE »

Yesterday, after Andrew Card’s resignation was announced, we speculated that Treasury Secretary John W. Snow might be the next Administration official to step down. A reader offered this support for the gossip: “I live across the street from Sec’y Snow, and I never see him or his security detail anymore. The guy’s fuckin’ done.” MORE »

• After successfully shifting its rhetorical strategy on Iraq, the Bush administration rethinks its plans for the second term; Dan Bartlett and Nicolle Wallace pressed for Bush to admit mistakes. Former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.): “I don’t think they realized that Iraq is the totality of their legacy until fairly recently. There is not much of a market for other issues.” Grover Norquist: “The lesson from this year is you cannot do anything dramatic unless you have 60 votes.” [WP]
• Jack Abramoff, “an ingenious dealmaker who hatched interlocking schemes that exploited the machinery of government and trampled the norms of doing business in Washington,” is at the center of “what could become the biggest congressional corruption scandal in generations.” Former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.): “This is at a scale that is really shocking. There is a certain kind of arrogance that in the past you might not have had. They were so supremely confident that there didn’t seem to be any kind of moral compass here.” [WP]
• Department of Homeland Security is crippled by mismanagement and financial problems, audit finds. Inspector general’s report: “The circumstances created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita provide an unprecedented opportunity for fraud, waste and abuse.” [WP]
• Officials deny that secret radiation detection specifically targeted Muslims. [WP]
• Iraqi election results are called “credible and good” by top official at the United Nations. [WP, NYT]
• Bush’s “authority to conduct the war on terrorism as he sees fit” is at the core of the debate over eavesdropping and the Patriot Act. [USAT]
• The relationship of Bush and Cheney is “closer than it has ever been,” says senior administration official. [WT]

MORE »

Today’ Note raises some interesting questions, among them:

Q: Is it really true that “the last Tuesday of every month is reserved for The Note’s ‘Best of . . .’ feature”?
A: No.

Q: Then why go through the trouble of using such a hackneyed format?
A: Because it’s easier than actually analyzing the news.

More secrets revealed after the jump.

MORE »

• “Scooter” Libby has “a problem” in the leak investigation, his attorney says. Robert Bennett: “Fitzgerald is putting together a big case, and he’s looking for little pieces of a puzzle.” [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• Rejection of the Iraqi constitution by two Sunni provinces “guarantees the guerrilla war will go on,” says one historian. “As one official put it, every time the administration appears on the edge of a precipice, it manages to cobble together a result that allows it to move on to the next precipice,” according to The Washington Post. Per The New York Times, “Senior officials say the intelligence reports flowing over their desks in recent months argue that even if democratic institutions take hold, the insurgency may strengthen.” [WP, NYT, USAT, USAT]
• House Republican leaders are preparing to cut up to $50b from ‘06 budget; fiscal conservatives win out. [WP]
• Miers will provide answers to Senate questionnaire today; strategists hope nomination will gain traction. [NYT]
• Some Republicans are concerned that Bush’s go-slow approach to rebuilding the Gulf Coast will create additional problems. [LAT]

MORE »