Link Digest

- Good morning, bargain basement shoppers. Bear Stearns is now valued at $2 per share. Get it while there’s still such a thing as a U.S. dollar left!

•     Bonus: Greenspan talks moral hazard.

- This morning’s Bill Kristol column hinged on a gross factual inaccuracy. One might not expect more from Kristol, but the NYT is still expected to perform minimal fact-checking, isn’t it?

- Bill vs. Elliot, or, when a zipper might take you down with it.

- The cost of campaigning: Bill’s sinking reputation.

More on Callgirlgate, because how could we possibly start today’s Link Digest without it?

-Penthouse to Spitzer’s girl: Please pose naked for us!

-World is shocked: Spitzer’s girl is kind of adorable and totally sweet.

• Bonus: We saw this item on Drudge and thought, “Gold standard is back? Srsly? DC bureaucrats really managed to sneak this stinker past the public while everyone was busy looking at Albany in the throes of political crisis?!” But then we realized it was just Drudge being Drudge.

…and moving right along to other items of the day…

-Pelosi to Public: There will be no Clinton-Obama ticket.

-Clinton to Obama: Even though you won, you didn’t *really* win.

• Bonus: If you sometimes wonder why the Clinton camp sends out these bizarre press releases every time Obama wins something, you should take a closer look at the inimitable Mark Penn. This article rips him not one but several new ones.

-Rudy to McCain: I can haz bottom of ur ticket?

We could try to point you to the Reverend Moon’s speech about sex organs at a Washington Times dinner. We could cue your discriminating eye to the escalating negativity of the Democratic campaigns.

But why bother? We know you want to hear about Callgirlgate, so here’s the best that’s out there:

- What’s the difference between $30 and $3,000?

- “Frankly, all I was thinking about was my daughter. If I had to do it over again, I’d do the same thing. I did it for my daughter’s father.” Scandalized wives speak out.

- At $5,500 an hour, price dictates value, not the other way around.

- “Escort services are risky. When they are closed by the authorities, people’s lives are turned upside down. Many of us don’t recover. As one call girl told me when I was looking for a safer way to work, ‘If you get busted, I don’t want to know you.’”

-Take a guided tour on the Map of Shame.

After a week’s hiatus, Link Digest returns to bring you…

- Jack Nicholson’s Hillary Clinton ad:

- Some tidbits from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s long-awaited investigation into whether the Bush Administration’s walk matched its talk.

- An important question: who will pick up the $20 million tab for Florida and Michigan’s primary do-over?

• A few ideas on how to pay from Senator Bill Nelson.
• A round-up of the issues at play.

- Another really long , exhaustively detailed profile of Senator/candidate Clinton, from — where else? — the New Yorker.

- Some cold comfort for “The Wire” withdrawal symptoms, in the form of an interview with co-creator Ed Burns dishing on our failures in Iraq, the drug war, education, and policing.

- Dodd, Hunter, Biden. We don’t know who they are but apparently they ran for President once and now they are writing op-eds to let us know what they’d be talking about if they were still running. But like, the whole reason they’re no longer running is cuz we didn’t like what they had to say the first time around so we ask them to please kindly go away and leave the NY Times op-ed page for the rest of us desperately trying to get published in the Gray Lady’s hallowed pages. Kthxbai.

- New Yorker runs a long profile on Michelle Obama.

- An excellent Stanley Fish column explains why McCain has an overwhelming advantage in a match-up against Obama.

- Michael Tomasky ponders the superdelegate effect in the NY Review.

- Wine track vs. beer track voters, latte liberals vs. Dunkin’ Donuts Democrats, or just plain white vs. blue collar. Call them what you want, but these new liberal voting blocs make it clear that the Democratic Party is headed for a realignment. National Journal brings us the latest trend piece on the difference between the working-class Clinton supporter and Obama’s upscale masses.

-Tuesday is D-day for Clinton.

- The Dow is down 300 points, Goldman is projecting a two-year decline, and the kids are eating cat food, but a recession it most certainly is not!

-Idyllic suburban communities are the crime-ridden slums of the near-future as families abandon sprawl. But seriously though, it is NOT a recession.

- Prince Harry, not entirely unlike Pokemon…

Permalink

- Great Economist cartoon:

-Quote of the day, emphasis ours: “The incumbent’s hand-picked successor will win Russia’s presidential election on Sunday, and Putin has already made clear how he plans to hold on to power” -Time.com’s blurb for an article on the transfer of power to Medvedev. Yep, folks, he WILL WIN. There isn’t even the shadow of a doubt. Because it’s not like it’s an election or anything.

- The Clinton campaign redefines the science of spin, asserting that if Obama wins Texas and Ohio by anything less than 100% of the vote, he’s clearly the loser. Yet, if Clinton scrapes by, it’s practically a mandate. [Marc Ambinder, Political Ticker]

- Then again, Obama owes his good fortune to independents and wayward Republicans. Among Democrats, he’s losing to Hillary. [Trailhead]

- A taste of what the Republican National Committee has in store for Obama. [NYT]

- Every few months, some reporter writes a story about Matt Drudge’s god-like powers as a journalist. Read the latest of these. [Telegraph]

- Vote Hillary, FOR THE CHILDREN.
…and the hubbub the ad is causing. [The Page]

- Bust out the Kleenex…Bloomberg officially not running…for President. Veep, maybe? [NYT]

- Can Clinton win? Use this nifty delegate calculator. Slate sez: “…even if she wins every remaining primary by 100 percent, she’ll need help from superdelegates to hit the magic number of 2,025 [delegates needed to secure the nomination].” [Slate]

- Putin’s anointed successor, Medvedev, is a cuddly teddy bear ready to snuggle up to the West. Awww. Also, rainbows and unicorns over the Tundra. [NYT]

- Close one campaign finance loophole, another one opens. But the money is still green and still influential. [Mother Jones]

- B. Hussein Obama and other Americans with bone-chilling names. Be very afraid. [Salon]

- Tips on getting Muslims and Jews to chat each other up, make love not war, etc. [Economist]

- To understand politics, read less. Unless it is Link Digest. [Political Animal]

- Watch real-time audience response to Hillary’s debate points in Ohio. [Slate V]

-William F. Buckley, founder of National Review, dead at 82. [NYT]

• “Elegant, witty conservative writer…dies, leaving no intellectual heirs.” [Wonkette]
• “Father of conservatism” calls Bush “not a conservative. [CBS]
• An hour with Charlie Rose.

-Hedge funds heart Obama. [Reuters]

• Bonus: Obama’s economics. [TNR]

-Is life starting to imitate West Wing? Why Obama vs. McCain is eerily like Santos vs. Vinick and how the show’s writers predicted 2008 in 2005. [Slate V]

-Bill Clinton fells “out of practice” in politics. [IHT]

-Clinton’s message guru, Mark Penn, claims he’s been “misunderstood.” There’s some irony for ya. [NY Observer]

-Is this race over yet? Obama demolishes Hillary’s last chance at debate. [MSNBC]

• Bonus: No matter who’s campaigning, Russert is always the winner.

- The poor little Clinton heiress — too long disenfranchised, voiceless, tucked away from public view — speaks! [NY Mag]

-Meanwhile, the Clinton matriarch prepares herself for the long silence. [NYT]

-And, in a fit of desperation, stoops to new lows in attack politics. [Drudge]

-Fear of attempts on Obama’s life grips the nation; bodyguards see wage hikes. [NYT]

-Who needs Nader? McCain, definitely. This is 2000 all over again, folks! [First Read, Politico, HuffPo]

-Finding superdelegate math a little puzzling? Don’t worry, so do we. [NYT]

-Presidential candidates take the Myers-Briggs. [Slate]

-Proving once again a time-tested maxim about French manners, President Sarkozy tells a malcontented constituent to “scram, you poor idiot.”

-The Journal’s Washington Wire has a smart roundup of opinions on last night’s Texas showdown. [WSJ]

• Bonus: a very meta liveblog of the livebloggers! That’s right. There are now bloggers blogging about bloggers blogging about the candidates. But we wonder, who blogs about the bloggers blogging about the bloggers blogging about the candidates? Where is the accountability?! [Divided We Stand]

-Hillary’s wanton campaign spending reveals managerial ineptitude. [NYT]

-Learn all about superdelegates from Google’s self-anointed elections hipster! [Google Blog]

-Dream about any Democratic frontrunners lately? Send ‘em here. [I Dream of Hillary/I Dream of Barack]

-If you’re following the McCain brouhaha, this is the next must-read installment in the saga. [TNR]

-Breeding the “right” kind of babies. [The Nation]

-”Freedom and elections are fine sentiments for the comfortable–as long as you have enough to eat” and other nuggets of wisdom about Cuba. [Brad DeLong]

-9/11 Truthers, still digging. [Utne]