In news fresh off the server that should set the Hot Stove League blazing, The Smoking Gun unravels the tale of one Mike Bogdan, allegedly the previously unnamed FBI informant who helped spark baseball's steroid scandal.

TSG's subhed for its "Major League Snitch" piece tells it all: "Unmasked: How a white-collar Baltimore swindler turned secret FBI informant and ignited a Major League Baseball steroid scandal."

The lengthy account reveals that newly named Middle East negotiator George Mitchell's 2007 probe of steroids got a fresh jolt when Bogdan was injected into the proceedings:

Barack Obama sure sounded as if he were telling the truth about the scandal surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Obama's performance yesterday during a press conference that was supposed to be about health care but was really about Rocket Rod was presidential (video, transcript).

Maybe it's just because Obama is such a contrast with what we've endured for the past eight years. As an off-the-cuff (or seemingly off-the-cuff) pol, he's unmatched in recent memory — and my recent memory stretches back half a century. Ronald Reagan was a smooth talker, but he always sounded like an actor playing the role of president. Obama? He really sounds like a president — or at least the way your civics class taught you how a president should sound.

Direct and candid, Obama answered questions about Blagojevich firmly and eloquently. My old Toastmasters club in Denver would have given him the Best Speaker award hands-down.

Christ, he could have described Blago as "meretricious" (from the Latin word for prostitute) and people would have been able to figure out what Obama meant because he would have clustered the right words around it. That's how good a communicator Obama is.

The guy can motherfuckin' talk — though that wasn't what Blago meant when the soon-to-be-ex governor called Obama a motherfucker.

Obama vowed that his staff was not involved in the scandal — leaving himself the out by saying that he is "confident" that they weren't involved.

If it turns out that he wasn't being candid, he'll be savaged by the press and public eventually (or sooner).

If he was telling the truth, his performance was breathtakingly presidential and human — more than any American can dream of from a leader during these increasingly tougher times.

Obama acts as if he — not handlers — handles things. If true, what a change that will be from George W. Bush's handlers' regime.

If true. But we'll know, because he put himself out there, speaking in no uncertain terms. If he's really as presidential as he appeared to be yesterday, America lucked out. If he isn't, reporters will discover it. Just as Gary Hart once dared reporters more than 20 years ago to prove that he was engaged in monkey business (they took the dare and proved it), Obama has in effect dared reporters to dig, dig, dig for scoops.

Waiting to see whether they turn up anything, ...

NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Slate: 'Sympathy for Blago: Granted, he's a sleaze, but how solid is the government's case?' (Jack Shafer)

N.Y. Times: 'Senate Abandons Automaker Bailout Bid: Specter of Collapse for General Motors and Chrysler'

nolandgrab.com: 'The Simpsons does Ratner and Atlantic Yards'

Bloomberg: 'Global Stocks, Dollar Tumble as Auto Bailout Fails; GM Slumps'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Mrs. Blagojevich's daddy comes to her defense over potty mouth'

N.Y. Times: 'Report Blames Rumsfeld for Detainee Abuses'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Perv in missing woman case assaulted me, too'

Wall Street Journal: 'Top Broker Accused of $50 Billion Fraud': Sons Turned In Madoff After He Allegedly Told Them His Investment-Advisory Business for the Wealthy Was "Giant Ponzi Scheme"'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Whining juror spurs mistrial in granny beat'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Docs repair ex-mayor Dinkins' heart'

Wall Street Journal: 'Jobless Claims Hit 26-Year High'

N.Y. Daily News: 'Li'l Miss Perfect? Don't touch the fembot!'

Wall Street Journal: 'Executive Accused of Mortgage-Securities Scheme'

McClatchy: 'U.S. keeps silent as Afghan ally removes war crime evidence' (Tom Lasseter)

McClatchy: 'Could the Democrats lose Obama's Senate seat?'

McClatchy: 'Zimbabweans beg, but who can help?' (Shashank Bengali)

The criminal complaint announced this morning against Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is fucking incredible, as the governor would say.

Too stupid and testosterone-crazed to not talk on the phone about influence-peddling, Blago let it all hang out, if you believe the complaint. Blago even pulled that well-spoken young man Barack Obama into his orbit.

In fact, this may be the first public document in which the words "motherfucker" and "president-elect" appear right next to each other in the same sentence. See page 63 of the federal complaint laid on the governor by that ever-feisty Patrick Fitzgerald:

Big deal that the government has just rounded up a huge number of 20th century goombahs named "Fat Tony" or the like. We're still waiting for the roundup of the government's own 21st century gangsters, George "Dubya" Bush and Richard "Dick" Cheney.

Even before we're getting them out of our system, Bush and Cheney are getting it out of their system. Both of them let it all hang out this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Cheney yesterday and Bush today. Defiant to the last, Bush even used the word "philosophy" and Cheney invoked a "Damn right."

We already knew what they really thought. While we're waiting for these two to finally leave, let's take a look at the alleged mob figures indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Manhattan. Actually, all we have to do is look at the monikers of these goombahs. Here they are, from the first four pages of the indictment:

"Elmo"
"Jerry"
"Tommy Sneakers"
"Charlie Canig"
"Joe Rackets"
"Lanza"
"Italian Dom"
"Dominic"
"Dom from 18th Avenue"
"The Greaseball"
"Joe Marco Polo"
"JoJo"
"Miserable"
"Nicky"
"Little Nicky"
"The Doctor"
"The Little Guy"
"Seymour"
"Grandpa"
"Grandfather"
"Jackie the Nose"
"Jackie"
"Vinny Hot"
"Lenny"
"L"
"The Conductor"
"Nike"
"Uncle"
"Fatso"
"Vinny"
"Skinny"
"Mike"
"Mikey"
"Marbles"
"Bobby the Jew"
"One Eye"
"Dead Eye"
"Russ"
"Joe Gag"
"Han"
"Buckwheat"
"Ernie"
"Eyes"
"Baldy"
"Stevie I"
"John"
"Simon"
"Herman"
"Alan"
"Cheeks"
"Anthony Firehawk"
"Anthony Nighthawk"
"Nighthawk"
"Firehawk"
"Tony O"
"Big Guy"
"Tall Guy"
"Treetop"
"Top"
"Jamesie"
"Bob"
"Vinny Basile"
"Johnny Red Rose"
"Gino"
"Fat Richie"
"Big Richie"
"Joe"
"Richie"
"Rich"
"John Reeg"
"Reeg"
"Ang"
"Little Ang"
"Junior"
"Gus"
"Gus Boy"
"Billy"
"Big Billy"
"Eddie"
"Mike the Electrician"
"Frankie"
"Big Tara"

Spare us the comparisons between John Durham — the newly named special prosecutor of Interrogate, the CIA tapes scandal — and Plamegate prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

The Washington Post succumbs to this typical piece of journalist b.s., noting this morning:

That's the easiest trick in political journalism: Get a quote from someone who shares the small, local stage with Durham — and who doesn't know whether Durham can handle the big stage — and run with it, instead of doing some serious checking to see whether Durham has any frame of reference in dealing with national and international crimes, criminals, and cases. The Post does at least add that caveat:

Durham made his bones by prosecuting GOP Connecticut governor John Rowland for sleazy business dealings. Rowland wound up exiting Hartford and entering prison for a short bid.

Fitzgerald, on the other hand, had vast experience in national and international cases before he tried to hound Scooter Libby. He prosecuted the plotters of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The new attorney general, Mike Mukasey, knows the difference. He presided over that WTC case. But as Bill Kunstler pointed out at the time (read my earlier item here), Mukasey should have recused himself (because he's a fundamentalist Jew) from presiding over the case, which, after all, was against fundamentalist Muslims.

Unfortunately, Durham comes with the recommendation of Kevin O'Connor. Who he? Again from the Post:

Durham is supposedly a guy who's tough on violent criminals. That really sets him apart from other prosecutors. Dealing with White House schmucks is another matter altogether. And this is a monumental chore that requires some nuanced pressuring of true heavyweight schnooks. As this morning's New York Times story says:

Don't expect much, and don't expect it soon.

Rehnquist is dead, but his spirit lives. The Supreme Court and Rove's man at the FEC pump life into "voter fraud" scheme.

A snapshot of current American electoral politics is one of the ugliest pictures of the year, now that the increasingly conservative Supreme Court has decided to hear a major voter-fraud/national photo ID case before next year's elections.

The GOP-engineered presidential-vote debacle in 2000 has developed into what may become a major scandal involving the use of photo IDs, which the GOP has been trying to engineer in time for next year.

"Voter fraud" — a purported invasion of polling places by illegitimate voters — is the battle cry of Republican officials hoping to stem turnout by likely Democratic voters in battleground states.

And "voter fraud" is right: The requirement that voters present photo IDs is their scheme, and Hans von Spakovsky is their standard-bearer at the Federal Election Commission. That uncomfortable sensation felt by small-d democrats is their cherished poll being shoved up a place where the sun don't shine.

Who said Karl Rove left the building? Coupled with the appointment of Michael Mukasey to oversee the Justice Department and its Civil Rights Division, the GOP is setting itself up well for '08, fighting a winnable war against U.S. voters while it fights an impossible war overseas. Rove's fingerprints are all over this, whether or not he's still using his White House keyboard.

Iraq has left the Republicans flaccid, but their "voter fraud" canard and accompanying strategy threaten to give the GOP yet another election.

Shades of Bill Rehnquist! Before he was chief justice of the U.S., Rehnquist personally blocked black people from voting in Phoenix in 1964, using "voter fraud" as his excuse. I wrote about that in September 2005 ("Rehnquist Death Gives Bush Chance to Deepen American Crisis"), recalling Dennis Roddy's riveting column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that itself recalled Rehnquist's totalitarian behavior in Arizona as a GOP operative.

Rehnquist died in September 2005, but that didn't help because John Roberts, who favors corporate citizens over human citizens, took his place. An event that may turn out to be equally vital to the GOP occurred three months later, when Bush made a recess appointment to the FEC of von Spakovsky, a former Republican county chairman in Georgia. Before his FEC appointment, von Spakovsky was the chief civil-rights violator in the Justice Department's civil-rights division, leading the move to suppress minority and poor voters.

Von Spakovsky is up for confirmation to another FEC term. And the Roberts Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will hear the issue involving national photo IDs and voting — just in time for next year's election. This is dangerous, because it will likely bollix up '08 voting in key states.

There's plenty to read on this topic. From Paul Kiel at Talking Points Memo this past June:

Kiel refers to a 2004 piece by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker whose headline says it all: "Poll Position: Is the Justice Department poised to stop voter fraud — or to keep voters from voting?"

See Lou Dubose's 2006 account of how von Spakovsky collaborated with Rove to scheme Tom Delay's crooked redistricting in Texas earlier this century. More to the current point, Dubose noted at the time:

Dahlia Lithwick's piece two days ago in Slate is also vital for understanding the back story on von Spakovsky.

Legal beagles can parse Bob Bauer's analysis yesterday of the politics swirling around the vote case the Supreme Court has now agreed to hear.

For a very recent story hinting at the bad smell emanating from the Justice Department, see "The Stooge," by David Martin of Kansas City's The Pitch.

As for following this issue, though, nothing beats wonk lawyer Rick Hasen's Election Law site, though Hasen is perhaps too hopeful that the high court will protect the rights of voters.

As I've pointed out before, in a September 2004 piece about dubious electronic-voting machines, Hasen is always a captivating and current legal-news live wire.

Those who can't live without the New York Times can learn some things from an April 12 story, "In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud," co-bylined by Ian Urbina, whose copy I used to have the pleasure of editing.

But you must keep clicking on the excellent McClatchy home page (formerly the Knight-Ridder D.C. Bureau), and definitely read Greg Gordon's story last April, "Administration pursued aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout." Gordon noted:

Next year those of you who can vote might want to vote early and vote often.

Already under attack by religious conservatives and censors in the United States, Muslim congressman Keith Ellison apparently survived a trip this weekend to Iraq without his own faith's religious conservatives and censors issuing a death fatwa against him.

The Minneapolis progressive Democrat got into trouble with conservatives and religious extremists over here on July 8 when he threw in a Nazi reference as he ripped the Bush regime for using 9/11 as an excuse for war.

Where were they when it was revealed three years ago that fellow black man Secretary of State Colin Powell — in the same context, thinking the same thing — had branded dual-disloyalist Doug Feith's Pentagon pre-war agitprop operation a "Gestapo office"?

Ellison is the first U.S. congressman known to be a Muslim, but he's no terrorist in thrall to the conservative mullahs of his own religion. They're more likely to condemn him to death for his support of gay rights and other progressive issues than embrace him.

Religious conservatives and censors in the U.S. claimed that Ellison compared George W. Bush with Hitler — he didn't. All it shows is how much religious conservatives have in common with one another, no matter which religion they claim to speak for. All of them regularly condemn one another and kill in the name of their faiths.

The latest of several ridiculous freakouts by conservatives over Ellison stemmed from something else that conservative Muslim mullahs would stone him for: his speech to a bunch of humanistic atheists. Reporter Mike Kaszuba of the StarTribune wrote it like this:

Ellison, a lawyer who landed a spot on the House Judiciary Committee even though he's only a freshman, also had this to say:

The ADL's Abe Foxman came unglued over the Reichstag reference, blasting Ellison for using a reference to Hitler and the Nazis.

Well, let's go to page 292 of Bob Woodward's 2004 book, Plan of Attack, in which he described meetings just before Powell's February 2003 U.N. speech:

Powell had used a Nazi reference to Feith, a fanatical Jewish conservative who desperately wanted a war with Israel enemy Iraq. But Powell didn't catch hell for it. Earlier this year, Michigan senator Carl Levin (who's Jewish) blasted Feith for having spread disinformation in the run-up to the war:

In other words, the Cheney-Bush regime used 9/11 to justify the invasion of Iraq, just as Hitler had used the Reichstag fire 70 years earlier (February 27, 1933) as an excuse to curtail civil liberties, a key moment in the Nazification of Germany. If you doubt that the Reichstag fire could be compared with the 9/11 attacks, just imagine an arsonist's burning down Congress and the political power that a regime like Cheney's would seize as a result.

For now, extremists are just trying to burn down a congressman.

On January 6, 2005, Texas senator John Cornyn kicked off the confirmation hearings for attorney general wannabe Alberto Gonzales by introducing him as "an inspiration to anyone." Well, Gonzales certainly inspired Chuck Schumer yesterday. The New York senator brought out the perspiration in Gonzales.

Call me Ishmael, but Spencer Ackerman and Paul Kiel did a whale of a job on tpmmuckracker.com, quickly posting commentary and clips of Schumer and Arlen Specter lobbing spears at the AG's blowhole.

At one point, Gonzales said he "clarified" a previous statement by calling Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen and retracting it. A few minutes later, Gonzales was forced to admit that one of his aides actually contacted Eggen and that Gonzales himself didn't know what was said.

Eggen was more charitable in his front-page story this morning, but his nut graf was this:

What a tough job it is to be one of the handlers of Gonzales or Bush. You got to watch those two like a hawk. And what the hell do you do when either of them is nakedly grilled? (See the full transcript of yesterday's hearing for an answer.)

In unrehearsed moments, their performances are staggering. Death-penalty foe Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking) recalls an anecdote by Tucker Carlson that left even that Bush fan astonished at the president's callousness and stupidity while the two discussed one of the people Bush had killed, Karla Faye Tucker.

Has there ever been a lawyer who's worse at thinking on his feet? Not much of a shock that Gonzales looked stupid yesterday. Sometimes pols intentionally act that way, of course. It may be difficult to tell whether Gonzales is lying or just plain dumb as a post, but the probable answer: both. He was grossly unqualified in the first place to be attorney general, as the confirmation hearings a year and a half ago showed. See my "Torture in Real Time" coverage of Gonzales trying to answer questions about the then-fresh Abu Ghraib scandal. (The full transcript of the January 6, 2005, session is here.)

Ted Kennedy was apoplectic during the confirmation hearings as he questioned Gonzales on the "techniques" of "live burial."

Yesterday's hearing showed how that's actually carried out.

Nobody should be surprised at Gonzales's performance. Russ Feingold noted back in January 2005 that, during Gonzales's term as counsel to Governor George W. Bush — when Bush became the hangingest governor in U.S. history — Gonzo didn't prepare memos on each case until the day of the execution.

Gonzales insisted that the memos merely "summarized discussions," what he called a "rolling series of discussions" with Bush "about every execution."

That was a lie. Alan Berlow's masterful "The Hanging Governor," way, way back in May 2000 in Salon, noted:

A lot shorter, in other words, than yesterday's strangling.

Among the people and corporations lining up to sue the ass off of Conrad Black, you won't find Seth Lipsky, founderer and editor of the New York Sun.

Falling far short of even the minimum menschmarks of journalism, Lipsky called his staff together yesterday and launched into a passionate defense of financiopath Black, who was convicted by a jury the other day of felonious business activities.

Future jailbird Black abandoned his Canadian citizenship to buy a lordship in England, but he didn't have to do that to ensure the fealty of Lipsky, who wouldn't have even had the Sun to run if not for Black's money.

I've been part of captive audiences for some top goniffs' newsroom performances — many of them staggeringly, insanely, laughably bad — but Lipsky's paean must have been priceless, especially when he told his staff that "Conrad Black was cleared of the charge that he ran Hollinger as a 'kleptocracy.' "

As I suggested yesterday, just read former SEC commissioner Richard Breeden's Hollinger Report about schnooks Black, his warmongering board member Richard Perle, and others before you hop aboard the bandwagon that Lipsky's trying to whip into motion.

Luckily, Lipsky's ego prompted him to reprint his name-dropping speech in his weakly daily. Read it here. In the finest journalistic tradition, Lipsky closed his speech with this:

Yes, the honor is yours. We insist.

As convicted financiopath Conrad Black fights to keep his manor, this is the perfect time to thank him for inspiring one of the greatest pieces of investigative journalism on corporate America.

But the Hollinger Report is not just about business. Searing, embarrassing details on the behavior of such Hollinger International directors as Richard Perle give insight into the delusions and pretensions of those who led us into the Iraq debacle, like Perle, and those who are profiting from the war, like ex-journalist (and Judy Miller pal) Richard Burt.

Former CIA director George Tenet has pretty much established himself as a monumental liar about the war and his role in it, but one part of his 60 Minutes back-pedaling, book-peddling interview rings true: Perle's role in the warmongering. Here's what Tenet had to say about that, according to CBS:

In the public sector, Perle has blood on his hands. In the business world, Perle's performance as a Hollinger director was a remarkable study in greed. The report is typically blunt about it:

That the Hollinger Chronicles, which has a section titled "Corporate Kleptocracy," was produced by corporate America itself makes it even more remarkable. Read the 524-page PDF here, an annotated version courtesy of the Committee of Concerned Shareholders.

Prepared under the direction of former SEC commissioner Richard Breeden, the Hollinger report makes for great beach reading, as Slate's Daniel Gross noted in September 2004.

It's the best story about sharks since Jaws, and it's just about as scary.