Tony Snow said this about the next White House press secretary Dana Perino: “a smart, capable person who is able to spell out the issues of the day in a way that people listening on TV can understand.”

TV indeed.  Replacing Tony Snow might be just a stepping stone.  Perino might actually be angling for Alex Trebek’s job.
From an April 2007 White House press briefing:

Q Yes, thank you, Dana. Two questions on American business. In the –
MS. PERINO: American business for 200. (Laughter.) I’ve always wanted to be on that show.

We hope her job’s not already in Jeopardy.

“I want to lob one in the men’s room of the Kremlin and make sure I hit it.”

Larry Craig? Nope. Barry Goldwater.

Ruth Marcus provides good historical precedent for the Larry Craig escapade:

He was an important political figure, arrested for engaging in lewd conduct in a public men’s room. Married, with children, he told no one. Instead he pleaded guilty without even hiring a lawyer, hoping the problem would quietly disappear.

When, as was inevitable, the press got hold of the story, his erstwhile supporters quickly distanced themselves — and commissioned a poll to assess the political damage. His career in politics was over.

This man was not Idaho Sen. Larry Craig but Walter Jenkins, the aide Lyndon B. Johnson called “my vice president in charge of everything.” Jenkins was arrested in October 1964 for having sex in the men’s room of the Washington YMCA. …

When the story broke just a few weeks before the 1964 election, Johnson scarcely hesitated before instructing Abe Fortas to secure the resignation of Jenkins, his longest-serving aide.

But there’s another interesting element to the Jenkins tale worth remembering: the actions of Bill Moyers.

A few years back Bob Novak wrote about Judge Laurence H. Silberman, who was Instructed by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 to report on secret files kept by J. Edgar Hoover.  Here’s Novak:

Even worse than “dirt collection,” Silberman continued, was Hoover’s offering of Bureau files to presidents. He exempted only Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower from this use of FBI files, but said, “Lyndon Johnson was the most demanding.”

When President Johnson’s aide Walter Jenkins was arrested for homosexual conduct in a men’s room during the 1964 campaign, Silberman said, LBJ aide Bill  Moyers directed Hoover to find similar conduct on Barry Goldwater’s staff. “Moyers’ memo to the FBI was in one of the files,” he continued. An “outraged”  Moyers telephoned Silberman, he said, to assert that the memo was “phony.” “Taken aback,” said Silberman, he offered an investigation to publicly exonerate  Moyers. “There was a pause on the line, and then he [Moyers] said, ‘I was very young. How will I explain this to my children?’” “Silberman’s account of our conversation is at odds with mine,” Moyers told me when I asked for comment.

Recently we noted that Ron Paul  — oh, I’m sorry, Ron Paul Ron Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul — said this in a debate exchange over Iraq:

“… those individuals who have predicted these disastrous things to happen if we leave Iraq are the same ones who said, ‘As soon as we go in, it will just be duck soup’ … “

We liked the Marx Brothers tribute then, and by golly we like it now.

Today brings word of more ducks in the news.  Actually, ducts.

The Washington Post’s piece on Mike Huckabee contains this:

The crowd loves his jokes. (Sample: “There are several things you’ll never hear an Arkansan say. One of them is, ‘Honey, I don’t think duct tape will fix that.’ Another one is ‘No, we don’t need another dog.’ “

If I could just do a bit of comedy editing here, if you’ve got good punch lines, no need to pose the jokes negatively.  I would suggest these happy alternative: “Honey, that’s enough duct tape.”  And, “We’ve got all the dogs we need.”

Until then — Duck!  Tape!

Here’s something worthy of note from the audiotape the police just released of Larry Craig’s June 11 bathroom bust. The arresting officer, Minneapolis Airport Police Sgt. Dave Karsnia, tells Craig: “I don’t call media, I don’t do any of that kind of crap.”
How well did that promise hold up? Consider that you can hear the audiotape of the arrest interview right now via the Associated Press. Click here to listen for yourself.

So much for keeping the media at bay.

Also note that Karsnia tells Craig, “I don’t want to get into a pissing match.” Pissing match? Sounds like there’s reasonable doubt that it was lewd behavior going on in that stall.

Today’s White House news briefing:

Q: …as far as Osama bin Laden is concerned, yesterday –
MR. SNOW: Oh, a change in topic. I’m sorry — bin Laden –
Q — on WTOP said that — he was quoting a newspaper in Pakistan — that Osama bin Laden was dead in 2005 because of kidney failure. But recent report was saying that Osama bin Laden is alive in Pakistan. Where do we stand on his well-being or death?
MR. SNOW: Look, I’m not going to tell you what we know or don’t know about bin Laden, but I thank you for passing on what occurred on WTOP yesterday.

First, our last trivia answer:

Lee Annis sorta kinda got it right by asking which book did Bob Woodward publish in 1996?  But we were hoping for something more specific, namely, Which is the only Bob Woodward book that never went to number one?

Now, the next Extreme Trivia answer:

What’s the question?

Reading today’s Washington Post coverage of Larry Craig, we chuckled at the first average Idahoan they presented to get colorful condemnation of the Senator.

Paragraph three.  A beautician.

“I voted for him before, but I wouldn’t vote for him again, because I don’t believe him,” said beautician Linda Anderson, 45.

Nah, no stereotypes there, eh?  Further down, we spot another curious place for a stake-out.   A Boise punk-rock bar.

“It’s because it’s a lying thing,” said Karsten Roberts, nursing a drink at a punk-rock bar in downtown Boise. “You’re representing your constituents, and you shouldn’t lie to them. I don’t think it comes down to being gay, straight, lesbian or bi.”

Extreme Mortman has never been to Boise — or Idaho — or even a Minneapolis airport bathroom, for that matter — but our prejudiced wariness makes us want to react this way: Huh?  A punk-rock bar in Boise?

Well, that’s why we shouldn’t prejudge the even-tempered, libertarian people of Idaho.  A half-hearted, mostly boring Google search reveals that, indeed, there is a punk-rock bar in Boise — or, at least a place to hear punk music.   It’s called The Big Easy, and this might be the hotbed of Craig hatred the Post penetrated:

The paper also points out that on Wednesday, Craig went on vacation.  No doubt Post reporters will be staking out Fire Island.