HUH. JUST SAW THIS. Call it sincere flattery.

NANCY PELOSI speaks. But not clearly.

Some related thoughts over at GlennReynolds.com.

UPDATE: Reader Edward Tabakin writes:

I do believe we’ve just seen the Republicans make their own “Post Office.” Yep, 1994, all over again.

Why do you think the President caved so quickly? Did Hastert threaten to stop all legislation? Given the Senate’s Immigration Bill is headed for conference, that might be a good thing.

Indeed. I’m increasingly convinced that there’s something going on behind the scenes that we’re not hearing, but I’m not sure what it is.

DEATH THREATS from Reuters?

So does this mean that one man’s terrorist is another man’s . . . Reuters journalist?

A FRESH WARNING ABOUT REGULATING BLOGS: “Former Federal Election Commissioner Brad Smith said the threat of campaign regulations for blogs is still very much alive, despite the FEC largely exempting blogs earlier this year.”

Eternal vigilance, and all that. Plus, given the job that Congress is doing, it’s easy to see why there might be pressure to shut down criticism.

JIM GERAGHTY: “So, no sooner than I spend the better part of a week making the case as to why conservatives ought to not sit out the 2006, elections, Dennis Hastert and many senior Republicans behave in a manner that suggests they’re riding to the aid of Democratic Congressman William Jefferson and declaring that the FBI has no right to search a member’s office. . . . At this moment, I completely understand the anger of the Tapscottians, those who are content to see a GOP majority fall. Although honestly, at this moment, I don’t want to wait until November to see this kind of behavior punished.”

JOHN HINDERAKER: “The Bush administration and Republican Senators have badly misjudged both the attitudes of most Republicans (and, of course, most Americans) toward illegal immigration, and the intensity of those views.”

A NEW CONGRESSIONAL BUMPER STICKER: Heh.

THE L.A. TIMES and Holocaust denial.

BAD IDEA: Stealing a picture from Michael Yon.

Especially when you’re a deep pocket. . . .

MORE REVISIONIST HISTORY? At least this time it’s not about the war. . . .

INSANITY BREAKS OUT SPREADS: “Bush orders FBI-Congress documents sealed.”

President Bush stepped into the Justice Department’s constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman’s office be sealed for 45 days.

Could Al Qaeda have slipped mind-altering drugs into the DC water supply? What’s gotten into these people? Or has some sort of deal been cut? Whatever it is, I don’t think I like it.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

The article quotes Bush as saying:

“‘This period will provide both parties more time to resolve the issues in a way that ensures that materials relevant to the ongoing criminal investigation are made available to prosecutors in a manner
that respects the interests of a coequal branch of government,’ Bush said.”

Why does this sound so much like “This period will provide both parties more time to cover their asses?”

I’ve been struggling the past year to support the president and have faith in congress; it’s been difficult and I’ve taken a lot of flak for it among my academic colleagues. The behavior of our “leaders” in congress, and now Bush, has finally sealed the deal. Next election, all my votes are going to non-incumbents; regardless of party affiliation. The past few days have made it abundantly clear that they’ve forgotten (1) why they were elected and (2) what the limitations of their power (and trust) are.

I keep wondering what I’m missing here. It’s too late for a big third-party push in ’06, I think, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see one in ’08. At this rate, it may be the only party left . . . .

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey thinks that this is just a case of Bush allowing for a face-saving climbdown on Hastert’s part. Hastert may climb down, but I think it’s too late for him to save face.

And there’s this observation: “Instapundit wonders, ‘Could Al Qaeda have slipped mind-altering drugs into the DC water supply? What’s gotten into these people? Or has some sort of deal been cut?’ Since I haven’t seen any UFOs split the sky like a sheet today I would have to go with his latter hunch.” Yeah, though to be honest I think I’d feel better if it were the drugs.

DENNIS HASTERT: Unfit for Command?

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Mark Tapscott says that Senate Appropriators went hog-wild on earmarks:

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, is the most frequent requester of earmarks on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, with 77 requests for such special interest spending measures between 2001 and 2006.

Specter lead the earmark fest that saw GOP members of the panel request an average of 27 earmarks during the five years. By contrast, the dozen Democrat members of the committee requested an average of 17 earmarks.

Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA, was the leading earmark requester among Democrat members of the appropriations committee, with 75. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, was shown with only one earmark request.

The data for this analysis was compiled for a report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, chaired by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK. The report was based on information provided by the Congressional Research Service.

Trailing Specter – who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – among the top five GOP requesters was Sen. Mike DeWine, R-OH, with 53, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-AK, with 33, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, with 21, and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-MS, with 19. Cochran is chairman of the committee.

Read the whole thing. And weep. Especially if you’re a Republican.

UPDATE: Follow the link for Mark Tapscott’s correction.

LAY AND SKILLING CONVICTED: Professor Bainbridge is blogging it.

I’ll just note that I think Paul Krugman’s claim that Enron would be bigger than 9/11 seems not to have come true.

HEH:

The Treasury Department announced this morning that after losing in five circuit courts of appeals, the Government is throwing in the towel and will no longer seek to enforce the 3% excise tax on long-distance telephone calls enacted during the Spanish-American War of 1898 as a “luxury” tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones. The IRS will will issue $15 billion in refunds to consumers for long-distance telephone service taxes paid over the past three years.

It’s a nice reminder of how long “temporary” taxes can last, and of how taxes targeted at “the rich” often turn out to reach others.

THEY’RE IDIOTS IN CONGRESS, but the economy continues to boom.

TAKING A CLUEBAT TO CONGRESS over at Hot Air.

NATIONAL REVIEW: “By nothing more than dumb luck, the Republican-controlled Congress—lambasted for the junkets, earmarks, and ‘culture of corruption’ that have aligned to produce the lowest approval ratings in memory—was handed a shot at some desperately needed redemption. All its leaders had to do was make the right choice between condemning the rankest corruption and displaying an outsized arrogance. Guess which one they chose?”

The Washington Post offers a scolding, too.

VIOLENT PROTESTS IN IRAN: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

CONGRESS’S NEW SLOGAN:

WARRANTS: Not good enough for us, too good for you.

I’d say “heh,” but it’s too accurate to be really funny.

IN THE MAIL: Steven Lubet’s Lawyers’ Poker : 52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players. They sent me a cool deck of cards, too, but I don’t think it actually comes with the book.

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: You hear stories like this (well, sort of like this) pretty often. Really, ISPs need to show a bit of backbone here. (Via Frank Wilson).

ANDREW MCCARTHY: “You may have thought the Republican congressional leadership had run out of feet to shoot themselves in in their mind-boggling quest to place themselves, in the public mind, squarely on the side of coddling corruption rather than ridding themselves of a disgraced member. Nope. . . . Short of allowing congress to be in charge of investigations of congressmen, it’s hard to see how the Justice Department could have been more solicitous of the privileges and immunities of the legislature. It is just stunning that the Speaker is taking this tack, in favor of a guy on videotape taking a $100K, most of which he stashed in his freezer.”

QUESTIONS FOR ABC on the Hastert story.