snort

I'm checking with HM if she wants to go to the pre-Yearly Kos fundraiser at the Tank tonight (starring author and Libby trialblogger emptywheel/Marcy Wheeler of Next Hurrah and Firedoglake, Tom Tomorrow, and Brooklyn's Representative, Nydia Velazquez) and I'm reading her the menu

In honor of Marcy’s book, Eating Liberally’s planned a Menu of Mass Deception; Plame-broiled mini-burgers, pigs-in-a-blanket-denial, leak tartlets, roasted Russert potatoes, Scooter pies, & no-uranium yellow cake. The verdict is in, and it’s tasty! Come savor the delightful flavor of skewered scapegoat!

so I have to explain about Tim Russert and Valerie Plame (she's heard the story, not necessarily the names, and I had to stop watching Sunday news shows when cute little baby HM started copying an extremely rude gesture she saw me use when George Will was on) and then we look up yellowcake and I explained where it fit in to the Libby story.

HM: This is one of your liberal things, isn't it

She's on to me, I think.

he really is a putz, isn't he.

Howard Kurtz gives himself an out for not outing Gingrich

We all sort of knew that Gingrich was having an affair back in the late '90s--and not just with anyone, but with a woman on the House payroll. After all, he ended up marrying the woman after breaking up with his second wife, Marianne.

Since he was leading the impeachment charge against Bill over Monica at the time, this might be seen as an example of . . . how shall I put it? . . . a flexible morality? But Newt kind of got a pass because he was out of office when this came out and yesterday's news. Unlike today, when he is contemplating a run for president. (Possible slogans: I'll return fun to the Oval Office? My mistress was better looking than Clinton's?)

Only problem with this:

Callista Bisek and future-Speaker Gingrich "really started to know each other" : 1993

Gail Sheehy writes about their relationship in Vanity Fair (Bisek was the then-speaker's "frequent breakfast companion"): 1994

the impeachment: '97

Gingrich demands a divorce from his wife by long-distance phone call: mid-1998

Gingrich announces he won't run for Speaker, retires from Congress: the end of 1998

So not only did "we" know about the affair at the time of the impeachment, "we" knew about it a year earlier when Gingrich, announcing the settlement of his own ethics violations, said this, from the account in the Washington Post (which surely Mr. Kurtz read?):

As he has in the past, Gingrich sought to limit his own culpability. "To the degree I have made mistakes, they have been errors of implementation but never of intent," he said as his wife, Marianne, watched from the gallery...

In his speech, Gingrich went out of his way to praise his wife, who had opposed using personal funds to pay the penalty. "I have never been prouder of Marianne than over the last few months," he said, triggering a standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans. "It was the courage of her counsel which always led me to do my best."

and "we" knew about it when Marianne Gingrich was agreeing to have family assets used as collateral for the money he borrowed to pay the fine.

The Clinton affair "came out" as a result of the responsible papers, including the Washington Post, reporting internet gossip.

Gee. "We" aren't very nice people, are "we"

"We" are also liars.

Well, yeah, and hypocrites.

And you don't even have to wait ten years for me to tell you so.