Monday morning.

* Following up on this post from Sunday: Rahm Emanuel says there will be no Bush-era prosecutions. OpenLeft wants to know whether Eric Holder is "a Gonzales-like lackey" in light of his apparent willingness to allow political judgments to influence DoJ policy.

* And speaking of political judgments influencing DoJ policy, this Rep. Harman story is pretty unbelievable, even for the Bush administration.

There are a lot of hairy details on this one. But the gist is that an NSA wiretap recorded Harman in a conversation with a "suspected Israeli agent" in which Harman allegedly agreed to use her influence with the DOJ to get them to drop the AIPAC spy case in exchange for help lobbying then-Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi to make Harman chair of the House Intelligence Committee -- a position she ended up not getting.

...

The story suggests that the tapes show Harman crossed the line. And the gears were in motion to open a full blown investigation. But then Alberto Gonzales intervened and shutdown the whole thing.

Why? Here's where it gets into the realm of bad novel writing: because Gonzales (and the White House) needed Harman to go to bat for them on the warrantless wiretaping story that the New York Times was then on the brink of publishing.

Find me one honest Congressperson.

* The Hollywood Reporter says the chances of a Dollhouse renewal are 50/50. That's actually a lot better than I thought.

* Tuna projected to be wiped out by 2012.

* Maps from the recession.

"I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there."

I've been away from the computer all day, so I'm only finding out about the Blagojevich madness now. Who tries to openly sell a Senate seat? You sell that thing quietly, under the radar. Use codes. Geez. Blagovich now joins the elite cadre of four out of the last five Illinois governors who have been indicted or convicted—and I thought New Jersey politics were corrupt.

Good luck in 2016, governor. And good on Rahm, if he did tip the feds off, though in his position Blagovich was crazy to expect anything else from the incoming chief of staff.

More everywhere.

Despite my busy schedule, it's been a bit of a slow news day anyway.

* The ATF busted up a mostly aspirational skinhead plot to kill Barack Obama, which included a much more logistically likely subplot to attack a predominantly African-American high school in Tennessee.

* Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has been found guilty on all counts.

* Another day, another bogus Republican vote suppression list thrown out. Today it's Georgia.

* Chuck Todd just told me on the TV that 1/2 the total 2004 turnout in North Carolina has already voted this year.

* The Field notes that Obama has cleared the 50% threshold in states totaling 286 electoral votes.

* And today's moronic right-wing lie: deliberately misquoting an eight-year-old radio interview to give the impression that Comrade Obama supports court-ordered wealth redistribution. (He doesn't. In fact, echoing the right's own talking points, what he actually says in the interview is that sort of social change should not be pursued in the courts.) On this Ambinder makes an interesting point: Republicans have managed to take an election that was clearly a referendum on Bush and turned it into a referendum on the last thirty years of their failed politics. Quite an accomplishment.

Sarah Palin Outrage of the Day: Turns out the "fiscally conservative" vice presidential candidate charged the taxpayers of Alaska for nights she slept in her own home.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

And if you're wondering, gee, 312 nights out of 19 months sounds like a lot, you're right! It's more than half her term as governor. 55% of her entire term in office was spent charging the taxpayers for living in her own home, effectively skimming 14% on top of her annual salary from state funds. An additional 34% on top of her salary went to travel reimbursement.

That's change we can believe in.

Via Washington Monthly.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION The 55% number is wrong, as it counts weekends, in which the governor usually wouldn't be expected to work anyway. The right number is 312 days out of 407, not counting holidays, or roughly 76% of her time as governor.

NBC now saying that Clinton has canceled all her media events tomorrow, not just TV appearances.

Still waiting on the last 5%, but it sounds as though it's mostly academic at this point.

Chuck Todd: "It may have just ended tonight." He goes on to point to Super Tuesday (and in particular the shock Missouri victory) as another candidate for the decisive moment. Welcome to the party, Chuck. Tim Russert echoes: "We now know who the Democratic nominee will be."

Clinton has canceled all her morning show appearances, per Tim Russert.

Ambinder: Obama's receiving approximately three votes for every one vote that Clinton receives. With 9[0+] percent of the statewide vote out, he's narrowed the gap to within 20,000.

"Let me tell you, when all the votes are counted, when Gary comes in, I think you're looking at something for the world to see," Clay, an Obama supporter, said in a telephone interview from Obama's Gary headquarters. "I don't know what the numbers are yet, but Gary has absolutely produced in large numbers for Obama here."

If Obama is really able to pull this rabbit out of his hat tonight, I'll be so elated I won't even mention how much it looks like Lake County is waiting to see how many votes Obama needs before they report. So I'll just say it now: if Obama wins Indiana, and this then is the night he secures the nomination, in forty years they'll be talking about tonight the way they talk about Chicago and Mayor Daley in 1960.