By Steve Clemons

The ousted, indicted, but not-yet-out-of-the-action-by-a-longshot Tom DeLay has just secured Duke Cunningham’s seat on the House Appropriations Committee.

Senator John McCain comes off as a major political star in Eugene Jarecki’s Why We Fight which is opening soon in Washington, but his chief of staff, Mark Salter, has blown a gasket over a cute clip in the film in which Vice President Cheney calls him during that interview.

(photo credit: Max Blumenthal) TWN has heard that former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Per Ahlmark would like to borrow this sign from Southern New Mexico. Sweden’s Liberal Party Leader has just nominated John Bolton and Kenneth Timmerman for the Nobel Peace Prize. More here at Bolton Watch. Fun, fun, fun — it just doesn’t stop….

There are roughly 25 million people in Iraq. Yesterday, the cost for invading and occupying Iraq raced past the $300 billion mark. Per capita costs in Iraq from America’s efforts $12,000.00. This doesn’t include wounded and dead Americans, wounded and dead Iraqis, shattered families, ill will, and future “blowback”.

When I was recently in London, I learned through my sources that Senator McCain and his wife were over in the UK for one primary reason, even though it might not have been the official reason, and that was to see the London production of Mamma Mia. The Senator and Mrs.

There is an interesting first amendment attorney in town, Glenn Greenwald, who has been working hard to make sure that Senate Judiciary Committee Members pose the most important lines of questions to Attorney General Gonzales.

I just posted a short piece at Huffington Post on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s antics about not letting the press see any aspect of DoD budget specifics until “after” the press meeting with him.

I have my doubts, but I also think that we have no choice as a nation but to try and purge the self-destructive, anti-democratic, politically hackish behaviors out of the military and national intelligence bureaucracies.

Dennis Ross is raising money for Scooter Libby’s Legal Defense Fund. Some might ask why I’m bothered by this. After all, James Woolsey, an alleged Democrat from Tulsa who once headed Bill Clinton’s CIA, was Ahmed Chalabi’s lawyer.

Ward Sutton says it all (well, most of it anyway): reprinted with permission — Steve Clemons Ed. Note: Thanks to Jim Terr for sending this my way.