For Ashcroft, Something Old, Something Nude

Vitter has acknowledged using the service, which prosecutors say was a prostitution ring. He was summoned to testify at a Nov. 28 federal court hearing that will look into the service, run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Vote Early and Often

The American Lung Association of Minnesota, joined by the Renewable Fuels Association, was most unhappy last week with a Minneapolis television station's report on E85, an alcohol-fuel mixture . Folks at the lung association saw an opening to express their dismay, so they e-mailed this alert to members.

Subject: YOUR QUICK VOTE NEEDED -- Send KARE11 a message about E85!

Last night, a television station in Minneapolis (KARE11 NBC) ran what we believe to be a very biased and inaccurate story about E85 . . . a cleaner-burning alternative that the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest strongly supports. . . . .

Today, the station has an online poll on its website asking for feedback.

We want to send the station a strong message that E85/ethanol are one important "clean air choice" we need to reduce both air pollution and our need for overseas oil imports.

Go here: http://www.kare11.com/

The message made its way to the Department of Energy. Next thing you know, about 300 employees and 15o contractors at the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy got this e-mail from Assistant Secretary Alexander Karsner's aide, Lauren Hall:

Subject: FW: YOUR QUICK VOTE NEEDED -- Send KARE11 a message about E85!

The following has been sent on behalf of Assistant Secretary Karsner.

Thanks,

Hall included the voting instructions.

Perfectly appropriate, said DOE spokesman Jonathan Shradar. "The office regularly sends out news points, data and keeps [the staff] informed, he said. "This is a routine forwarding of a news story," he said, and "it's raising awareness in the staff."

So this would not be seen as even a subtle encouragement to vote and influence the poll?

"I didn't read that into the e-mail," Shradar said. (Do NOT send snarky e-mails. That's what he said, OK?) KARE 11 News reporter Scott Goldberg, who did the ethanol story, said the vote tally showed a plurality of 1,759 people selected "Ethanol is not perfect, but is at least an alternative."

That edged out "Producing Ethanol is a waste of time and money" by 403 votes." As it turns out, the voting had closed by the time Krasner's alert was issued.

And Don't Even ASK About Paris Hilton

Spotted . . . on Sunday by our colleague Tom Ricks, taking the shortest way home from Iraq -- stopping in Rome. In the city's Trastevere neighborhood, Ricks saw a restaurant with a sign posted in English on a tripod by its front door:

WE SAY NO TO THE WAR AND NO TO THE MENU TURISTICO.

Only in Italy would those two things be considered moral equivalents.