• Heard on the Hill: The Executive Committee of Periodical Correspondents has no love for cameras. . . Anti-immigration group delivers bricks to lawmakers. . . Two Grateful Dead band-members appear for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) tonight. [Roll Call]

• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Dick Cheney on Mary Cheney: “She got the writing gene from her mother. I never even finished my dissertation.” [NYDN]
• Inside Politics: Bush is not interested in Gore’s film. [WT]
• Inside the Beltway: Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) talks tough on immigration: “We are being invaded, we are being colonized, and there are insurgents from the nation of Mexico and their allies further south.” [WT]
• Reliable Source: National Park Service will now charge for wedding-day photo permits at D.C. landmarks. [WP]

• Reliable Source: The Bushes gave Kenny Chesney special cowboy boots to commemorate his East Room performance. . . Alberto Gonzales says it’s “unclear” whether his parents entered the country illegally. . . Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) is returning $23,000 to an indicted producer. [WP]
• Under the Dome: James Gandolfini thinks Bush should “reinstate the draft, send 500,000 troops and finish it.”. . . Two members of the Grateful Dead fundraise for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). . . John Edwards and Jack Kemp join forces to encourage people to save for retirement. [The Hill]
• Heard on the Hill: Euan Blair is no longer a Hill intern, and one question lingers: why? [Roll Call]
• Page Six: Former NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey will be on “Oprah” in the fall. [NYP]

Citizens of Wonketteville, fear not. As we promised, your beloved Wonkette Emerita, Ana Marie Cox, will be making regular appearances in these pages. Last week, she liveblogged the SOTU. This week, she drops the science of “Chatology: Digesting the Sunday Spew,” a weekly round-up of the Sunday shows that will typically appear each Monday. (This week’s installment was held up for various technical reasons that we won’t bore you with — oh, and the Super Bowl had something to do with it too.)

And now, without further ado, Ana Marie Cox.

AMC: We worried that this was too late in the day for a recap of the Sunday shows, but, hell, you’re still watching that GoDaddy.com ad, anyway, aren’t you? [Ed. note: This was drafted on Super Bowl Sunday, in case you haven't figured that out.]

This week’s line-up: This Week, Fox News Sunday, The Chris Matthews Show, Meet the Press and Face the Nation.

Guest Ginsburg Rating: Deputy director of national intelligence Michael Hayden gets a 2 out of 4, showing up on both “This Week” and “Fox News Sunday.” Rep. John Boehner ties, guesting on “FNS” and “Meet the Press.”

What Everyone’s Talking About:
1. NSA wiretap program. All the shows hit it except for “Chris Matthews,” but he tapes on Friday afternoon and you know, this hasn’t really been in the news and no one knew the hearings were coming and plus he’s got to have time for his self-indulgent commentary at the end, so he’’s excused.
2. John Boehner’s election as House Republican leader. Again, 4 of 5 shows and again Matthews marching to a different beat.
3. SOTU detritus was hit by everyone but NSA and Boehner got more focus, so we’re dropping its ranking to three.
4. The “cartoon controversy,” which always sounds like it should be about Bill O’Reilly but it’s not. Played on everyone but Matthews (perhaps he doesn’t want to compete with “Hardball”) and “Face the Nation.” (This is the story they all should have led with).

One hit wonders: “This Week” on girls’ self esteem (you go!), “FNS” on the surgeon general, “Chris Matthews” on “Brokeback Mountain” (apparently you can tell a lot about a country by the popular movie it produces), and “Face the Nation” on Nixon and outhouses. No shit.

Quotes to live by: Mehlman says Hillary Clinton “seems to have a lot of anger” (especially around the issue of infidelity); Hayden pleads, “I can’t tell you how much I’d like to go into the operational details of this” (he also can’’t tell us how much he’d like to kill us if he did tell us); Boehner brags, “I have 11 brothers and sisters and my father owned a bar” (and don’t forget those 11 kids can still kick your weedy anchorman ass); Andrew Sullivan pines for “big daddy government” (preferably in leather).

There were no appearances by Joe Biden. Could someone call his house?

Comprehensive, even exhaustive, summary of yesterday’s non-sports-related showboating after the jump.

MORE »

* Reliable Source: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) to Rolling Stone: “You look at the social impact of the countries that have engaged in homosexual marriage. You’ll know [Sweden] by their fruits.”. . . CNN throws farewell party for Robert Novak at the Palmer steakhouse; Pat Buchanan, Donna Brazile, Kate O’Beirne attended. [WP]
* Inside Politics: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have “floor spat” over Alito. [WT]
* Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Arianna Huffington: “Inviting Tim Russert to keynote a conference on journalistic ethics is like having Jack Abramoff keynote a conference on lobbying reform.” [NYDN] MORE »

• Tape from Osama bin Laden surfaces, his first since December 2004: “[Al Qaeda] operations are under preparation and you will see them in your homes the minute they are ready.” [WP, NYT, USAT, WT]
• Independent counsel is unable “to say with certainty whether any criminal laws were broken” by Henry Cisneros, but there was “a coverup at high levels of our government.” [WP, USAT, WT]
• Justice Department analysis supports the legality of warrentless eavesdropping. [WP, NYT]
• Bush previews State of the Union message: “The best way to solve the deficit is to grow the economy, not run up your taxes.” [USAT, WT]
• Most Americans “could not care less” about the lobbying scandal; corruption is seen as bipartisan. [WP]
• Liberal group calls for Justice Department investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif) regarding hedge fund donations. [USAT]
• Additional Democratic senators –including Leahy and Salazar– announce their intention to oppose Samuel Alito. [WP]
• Republican National Committee set to break with Bush over immigration. [LAT]

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Ever fill out one of those lengthy questionnaires for, say, auto insurance or White House security clearance? You know how boring and pedantic they can be, right? How much information they want. “Have you ever been arrested for DUI outside of Dupont Circle?” “Do you promise not to dish on secret government agents and stuff?” Blah blah fucking blah. Yeah, well, try wriggling your way onto the Supreme Court sometime. Honey, you ain’t seen exacting ’til you’ve done that. MORE »

• Rove told the grand jury that he may have learned of Valerie Plame from “Scooter” Libby; their conversation “was confined to information the two men heard from reporters.” [WP]
• Leahy and Specter complain Miers‘ answers on questionnaire are insufficient; they seek elaboration. Leahy: “[T]he comments I’ve heard ranged from incomplete to insulting. Certainly it was inadequate and did not give us enough to prepare for a hearing. We will need to have more.” [WP, LAT, NYT, WT, USAT]
• Libby “appears to be deeply enmeshed in the leak investigation.” [WSJ]
• Rice fields criticism about Iraq war from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; she refuses to offer a timeframe for troop withdrawal. Lugar (R-Ind.): “Permanent instability or civil war in Iraq could set back American interests in the Middle East for a generation — increasing anti-Americanism, multiplying the threats from tyrants and terrorists and reducing our credibility.” [WP, NYT]
• Chertoff admits to House panel that FEMA was “overwhelmed” by Katrina and pledges to “re-engineer” emergency preparedness. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Judith Miller testifies in favor of national shield law for reporters and sources; Specter visited her in prison and recalled she could not explain why she was there. [NYT]

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[Larry Downing/Reuters]

At Final Day of Roberts Hearings, Hatch Snaps . . . and Snaps [WP] MORE »

• Leahy, Baucus, Johnson will support Roberts; Kerry, Kennedy, Corzine, Boxer, Reid will vote no. [NYT, LAT, USAT]
• Bush multitasks over second Supreme Court nomination, hurricanes, Iraq, and Social Security; talks of Katrina and terrorists, “They’re the kind of people who look at Katrina and wish they had caused it. We’re in a war against these people.” [NYT, USAT]
• Republicans propose spending cuts as Congress passes $6b in Katrina-related tax breaks. [WSJ, WP, USAT]
• Next Supreme Court nominee will face heightened scrutiny. [WP]
• House Republicans will pursue inquiry of government’s response to Katrina in spite of boycott by Democrats. [WP, NYT]

MORE »

• Inside the Beltway: White House pool report comments Bush “wore a dark blue suit, looked tired and drawn.”. . . Hank Williams Jr. gives “pledge of support” to Frist. [WT]
• Inside Politics: Leahy says he would not vote for Roberts if nominee expressed positions on specific cases. . . Sharpton’s driver arrested for driving at 110 mph in Texas; Sharpton walked away. AP: “There is no word on where they went.”. . . Sheehan supporters may start releasing video packages. [WT]
• Rush & Molloy: McGreevey milks the “gay social circuit.”. . . Clintons vacation in Kauai, invite Pierce Brosnan. [NYDN]
• Page Six: Judith Miller “is having a perfectly awful time in jail,” her husband reports. [NYP]
• Names & Faces: Deck of Bush playing cards literally leans right (Rove is the ace of diamonds). [WP]