* Reliable Source: Real celebs block media from screening of spy pic… Rep. Brian Bilbray literally has Duke Cunningham’s office exorcised… Bono was here for some fucking reason or another. [WP]
* Yeas and Nays: At Nat. Geographic event, President Bush “upstaged” by dude from Grey’s Anatomy… Senator Lott’s lobbyist son would’ve benefited from pork project championed by Senator Lott. [Examiner]

Not even God loves Republicans these days: Tim Johnson has apparently recovered from his horrible ordeal. The South Dakota Democrat whose brain went screwy this week is now “responsive,” which is way more than you can say for Strom Thurmond’s last 20 years in the Senate. MORE »

* Heard on the Hill: Both Clintons to host parties for Terry McAuliffe, who wrote a book about bein’ Terry McAuliffe… GOP “spin masters” form crisis management firm in preparation for rain of subpoenas… Trent Lott’s son (a lobbyist) has a CD out. [Roll Call]
* Reliable Source: Bob Erlich was on The Wire, looks “hot” in a state trooper’s uniform. [WP]
* Yeas and Nays: Boehner speaker Kevin Madden went to Bullfeather’s with Nancy Pelosi’s flacks. Everyone’s totally cool! … LOL: “Fran ‘Nanny’ Drescher was escorted to the Honors on Sunday by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.” [Examiner]

Outside of our not-really-a-state District of Columbia, Mississippi has the largest percentage of blacks of any state in the union — 37% of Trent Lott’s constituents are African American. MORE »

* Campaigning for House majority leader as fierce as it is because Nancy Pelosi has hated that rat bastard Steny Hoyer since 1960 and she’s not stopping now. [WP, NYT, LAT]
* A thin layer of Iraq hearing was placed on top of a hearty serving of 2008 posturing in the Senate yesterday. [NYT]
* Mitch McConnell and Trent Lott elected as Senate Minority Leader and Whip respectively. After which Lott gets verklempt, cries, and makes the Capitol press corps visibly uncomfortable. [WP, WP]
* In Georgia, two more House races have been called for Democrats, seven still counting. [NYT, WP]
* Government diction experts assert that 35 million Americans are not going hungry, they just have “very low food security.” [WP]
* A record five House committees could be chaired by African-Americans. [WP]

Hooray for the return of the Republican party that creeps the hell out of everyone above the Mason-Dixon line! MORE »

George Allen needs some lessons from Trent Lott. When the Main Stream Liberal Media catches you doing the racialist thing, you’re supposed to apologize with a Knowing Glance back at your political base, so they don’t think you’re a sellout. MORE »

• In the list of Senators voting for the “torture bill,” one of the kids just doesn’t belong. [Lawyers, Guns, and Money]

• Waterboarding: less similar to wakeboarding than you thought. [David Corn]
• Thinking about Iraq makes Trent Lott’s brain hurt, doesn’t do it much. [Think Progress]
• Weedy Wonka gets busted in Oakland. [Hit & Run]
• Which means seminary students will be forced to actually smoke tobacco out of their “water pipes” this weekend. [Slice of Laodicea]
• Condoleezza Rice wants Oprah to know that only a woman can really satisfy a woman — but if she’s not down then some Canadian dude will do. [Gawker]
• George Allen biographer has hard time admitting she backed the wrong the horse. Garrett Graff nervously shuffles his feet. [Galleycat]

Trent Lott says Iraq really didn’t come up when he and other Republican leaders had a secret meeting on the Hill this morning with what’s his name, Iraq War Guy, the president.

And why would it come up? It’s not like any of those guys are in danger of being blown to bits.

“You’re the only ones who obsess on that,” Lott told CNN’s Ted Barrett, presumably referring to the press. “We don’t, and the real people out in the real world don’t for the most part.”

In other words, “Fuck off, war widows!” We’ll get to the ignorant racist diatribe you know is coming, after the jump.

MORE »

Left and Right banded together for several hours last month over the noble yet boring issue of government-spending transparency, and it looks like there’s a new issue ready to bring minutes of unity back to Washington. Last-minute donations to Senate campaigns are not filed electronically, meaning that nobody really knows which corporations and lobbyists buy which lawmakers in the final days before the election … until it’s too late. MORE »

Uberpollster Survey USA has conducted its semi-monthly survey of every damn U.S. Senator and his/her approval rating. Whatever the opposite of an upset is, it’s this: Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is the most beloved statesman in the land. Eighteen hard months of being handsome, making speeches, and being handsome have paid off, as 72% of Illinoisans give thumbs up to the skinny kid with the funny name. as some wags have observed, Obama is the only Democrat who can appear in any state and be a boon to his party’s candidates (imagine Hillary stumping for someone in Nebraska. See?). The most popular Republican is Maine’s Olympia Snowe, whose presidential draft movement is slightly, slightly smaller than Obama’s. MORE »