Wonkette

The “corruption trial” for everyone’s favorite Chicago real estate developer, Tony “Slum Landlord” Rezko, began jury selection this morning. The verdict has somehow already been released, and Barack Obama is guilty of knowing him! Wait, what? No, the trial will go on forever — Patrick Fitzgerald is the prosecutor, and that guy takes his time. But according to “Chicago lawyers,” Barack Obama could very well have to testify, as a defense witness. MORE »

This week, Dawn Eden, Patrick Fitzgerald, Bill Emmott, John Bolton, John Boehner, and John Ashcroft were all spotted being various degrees of famous at various places by our spies and operatives. Voyeuristic fun, as always, is after the jump.

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This week, Michael Steele, Adam Kokesh, Clint Borgen, John Edwards, Donald Rumsfeld, Gabrielle Carteris, Patrick Fitzgerald, and Fred Thompson were all spotted being various degrees of famous at various places by our spies and operatives. Voyeuristic fun, as always, is after the jump.

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* On 4th anniversary of Iraq war, President Bush reminds everyone how great it is, why we should stay. [WP, NYT]
* Meanwhile, Democrats move towards “a withdraw-the-troops bill, not a fund-the-troops bill,” one greased congressional palm at a time. [WP]
* Justice Department considers shutting up one of the fired attorneys with a new job. Hopefully, he’ll also demand a hush-corner office, a hush-oak desk, and a giant hush-jar of only green jelly beans. [WP]
* Patrick Fitzgerald was on the DOJ “enemies list” released in yesterday’s document dump. [WP, NYT]
* Flunkies for Barry O. and Hill Rod have a little spat in front of some college boys over “who would have been more against the war if 2003 was a Presidential election year.” [WP]
* Supreme Court hears “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, finds a lack of any bong hits or any Jesus. [NYT]
* Rudy Giuliani: it’s almost as if he’s a real lawyer. [WSJ]

* The sooner old Al gets the boot the sooner we get Attorney General Patrick Fitzgerald. [Above the Law]
* Fox News reporters in Afghanistan think American soldiers there are “motherfuckers.” [Nitpicker]
* Tomorrow’s concertless anti-war protest will be opposed by similarly music-free pro-war rally, neither of which anyone gives a shit about. [Jawa Report]
* The rambling political thoughts of Donald J. Trump. [The Swamp]
* Bill Clinton bashes the New York Times for using the kid gloves on Obama and the lead-weighted ones on Hillary. [Horse's Mouth]
* But he’s not talking about his brackets. [Freep (2nd Item)]
* Tune into 20/20 tonight for a lispy tribute to Hugo Chavez. [Business & Media]

AP-APNEWSALERT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has rested his perjury and obstruction case against former vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

And now it’s all over but the lyin’. MORE »

The Scooter Libby trial might get interesting next week. Michael Isikoff just posted a short-yet-confusing thing on MSNBC.com that attempts to explain this latest twist. Our interpretation: MORE »

• Heard on the Hill: Ricky Martin on the Hill to talk about human trafficking, won’t break into song… The Distilled Spirits Council and the Scotch Whisky Association is throwing a party for Prince Andrew (not the Nazi). [Roll Call]
• Yeas and Nays: Heath Shuler, former Redskin, current Congressional candidate, owes a shitload of back taxes… LAT: “Bourbon drinkers tend to be Republican; gin is more often a Democrat’s drink.” Tell that that to… uh, us. [Examiner]
• Reliable Source: O Magazine declares David Gregory, Barack Obama, Fareed Zakaria, and Patrick Fitzgerald to be among the 50 “Sexiest Men Alive.” [WP]
• Rush & Molloy: Chaos at FoxNews as marital problems between Brit Hume and wife/DC bureau head Kim lead to her departure from the bureau. [NYDN]
• Under the Dome: Rep. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is Catholic, wife is Mormon. Dodd: “At Bob Jones University, we are now a two-cult family”… “Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) has proudly accepted a $1,000 contribution from a strip-club owner.” [The Hill]

We still can’t quite get over how odd the new development in the Scooter Libby case is. In case you don’t remember this morning’s Daily Briefing (it was pre-lunch, we don’t blame you), Libby’s lawyers are bringing in a hypnotist “memory expert” to, uh, testify to the ineffability of time, the fleetingness of memory, and how the past is both inescapable and unknowable. We assume his testimony will be delivered in flashback, narrated by Edmond O’Brien. MORE »

Murray Waas has another update in the Plamegate slog, and it’s a fun one — implicating the President himself in the smear campaign.

Read and learn with us, after the jump.

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• So Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has hired Attorney Robert Bonner, who used to run the U.S. Attorney’s Office that’s now investigating Lewis. [TPMMuckraker]

• Did Rove get immunity in exchange for his cooperation? [FireDogLake ]
• Crooked Timber makes it easy to read Solzhenitsyn into Guantanamo. [Crooked Timber]
• Last night Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said Iraq wasn’t very dangerous. In fact, he said, his wife is in more danger living in DC: “Well I by now have a feel for the rhythm of this place called Washington, D.C., and my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq.” [Think Progress]
• This one is really just about the photo. [Shakespeare's Sister]

It’s the days when this job’s the easiest that it’s also the saddest. Seriously, a site named “eat crow dot org” and dedicated to clinging desperately to an unlucky guess in the face of all observable evidence could be beaten only by some hypothetical site of rabidly conservative amateurish web video called “Hot Air,” or something. But that would never exist. Right? MORE »

Henry the Intern is on sabbatical. The Daily Briefing isn’t, though it is a bit later than usual.

• President George W. Bush makes a surprise visit to Iraq to visit with new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has just announced a new security plan for Baghdad. [NYT, WP]

• Karl Rove’s attorney announces to the media that his client will not be indicted in Patrick Fitzgerald’s Valerie Plame leak case. Rove is “delighted, obviously….” [WP, NYT]
• Israeli airstrikes kill 10 people in Gaza, hours after “hundreds of Palestinian police loyal to Abbas went on a rampage against the Hamas government.” [NYT]
• The FBI released the 2005 crime statistics, showing an overall nationwide rise in violent crime of 2.5 percent, fueled by a “a surge of killings and other attacks in many Midwestern cities.” Robbery was up 14.6 percent in DC, though rapes and murders were down. [WP]
• David H. Safavian becomes the first person to go to trial on charges related to the Jack Abramoff scandal, with prosecutors accusing him of “doing Jack Abramoff’s bidding” as a federal procurement officer. [WP]
• The EPA loosened a rule designed to keep groundwater near oil drilling sites clean after a well-connected Texas oilman wrote a letter to Karl Rove. Environmentalists are accusing the administration of “political payoff,” due to Rove’s forwarding of the letter to White House environmental advisors with a note reading “get a response ASAP.” [LAT]