Give yourselves a round of applause — you made it through the first year of the Extreme Mortman blog.  We launched one year ago today with a blog posting so embarrassing and inappropriate only the John Edwards campaign would like it.

The staff and chefs of Extreme Mortman want to thank each of you for joining us on this glass-enclosed nerve center of a ride.  We’re on the verge of greatness, or at least an Al Franken candidacy for Senate, if only he can get beyond what he once told JewsRock.org: ”I wasn’t bar mitzvah’d.”

Self-hater. 

Mitt Romney announced his presidential candidacy today in Dearborn, Michigan, at the Henry Ford Museum.  Romney wasn’t the only exhibit there to relish:

Oh, sorry.  Was just imagining the Dixie Chicks playing North Korea.

White House press secretary Tony Snow, from today’s news briefing:

I did see what may be the dumbest lead of an editorial I’ve seen in a long time today in The New York Times, which is, “We need to declare ourselves on Iran.” We’ve declared it over and over — we’re not going to war with them.

President Bush made one of his most prominent pre-war pro-war speeches in Cincinnati, in the fall of 2002.

Which apparently has turned the Cincinnati City Council into troop level experts.

Check out this item from the great Cincinnati Enquirer political blog

Five members voted in committee for the anti-surge resolution today.

Here is Howard Wilkinson’s story.

Here is a statement from Leslie Ghiz:

Councilmember Leslie Ghiz expressed her opposition to the passage today of an arbitrary resolution in Finance Committee concerning the federal policy on the Iraq war. Ghiz noted that the resolution is being considered at a time when the City is faced with over $1 million in new costs associated with the new Fraternal Order of Police Contract as well as the recent ruling regarding police medical benefits.

“I cannot begin to understand the rationale behind addressing a federal policy prior to taking care of our own business,” Ghiz said. “We stand today with a $1 million bill in our hands for our police officers’ salaries, yet we are wasting time stating our opinion on the war in Iraq.”

Ghiz told citizens that they should direct their opinions about the war in Iraq to their representatives in Congress as well as President Bush.

Good advice.  Or perhaps we could get troop level suggestions from Akron.

Dana Milbank writes from the Scooter Libby trial on Bob Woodward’s appearance:

It was a rare moment at the federal courthouse yesterday, and not only because Washington’s most famous journalist was answering questions from somebody other than Larry King.

Great line.  I further wonder whether Woodward billed Judge Reggie Walton his $35,000-$40,000 speaking fee.

Has the media worm already turned against Barack Obama?

Today’s Dan Balz in the Washington Post:

The trade-off of delving too deeply into the details of policy was evident at Obama’s Cedar Rapids town hall meeting on Saturday. The energy drained out of the room quickly as the candidate responded to questions about himself and his views.

And today’s New York Daily News editorial:

Returned from the campaign trail Sunday night, Democratic phenom Barack Obama told a hometown Chicago crowd, “I am an imperfect vessel for your hopes and dreams.” As attractive as the man is in many and large ways, he nonetheless got the “imperfect” part right.

Welcome to the fickle media, Senator.

Incredible ancedocte in today’s Washington Post:

Defense Exhibit 1972, a tape-recorded interview from the “Imus in the Morning” radio show, is another of those revealing moments in the perjury trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
“So … what happened?” radio host Don Imus asks NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell about her confusing reporting on an undercover CIA officer. “Were you drunk?”
“I obviously screwed up,” Mitchell responds in the exchange, which Libby’s defense hopes to play for the jury in coming days. “I guess I was drunk,” she jokes….
Defense attorneys also are eager to question Mitchell about the memory and credibility of Russert, her NBC colleague. Mitchell professed on CNBC’s “Capital Report” in October 2003 that it was “widely known” among intelligence reporters such as herself that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA. Her network issued a statement saying that was inaccurate, and she said in an interview with Imus that she didn’t know “what the heck I was talking about.”

The anecdote is in a larger piece about the role media figures are playing in the Libby trial.  Don’t be surprised if, huge legal fees, inconvenience, and embarassments like Mitchell’s notwithstanding, members of the press who are not called to the stand might start feeling a bit envious of all those who the are.  For the media, notoriety and popularity soon might pave the way for Libby envy.

Already tired of all the 2008 presidential campaigning?  Maybe it’s because you don’t have an appreciation for the influence donuts — as in, ah donuts, is there nothing they can’t do — are having over the candidates’ rhetorical prowess.

Of course you remember Joe Biden:  “You CANNOT go into a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts without an Indian accent.”

Now we read this about Hillary Clinton’s trip to New Hampshire yesterday:

She described her upbringing in a “middle-class family in the middle of America in the middle of the last century” and asked the audience to help her avoid gaining weight while in the state and stopping too often at Dunkin’ Donuts.

All this sets up the perfect general election matchup — against Dunkin’ Hunter.

Prince Frederick von Anhalt, the husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor, claims that he may be the father of Anna Nicole’s baby.  Here’s what he told Larry King last night, as printed in the transcript:

There are two guys who claim one is the father and the other one is the father. And I think both of them are full of shit because they are not the father at all.

and

Lots of people don’t know what love is. They go to bed with somebody and say “I love you.”  Bullshit. Love is a different story. I love my wife.

As the Prince says about love, golly!