Paulzy wrote me an e-mail yesterday morning:

Subject: Alito

Reactions?

I, of course, had no idea what Alito was. But by Paulzy's e-mail and the fact that it was Monday and a perfect time to bust out a new Supreme Court nominee, I figured it was a new Supreme Court nominee. CNN.com confirmed my suspicion.

My e-sponse:
I didn't know who Alito was. I'm west coast, buster. I just woke up.

He looks like a CPA.

I closely followed with:
Second reaction:

Man, I was hoping I would get picked.

By the end of the day, I had gotten enough reading in to send this back:
Ballsy.

Seriously. Like, that's so them. In the middle of a quagmire? "Hey, look over there!"

Watch this dominate the news cycles and crowd out everything else.

And then, late that night, I wrote:
Hey! Look over there!

Bush to unveil bird flu strategy

That's pretty much it. Shell game. The White House doesn't like that Scooter Libby, FEMA and Iraq are dominating the news cycle? That Rove's under fire? That Cheney's not looking too trustworthy?

Bird flu. Scary. And the Democrats might filibuster! Obstruction!

"At this moment, there is no pandemic influenza in the United States or the world. But if history is our guide, there is reason to be concerned. In the last century, our country and the world have been hit by three influenza pandemics -- and viruses from birds contributed to all of them. The first, which struck in 1918, killed over half-a-million Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe. One-third of the U.S. population was infected, and life expectancy in our country was reduced by 13 years. The 1918 pandemic was followed by pandemics in 1957 and 1968 which killed tens of thousands of Americans, and millions across the world."
- G-Dub, earlier today

Hey, look over there!

Good job, boys. Keep wagging the dog.

(Of course, Paulzy sent his repsonse, but he's a big boy and has got his own blog).