IS LINCOLN ROLLING OVER IN HIS GRAVE?

1. . . . That's what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said ("The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.") about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was caught up in a "political corruption crime spree" by attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.
2. . . .The man with all the hair was caught on wiretaps to his office and campaign headquarters and "even seasoned investigators were stunned by what they heard on those tapes." Lots of filthy language and cussing.
3. . . . I wanna hear those tapes au naturale, without the bleeps, the real thing. Can somebody make that happen?
4. . . . Fitzgerald has been called a pit bull, an "extremely dogged prosecutor" and seemed to show "even more of a sense of moral outrage than ususal," as one poster to a political chat expressed in a comment to a washingtonpost.com online chat.
5. . . . Hmm. Whose ax is he grinding?
6. HEY BUDDY, SLOW DOWN. That's my advice for David Gregory, the new host of Meet the Press. Racing through his first show, speaking much too fast for a Sunday morning. Tim Russert didn't do it that way. Cut the hyper factor in half, thank you.
7. . . . Also NOTICED: The show is now offering further discussion with some of its guests after the main show is over, on their Web site, much like This Week offers more of its Roundtable chatter from their Green Room on their site. Copycats?
8. . . . and ONE MORE THING . . . With Gregory (38) being the new moderator of MTP and George Stephanopoulos (47) of TW and now John King (44) taking over for Wolf Blitzer (60) on CNN's Late Edition, that leaves grandpaw Bob Schieffer (71) as the oldest Sunday morning talk show host. (Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday is 61.)
9. . . . So the shows are "skewing" younger. Basically it's not old man's land anymore.
10. . . . Is this a good thing?
11. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), member of the Senate Banking Committee who voted against the bailout for the Big Three, sounds more like Dana Carvey (SNL) impersonating the elder George Bush than anything else I've ever heard. Those two oughta get together sometime, it would be hilarious.
12. Those lil red glasses that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is wearing now make him look like Sally Jessy Raphael (remember her?) or that funny infomercial guy (Matthew Lesko) who wears the suit with all the question marks on it.
13. . . . Watch, they won't last long. They're laughable. He's been nominated to be secretary of Health and Human Services, for crissakes. He'll need to get rid of 'em to increase his credibility and the credibility of his president's administration.
14. My cousin flat-out canceled her pet insurance for her cat Jezzie out of frustration of having to deal on the phone with the "sheer stupidity of the people at PetCare (pet insurance company). "Is a room temperature IQ a prerequisite for working there or in any service industry?," she angrily asked.
15. . . . Good. More power to her.
16. IS JENNIFER ANISTON WHOLESOME? She makes movies like Marley & Me (opening Christmas day), was in Friends for years and now she's basically naked (has on a neck tie) on the cover and inside the current GQ magazine with an article titled, "Is it just us or is Jennifer Aniston getting hotter?
17. . . . She poses alone and also in a group shot, lying on nearly naked young men in bathing suits. She's shameless.
18. . . . Who put her up to that? Was it her own idea? Will it backfire? (Probably not.)
19. . . . Her cover story pix for Entertainment Tonight and Vogue are much less controversial but she sure does like to flaunt her "assets."
20. JUST ASKING. How does the Salvation Army have the money to do all this TV advertising? They're shaking that bell on all the networks and cable stations and even have bought the open billboard (". . . brought to you by . . . ") for ABC's World News With Charles Gibson.
21. . . . Are they getting a discounted rate because they're a charity organization or are they in the money like United Way used to be.
22. CHARGING FOR "FLATULENCE." The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) wants to charge a fee for "air-polluting cows and hogs." Supposedly greenhouse gases that the animals emit through "breaking wind" or belching amounts to air pollution, they claim. So they want to charge farms or ranches with dairy cows, beef cattle and hogs annual fees.
23. . . . Also, I hear they're storing the . . . ahem, gas, and using it for some kind of fuel.
24. . . . Good God, are we that desperate? All this in the name of saving the environment? Can I get money from saving my gas and selling it to some energy company?
25. J'Adore by Dior. That ad that has Charlize Theron strutting through an elegant hallway of an expensive house or chateau, one-by-one taking (stripping?) off her ear rings, necklace, bracelets, letting her hair fall down, then stepping out of her dress and saying, "J'adore" in a lippy/pouty way to the camera.
26. . . . It's very suggestive. I think she wants some action.
27. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Keanu Reeves stars as the alien (with a modern day message) in this remake of the great 1951 sci-fi thriller. Not nearly as good. The movie misses. Reeves is pretty good but the film comes off as cheesy and certainly not that scary or forboding. An unattractive Jennifer Connolly plays a serious role (Helen Benson) as a scientist (actually an astrobiologist, really) and mother of young son Jacob, annoyingly and brattingly played by Will Smith's son Jaden. The kid's too much of a know-it-all.
28. . . . And now there's another super star son, Connor Cruise, son of Tom, who's getting into the movie business — this time in Will Smith's Seven Pounds, which opened this past weekend.
29. . . . Can we stop this horrid trend?
30. They say we need a Car Czar now to monitor the auto industry and force them into bankruptcy if they don't show the government they can survive without government aid. Who, pray tell, might that be? Ralph Nader?
31. Who's getting the better deal, Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien? Will Leno's show work at 10:00 at night five nights a week? Does this latest idea from the network (NBC) diminish O'Brien and his new time slot?
32. . . . Will America go to bed earlier now, especially the older crowd of buzzards?
33. . . . Odd how the tables turn. At first it seemed like Conan had the upper hand and NBC was just throwing Leno out. Now they realize they need him so he's back up off the wrestling mat.
34. . . .Good for Jay (if it works). All the man wants to do is work.
35. That yearly National Christmas Tree down on the Ellipse behind the White House in Washington, D.C. , looks a little better this year, not so much looking like it's been draped over with a blanket with pie plates hanging on it. This year you can actually see some of the tree branches sticking out (during the day).
36. . . . But at night, when the lights come on, it does look like a condom or the end of a cucumber.
37. Caroline Kennedy is seeking Rev. Al Sharpton's support in her quest to fill Hillary Clinton's New York Senate seat. Good God, does she have to do that?
38. UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY. That's what that recent Richard Gere/Diane Lane movie, Nights in Rodanthe, was to one of my coworkers. It's a "last chance at love" flick about two people who meet at the small coastal town of Rodanthe in the Outer Banks and who both have "life issues" (Gimme a Break!). But alas, there are complications.
39. . . . My friend howled in the theater at the movie, upsetting his romantic-feeling wife.
40. . . . He says he's still chuckling. Ha Ha Ha.
41. CADILLAC RECORDS. The story of pioneering blues and rhythm and blues record label Chess Records in Chicago, started by Leonard and Phil Chess.
42. . . . Movie's okay but some miscasting: Beyonce as Etta James doesn't get it for me. Etta was much more raw and Beyonce doesn't carry that in her voice and her depiction of the legendary belter seems really acted. And Adrien Brody, Leonard Chess in the movie, does not portray the record mogul as the rough, hard-driving businessman/con man that he was in real life. Brody does the part with no energy, no gumption, wimpily and passive. Chess was tough.
43. . . . Interesting for the story it covers but to an aficionado (of the music) like myself, not well done enough and suffers from the typical bio-pic malady: All the cosmetics but lacking on substance.
44. Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, is off for her annual trip to the West Coast for Christmas with all the rest of owner Sally's family. She'll be tranq'ed (tranquilized) and resting in a soft cage under a seat for five hours on the flight to California, dreaming of chasing turkeys on Grampaw Hamlin's estate.
45. SOUND SYSTEM UPGRADE. That's what they're in the stages of doing in Washington's Metro system. About time. When they made those announcements — and they announce frivolous things far too often/there's never a quiet minute down in the hole — the audio was ear-piercing, with inconsistent volume levels and audio quality like that of a tin can.
46. . . . Just get it fixed, use it sparingly and stop annoying the public.
47. There's a "silent" Clapper now (Clapper Plus) that they're advertising for Christmas. (Clap On, Clap Off." With this one you use a remote-control to turn the lights on and off instead of waking up everybody with clapping hands.
48. . . . And yes, in the TV commercials, grandma with the scraggly hair is still in the bed clapping her hands. Awwwww.
49. Gov. Blagojevich's voice sounded just like America's Most Wanted host John Walsh last Friday in Chicago when he said, "I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until I take my last breath," responding to charges he tried to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat.
50. . . . He also said he had the truth on his side and recited Rudyard Kipling's motivational poem "If" by heart.
51. . . . He's smart. I didn't see any teleprompter there.
52. . . . Michael Tomasky said on The Huffington Post that Blago's statement shows "a very Serbian presentation. Serbs love being under attack and scorned. It merely reinforces for them how correct they are."
53. . . . He said it, I didn't.
54. In an unofficial survey by the New York Post about Sean (Diddy) Combs's new I Am King cologne, Barbara Elizabeth of the Bronx said, "It needs to be a little lighter. After a while it can give you a headache."
55. . . . Diddy's company describes it as as having a "fresh, fruity woody scent that combines clean notes with sensual fruits and warm skin nuances."
56. . . . Uh . . . remind me not to buy it.
57. UH . . . (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me — Sandie Shaw (British) on Reprise, 1964, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and later recorded by Dionne Warwick (she's coming to the inauguration and will be host of the American Music Inaugural Ball that night at the Marriott-Wardman Park hotel) and many others.

rocci@roccifisch.com

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