It’s official: Pete Domenici isn’t running again and the Dems just picked up another Senate seat. {AP/Guardian]

* Chuck Hagel will announce his ‘08 candidacy on Monday. Or he’ll do something else. Or he’ll do nothing. [Political Wire]
* Iranian defense minister defects to U.S. with decades of knowledge of government-backed terror operations, secret hummus recipe. [Passport]
* Scooter’s SCOTUS drinking buddies control whether he’ll have new soap-on-a-rope shower buddies. [Inside Court TV]
* It takes more than just a flat head to get Jon Tester’s hair like that. [The Sleuth]
* Air America knows you’re no one until you failed spectacularly, twice. [MoJo]
* Pete Domenici’s new lawyer feels the same way. [TPM Muckraker]
* They may not be real Mitt Romney supporters, but they play ‘em on the Internet. [techPresident]
* Henry Kissinger uses panel discussions on global poverty to get ass. [Radar]
* Monopolist talks competitiveness with communist congressmen — yay America! [The Swamp]

* Witness the giant cow balls of Pete Domenici, who uses the Justice Department for political mud-slinging and is happy to admit it. [WP, NYT]
* The “new” Iraq strategy - why worry? [WP]
* Barry Hussein and H Dot Clinton keep their eyes on the prize. [WP, NYT]
* Calling secretary of veterans affairs Jim Nicholson a partisan hack causes, “a calmness to come over him.” [NYT]
* Robert Gates isn’t Donald Rumsfeld, and that’s half the battle. [WP]
* John Ashcroft won’t shut his whorish mouth about the satellite radio merger. [WSJ]
* Ah, the ’70s: an age when Vice Presidential candidates with diagnosed mental illness were actually discouraged from running. [NYT]

Conrad Burns is finished, but his proud western old-crazy-guy values live on in the horrifying form of Pietro “Pete” Vichi Domenici, currently scaring the bejesus out of Hill staffers. Roll Call reports:

We had a number of reports Friday that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) was wandering the halls of Senate office buildings in his jammies.

But don’t worry. The 74-year-old New Mexico senator says they’re just “hunting pants,” with “two pockets like any else.” MORE »

Sen. Pete Domenici (left): “These Blue Blockers are not living up their advertised claims.”
Sandia National Laboratory lab director Dr Thomas Hunter (center): “If you’ll observe the photovoltaics and parabolic dishes and troughs — these devices can, at this point where decreasing our dependence on foreign oil is critical…”
George W. Bush (right): “Dude, check out the photovoltaics on that babe!” MORE »