Howard Dean hits Hardball to demonstrate his fluency in the today's hip slang:

DEAN: "Well, certainly the president can claim executive privilege. But in the this case, I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can't play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it's called. He's got to go out there and say something about this woman who's going to a 20- or 30-year appointment, a 20- or 30-year appointment to influence America. We deserve to know something about her."

I don't know what it is called, but I think we can safely assume that it's not "hide the salami."

88 in a 55! Sandy Berger goes for the Bill Richardson Award:

Two days after he was placed on probation last month for taking classified documents, former national security adviser Sandy Berger was accused of reckless driving in Virginia by police who said he was traveling 88 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone.

Seriously, at this point, if DeLay returns to Republican leadership, I will eat my shoe.

Rep. Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia, then diverted some of the excess to a longtime ally, Rep. Roy Blunt, through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes, according to campaign documents reviewed by the Associated Press.

It's not that this latest is particularly damning on its face, but Christ in heaven, when it rains, it pours. (And at some point, even Doc Hastings is going to have to start paying attention.)

Good news for Bush:

Colorado's Tom Tancredo on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to oppose President Bush's choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, saying in scathing comments that she lacks credentials and ability.

If Tom Tancredo's against you, you must be doing something right.

Yesterday was Mario Lemieux's 40th birthday. Sidney Crosby will be 18 and two months on Friday. But they both played last night (albeit poorly). That is neat.

[Sidney Crosby] said there were times he felt he was looking too much, too pedestrian. But there were other members of the Pittsburgh Penguins who looked far more nervous or rusty, including sniper Ziggy Palffy, who muffed an open-net opportunity early, when the Penguins dominated play with a string of power-play opportunities.

Incidentally, it's nice to see the word "sniper" returned to its pre-Malvo/Muhammad innocence.

Harold Meyerson writes about Miers-related disappointment in the conservative-intellectual camp:

But the conservative intellectuals have misread their president and misread their country. Four and a half years into the presidency of George W. Bush, how could they still entertain the idea that the president takes merit, much less intellectual seriousness, seriously? The one in-house White House intellectual, John DiIulio, ran screaming from the premises after a few months on the job. Bush has long since banished all those, such as Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who accurately predicted the price of taking over Iraq. Yet Donald Rumsfeld - with Bush, the author of the Iraqi disaster - remains, as do scores of lesser lights whose sole virtue has been a dogged loyalty to Bush and his blunders. Loyalty and familiarity count for more with this president than brilliance (or even competence) and conviction.

Carlton Sherwood sues John Kerry for interfering with the release of Sherwood's movie:

A prize-winning journalist and decorated Marine sniper, Sherwood contends the senator and other Democrats torpedoed his anti-Kerry documentary, "Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal."

I'm all for free speech, but isn't filing this suit kind of like saying, "Mom, Jimmy broke my fist by moving out of the way when I tried to punch him"?

Brian Greene writes interestingly about the hundredth anniversary of E=mc².

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski's new 2006 campaign slogan: "Less and less unlike the Unabomber every day!"

If disaster strikes Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has three days of supplies in his backpack. The items the governor now carries includes hand warmers, towelettes, a poncho, duct tape, glow sticks, aspirin, food and water.

So in the event of a tsunami, his state may be flattened, but at least his hands will be warm.

The world's only former-Miers-campaign-manager describes Miers as "on the extreme end of the anti-choice movement."

I love it when people describe the pro-lifers as "anti-choice." It's like, "Take that, you message-defining fascists!"

Harriet Miers's Blog. Pretty funny.

Charlie Rangel continues his now-semi-regular campaign to amuse me by pounding on Cheney:

Later in Friday's interview, Rangel finished off a list of problems he had with Bush administration policies by adding: "I would like to believe he's sick rather than just mean and evil."

Follow-up: Cheney responds:

"Charlie's losing it, I guess."

Did anyone else notice that one of the very first sentences that Harriet Miers uttered upon being nominated to the Supreme Court contained a pretty basic grammatical error?

"The wisdom of those who drafted our Constitution and conceived our nation as functioning with three strong and independent branches have proven truly remarkable."

And here I was thinking that Harlan McCraney stuff was a joke.

Follow-up: Clearly, I wasn't the only one to notice.

John Abizaid clearly had himself a bad Happy Meal this weekend:

In an allusion that is probably distasteful to American companies, Abizaid said al Qaeda is not a monolith like IBM. Rather, it is a franchise operation like McDonald's.

Alternate, more sledgehammery headline: "John Abizaid: no longer lovin' it."

Picking your White House counsel to be your Supreme Court nominee is a lot like picking the head of your vice presidential search committee to be your vice president, isn't it?

In brief remarks during the announcement, a beaming Ms. Miers said she had a duty to "ensure the courts meet their obligation to strictly apply" the constitution and to adhere to "the founders' vision of the court."

So much for Marbury v. Madison, I guess. (Not to mention the 202 years of law that have come since.)

This is pretty incredible:

Expressing anguish that his public doubts about who was behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks "had opened wounds for people," the Fire Department's new Muslim chaplain [Intikab Habib] resigned Friday, shortly before he was to be officially sworn in.

In an interview Thursday, Habib, who moved to New York in 2000 to teach at an Islamic school in Ozone Park, said he didn't know who was responsible for the downing of the Twin Towers.

"There are so many conflicting reports about it," said the Guyana native, who studied Saudi Arabia. "I don't believe it was 19 ... hijackers who did those attacks."