During the last weeks of the campaign, “Joe the Plumber” made a splash as Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) most famous surrogate. “Joe’s the man!” McCain said. Yglesias refers to Joe Wurzelbacher as the campaign’s “most annoying legacy.”

Interviewed on NPR today, however, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) — a former top McCain surrogate and VP contender — criticized how McCain relied on Joe the Plumber as a “symbol” with no sustance behind it. Pawlenty said that simply “throwing out” the “icon” of Joe the Plumber, as McCain did, was “not enough”:

MONTAGNE: Well it, certainly, during this past election, made an attempt to reach out, I would think, to that group, with the now famous character, really, Joe the Plumber. How would you see that happening if the attempt has been made and it didn’t — didn’t really work.

PAWLENTY: Well, I don’t think the attempt was made very well. I think just because you bring up the name Joe the Plumber — while people view that as a symbol — but what does that mean, in terms of what Republicans can do to make my health care more affordable, my — filling up my car more affordable? I think just throwing out a symbol or an icon is not enough.

Sure enough, hours later, in her first press conference since Tuesday’s election, Gov. Sarah Palin enthusiastically brought up Joe the Plumber. “Folks like Joe the Plumber, yes, who spoke for so many,” she said. “People who he was speaking for felt kinda comforted.” Palin then also reminisced about Tito the Builder. Watch it:

While Pawlenty criticized the use of Wurzelbacher today, he enthusiastically referenced Joe the Plumber during the campaign as a means to criticize Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

When the Obama campaign criticized McCain’s use of Joe the Plumber, Palin responded with anger. “Why the heck are you going after Joe The Plumber? … He wants to be something else. Why is that so wrong?” We await Palin’s condemnation of Pawlenty.

The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson reports that the EPA’s final decision-making board has ruled that a proposed coal-fired power plant in Utah must have its carbon dioxide emissions regulated. The decision overturns an earlier decision by the EPA to grant a permit without considering its effects on global warming. The ruling will likely impact other coal plant permit cases as well. The 69-page decision described the Bush administration’s arguments opposing CO2 regulation as “weak,” “questionable,” “not sustainable,” and “not sufficient.”

On the O’Reilly factor last night, Dennis Miller declared that liberal women hate Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) because “she has a great sex life”:

She’s a great dame. People are fascinated by her because the Left hate her. I think the Left hate her — mostly women on the Left hate her — because to me from outside in it appears that she has a great sex life, all right? I think she has non-neurotic sex with that Todd Palin guy. … I think that snow mobile looks like mechanized foreplay to me and that’s why people are fascinated.

Watch it:

Male pundits seem obsessed with Palin’s sex life. In September, a CNBC host admitted, “I want her laying next to me in bed.” Throughout the campaign, conservatives constantly praised Palin’s good looks, with Rush Limbaugh frequently referring to her as a “babe.” (HT: Gawker)

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Michael Moore’s new documentary will focus on the global financial crisis and the U.S. economy. Moore is “feverishly shooting,” and it is expected to come out as early as this spring. “The untitled movie will contain an end-of-the-empire tone, say those familiar with the project.” Craig Minassian, an entertainment consultant, said, “If Moore offers a prescription for how to improve things, he may indeed find an audience that at this moment is eager for change,” but cautioned “it’s going to be hard for him. What this election shows is what’s right with America, and sometimes what Michael Moore does is highlight what’s wrong with America.”

Today, Vice President Cheney and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met at Cheney’s residence “to discuss the upcoming handoff of the job as the nation’s second-in-command” and tour the Naval Observatory:

In the vice presidential debate, Biden said Cheney has been “the most dangerous vice president probably in American history.”

Katie Couric told Page Six recently that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) “should keep her head down, work really hard and learn about governing.” On Larry King Live last night, Palin responded to Couric’s remark by thanking her for the advice, claiming she wouldn’t offer Couric any advice in return because of her “respect” for the media. However, she then proceeded to trash the media as biased and unfair:

PALIN: Well, thank you, Katie Couric, for your advice. And I won’t reciprocate in giving her any advice, that’s for sure, because I have respect for her and the profession that she is in. I would have greater respect though for the entire profession called mainstream media if we could have great assurance that there is fairness, that there is objectivity throughout the reporting world.

Watch it:

If Palin has respect for the media, she has a funny way of showing it. As she introduced herself to the nation at the Republican National Convention, Palin made the media the target of several of her most popular applause lines. As the campaign progressed, Palin said the media, in asking substantive questions about policy, were engaging in “gotcha journalism.” She also accused reporters of failing to adhere to “journalistic ethics.”

Late last month, Palin went so far as to claim the media was trampling her right to free speech. As ABC News reported:

“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”

Transcript: Read more

According to a new Human Rights Center/Center for Constitutional Rights report, former prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and released without charge went home with “psychological and emotional problems” and found themselves “stigmatized and shunned” and viewed either as terrorists or U.S. spies. In a forward to the report, former DC appeals court judge Patricia Wald compared the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody to the treatment Bosnian Muslims received at the hands of their Serbian captors:

The officials and guards in charge of those prison camps and the civilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment were prosecuted — often by former U.S. government and military lawyers serving with the tribunal — for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in extreme cases, genocide.

Last June, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (ret.), the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, also accused the Bush administration of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.