Ashlee, Smashlee

Ashlee Simpson's career is a fake!

Fake newsmen infiltrate the White House press corps and fake singers employ their craft on national television.

When the curtain rises and the fraud is revealed, the American public takes notice but generally moves on. The art of the sham has become fair game.

Teen singer (and, not coincidentally, reality TV star) Ashlee Simpson would not have the notoriety she currently has if it wasn't for her October appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in which she was caught lip-syncing.

The incident was given a variety of spins -- blamed on her drummer, then acid reflex disease -- but Simpson has not fully recovered.

In January, she was booed at the Orange Bowl and sales of her debut album, "Autobiography" (Geffen), stalled at an impressive 3 million copies. An online petition that asks her to stop performing has collected almost 350,000 signatures.

Who knew?

Cornell Daily Sun write-up of Jon Stewart's show. No media was allowed to interview him after the show.

That call-in day made the news.

That report set off the network of liberal blogs, or Web commentaries. “Stop the Presses!” Joshua Micah Marshall wrote on his blog, Talking Points Memo. Marshall refers to Lieberman as the “dean of the faint-hearted faction” — a list of Democrats most likely to break with the party on Social Security.

“Call Richard Blumenthal!,” Marshall wrote, referring to Connecticut's attorney general, whom activists had unsuccessfully tried to entice into a primary challenge.

Other liberal bloggers began labeling Lieberman a DINO, for Democrat in Name Only, adapting a coinage conservatives often use for moderate Republicans. Several took up a campaign for a National Call Joe Lieberman Day, a rallying cry that made its way to the liberal radio program “Majority Report.”

Connecticut newspapers covered the story, including Internet rumors that the actor Paul Newman might challenge Lieberman. (Lieberman says Newman is a supporter, and state Democratic officials call a potential Newman candidacy ludicrous. Newman has not spoken publicly about it.)

Lieberman this week clarified his position on Social Security, telling his hometown paper, The New Haven Register, that he was "totally unconvinced" by the idea of creating private accounts, calling it "a very risky thing to do."

And on Thursday, Lieberman put his name on a letter signed by 42 Democratic senators urging the president "to publicly and unambiguously announce that you reject privatized accounts funded with Social Security dollars."

A spokesman said his previous sympathetic references to private accounts were intended to mean in addition to Social Security, not carved out of current payroll taxes.

Clark, the New Haven activist, said she believed that the outcry in Connecticut forced Lieberman to retreat.

"He backed off his previous position, and that is a result of the pressure that the grass roots was applying to him, but we still need to find at least one candidate to go against him in the primary in 2006," she said.

Still, a Democratic senator said that given Lieberman's popularity at home, the agitation about a primary challenge was something less than a meaningful threat. "Is it serious? No?" the senator said. "Is it an annoyance? Yes."

Lieberman said he was not worried about the phone calls and blogs. He added that his views had not changed. "In part, those folks are angry with me because of my position on the war," he said. "I wish they would come to talk to me about what my position is on Social Security."

I wonder if Sen. Lieberman reads this blog.

Want to see President Bush on Thursday? Don't count on Anne Northup getting you tickets!

The Hollow Men premieres on Comedy Central this Thursday, March 10, at 10:30 p.m

Wilver Dornel "Willie" Stargell would have turned 65 today had he still been living.

What radio station still plays Hanson's MMMbop on the radio anymore? That was so 1990's!

Crazy, you say?

The Feb. 19 remarks by Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, at a church pancake breakfast were first reported this week in Roll Call. The Capitol Hill newspaper reported it had heard a recording of the talk made by someone in attendance.

According to Roll Call, Johnson said he was talking with President Bush and GOP Rep. Kay Granger at the White House about weapons of mass destruction that troops failed to find in Iraq.

According to Roll Call, Johnson said he told the president: "Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore."