Eavesdropping on Congress

"Newly-selected House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, is getting some remarkably good press, considering his remarkably sordid political pedigree.

"ABC News referred to the grizzled veteran of Capitol Hill, who was elected to the House when George Bush the Dad was president and Democrat Tom Foley was the Speaker of the House, as a 'fresh face.' The network's report on the House Republican Caucus vote to select a replacement for the indicted Tom DeLay was headlined: 'New Leader, Ohio Rep. John Boehner, Campaigned as a Reformer.'

"The Los Angeles Times announced, with no apparent sense of irony, that: 'By choosing Boehner to fill DeLay's shoes in the House, the party hopes to move past scandals.'

"Newsday just went for it, declaring above its report on Boehner's election: 'A promise of As they say in the newsroom: Don't believe everything you read in the headlines.

"Boehner is an old-fashioned shakedown artist whose promise of 'change' amounts to little more than a pledge that he won't get caught like DeLay did. The Ohioan may be smoother than the Texan, but only a fool, or a Washington pundit looking to cozy up to the new boss, would mistake a better haircut and the absence of the stench of bug spray as evidence of ethics."

Here's a classic Hollywood tale in the LAT :

"After a three-year investigation that frayed nerves in Hollywood, celebrity private eye Anthony Pellicano and six others were charged today with racketeering and conspiracy to obtain confidential and embarrassing information about dozens of individuals. . . .

"At one time, Pellicano's roster of clients stretched from Michael Jackson to Elizabeth Taylor and Sylvester Stallone. He was the go-to detective for information needed by lawyers and agents representing entertainment A-listers."

The guy just did 30 months for keeping a stash of explosives.

Lots of blog chatter on the continued cartoon riots in the Middle East. Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby doesn't mince words:

"The current uproar over cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper illustrates yet again the fascist intolerance that is at the heart of radical Islam. Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest daily, commissioned the cartoons to make a point about freedom of speech. It was protesting the climate of intimidation that had made it impossible for a Danish author to find an illustrator for his children's book about Mohammed. Muslims regard any depiction of the prophet as sacrilegious, and no artist would agree to illustrate the book for fear of being harmed by Muslim extremists. Appalled by this self-censorship, Jyllands-Posten invited Danish artists to submit drawings of Mohammed, and published the 12 it received...

"That anything so mild could trigger a reaction so crazed -- riots, death threats, kidnappings, flag-burnings -- speaks volumes about the chasm that separates the values of the civilized world from those in too much of the Islamic world. Freedom of the press, the marketplace of ideas, the right to skewer sacred cows, the ability to disagree with what you say while firmly defending your right to say it: Militant Islam knows none of this. And if the jihadis get their way, it will be swept aside everywhere by the censorship and intolerance of sharia. . . .