Wonkette

Endless Simmer blogger “gansie” sent us this startling image of beloved D.C. pundit Andrew Sullivan blogging at a Subway sandwich shop. Really! (Unless this is the strangest use of Photoshop in History.) The shocking report: “Tuesday 4/29 — 6:30 p.m.: Andrew Sullivan in full blogging mode — at Subway!” It’s the one at 16th and V, if you’re wondering. (When did Subway start doing the fancy Starbucks chairs and low tables?) This should’ve gone in Wonk’d but was simply too wonderful to get lost in a crowd of lesser sightings. Bloggers: They’re just like us! [Endless Simmer]

One of those New York liberal media elites, Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times‘ City Room blog, came across this fantastic DC Metro ad this week, and now she’s getting very “New York Angry” about it. Metro denies the “nameless” rat-infested death rail in question is the New York Subway. But you try stopping a New York blogger on the war path: “City Room will say, sure, Washington’s system may be rat-free, but its subway map also has all the sophistication of Fisher Price.” True! But at least the Metro doesn’t have a number as its middle name. [City Room]

When the Soviets built the Moscow subway, they made the stations into temples of public luxury so that every citizen could feel proud of the capital and the communist system. When the DC Metro was built, somebody thought it would be super classy to put carpet in the subway cars — thankfully, the “mirrors on the ceiling” idea was not approved. MORE »

* We heard that diesel is now going for “Buttload 9/10.” [DC Viking]
* Hastert’s own security detail should know that his heavily armored beer-gut is enough to protect him from small arms fire. [A DC Birding Blog]
* Turns out the new Metro voice is actually really great, for three stops. Then it gets banished to the back of the commuter brain and ignored along with tourists’ questions and pregnant women asking for the empty seat that your feet are in. [Grace's Poppies]

* Names & Faces: Anna Nicole Smith’s case arrives at the Supreme Court tomorrow. [WP]
* Inside Politics: Justice Antonin Scalia: “I used to travel on the subway from Queens to Manhattan with a rifle. Could you imagine doing that today in New York City?”. . . Sen. Reid (D-Nev.): “If elections were held today, we’d pick up five seats. The Senate would be 50-50.”. . . Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) was expecting a “legit” reporter when he sat for an interview with “The Daily Show.” [WT]
* Page Six: Judith Miller is reduced to wearing all black and reading the New York Post on the subway. [NYP]

Yeah, yeah. Our last line of defense in channeling cosmopolitan agita to its plausibly blamable source, the New York Times, says that Bloomberg did the right thing, even if it was a major migraine for weekend subwaygoers. And even if the terror alert was one giant soup-to-nuts hornswoggle: MORE »