You know those smarmy "Jesus: He's the Reason for the Season" bumper stickers and window signs that you always see around this time? How come they never show up at other times of the year?


I think the world's sign-makers are missing a serious opportunity. With a little imagination, you could have one for every major holiday: Valentine's Day (Cupid), Easter (Sad Jesus), Hanukkah (Oil), Pearl Harbor Day (Hirohito?). The sky's the limit.

You're the Governor of Culleyfornia; your poll numbers are stagnant and you've recently had your ass handed to you by the Culleyfornian electorate. How do you turn it around? Simple. You hire the people who made Gray Davis such a success.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - attempting to regain his political footing after a devastating special election defeat this month - has begun a shakeup of his administration by replacing his chief of staff with a former state Democratic Party official and top adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, Democratic and Republican sources said Tuesday.

This is pretty bizarre:

Given that they stand some 30 feet tall, their disappearance is attracting a good deal of attention here - even as their final destination remains a mystery.

Thieves are sawing down aluminum light poles. Some 130 have vanished from Baltimore's streets in the last several weeks, the authorities say, presumably sold for scrap metal. But so far the case of the pilfered poles has stumped the police, and left many local residents wondering just how someone manages to make off with what would seem to be a conspicuous street fixture.

The poles, which weigh about 250 pounds apiece, have been snatched during the day and in the middle of the night, from two-lane blacktop roads and from parkways with three lanes on either side of grass median strips, in poor areas and in some of the city's most affluent neighborhoods. Left behind are half-foot stubs of metal, with wires that carry 120 volts neatly tied and wrapped in black electric tape.

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.