Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Ca.) resigns following his guilty plea on a bribery charge, leaving the mayor of Topeka, KS, as the highest-ranking non-indicted Republican official in the country.

Congressional casualties!

Two Members of Congress were injured on Saturday when their Humvee veered off a Baghdad road:

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania, was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, was sent to a Baghdad hospital, said U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall. Marshall, a Georgia Democrat, was in the vehicle but was not hurt.

O, ye heartless thugs, ye feckless... well, thugs. That's 1/217.5 of the People's House, savagely wounded by the despicable al-Qaeda-insurgent bastards who were no doubt driving them around. Who's next? A senator? A governor? A cabinet-member? Never mind the troops for the time being; bring home the VIPs!

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) heads to Philly to raise some money for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Crazy). Hate to see that, don't you?

PS: I'm back, baby! I was out of town for the holiday, but now I'm back and better than ever. Let the fun begin.

This from the tail end of an article about the military-accountability triumvirate of Sens. Tinker, Evers, and Chance*:

For Democrats, who have spent months trying to put the public spotlight on the issues of detainee treatment and the war in Iraq, the three Republicans are like some kind of gift from the political gods. After the Senate overwhelmingly adopted Mr. Warner's measure on the war, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, stood slack-jawed.

* - Allusion for the sake of allusion. Actual senators: Warner, McCain, and Graham.

Newsweek fingers the odd man out:

So who is Novak's source—and Woodward's source—and why will his identity take the wind out of the brewing storm? One by one last week, a parade of current and former senior officials, including the CIA's George Tenet and national-security adviser Stephen Hadley, denied being the source. A conspicuous exception was former deputy secretary of State Richard Armitage, whose office would only say, "We're not commenting." He was one of a handful of top officials who had access to the information. He is an old source and friend of Woodward's, and he fits Novak's description of his source as "not a partisan gunslinger." Woodward has indicated that he knows the identity of Novak's source, which further suggests his source and Novak's were one and the same.

Has anyone asked Mark Felt?

In related news, the Washington Post spanks golden (olden) boy Bob Woodward for failing to be, ahem, entirely upfront about his Plameish insider information:

It boils down to this: There ought to be clear rules, easy for readers and Post staffers to understand, about Woodward's job at The Post. He has to operate under the rules that govern the rest of the staff - even if he's rich and famous.

Pander much?

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, in his first visit to the state, told the New Hampshire Union Leader that as a southern state governor, he understands the national Democratic Party’s desire for more racial diversity early in the Presidential nominating calendar.

"But there ought to be a way that that can be accomplished and at the same time maintain New Hampshire as the nation’s first primary," he said.

"You have always had and always should have the first primary in the nation," Warner told the Democrats. "I can see it here today, a special sense of stewardship and responsibility."

Despite Biden's pronouncement, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that not only will Alito be confirmed, but he'll be confirmed by an 80-20-type vote, rather than a 55-45-type vote. Face it: the friendly personality; the dozens of borderline-liberal former clerks and colleagues lining up in his defense; the abundant evidence of impressive mental acuity... the Bush administration has rebounded from the Miers debacle by re-nominating John Roberts.

While there's no question this time that Alito is a died-in-the-wool conservative (as there [almost] was, and [almost] still is, with Roberts), I'm depressingly doubtful that he's conservative enough ("extreme" enough) to prompt the kind of liberal upswell that would create the possibility of a politically-palatable filibuster. Nor, frankly, am I even convinced at this point that such a filibuster would be a good idea. Damn you, Republicans! Damn you and your intelligent, qualified, not-quite-fanatical nominees!

From this past Wednesday's New York Times:

In a sign of an increased acceptance of Internet gambling, online casinos in recent months have signed endorsement deals with a group of celebrities, including Tom Arnold, the actor; Brooke Burke, a model turned television host; and Jim Kelly, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.

Yeah. Because nothing says "legitimacy" like Tom Arnold, Brooke Burke, and Jim Kelly. Honestly, could the betting sites have assembled a lamer group?

I guess so.

This just in: Reggie Bush is fast.

The news highlight of the past two days (during which my posting has been - to say the least - sporadic) has to be Brad Pitt's condition-laden vist to Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) office. According to the Hotline's On Call, Pitt's lengthy list of demands required that Harkin (1) clear his office, (2) not introduce Pitt to anyone, and (3) provide Pitt with a cold cut platter featuring normal-sized bread.* Harkin, perhaps remembering that he's a member of the United State Senate, took extra care to violate each and every one of Pitt's conditions, to the point of introducing Mr. Movie Star ("He got the personal introduction, along with their function and everthing else") to every single member of the staff.

I like Brad Pitt as much as the next guy, but come on: if you're meeting with a Senator, the chances are pretty good that you're not the important one in the meeting, no matter how big a movie star you are.

* - I actually made the third demand up, as an excuse to make a Spinal Tap reference.

A Norwegian webcam-using son (the son being Norwegian, not the webcam) saves his collapsed Californian mother by calling 911 from 5,000 miles (thank you, Google Earth) away.

Pregnant woman drives in HOV lane; police object; woman contests ticket on the grounds that her unborn child qualifies as a passenger. Clever.