Wonkette

* Republicans in Congress settle on $70B tax-cut package as proposal for $100 gas vouchers withers; Bush “implored lawmakers to deliver an agreement he could tout.” [WP, WP, NYT]
* Immigration rallies apparently made little influence on Congress. [NYT]
* Democrats aim to pick up House seats in the Northeast. [NYT]
* Bush may have sung a Spanish version of the national anthem at a campaign event. [WP]
* House votes on lobbying reform today. [USAT]
* Administration is testing “antisatellite weapons.” [NYT]
* Democrats threaten to filibuster one, maybe two, conservative judicial nominations. [WP]
* Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is on a one-man mission to eliminate earmarks from the emergency spending bill. [WP]
* The Supreme Court under John Roberts has become more contemplative and patient. [NYT]
* Blogosphere bloviates about Stephen Colbert’s performance. [NYT]

We briefly noted their disappearance yesterday. But after Jessica Cutler emailed us to complain about the matter — “I was trying to read some shit about myself, but was stymied when the links didn’t work” — a full-fledged investigation is warranted. MORE »

Yes, we know, you’re sick of reading about it. Well, we’re sick of writing about it! Hence this postscript to the whole saga of Stormie Janzen — the hot young Senate staffer whose sexy blog got shut down recently.

We’ve followed Stormiegate fairly closely, even obsessively, and now we’d like to close the loop on it. We wouldn’t want to leave you in suspense over the fate of the vivacious young blogress who gave rise to this pseudo-scandal (emphasis on “pseudo”).

To quote the Bard once again, “All’s well that ends well.” Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts offer this entertaining update in their Reliable Source column:

Stormie Janzen, 34, did not return calls yesterday. [Sen. Jeff Sessions's] spokesman Michael Brumas confirmed that Janzen still has a job: “We have dealt with this matter, and it’s closed.”

Oh, come on! Hasn’t anyone called offering a book contract? “I have no idea,” Brumas said wearily. “I doubt it.”

Okay. Has Playboy called? “Why are you asking me these questions?” he groaned.

Well, because we’re always on the lookout for the next Washington sex mini-scandal. Granted, Janzen’s page at MySpace.com isn’t going to get her there. Those who saw it say her writing was pretty PG-13, nothing nearly as spicy as the famous “Washingtonienne” diary that caused Jessica Cutler to lose her congressional staff job but gain a book contract. Then again, she does have a great name…

“If I can do it,” Cutler told us, “why not Stormie?”

Here’s our take on the whole matter: At the end of the day, what a government employee does in her private life is nobody’s business but her own. As long as Stormie is doing her job, and doing it well, the fact that she maintains a somewhat racy blog about her personal life — or, say, a whimsically irreverent, completely non-substantive blog about federal judges — has no bearing whatsoever on her employment.

Our polemic continues after the jump.

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Here at Wonkette, we don’t permit reader comments (yet). Some things, like the Washington Post’s recent unpleasantness with comments, make us less enthusiastic about the idea.

But sometimes we’re reminded of what we’re missing out on. Over at the AlabamaElections blog, which has also been covering Stormiegate, readers have been commenting up a storm. Here are some highlights:

Anonymous: this is no surprise at all. have any of you ever had dealings with [Senator Sessions's] staff? they are the most churlish, immature, pious, serf serving brats I have ever come across in government dealings.
Anonymous: I believe her First Amendment Rights were pressured, and she had to cave in to maintain her job. Personally, I would have quit working for Jeff. In fact, I wouldn’t work for him to begin with!

Additional vitriol and snark — all from anonymous commenters, of course — after the jump.

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Earlier today, to paraphrase Sisqo, we asked you to “let [us] see that thong.” We requested a screen capture of the infamous photograph showing Senate staffer Stormie Janzen’s bare-midriff-cum-thong. MORE »

Okay, fine, we’ll admit it. We believe that the whole Stormie Janzen blog controversy is a bit overblown. Indeed, our view is reflected in the title we’ve given to this post. (And yes, we briefly considered the triple-pun headline “Stormie Janzen: Temptress in a Teapot,” before rejecting it as way too “busy.”)

But the recognition that this is all “much ado about nothing” — as Stormie herself, a one-time Shakespeare scholar, might say — won’t prevent us from serving up yet another post about Sen. Jeff Sessions’s steamy staffer. It’s what you’re clearly clamoring for, and we aim to please!

For those of you who missed yesterday’s coverage, Stormie Janzen is a gorgeous, 34-year-old scheduler for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Until recently, Stormie Jansen [sic; intentional misspelling to capture Google traffic] maintained a bawdy blog on MySpace, where she raved about the sexiness of men in button-fly jeans and treated visitors to a tantalizing glimpse of her thong, a la Monica.

Unfortunately for Ms. Janzen, as well as all thong-loving members of MySpace, the powers-that-be in Senator Sessions’s office eventually got wind of her literary exploits. And when they did, they forced poor Stormie to change into a pair of granny panties — and to take down her blog. (But the chastened Janzen is keeping her job, as reported by Roll Call.)

So you’ll probably never get to see that ridiculously delicious photo of Stormie in her partially unbuttoned jeans (unless someone emails us a screen cap). But you’re still dying to know: “Who is Stormie Jansen? And how is she related to the Halle Berry character from X-Men?”

On the jump page, the results of Wonkette’s detailed investigation into those questions.

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This morning, via DomePunks, we learn the story of Stormie Janzen (porn name: Stormie Janzen). Until recently, the comely Ms. Janzen — a 34-year-old scheduler for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) — maintained a racy, sexy blog on MySpace. Janzen’s blog featured midriff-baring photos of the curvaceous blogress, as well as paeans to men in button-fly jeans. MORE »

• From the “New York Slimes” and the “Washington Compost” to the “San Francisco Comical” and the “Portland Snore-egonian,” all the nicknames fit to print. [The Corner]
• NYT realizes that blogging has “its own special power.” [LA Observed]
• BREAKING: Cheney not fond of reporters! [Fishbowl DC]
• Unclear on the concept: “For ABC to use virtual unknowns [to anchor WNT] instead of stars is blasphemous.” [NYO]
• Rummy on reporters in Iraq: Poor confused adorable scribes! No wonder they only report the bad news. [CJR]

We read today about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s off-line-only love affair with blogs. He has no Berry, no computer, no email — it must be nice to be so rich that everyone does that for you — so he keeps up with them via a weekly memo about “what progressive blogs, especially Daily Kos and MyDD.com, are saying on key issues.” We got a sneak peek at these memos and have transferred them from their hand-lettered vellum scrolls to this pixel form:

10/28/05: Iraq war bad. Bush lied. Stupid Bush. MERRY FITZMAS.
11/04/05: Election was stolen. Iraq war REALLY bad. Bush stupid, a liar.
11/11/05: Lying stupid Bush stole the election. Bad goes the Iraq war.
11/18/05: JACK MURTHA ROCKS.
11/25/05: Iraq war bad.

We understand that Kennedy also follows the news very closely and often has his staff tell him what happened on the “talking picture box.” MORE »

Does the New York Times have a secret crush on blogs? Over at the Blogometer, William Beutler says Judy Miller