In Other News ...

You wouldn't know it if you've only been reading Charging RINO for the last couple of days, but there is more to life than the fight over John Bolton's nomination. Here are some of the biggest stories I've been neglecting:

- Nuclear Option: The Senate drew closer to going nuclear today, with the Judiciary Committee confirming another of President Bush's disputed judicial nominees, William H. Pryor, on a 10-8 party line vote. Neil Lewis writes in the New York Times that the expectation is that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will pull the nuclear trigger sometime next week. In another Times article, David Kirkpatrick notes that the Log Cabin Republicans and the Republican Majority for Choice have begun an ad campaign opposing the confirmation of Mr. Pryor. This afternoon, Senator Frist and West Virginia's Robert Byrd engaged in an hour-long, heated exchange over the filibuster, covered by the AP here; this came after Frist rejected another iteration of the compromise offered by Minority Leader Harry Reid (in today's version, Reid offered votes on four of eight disputed justices). And the Filibuster Frist folks from Princeton have taking their filibuster on the road; they are now set up on the National Mall. There is of course much more to come on the nuclear option as we move into next week.

- DeLay-a-palooza: Nine hundred conservatives are set to attend a "tribute dinner" in support of embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, taking place this evening in Washington. Among those who will be loudly and proudly in attendance: American Conservative Union head David Keene, Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, and Paul Weyrich. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, pulling a Frist, will attend "via video." Interestingly, only four House members have purchased tables at the event, according to the New York Times, and three dozen or so are planning to attend. They'd better watch out, says the Christian Science Monitor: "Absences will be noted." I'll be noting them too, but for very different reasons.

- Security Scare: In case you missed it yesterday, an off-course plane (talk about a navigational error), caused a major series of evacuations around Washington D.C. There has been much talk about how the situation was handled (police officers urging people to "RUN!" and so forth), but most of the focus now has fallen on President Bush, who was bicycling in Maryland at the time ("blissfully unaware," says the Washington Post). Bush was not informed of the incident until after he finished his bike ride, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who got into a bit of a dustup with reporters during today's briefing on why the president wasn't informed immediately.