Liveblogging the Chertoff Testimony: Part 1

Secretary Michael Chertoff is now testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Wonkette is on the scene, liveblogging Secretary Chertoff's desperate attempt to save his job. (This post will probably be updated several times -- so keep refreshing that browser! -- until we move into a second post.)

11: 49 AM. That mustache looks good on Chertoff; it has a softening effect. He looks like sepulchral, less wraith-like; more "time to make the donuts"...

11: 52 AM. Hmm, interesting how CNN is running pics of submerged New Orleans right next to Chertoff's head. Fox News isn't doing that...

11: 57 AM. A little drama: an angry man just stood up in the gallery and started yelling, "Women and children are being thrown into the streets." Security approached the man, but then he quieted down. It looks like he's staying in the room. Sen. Joseph Lieberman says the man can remain if he listens quietly.

12: 03 PM: Sen. Susan Collins, in her grating and pedantic manner of speaking, asks Chertoff why he trotted off to some avian flu conference instead of focusing on Katrina.

12: 07 PM: Fox News is now running Katrina devastation pics alongside Chertoff's head.

12: 08 PM: Chertoff: "This avian flu conference involved some top-level people. It wasn't like a conference you go to in a hotel." Oh, that changes everything! We hate those boring hotel conferences too.

(To be continued in another post.)