The whole “Sonia Sotomayor is the reanimated corpse of Michael Jackson come to kill all yr babies” approach does not seem to be working so well for opponents of the Supreme Court candidate, so they’ve basically got two options: they can cite that Ricci case and talk about how she’s a racist (although not a judicial activist!), or they can talk about how much money she spends and how that makes her a bad capitalist. MORE »

How to describe the music playing in the background here? It’s hold music, isn’t it, like what you hear while you wait 20 minutes to speak with a Capital One representative? Or is it what you hear piped in while you’re waiting for your 40-minute “Shiatsu” massage in one of those mall massage chains? Perhaps it’s the soundtrack of thousands of Vietnamese nail salons across the US. Whatever it is, it is INAPPROPRIATE for a humorless DNC ad about how Republicans are “hypocrites” for voting for a Republican president’s budget but not a Democratic one’s. Such a serious occasion obviously calls for Barber’s Adagio for Strings. [YouTube]

Anyone know what Meghan McCain is promoting, now that she’s in the news and on the teevee shows and doing the Tina Brown monster website thing? Here are two clips from just the past 24 hours, and they’re bad, man, they are BAAAAAD… And yet so funny? MORE »

This poor stimulus bill has been kicked around and blown up a million times, completely dismembered, bathed in acid — basically Robocop, except boring, and with money. So what secret provisions did House and Senate negotiators slip into the bill into order to win the eternal fealty of the lobster queen Susan Collins and the other handful of senators who hold the entire fate of the free world in their parsimonious little fists? MORE »

• NAME YOUR FAVORITE PORTION OF THE HOUSE STIMULUS BILL GUTTED IN THE SENATE VERSION: It’s easy with this handy graph from ProPublica, helpfully coded in Christmasy red and green! Our favorite part: the 21 billion dollars of “school construction and technology” projects that vanished between the House and the Senate votes. Senators know that, in our exciting new American future, kids won’t have to go to schools; they’ll all be beggars and chimbley sweeps. [ProPublica]

Cast your mind back to late October, when $150,000 still seemed like a lot of money. That’s how much the Republican National Committee reported it had spent to date on Sarah Palin’s silken royal costumes and tastefully selected haute couture for her rapidly multiplying hillbilly brood. It turns out that, in the final tally, the RNC did not spend 150K after all — they spent $30,000 more than that. 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 »

By 53-45, the Senate has voted down the $50 billion bill to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The bill, which passed in the House on Tuesday, in turn required troops to pull out of war zones soon-like. So Bush will find some other way to get his money, and the Democrats’ legislative record will still be dick, maybe even negative dick. [NPR]

What an exciting week! Let’s recap: MORE »

* Republican resolutions opposing troop escalation are accumulating on the Senate floor, according to Arlen “Snowflake” Specter. [WP, NYT]
* Obama-plan-o-rama calls for all troops to be home from Iraq by Spring ‘08. [WP]
* Judith Miller was “nervous, confused, and agitated” on the witness stand. Turns out it was just pride, fucking with her. [WP, NYT, WSJ]
* Democrats pass spending bill under pressure from DC baseball fans. [WP, NYT]
* German and Italian governments issue indictments for the Jason Bournes in their countries. [LAT]
* Clinton buddy thinks its high time that high-guys got good life insurance. [WP]

* Steny Hoyer elected House Majority Leader after a divisive inter-party campaign. Democrats now need to move on and show unity. Nancy Pelosi says, “Let the healing begin.” [WP, NYT, LAT]
* Steny Hoyer’s not a man, he’s a Congressman. [WP, NYT]
* Bush administration’s pick to head family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services is a strong opponent of the sexing. [WP]
* “It was a preliminary inquiry before, but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation,” report Florida authorities investigating Mark Foley. [WP]
* Latest war funding request by Bush administration would make Iraq the most expensive conflict since WWII. [USAT]
* John McCain files paperwork to open his presidential exploratory committee, blathers on about Iraq. [WP]
* Beloved Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman has gone to that big free market in the sky. [WP, NYT, WSJ]