Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), quoted in the Washington Post about the Hewlett-Packard pretexting scandal:

“Mr. Chair, we’re all disturbed in our own unique way.”

And Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), after ranting on Imus this morning about his thoughts on the economy:

“I can’t quite explain it.”

Ken Rudin’s “Political Junkie” column presents this button of a Congressional candidate.

Perhaps if that button is combined with the below classic, we’d get everyone’s favorite ninth grade science toy, the Bentsen Burner?

From today’s White House press gaggle with press secretary Tony Snow:

Members of the intelligence committees understand that you want good intelligence done the proper way, with proper vetting and proper collaboration, rather than trying to do a rush job.  And the Director made it known to intelligence committees a month ago that they were beginning the report. They know what the time line is, they also know how long it takes to assemble these things. This is — you don’t pull an all-nighter. It’s not like a college term paper that you slap together.

Knoxville News-Sentinel’s Michael Silence has this great blog post:

There’s this from the NYT, which is just an inaccurate, sweeping generalization.

In Tennessee, another Southern state long considered safely red, Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has run an aggressive campaign that has put that state seriously in play.

Polls and surveys have shown for 12 years now that independents outnumber both Republicans and Democrats. This state kept Jim Sasser in office for 18 years, then booted him in favor of a neophyte. Bill Frist has enough sense to leave the Senate before TN voters do that to him, and I’ll bet you that if he runs for president in 2008, he will not carry TN.

This state is full of contrary voters who do not vote the party line and who will turn on a dime. Just ask Van Hilleary, or just visit the Rocky Top Brigade to get a sense of the state’s staunch independence. Any Democrat who writes off TN, and any Republican who takes it for granted, are both overpaid even if they’re just making $1.

Check out the No Silence Here Blog for more.

Washington Post correction this morning:

A Sept. 20 Style article incorrectly gave Focus on the Family founder James Dobson the title “reverend.” He is not an ordained clergyman.

Everyone gets titles wrong all the time, right?  Sure, but Dobson’s is wrong quite often, for some reason.  In fact, this isn’t the Post’s first time in error.  Regrettheerror has a great archives.

From today’s White House press briefiing with press secretary Tony Snow:

Q And the readout will be after this dinner?
MR. SNOW: We thought we’d read out the dinner afterward, yes.
Q Can’t you do it in advance? (Laughter.)
MR. SNOW: Lewis Lapham is not doing the readout. (Laughter.)

and

No, I don’t think you just fell off the turnip truck. You understand that, as a matter of fact, what happens is that there are a number of jihadists, united by an ideology that they do want to kill us. I mean, that’s not a surprise.

and

Do you think Zawahiri is better off than he was six years ago?

and

If we had not engaged in this battle, it’s not as if they all would have become computer programmers in Silicon Valley

First, the answer to last week’s question.  Hillary Clinton has a specific political connection to Texas politics, from before she was First Lady.  What’s the connection?

Peter Roff correctly said: She followed Bill to Texas in 1972 — where she headed up the voter registration drive for McGovern (at the request of Anne Wexler).

Now, the next Extreme Trivia question.  A decade earlier than the McGovern campaign … The famous “Daisy” ad that President Johnson used a single time to demolish Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential campaign … The innocent little girl picking petals off the daisy right before the countdown that gets her nuked by the Commies — and why the Commies would have counted down in English with a southen accent I still quite understand. Be that as it may, here’s the question: What was the precise sequence of numbers the cute lil’ girl used?  (Hint: It wasn’t 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10).

Press release of the day:

Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today will be the first Member to be tested for HIV/AIDS in a mobile health bus provided by a local health care provider, Unity Health Care, behind the Rayburn building (South Capital and C Streets SW) at 2 p.m. TODAY (Wednesday, September 27, 2006. 

Jossip uncovers this Nancy Grace gem from her CNN show:

You could say that, I would guess, about 80 percent of the people in Manhattan are on anti-depressants, all right? And they are not falling over in the hospital, dead. I don`t see it.

Ah, but for the Grace of God, there goes Nancy.

From the Washington Post:

For example, consider Ted Koppel and the requirement that containers of 3 ounces or less had to fit easily into clear plastic bags.  The former host of ABC’s “Nightline” arrived at Washington’s Reagan National Airport yesterday morning for a flight to Dallas without a clear plastic bag and a too-large tube of toothpaste in his shaving kit.  A supervisor with the Transportation Security Administration rushed to the rescue. She gave Koppel the necessary plastic bag and determined that he had already used enough of the toothpaste to meet the new limits for such gels. He put the tube into the plastic bag and sailed through security.

No word on whether Ted Koppel’s hair was detained for questioning.