Celebrity Smart-Ass Quotes

[BobbyD 2]

Carter Blasts Bush on His Global Impact

 

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

 

The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.

 

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."

 

Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed his comments to The Associated Press on Saturday and declined to elaborate. He spoke while promoting his new audiobook series, "Sunday Mornings in Plains," a collection of weekly Bible lessons from his hometown of Plains, Ga.

 

"Apparently, Sunday mornings in Plains for former President Carter includes hurling reckless accusations at your fellow man," said Amber Wilkerson, Republican National Committee spokeswoman. She said it was hard to take Carter seriously because he also "challenged Ronald Reagan's strategy for the Cold War."

 

Carter came down hard on the Iraq war.

 

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," he said. "But that's been a radical departure from all previous administration policies."

 

Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts by other presidents.

 

Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive $2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone.

 

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

 

Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter's comments as unprecedented.

 

"This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president," Brinkley said. "When you call somebody the worst president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words."

 

Carter also lashed out Saturday at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how he would judge Blair's support of Bush, the former president said: "Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient."

 

"And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world," Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

[BobbyD 2]

(Pagesix.com)

 

Good Advice From Bouncer

 

NIGHT crawlers who want a minimum of hassle at Manhattan's top nightspots should read "Clublife," a memoir by pseudonymous "Rob the Bouncer," out in August from HarperCollins. Rob, who worked many famous nocturnal hangouts, writes: "Do not engage in public displays of affection in front of us at 4:30 a.m. That's not the kind of [bleep] we want to look at after spending eight hours watching you have seizures on the dance floor." Next, "Don't touch the bouncers. When people leave the club . . . they're filthy. They're sweating and their STDs are festering. This septic parade leaving the club disgusts us." Also, "don't get into a fight after last call - we're thinking about diners and omelettes and sleep . . . Extending a bouncing staff's night will inevitably end up exploding in your face." Rob, now out of the business, adds: "In a room filled with 3,000 drunken, sweaty, dis eased, drug-addled [bleep]heads, many of whom are threaten ing you - all you want to do is . . . think hard about what went wrong to land you here."

Edited May 21, 2007 by BobbyD

[BobbyD 2]

(Pagesix.com)

 

How Jackie Socked It To Ike

 

POWER hitter Jackie Robinson was also a power writer - and once penned a scathing letter to Dwight Eisenhower, slamming the president for waffling on civil rights issues, an upcoming book on the Brooklyn Dodgers legend reveals. Out this October, “First Class Citizenship” by Michael Long bares a never-before- published note that Robinson, who broke the Major League color barrier, fired off after Eisenhower told the 1958 Summit Meeting of Negro Leaders that blacks must have patience. “On hearing you say this, I felt like standing up and saying, ‘Oh, no! Not again,’ ” Robinson wrote. “We have been the most patient of all people. When you said we must have self-respect, I wondered how we could have self- respect and remain patient considering the treatment accorded us.”

[BobbyD 2]

Many 63-year-old ladies would be flattered if a 31-year-old guy tried to touch her leg, but not Patti LaBelle. When a male fan tried to cop a feel as she performed at the Holt Renfrew opening in Vancouver, she snapped, 'I'm not some hoochie, and I can still kick your a--.'

[Freckles 79]

Knew I loved Patti for a reason...!!

[BobbyD 2]

(Pagesix.com)

 

Warhol Skin-deep

 

THE day Andy Warhol met Bette Davis didn't go well at all. In Ed Sikov's upcoming Davis bio, "Dark Victory," out this fall from Henry Holt, actress Eileen Atkins recalls how the fiery Hollywood legend and the pasty-faced prince of pop art found themselves together at a party. "She looked at Andy and said, 'Why the hell don't you do something about your skin?' . . . I was just stunned that anybody could be that rude." Davis also once took a nasty verbal swing at Natalie Wood, according to her one-time personal assistant, Mart Crowley, who later wrote "The Boys in the Band." Crowley tells Sikov: "[bette] said, 'I played a movie star once - a washed-up movie star - in a picture called "The Star." ' And then she said to Natalie in the most condescending, sarcastic way: 'Of course you're too young to re-mem-ber.' And Natalie very coolly said, 'Bette, I played your daughter in that movie.' Bette was so stunned and shocked . . . She didn't know what to say."

[BobbyD 2]

Endquote

 

"I DON'T want to get involved with politics, but I'm prepared to work with the next president, no matter who she is" - ® Rep. Charles Rangel addressing Ray Kelly, Robert Morgenthau, Joan Jedell and Dolly Lenz at the Police Athletic League lunch at the Yale Club.

[BobbyD 2]

Obama "Outraged" by Jena, Blames Media for Being "Surprised"

 

ABC News’ Jonathan Greenberger Reports: At a fundraiser tonight in Atlanta, Ga., Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., expressed indignation over the plight of six black teenagers in Jena, La.

 

It was the first time Obama had spoken out forcefully about the teens on the campaign trail, and it came just 24 hours after reports surfaced that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had said Obama was "acting like he’s white" for not doing more to publicize the situation in Jena.

 

"On this day when we are outraged over the disparities of treatment in the criminal justice system, in a time when in Jena we are puzzled over by how it is that a schoolyard fight gets charged with attempted murder, we wonder how it is Scooter Libby doesn’t get any jailtime, and you’ve got young men in a fight getting charged with attempted murder," Obama said to loud cheers from the 2,000-person crowd. "People are weary of that. They know we’ve got to bring about a change."

 

Obama’s language was vastly stronger than it was two weeks ago, when he was asked about the case in Storm Lake, Ia. Obama appeared visibly uncomfortable by the question and said the teens "appear to have been railroaded into a very difficult situation," but he would not say what remedy he hoped to see in the case.

 

"My staff is right now looking into the details of the case to see potentially what role the federal government would have in sorting through and in providing justice there," Obama said at the time.

 

Tonight, Obama said it was the media who had failed to grasp the gravity of the situation in Jena.

 

"A lot of the mainstream media was surprised by what happened in Jena," said Obama. "But what they fail to understand is that all across the country, people have been wondering why it is that conviction rates, and arrest rates, and the number of young people who are put on the adult system instead of the juvenile system, varies oftentimes for the same crime."

[BobbyD 2]

Olbermann to Bush: ‘Your hypocrisy is so vast’

 

SPECIAL COMMENT

By Keith Olbermann

Anchor, 'Countdown'

MSNBC

 

So the President, behaving a little bit more than usual, like we would all interrupt him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR, stepped before the press conference microphone and after side-stepping most of the substantive issues like the Israeli raid on Syria, in condescending and infuriating fashion, produced a big political finish that indicates, certainly, that if it wasn’t already – the annual Republican witch-hunting season is underway.

 

“I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. Military.”

 

“And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad.

 

“And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military.”

 

“That was a sorry deal.”

 

First off, it’s “Democrat-ic” party.

 

You keep pretending you’re not a politician, so stop using words your party made up. Show a little respect.

 

Secondly, you could say this seriously after the advertising/mugging of Senator Max Cleland? After the swift-boating of John Kerry?

 

But most importantly, making that the last question?

 

So that there was no chance at a follow-up?

 

So nobody could point out, as Chris Matthews so incisively did, a week ago tonight, that you were the one who inappropriately interjected General Petraeus into the political dialogue of this nation in the first place!

 

Deliberately, premeditatedly, and virtually without precedent, you shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman and now you’re complaining about the outcome, and then running away from the microphone?

 

Eleven months ago the President’s own party, the Republican National Committee, introduced this very different kind of advertisement, just nineteen days before the mid-term elections.

 

Bin Laden.

 

Al-Zawahiri’s rumored quote of six years ago about having bought “suitcase bombs.”

 

All set against a ticking clock, and finally a blinding explosion and the dire announcement:

 

“These are the stakes - vote, November 7th.”

 

That one was ok, Mr. Bush?

 

Terrorizing your own people in hopes of getting them to vote for your own party has never brought as much as a public comment from you?

 

The Republican Hamstringing of Captain Max Cleland and lying about Lieutenant John Kerry met with your approval?

 

But a shot at General Petraeus, about whom you conveniently ignore it, was you who reduced him from four-star hero to a political hack, merits this pissy juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?

 

Your hypocrisy is so vast that if we could somehow use it to fill the ranks in Iraq you could realize your dream and keep us fighting there until the year 3000.

 

The line between the military and the civilian government is not to be crossed.

 

When Douglas MacArthur attempted to make policy for the United States in Korea half a century ago, President Truman moved quickly to fire him, even though Truman knew it meant his own political suicide, and the deification of a General who history suggests had begun to lose his mind.

 

When George McClellan tried to make policy for the Union in the Civil War, President Lincoln finally fired his chief General, even though he knew McClellan could galvanize political opposition which he did when McClellan ran as Lincoln’s presidential opponent in 1864, nearly defeating our greatest president.

 

Even when the conduit flowed the other way and Senator Joseph McCarthy tried to smear the Army because it wouldn’t defer the service of one of McCarthy’s staff aides, the entire civilian and Defense Department structures, after four years of fearful servitude, rose up against McCarthy and said “enough” and buried him.

 

The list is not endless but it is instructive.

 

Air Force General LeMay—who broke with Kennedy over the Cuban Missile Crisis and was retired.

 

Army General Edwin Anderson Walker—who started passing out John Birch Society leaflets to his soldiers.

 

Marine General Smedley Butler—who revealed to Congress the makings of a plot to remove FDR as President and for merely being approached by the plotters, was phased out of the military hierarchy.

 

These careers were ended because the line between the military and the civilian is not to be crossed!

 

Mr. Bush, you had no right to order General Petraeus to become your front man.

 

And he obviously should have refused that order and resigned rather than ruin his military career.

 

The upshot is and contrary it is, to the MoveOn advertisement he betrayed himself more than he did us.

 

But there has been in his actions a sort of reflexive courage, some twisted vision of duty at a time of crisis. That the man doesn’t understand that serving officers cannot double as serving political ops, is not so much his fault as it is your good, exploitable, fortune.

 

But Mr. Bush, you have hidden behind the General’s skirts, and today you have hidden behind the skirts of ‘the planted last question’ at a news conference, to indicate once again that your presidency has been about the tilted playing field, about no rules for your party in terms of character assassination and changing the fabric of our nation, and no right for your opponents or critics to as much as respond.

 

That is not only un-American but it is dictatorial.

 

And in pimping General David Petraeus and in the violation of everything this country has been assiduously and vigilantly against for 220 years, you have tried to blur the gleaming radioactive demarcation between the military and the political, and to portray your party as the one associated with the military, and your opponents as the ones somehow antithetical to it.

 

You did it again today and you need to know how history will judge the line you just crossed.

 

It is a line thankfully only the first of a series that makes the military political, and the political, military.

 

It is a line which history shows is always the first one crossed when a democratic government in some other country has started down the long, slippery, suicidal slope towards a Military Junta.

 

Get back behind that line, Mr. Bush, before some of your supporters mistake your dangerous transgression, for a call to further politicize our military.

 

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

[BobbyD 2]

(MSNBC.COM)

 

Dish on the fly

 

William Shatner recently championed actors’ rights on the “Boston Legal” set, according to the National Enquirer’s Mike Walker. When a bossy assistant director wasn’t so respectful to extras, the Priceline shill shouted, “YOU DON’T SPEAK TO ACTORS LIKE THAT! ... Your tone of voice and superior attitude won’t be tolerated on this set. Apologize NOW!” And when the Shatner speaks, assistant directors obey.

[galaxygirl 0]

Woo!! Go Shat!!

[BobbyD 2]

Snoop Dogg Dines with the Beckhams?

Posted Oct 12th 2007 11:20AM by TMZ Staff

Filed under: Wacky and Weird

 

What the feezy?! The Beckhams and Snoop Dogg are friends now?! The group reportedly met for dinner last night at Mastro's in Beverly Hills. It's the creme de la creme of Beverly Hills society -- in flannel and pigtails!

 

TMZ spotted Snoop walking to his car after his dinner, and he wasn't shy with his choice of words regarding the paparazzi, saying, "Damn, is Britney Spears around this muthaf***er?" And when someone asked the Doggfather if he felt like Britney, he quipped, "Hell naw, I ain't feelin' nothing like her! I'm keeping my hair and my kids!"

 

For the record, Snoop's hair is longer and more luxurious than Brit Brits!

[BobbyD 2]

Thompson's Daughter's Death Informs Right-to-Die Stance

Thompson Says End-of-Life Decisions Should Not Become 'Political Football'

By JAKE TAPPER

Oct. 22, 2007

 

In a moving, pointed and rare response to a question about the Terri Schiavo controversy, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee Monday afternoon described details of the death of his own daughter, Elizabeth "Betsy" Thompson Panici, and said that neither federal nor local governments should play any role in making a family's end-of-life decisions.

 

Thompson Discusses Effect of Daughter's Death"I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family," Thompson said. "And I will assure you one thing: No matter which decision you make, you will never know whether or not you made exactly the right decision."

 

GOP hopeful Thompson said that "making this into a political football is something that I don't welcome, and this will probably be the last time I ever address it. It should be decided by the family. The federal government -- and the state government too, except for the court system -- should stay out of these matters, as far as I'm concerned."

 

Betsy Panici died in January 2002 at the age of 38 from a brain injury following cardiac arrest after what was deemed an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. The death of Thompson's only daughter from his first marriage is said to have devastated the lawyer-turned-actor-turned-politician, and friends say it played a major role in Thompson's decision not to seek re-election two months later.

 

In June 2002, Thompson, who in 1985 divorced his first wife and the mother of his three children, including daughter Betsy, married political consultant Jeri Kehn. Their daughter, Hayden, was born in 2003, and their son, Samuel, was born just last year.

 

Must See Political MomentsLast month during a sojourn to Florida, Thompson begged off a direct answer when asked if Congress had overstepped its bounds in March 2005 by preventing Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed, per court orders and the desires of her husband, Michael Schiavo. "Local matters, generally speaking, should be left to the locals," Thompson said last month. But since Thompson also said, "I don't remember the details of the case," many in the media covered his answer as if he had slept through what was a national frenzy in 2005.

 

"Obviously, I had heard about the Schiavo case," Thompson said Monday afternoon after touring the Port of Tampa, when a local reporter asked him if he wanted to revisit his answer from September. "I had to face a situation like that on a personal level with my own daughter. I know this is bandied about as a political issue, and people want to make it such and talk about it in the public marketplace a lot. I am a little bit uncomfortable about that, because it's an intensely personal thing with me. These things need to be decided by the family."

 

Schiavo, whom doctors described as having been in a persistent vegetative state, died March 31, 2005. Despite medical evidence, her parents, brother and many in the religious community insisted she had some cognition.

 

Schiavo, whom doctors described as having been in a persistent vegetative state, died March 31, 2005. Despite medical evidence, her parents, brother and many in the religious community insisted she had some cognition.

[tyler 408]

and the state government too, except for the court system -- should stay out of these matters, as far as I'm concerned."

In theory the courts are supposed to be free of the legislature. In reality, justices of the higher courts are tied to the party that appointed them. Rulings in keeping with certain beliefs are what get them appointed in the first place.

 

Courts are there to enforce the laws -- who makes the laws -- federal and state governments. The kind of laws you get on this issue depends on what party is in vogue at the moment.

 

The statement make no sense. points for sentiment, zero for reality.

[BobbyD 2]

(MSNBC.COM)

 

ContactMusic reveals that in an excerpt from Donald Trump’s new tome, “Think Big and Kick Ass,” the boisterous billionaire shares a few thoughts about Paul McCartney’s divorce drama. When The Donald first heard the Beatle said no to a prenup, he thought, “What a mistake. This guy is a schmuck.” Donald, who’s doled out $30 million to ex-wives, thinks Sir Paul knows better now. “Get a prenuptial agreement. Don't believe me? Ask Paul McCartney what he thinks.”

[BobbyD 2]

Endquote

 

. . . "I DON'T consider the fact that I've dated several men in my life and not married one a failure. I consider that a good time" - Patricia Clarkson, 47, to More magazine.

[BobbyD 2]

All Reuters News

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lest We Forget: Potter star on First World War

 

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe cannot imagine what it was like to live amid the stench of death in the trenches of World War One -- but he says his generation should never be allowed to forget.

 

"I think it is as relevant today as it ever was with young men all over the world still sacrificing their lives in the name of war," said the teenage actor critically acclaimed on Monday for his portrayal of writer Rudyard Kipling's doomed son.

 

Casting off his teenage wizard's cloak, Radcliffe starred in "My Boy Jack" which was screened on British television to mark the annual wartime Remembrance Day and is also the subject of an exhibition at London's Imperial War Museum.

 

"Radcliffe created an entirely convincing sense of a young man trying unconvincingly not to be scared," The Daily Telegraph said of his performance. "He was well cast," The Independent critic wrote.

 

Writing the introduction to the first exhibition ever dedicated to the young soldier, Radcliffe said "I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like in the trenches living amongst the stench of death and knowing that at any moment it may be your last."

 

Rudyard Kipling, whose "Just So Stories" and "The Jungle Book" have become children's classics, was a fervent propagandist for the war.

 

He used his influence to ensure his son was able to sign up despite being twice rejected for being severely short-sighted.

 

The film and the exhibition trace Kipling's progression from gung-ho patriotism to heartbroken disillusionment that ended with him penning the famous lines:

 

"If any question why we died

 

"Tell them, because our fathers lied."

 

On display in the exhibition is Jack's last letter before going over the top in 1915 to meet his death at the Battle of Loos. It was just after his 18th birthday.

 

In a hastily scrawled message to his parents and sister, he wrote "Funny to think one will be in the thick of it tomorrow."

 

"This will be my last letter most likely for some time," he said. Two days later, he was dead.

 

Alongside his note are messages of condolence to Rudyard Kipling from President Theodore Roosevelt and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle who both lost sons in the "war to end all wars."

[NYCat 1]

SEXUAL FEELING

 

EVAN Rachel Wood has no problem kissing women. "I'm not a lesbian, but I don't think it's weird or gross or anything," the hottie girlfriend of Marilyn Manson tells YRB magazine. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm bisexual - I don't sleep with women. But I definitely appreciate women and there have been times where I have been attracted to a woman." Wood, who stars in "Across the Universe," adds: "I'm not afraid of sexuality. I think too many people get s - - - and get called skanky or a whore just because they are sexual."

[BobbyD 2]

(Pagesix.com)

 

Stella's Cheap Shot At Heather

 

November 16, 2007 -- HEATHER Mills has only one full leg, but the bitter ex-model is not above using it to deliver some very mean kicks to Paul McCartney's daughter, Stella.

 

The soon-to-be-ex of the former Beatle sicced her new publicist on Stella yesterday, accusing the fashion designer of being so petty, vindictive and cheap that she was charging Mills almost full price for her exclusive line of pricey duds.

 

"Stella told Heather she'd give her just 10 percent off at her boutique in London," LA-based publicist Michelle Elyzabeth fumed to Page Six yesterday. "And they were related. But that just goes along with everything we know about Stella now."

 

The pit-bull flack said that Mills valiantly "tried and tried" to form a positive relationship with Stella during her four-year marriage to Paul but that it became clear how much Stella despised her after one particularly low blow three years ago.

 

That was when the hotheaded amputee, who does charity work for Adopt-A-Minefield, which raises money to clear land mines and help land-mine survivors, personally asked Stella to donate bottles of her perfume for inclusion in gift bags for a charity gala.

 

"She said, 'No!' What would that have cost her? Nothing," raged Elyzabeth. "But we didn't beg. One turndown is enough, so we told her, 'Fine, thank you,' and Elizabeth Arden donated instead."

 

Elyzabeth insisted that Mills staunchly defended Stella all the way up until her nasty 2006 split from Paul, whom many have claimed she married to get her hands on his estimated $1 billion fortune. "Stella never cared for her, but Heather always said, 'She has such a close relationship with her dad, that's all it is,' " Elyzabeth claimed. "She never tried to fight with her."

 

Stella McCartney has made no secret of her hatred for Mills and once reportedly threatened to "kill the bitch" after hearing Mills accuse her dad of once hitting her late mother, Linda. Recently, she delivered another low blow by designing a one-leg pendant for her jewelry line.

 

Stella's rep did not return calls or e-mails for comment.

[Stargazer415 0]

"Stella told Heather she'd give her just 10 percent off at her boutique in London,

 

Stella was being nice, I would have given Heather no discount.

[BobbyD 2]

Sen. Trent Lott announces retirement

Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:39pm

By Richard Cowan

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trent Lott, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, on Monday announced he will retire this year, five years before his term expires and ending the conservative's 34-year career in Congress.

 

"I am announcing today that I will be retiring from the Senate by the end of the year," Lott said in his hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi.

 

"Let me make it clear, there are no (health) problems. I feel fine. I may look my 66 years, but I honestly feel good," said the former college cheerleader.

 

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is expected to pick a fellow Republican to take the seat until the next congressional and presidential election in November 2008, when Barbour said he would call a special election. The conservative state's other senator, Thad Cochran, is also a Republican and is running for re-election next year.

 

Speculation that Lott was considering retiring so he could make more money in the private sector began about two years ago after his Mississippi home was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

 

Lott is ending his Senate career after making a remarkable political recovery from a gaffe in 2002 that cost him his position as Senate majority leader.

 

At a 100th birthday celebration for then-Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who ran unsuccessfully for president as a segregationist in 1948, Lott was quoted saying that Mississippians were proud to have voted for Thurmond for president and that "if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years."

 

President George W. Bush and then-Sen. Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, were said to have helped nudge Lott out of his leadership job. But on Monday, Bush had only kind words for Lott, saying "his immense talent will be missed in our nation's capital."

 

APOLOGIES

 

Lott made a series of apologies to black organizations and others for the remark he that he said had been misinterpreted, and gradually worked his way back into the Republican leadership.

 

John Bruce, an associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi, said Charles Pickering, a Republican congressman from Mississippi, was the most likely candidate to replace Lott.

 

Democrats currently hold a narrow majority in the 100-member Senate with 49 seats and two independents who often vote with them. Lott is the sixth Republican to announce his retirement, putting those seats in more competitive play in 2008. No Senate Democrats have yet announced they would not run for re-election.

 

Lott was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972 before entering the Senate in 1989. As his party's "whip" in the Senate since January, he has been responsible for legislative strategy and ensuring that minority Republicans mostly stick together on key votes.

 

Lott was a member of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, loyally defending then-President Richard Nixon when the panel passed articles of impeachment on Watergate.

 

His retirement announcement kicked off a scramble among Senate Republicans for his leadership post, with Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Jon Kyl of Arizona possibly seeking the job, according to aides.

 

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro in Washington and Matthew Bigg in Atlanta)

[BobbyD 2]

Endquote

 

"AMERICANS are brought up to believe they can become the next president of the United States. British people are told, 'It won't happen to you' " - Ricky Gervais in Time magazine, out today.

[BobbyD 2]

(Pagesix.com)

 

Sit Still Or Else

 

THE melodramatic sentiments of Tori Amos don't end with her song lyrics. At her Thursday night performance in San Diego, two antsy "fans" with front-row seats kept getting up from and then returning to their prime spots in front of the stage. As shown by a video posted on Dlisted.com, Amos got so fed up, she told the girls, "Get the [bleep] out of my show. It's a privilege to sit in the front row and I reserve those seats for people who appreciate music. Get the [bleep] out." The rightfully embarrassed duo were quickly ushered out.

[BobbyD 2]

Side Dish

 

Rupert Everett might be the only gay man not impressed by George Clooney. “Clooney thinks that, provided he does films which are politically committed, he’s allowed to do ‘Ocean’s 11’, ‘12’ and ‘13,’” the fiery Brit said. “But the ‘Ocean’s’ movies are a cancer to world culture. They’re destroying us.” He also laughs off Clooney’s charisma: “He’s not the brightest spark on the boulevard. He’ll be President one day. Mark my words, if he’s straight, he’ll be President.”

[BobbyD 2]

(Pagesix.com)

 

Eves The Stars Want To Forget

 

December 31, 2007 -- NEW Year's Eve isn't all it's cracked up to be, say a number of celebrities who've had nightmarish experiences on the festive, champagne-soaked night.

 

Composer Philip Glass, who drove a cab to support himself during some lean years in the '70s, told Webster Hall's Baird Jones: "On New Year's Eve, all I worried about, especially early in the evening, was that a passenger would throw up, and that's exactly what happened every year. The second that a passenger vomits, the night is over . . . It is a complete loss since I had to take my cab back to the garage immediately because of the stench.

 

"Even washing it out with a hose, the car was unusable for 24 hours . . . It was just awful."

 

Double Oscar nominee Sylvia Miles fumed: "Whenever I go out on New Year's Eve, some fool comes up to me and wishes me 'Happy Birthday,' because it is in fact Sarah Miles' birthday and I'm always getting confused with her. When it happens every year, it becomes quite annoying."

 

CNN's Anderson Cooper doesn't like ringing in the New Year, either. "Each year it gets worse and worse, and then I always think it can't get any worse, and then it always does," he told Paper magazine. "No matter where you go, I think everyone is having a bad time on New Year's. There's so much pressure. It's like amateur night."

 

Then there's the question of how to deal with the whopping hangover revelers face. Club queen Amy Sacco told Jones: "The best cure for a hangover is a whole pepperoni pizza from Patsy's with extra salt. With a Coke, that will put you right back on track."

 

For Julia Roberts, alternating between booze and health drinks works great. "The secret in drinking is to find a balance between champagne and carrot juice," she told Wireless Flash.

 

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst cures his head-pounding mornings by downing Pedialyte, described as an "oral electrolyte solution for infants and children formulated to prevent dehydration." His favorite flavor is blackcurrant.

 

Then there's the advice of doctors. When Humphrey Bogart once asked his physician for the best hangover cure, the medicine man shot back: "Stop drinking."