• Sarah Palin didn't like David Letterman's crack Monday night about her "slutty flight attendant look" (neither did we); she calls it "pretty pathetic." If her make-up is the only thing he can find to mock, we agree. [Politico]

• A new poll shows that more than half of Republicans can't identify who leads their party, and those that can are split between Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and John McCain — only one of whom actually holds a position within the party. [USA Today]
• The problem that rank-and-file Republicans have in identifying a leader might stem from the fact that the Republicans who have actually been elected think that government debt will bring down the Obama Administration. Just like it did Reagan's Administration, guys, amirite? [Politico, NY Times]
• Senator Pat Leahy has chosen July 13th to start confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, and Republicans are whining about having homework during the week long break they get for July 4th. [NY Times]
• Obama is dropping his plan to cap salaries at bailed-out firms and let them deal with Congressional caps on bonuses, which Congress passed thinking there would also be salary caps. [Wall Street Journal]
• We've decided to pay the impoverished island nation of Palau — which we normally ignore and let the Aussies take care of — $20 million in aid to take the 17 Chinese Uighurs we falsely imprisoned at the behest of the Chinese government and can't figure out what to do with. [NY Times]
• Also, we swear we're not going to invade North Korea the way we did Iraq and Afghanistan. [CNN]
• The Kenyan government is angry that the Obama Administration isn't blowing sunshine up its ass despite its human rights record, unwillingness to reform and political instability. [LA Times]
• Rod Blagojevich, in yet another effort to launch his official career as A Celebrity, will appear in a comedy routine about Rod Blagojevich with Second City in Chicago. [Associated Press]
• Former DNC Chairman and Clintonite Terry McAuliffe lost the 3-way Democratic primary in the Virginia Governor's race to some guy named Creigh that you've never heard of. [MSNBC]

I made the Huffington Post's Jason Linkins wait for far too long for that joke, and to discuss Terry McAuliffe, the Moran dynasty, Silvestre Reyes' stunning stupidity and how Bobby Jindal is or is not running for President.

MEGAN: Well, there's nothing like getting on the wrong subway and walking 15 blocks in the rain without an umbrella before you drink any coffee to make for a shit day.

JASON: Hey I can imagine.

MEGAN: So, was it you who asked Mamet for his take on Blagojevich? Because it's awesome.

JASON: No! But, yes, that was pretty awesome.

MEGAN: No one is more Mamet than Mamet. Did I mention I had to read Oleanna in college? It seemed like a weird book for a young male professor to assign.

• • • • • 17 minutes • • • • •

MEGAN: Seriously, I think the universe has decided that Crappy Hour is crap today. Let's try and go fast before my broadband card decides it needs to reboot again

JASON: OK. So. Where were we?

MEGAN: I was talking about my hot creative writing professor, George. I always got sidetracked by George.

JASON: OK. I had a hot Art History T.A. that was always a distraction to me.

MEGAN: Anyway, so, Bobby Jindal is supposedly probably definitely not running for President. I think that's a smart move.

JASON: I think probably Bobby Jindal isn't totally not NOT running for President? And that I think just about everyone is in that state of maybe probably sort of not NOT not considering it? And yet visiting Iowa for some reason? Anyway, I think it's a smart move to have press releases out there with the word "president" next to your name.

MEGAN: Especially when you're just randomly going to Virginia to endorse some dude for Governor. Because your name has, like, that much cache. But not because you're maybe running for President. Because you're not. At least, not right now, 3 years and 11 months from the next election. Not that you're thinking about that.

JASON: Ahh. The Virginia governor race. This is what Terry McAuliffe thinks he wants to do with his life.

MEGAN: I think that's kind of hilarious, actually. Terry McAuliffe would make Virginia fun. Way funner than Brian Moran. We could blog about state politics and people might actually read it!

JASON: It's Jim Moran. And a plague of weasels would be about as much fun as him. He's like a sad pile of sweaty cheese. He was a supporter of one of the professional theatres I worked at back in the day, so I've had the joy of seeing him stone asleep in the front row. Does wonders for morale! There are wide swathes of Virginia that are going to look at Terry McAuliffe and see something totally alien to their existence.

MEGAN: No, actually, Jim's brother Brian, a state rep, is running for Governor. Jim Moran's going to be our Congressman for life. Terry McAuliffe, though, is pretty alien-looking.

JASON: EEGGGGHHHH. This fucking state.

MEGAN: It's the Moran dynasty! Only Brian is either not as corrupt and racist as his brother, or is smart enough not to get caught. I've got my suspicions, but I find it hard to call a politician "smart." Especially after this week. Speaking of not-smart politicians, Gary "No Relation To Spencer" Ackerman compared Caroline Kennedy to J-Lo.

JASON: "Caroline Kennedy! She's just like Jennifer Lopez!" THIS is a pitch we're greenlighting during a recession? Really?

MEGAN: She's just Carrie from the block? God, that was a bad joke. Let's just walk quietly away from that wreckage.

JASON: Ha!

MEGAN: Oh, look, Baucus is trying to fuck up the new stimulus bill. He keeps trying to fuck Obama, between this and his health care bill from last month. I didn't even realize there was any enmity there.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and members of the Obama team, for one, want to pass a large-scale SCHIP expansion early next year as one of a handful of moves designed to allow Obama to claim some immediate accomplishments on popular issues.

But Baucus wants to do it now to deny Obama that? Which team is he playing for?

JASON: I've not been able to get my head around Baucus, I must admit. I think threatening the stimulus package now, however, is a moot point. If he can't get the votes now, Obama will have the votes in a couple of months. With the committment shown to this stimulus package and putting infrastructure projects in play, the states can start allocating budget monies right now.

MEGAN: And like the Dems won't waive PAYGO next year? That strains credibility at best.

JASON: The guy who's really made a name for himself on the shit list, is Silvestre Reyes.

MEGAN: Did someone not know he's a dumbass? Though I assume you're talking about his call for Obama to keep McConnell and Hayden as the National Intelligence Director and CIA head, respectively?

JASON: Whoever put him atop the House Intelligence Committee didn't get the memo, and now, per our own Spencer Ackerman, he's pushing for Obama to keep Mike McConnell and Hayden. For the sake of "continuity." Nothing those two men do contribute to any sort of continuity that this country needs.

MEGAN: That "whomever," by the way, was Nancy Pelosi, who ousted Jane Harman despite her being awesome but couldn't put the corrupt Alcee Hastings there. Because they don't like one another.

JASON: I was being coy.

MEGAN: Oh, fuck coy. That was a bad decision.

JASON: Indeed! Check out Reyes position on torture, per Ackerman:

“We don’t want to be known for torturing people. At the same time we don’t want to limit our ability to get information that’s vital and critical to our national security,” he added. “That’s where the new administration is going to have to decide what those parameters are, what those limitations are.”

MEGAN: The limits should be: let's not torture people! Yay! That was easy.

JASON: What this dumbass Reyes needs to get through his thick goddamned skull is that torture VASTLY LIMITS OUR ABILITY TO GET INFORMATION. Meanwhile, it helps to scale up our enemies ability to recruit soldiers to their cause. That leaves us with what, Mr. Reyes? More motherfuckers walking around that you need to torture, I guess? This is all before we get to the part that we have soldiers of our own in the field, who I would rather not see tortured, if you don't mind! Guys like Reyes...sorry...IGNORANT CANDYFUCK DIPSHITS like Reyes, put our fighting men and women in harms' way with their torture-porn pretensions. This guy should be FAR, FAR from the intelligence committee.

MEGAN: But torture is fun! So even if it's completely ineffective, it's, like, revenge.

JASON: You got a House Dumbass Subcommittee on Thumbs Wedged Up Asses, that's fine. Put this fuck Reyes on it.

MEGAN: As long as it's not my thumb.

• Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, a group of supposely intelligent women decided that Barack Obama wasn't sexy enough for them. And thus the world was denied his image in a Harvard Law beefcake calendar. I guess we'll always have People. [Politico]
• Obama has told people he wants Lieberman to continue to caucus with the Dems, something Lieberman is swearing that he won't do if Democrats take his committee assignment away. Let the whiny bitch go, please. "No drama Obama" doesn't have to mean rolling over for Lieberman. [Huffington Post]
• Speaking of the Senate, the difference between Norm Coleman and Al Franken in the Minnesota Senate race is down to 204 votes. One more reason to cut the dead weight, Harry Reid. [MSNBC]

• There's a fake guy who claims to be the one who told Fox News that Sarah Palin didn't know about NAFTA. He claims to be best buds with Randy Scheunemann and "added" that she didn't know the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas, Sunnis and Shi'ites or the IRA and ETA. [Politico, Fake Martin Eisenstadt]
• None of that will delay the start of Palin's comeback tour, which begins this week at the Republican Governor's Association in Miami. [Washington Post]
• She's headed there once she's done sorting through her massive wardrobe to find the clothes the RNC desperately needs back. You know, the clothes she never wore that lived in the belly of the campaign plane after the convention. Those clothes. [Associated Press]
• Howard Dean is going to leave the DNC. [Washington Post]
• Former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is going to run for Governor of Virginia. [Politico]
• And everyone in the world is calling Obama on the phone, including Russian Putin-puppet President Dmitry Medvedev. No wonder he always has the thing up to his ear when he's getting out of a car lately! [Washington Post]

• Nancy Pelosi said aloud today what everyone knows implicitly and no one ever acknowledges: when the right-wingers talk about "San Francisco values," they're condemning San Franciscans for not spitting on the LGBT community with a wink and a nod. Tolerance is so for liberals. [HuffPo]
• Speaking of the intolerance of the right, an inspector general's report has unsurprisingly concluded that Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson inappropriately used political considerations when hiring at the Justice Department. Goodling asked interviewees what they liked most about Bush, what their stances on abortion were and, in one case, refused to renew a prosecutor's appointment believing him to be gay or at least, very metrosexual. Hey, it was 2006, that phrase was still acceptable! [Washington Post]

• Not to dwell on Bushies, but, um, one of them called the Iraq War "fucking stupid." He helped design a counterinsurgency strategy that relied on more than boots on the ground that we've partially ignored, but he is an Aussie after all. That accent doesn't translate well into "Texan." [Washington Independent]
• What translates a little easier is a McCain adviser promising conservatives that McCain won't really push a greenhouse gas plan because candidates always promise stuff they won't deliver on. Here's hoping he says that about McCain, oh, another couple of hundred times between now and November. [Think Progress]
• Hillary Clinton's totally hitting the trail for Obama once she gets done catching up in the Senate, Terry McAuliffe swears. And he's, like, totally reliable. [CNN]
• John McCain had another mole removed today, which reminds us to always wear sunscreen and that John McCain is really old. [CNN, John McCain Is Really Old]
• Obama is reportedly seriously vetting Virginia Governor Tim "not Mc" Kaine for the VP slot, but Tim just makes us wonder what is up with the eyebrows of Virginia's past 3 governors. They're really bushy and strange. It is becoming a great way to handicap the Governor's race down there, though. [Washington Post]