Wonkette

“I just ran into Russ Feingold in the bathroom. I can report that he does not have a wide stance, but he did appear to be munching on some reese’s pieces.” [The Capitolist]

It’s Friday and it’s late August and that means dumb YouTube videos, like this one of Russ Feingold imitating fellow Jewish midwesterner Bob Dylan and his famous “Subterranean Homesick Blues” video. The alley looks good, but it’s missing Alan Ginsburg standing in a trash can. RIP Paul Wellstone, in other words. Also it’s just not as awesome as this, but few things are.

This week, Carl Levin, Elizabeth Kucinich, Ted Koppel, Russ Feingold, George Tenet, Sam Brownback, and Dennis Kucinich 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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As you may have heard, The Onion now has a DC edition. And because one party celebrating this wasn’t nearly enough, they threw another one last Wednesday. This one was a slightly classier occasion, with a more exclusive guest list and much classier venue: the Folger Shakespeare Library. MORE »

Sorry about the delay in reporting the various candidacies and non-candidacies for 2008. Well, actually, not sorry. The nerve of these goddamned people …. This is worse than the Christmas crap going on display the morning after Halloween. Can’t they let America have a few weeks of peace before the campaign for president?

No, of course not. That would show some form of Human Dignity. Anyway, here’s what’s going on with the people who hate you … after the jump.

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• Heard on the Hill: Russ Feingold, who hates 527s, loves their dirty, dirty money. Whatever, we like Russ ’cause he sounds like a oft-cranky regular in some midwest bar… Mark Foley started a joint fundraising committee with other Republicans called (wait for it) PROM. Seriously… Fun story about riding a motorcycle with Mark Foley in a parade in 1996. [Roll Call]
• Yeas and Nays: Y&N: “J/K! TOMKAT aren’t coming anywhere near DC, losers… Marky Mark is shooting a film here in DC. Danny Glover, despite being too old for this shit, will join him shortly. [Examiner]
• Reliable Source: Post film critic throws objectivity right out the window, films scene in aforementioned Marky Mark flick… George H.W. Bush has a daughter named Doro Bush Koch??? She wrote a book or something. 41 skipped the party to hang with Germans… Li’l Kim, John Kerry. That’s all you need to know, really. [WP]
• Under the Dome: Susan Estrich does the creepy Ann Coulter hot-if-you’re-a-closet-case pose for her new book… John Boehner writes very first letter, begins it “Dear Letter to the Editor.” Addresses it to “North Pole,” forgets stamp… Sad-sounding Paul Wellstone play is, unfortunately, a musical. [The Hill]
• Rush and Molloy: Mark Foley’s boyfriend, Florida dermatologist Layne Nisenbaum, isn’t talking to anyone. Kirk Fordham is gay, never slept with Foley. [NYDN]

Today’s Hotline, quoting a Club for Growth mailer: MORE »

• Reading about al Qaeda for pleasure. [Hullabaloo]

• Bloggers have body image issues. [La Shawn Barber]
• Wizbang is Explosively Unique: “…this country needs both parties, like it or not.” [Wizbang]
• “Russ Feingold, not Hillary Clinton, is the favorite to win the Democrats’ 2008 Presidential nomination. He’s ‘Howard Dean without the delicate psyche,’” [Powerline]
• Uncomfortable fallout from Condoleezza Rice’s WP column, commenter: “Lipstick on a pig doesn’t change the fundamental essence of the pig. I don’t care what color it is, or how thickly it’s applied.” [Captain's Quarters]
• Louisiana is least business-friendly state. [Hit & Run]

Poor Chuck Schumer. Poor “every Democratic senator who must endure being in Hillary’s shadow.” MORE »

• Bush renews call to ban gay marriage; social conservatives cheer the “litmus test” as critics contend the move is mainly political. James Dobson: “It is true what this vote will do will be to help the voters identify who is and is not supportive of the family, and I think those that are not are going to have to answer for it.” [WP, NYT, USAT]
• This week’s Senate agenda, from the ban on gay marriage to a repeal of the estate tax, is “all about” motivating conservative voters. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) on the marriage amendment: “I am confident that the American people will see this for what it is: a mean-spirited attempt to score political points in an election year.” [WP, W$J]
• Intense campaigning is already underway for the midterm election, “reflecting a consensus in both parties that Republicans could lose control of the House and perhaps the Senate”; Republicans have spent at least $4.5M on today’s special election for Randy Cunningham’s seat. [NYT, W$J]
• Congress and the courts “are beginning to push back against what has been the greatest expansion of presidential powers in a generation or more.” [USAT]
• Bill Clinton hopes to raise over $20M for midterm campaigns. [NYT]

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• At his confirmation hearing, Gen. Michael Hayden deflects specifics, defends NSA wiretapping, distances himself from Pentagon brass, and urges a focus on the future of the CIA: “It’s time to move past what seems to me to be an endless picking apart of the archaeology of every past intelligence success or failure.” [WP, NYT, NYT, WSJ]
• Senate votes 63 to 34 to make English the “national language”; vote continues “the conservative turn that a major overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws has taken since the Senate began debate this week.” [WP, NYT]
• Judiciary Committee approves constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage; Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) says “good riddance” to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who replies, “See ya.” [WP]
• Bush in Arizona: “It makes sense to use fencing along the border in key locations in order to do our job. We’re in the process of making our border the most technologically advanced border in the world.” [NYT, WSJ]
• BellSouth seeks a retraction from USA Today for “the false and unsubstantiated statements” about NSA phone logs. [WSJ]

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