Press release of the day:

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell will join the Duke of York at the official dedication ceremony of George Washington’s Distillery tomorrow, September 27, at 4:00pm. The distillery has been rebuilt exactly as it would have been in the 1700’s and will now be the only historic site in the country capable of showing the early American distilling process from seed to barrel.

More details here, from the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

Ricky Martin testifies to Congress today.

Remember the last time Martin was in town?  President Bush surely does.

Eeeewwwwwww.  Yucky.

DC Examiner gossip column Yeas and Nays reports:

Former Redskins top draft pick and current candidate for Congress Heath Shuler found himself in a tricky spot on Friday when he learned that a real-estate business that bears his name owed $69,000 in back taxes. Shuler and his brother founded Knoxville, Tenn.-based Heath Shuler Real Estate in 1998, but five years later sold all but a 20 percent stake to four other men, who kept the firm’s name…. [Shuler attorney] Rudd said that the “ongoing refusal to operate [the] business in accordance with the law is causing extreme embarrassment to Heath.”

Extreme Mortman salutes anyone with extreme anything, even embarrassment.

On this morning’s CBS News “Early Show,” Bill Plante looked at the role YouTube is playing in Campaign 2006.

Surely the focus was on George Allen and macaca, right?

Actually, the “Early Show” bucked the easy trend and conventional wisdom — spotlighting instead Joe Biden, with this picture and this caption on its website.

From today’s Washington Times:

President Bush has invited bloggers to join him today as he signs into law a bill creating a database of federal spending — a recognition of their role in forcing the bill through Congress over the objections of senior senators and an indication of how much bloggers are changing the political process. … The bloggers mobilized Congress; Congress did not mobilize bloggers,” said John Hart, spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn … Glenn Reynolds, who led the charge from the right on his blogs Instapundit.com and Porkbusters.org, said blogs have given a voice to the constituency that wants spending controls and accountability. That means lawmakers can’t talk about financial responsibility while getting away with profligate spending on pet projects. … That’s sort of the big news here,” Mr. Reynolds said. “What blogs make it hard for people to do in a whole lot of different ways is tell one group of people one thing and tell another group something different, and hope nobody noticed.”

Michael Scheuer, who in his book “Imperial Hubris” calls the Iraq invasion “an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat,” has this to say about Bill Clinton after Clinton’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace: “I thought Clinton was lying.”

Scheuer tells WTWP radio this morning that Biil Clinton had ten opportunities to kill Osama Bin Laden.  President Bush had none.

Here at Extreme Mortman, one of our greatest pleasures is a Tony Snow press briefing, full of socratic argument, grand philosophy, and sly humor.  We were reminded today why we also enjoy a Donald Rumsfeld press conference — for its economy of words:

Q Mr. Secretary, on Capitol Hill today, again, there were several retired generals who called for your resignation. Are you considering resigning at all –
SEC. RUMSFELD: No.
Q — and if so, why not?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I’m not.

Associated Press:

White House press secretary Tony Snow is taking his gift of gab across the country in the coming weeks to raise money for Republican candidates, an unusual task for the president’s top spokesman. … “They asked, and I thought about it a lot and we went back and forth,” Snow said. “It’s one of those things where I certainly want to help the president. But you have to make sure it’s a fine line, and that’s why I don’t want to get into opponent bashing. The approach I’m going to take is not going to be one of going out and whacking Democrats by name, but straightforward comments about what the president has accomplished,” Snow said.

Perfect timing that the new Brad Meltzer book is out — “The Book of Fate,” published by Warner Books/Hachette Book Group.

Why?  Because on page 500 it features this Bill Clinton quote: “The biggest wounds in life are all self-inflicted.”

What’s the origin of that quote, which is so incredibly timely after yesterday’s “Fox News Sunday” interview?

Here goes: For the November 2000 issue of Golf Digest, Clinton was interviewed at the Army Navy Country Club in Fairfax, Va. by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.  This exchange occured:

Golf Digest: What do you learn about people from playing golf with them?
President Clinton: Golf is like life in a lot of ways: The most important competition is the one against yourself. All the biggest wounds are self-inflicted. And you get a lot of breaks you don’t deserve–both ways. So it’s important not to get too upset when you’re having a bad day.

Good advice.  Particularly when you’re on TV.

Two from White House press secretary Tony Snow’s press gaggle today.

On Bill Clinton’s appearance with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday”:

Well, he retorts; you decide. It’s my view that — well, not my view. President Clinton clearly had strong feelings, but I’m going to let — we’re just not going to engage.

And on gas prices:

The one thing I have been amused by is the attempt by some people to say that the President has been rigging gas prices, which would give him the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being. It also raises the question, if we’re dropping gas prices now, why on earth did we raise them to $3.50 before?