– Donald Rumsfeld had to be talked out of editing his own entry on Wikipedia, which he referred to as “Wika-wakka.” He was a Drudge Report reader and used to watch YouTube clips that made fun of his press conference performances.

– Bush, when told that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig had been the latest GOPer to be caught in a sex scandal involving boys or men: “What is up with all these Republicans?”

– While Karl Rove was appearing on Fox News and writing op-eds as an independent political analyst, he was privately smearing Democrats. “Karl spread rumors through the White House that one of Obama’s potential vice presidential running mates — and a United States senator — had beaten his first wife. ‘Karl says it’s true,’ the president assured a small group of staffers. Then knowing Karl, he quickly added, ‘Karl hopes it’s true,” reports Latimer.

– For a commencement address at Furman University in spring 2008, Ed Gillespie wanted to insert a few lines condemning gay marriage. Bush called the speech too “condemnatory” and said, “I’m not going to tell some gay kid in the audience that he can’t get married.” (Of course, Bush ran his 2004 campaign telling that kid just that.)

– Bush on Jimmy Carter: “If I’m ever eighty-two years old and acting like that have someone put me away.”

In the next segment, however, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel called out Hannity for seemingly “defending John Ensign” despite being “a big family values guy.” “Here’s a guy that cheats on his wife, not just with somebody, but somebody on his staff who’s married. Now what do you think?” asked Beckel. Hannity reluctantly admitted that he thinks such behavior warrants a resignation:

BECKEL: Excuse me. Excuse me for a second, Mr. University Prager. I want — I want him to answer this question.

HANNITY: My answer is, if you’re going to be a family-values candidate and a family-values politician, and you don’t live up to that, I think you should resign.

BECKEL: Well…

HANNITY: I don’t know where he stands.

When Beckel said he wanted to “let the record show that that you called for John Ensign to resign,” Hannity tried to hedge his words again, saying “I don’t know where he stands on the issues.” Watch it:

Hannity claims to not know where Ensign stands on “family values” issues, but as ThinkProgress has pointed out, Ensign has previously positioned himself as a protector of “the institution of marriage.”

In 2007, Ensign called on then-Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) to resign after he in an airport men’s restroom on disorderly conduct charges, but he declined to call for Sen. David Vitter’s (R-LA) resignation after he acknowledged an affair involving prostitution. In July 2007, Hannity said that Vitter should resign as well.

Transcript:

BOB BECKEL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Can I just speak to what you did in this segment here for a second?

HANNITY: You can do whatever you want.

BECKEL: You go to this thing with John Ensign, right, about Harry Reid. He’s more popular than — now, this is a guy — you’re a big family values guy. Here’s a guy that cheats on his wife, not just with somebody, but somebody on his staff who’s married. Now what do you think? Are you defending John Ensign?

HANNITY: That sounds like a liberal Democrat to me.

BECKEL: That was good.

DENNIS PRAGER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Wait, wait, wait. What does have it to do with…

BECKEL: Excuse me. Excuse me for a second, Mr. University Prager. I want — I want him to answer this question.

HANNITY: My answer is, if you’re going to be a family-values candidate and a family-values politician, and you don’t live up to that, I think you should resign.

BECKEL: Well…

HANNITY: I don’t know where he stands.

BECKEL: Oh, he’s big.

HANNITY: But with that said, it is interesting that Harry, you know, Prince Pelosi, Prince Harry and Princess Pelosi. His ratings are lower than the guy that had an affair.

BECKEL: All I’m saying is let the record show that that you called for John Ensign to resign.

HANNITY: I don’t know where he stands on the issues.

Since his election to the Senate in 2000, Ensign has been a leading conservative voice who demanded the resignation of former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig in September 2007. Ensign called Craig a “disgrace” after he was arrested in June 2007 in an airport men’s restroom on disorderly conduct charges. But when Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) acknowledged having an affair, Ensign didn’t call on him to resign.

Ensign has also been an ardent opponent of gay marriage. In Feb. 2004, Ensign announced his support for an amendment to the Constitution that would have defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Ensign said the amendment, which ultimately failed, was necessary to protect “the institution of marriage“:

“Sadly, the effort to redefine marriage against the wishes of a majority of the people is, with help from activist judges, succeeding,” Ensign said. “In order to defend the institution of marriage, uphold the rights of individual states, and maintain the will of the people, I believe we are compelled to amend our country’s constitution.”

“The effort to pass a constitutional amendment reaffirming marriage as being between a man and a woman only is being undertaken strictly as a defense of marriage against the attempt to redefine it and, in the process, weaken it,” Ensign said. “Marriage is an extremely important institution in this country and protecting it is, in my mind, worth the extraordinary step of amending our constitution.”

In 1998, while running for Nevada’s Senate seat against Harry Reid, Ensign called on President Clinton to resign in light of his admitted affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky:

“I came to that conclusion recently, and frankly it’s because of what he put his whole Cabinet through and what he has put the country through,” Ensign said Thursday, becoming the first member of the Nevada delegation to call for Clinton to quit. “He has no credibility left.”

How much “credibility” does Ensign have left?

Biden was tending to transition duties, while Kerry was in Poznan, Poland, participating in U.N. climate change talks. Alexander was home recovering from surgery. Why did these other Senators feel auto workers weren’t as deserving as Wall Street? We’d like to know. If you see statements from them, please let us know by email or in the comments section.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) then took the floor and said farewell to his “distinguished colleague.” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had previously called for Stevens’s resignation, recalled the longest-serving Republican’s “extraordinary accomplishments.” Watch it:

Matt Yglesias writes: “I cannot believe that (a) Ted Stevens got a standing ovation from his fellow senators, and (b) Harry Reid is now delivering an ode to him. I mean, the man’s a criminal. Senatorial courtesy is a really bizarre institution.”

Full list of senators speaking on behalf of Stevens today: Harry Reid (D-NV), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Kay-Baily Hutchison (R-TX), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Larry Craig (R-ID), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS). John Warner (R-VA) also praised Stevens in advance of the Alaskan senator’s farewell address.

Former Olympic gold medalist speedskater Joey Cheek had his visa revoked by Chinese authorities, just hours before “he was set to travel to Beijing to promote his effort urging China to help make peace in the war-torn Darfur section of Sudan.” In 2006, Cheek contributed his $25,000 gold medal award to help refugees from Darfur.

Six conservative senators are skipping the GOP convention. “Sens. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine all face tough re-election campaigns. Two others, Wayne Allard of Colorado and Larry Craig of Idaho, are retiring.”

Today, President Bush “said North Korea could leave the ‘axis of evil’ and shed its pariah state status if dictator Kim Jong Il came clean on his country’s nuclear weapons programs and ended human rights abuses. “It’s his choice to make,” Bush said, adding, “My hope is that the ‘Axis of Evil’ list no longer exists. That’s my hope, for the sake of peace. And it’s my hope for the sake of our children.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “appeared to back down” yesterday from his disingenuous tire gauge attack against Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). In a telephone townhall, McCain told voters in Pennsylvania, “Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it.”

On the trail today: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will hold an energy town hall with Sen. Evan Bayh in Elkhart, IN to discuss his New Energy for America plan. McCain will meet with Marshall University’s football team in West Virginia today before traveling on to Ohio.

A bipartisan group of four senators plans to “announce a proposal to reset the charitable mileage deduction to 70 percent of the corporate deduction.” Currently, “the deduction for use of a personal car while performing volunteer services for charities” is “14 cents a mile,” compared to “58.5 cents a mile for corporate employees who use their cars for business purposes.”

In a new poll from the National Women’s Law Center, “59 percent of women said they were ‘worried and concerned about achieving [their] economic and financial goals over the next five years,’ compared with just 33 percent who called themselves ‘hopeful and confident.’”

Freddie Mac reported a loss of $821 million in the second quarter, following a $151 million loss in the first quarter and bringing its cumulative loss over the last four quarters to more than $4.6 billion. “To help preserve capital, Freddie said it would slash its quarterly dividend” by 80 percent, to 5 cents a share.

And finally: Bob Novak wishes the AP had a copy editor. On Monday, the Associated Press made a “deplorable error” when writing about columnist Novak’s decision to retire and his diagnosis of a brain tumor. The Washington Post’s Al Kammen points out the AP’s “terrible gaffe.” “Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades,” the AP wrote. “He announced late last month he has a brain.”

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.

The White House has “increased its estimate for next year’s deficit to nearly $490 billion, a record figure that will saddle the next president with deepening budget problems in his first year in office.” The rising deficit “marks a sharp turnaround for Bush’s fiscal legacy. He inherited a $128 billion surplus when he came into office.”

According to government data, “more than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted.” A recent RAND Corp. study found that nearly “one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide.”

A Transportation Department report to be released today “shows that over the past seven months, Americans have reduced their driving by more than 40 billion miles. Because of high gasoline prices, they drove 3.7% fewer miles in May than they did a year earlier, the report says, more than double the 1.8% drop-off seen in April.”

This week the Senate will take up a $10 billion “Tomnibus” bill containing 35 measures Sen. Tom Coburn — a.k.a. the Senate’s “Dr. No” — has tried to single-handedly block. Coburn has exploited the “unanimous consent” practice in the Senate to hold up bills he says are duplicative of other laws already passed.

On the trail today: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will visit San Francisco and Bakersfield today for campaign and fundraising events. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) plans to meet a panel of advisers (including Warren Buffett, Paul Volcker, Lawrence Summers, and Robert Rubin) today to examine his campaign’s economic policies.

Due to insensitive remarks made by right-wing radio host Michael Savage about autistic children, “several big advertisers have pulled their commercials from the syndicated ‘Savage Nation’ radio show, and now, thousands of parents and protesters are urging Savage to step down, calling his words ‘hate speech.’” (Take action here.)

“The American military admitted Sunday night that a platoon of soldiers raked a car of innocent Iraqi civilians with hundreds of rounds of gunfire” in Baghdad on June 25. The military also acknowledged issuing a faulty news release “larded with misstatements, asserting that the victims were criminals who had fired on the troops.”

Despite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s calls for a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops, Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. military commander in Iraq, “said in an interview with McClatchy that the situation in Iraq is too volatile to ‘project out, and to then try to plant a flag on, a particular date.’”

“With President Bush set to leave next week for the Olympics in Beijing, the White House is coming under increased pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to make a public statement of concern about the crackdown on human rights and freedom in China.”

And finally: Campaign buttons in Idaho show an unlikely pair: Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Larry Craig (R-ID). “Apparently the button manufacturer picked a picture of the wrong Idaho Larry,” the AP notes, as the buttons were “intended to show Obama beside Larry LaRocco, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.” “That sounds like it’s going to be a collector’s item,” said a LaRocco spokesperson.

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) told CNSNews.com, “Current policy has served us well. I think we ought to sustain it. I see no evidence that it should be repealed.”

“The number of U.S. homeowners swept up in the housing crisis rose further last month, with foreclosure filings up nearly 50 percent compared with a year earlier,” reports the foreclosure listing company RealtyTrac Inc. “One in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in May, the highest number since RealtyTrac started the report in 2005 and the second-straight monthly record.”

Attorney General Michael Mukasey today said that he is “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s ruling on habeas corpus. Although the decision is expected to “unleash a torrent of court filings from detainees seeking their freedom,” Mukasey said that they won’t “concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed.”

The Washington Post writes that after yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, the Bush administration’s strategy for detainees is now in “disarray.” It “almost certainly [leaves] to Bush’s successor and the next Congress the dilemma of what to do with the Guantanamo Bay detainees.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is saying that “talks with the United States on a longterm security agreement have reached a ‘dead end’” because the U.S. proposals “do not take into consideration Iraq’s sovereignty.”

On the trail today: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will be in Columbus, Ohio for “an invitation-only meeting with seniors” as part of his “Change That Works for You” tour. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is hosting a town hall meeting at Burlington County College in Pemberton, NJ, where he is “expected to field questions from voters on the economy, energy prices and the war in Iraq.”

A new survey by the American Bar Association finds that almost half of U.S. mortgage borrowers now “worry about being able to make the payments and keep their homes.” Seventy-three percent also said that they “changed their purchasing habits because of the economy,” including by “buying less, paying for more purchases in full,” and using credit cards less frequently.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds that “New York State voters support 53 – 40 percent Gov. David Paterson’s order to state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside New York.”

The House yesterday “approved extended jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed” by a veto-proof margin of 274-137. On Wednesday, conservatives had blocked the bill, which would “much-needed relief to 3.8 million unemployed workers to assist them with rapidly rising gas and food costs.”

Exxon Mobil is getting out of the gas pump business and plans to sell the 2,220 service stations it owns in the United States. The Dallas Morning News reports, “With rising gasoline prices and stiff competition from hypermart and grocery store stations, service-station profit margins are dismal, nearly nonexistent.”

And finally: For Father’s Day, Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) publicly thanks his children for sticking with him after his airport sex bust. In a message posted on his Senate site, Craig writes that “nothing affected me as emotionally as my children’s love and loyalty during the dark days of last August.” He’s especially thankful for their “correcting the record” against “unspeakable accusations” against him.

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.

Yet as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) revealed in a letter to Bush on Thursday, an anonymous Republican is now actually holding up two of the President’s top Justice Department nominees. From Leahy’s letter:

I regret to inform you that we were stalled last week in our efforts to fill two other critical positions at the Department, when an anonymous Republican hold blocked confirmation of Kevin O’Connor to be the Associate Attorney General, and Gregory Katsas to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division. I was particularly disappointed with this unexpected development. … They were set for confirmation before the Easter recess, until the last-minute Republican objection stalled them.

The longest-stalled nominee is Michael Sullivan, Bush’s choice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). He, in fact, is being blocked by conservative “gun-rights champions” — including Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) — who believe the ATF has been overzealous in enforcing requirements that dealers keep detailed gun-sale records.”

So far, however, the White House has refused to criticize these conservatives blocking the President’s nominees, instead continuing to attack Democrats. But in reality, Bush has had 90 percent of his nominations confirmed to lifetime appointments — far better than President Clinton fared.

In addition to congressional conservatives, Bush is also responsible for the hold-up on many of his nominees. In December, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) met with the White House and agreed to allow more than 84 of the President’s nominees to go through. Bush, however, insisted that unless the Senate agreed to torture advocate Steven Bradbury’s recess appointment, “he wouldn’t make a deal.” “It’s Brabury, or nobody,” said Bush.

Later, on a conference call with conservative bloggers, McCain said Renzi “would probably step down as co-chair of his Arizona campaign.” Asked in Ohio today, however, McCain said “it doesn’t matter” if Renzi stays on his campaign or not. Watch it:

McCain has been staunchly loyal to his fellow Arizonian. After the FBI investigation into Renzi was first reported in October 2006, McCain vouched for Renzi’s “integrity” in a robo-call to Arizona voters:

This is Senator John McCain. I’m calling to urge you to support my friend, Representative Rick Renzi for Congress. Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach.

But despite his claim that “it doesn’t matter” if the indicted Renzi remains a part of his campaign, McCain hasn’t hesitated to call for scandal plagued public officials to resign. Just last year, McCain said that both Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should step down.

A standing ovation for Sen. Larry Craig’s service to Idaho was the highlight of the Mini-Cassia Lincoln Day Luncheon presented by the Republican Party committees of Cassia and Minidoka counties Friday afternoon at Morey’s Steakhouse in North Burley. [...]

Craig was given a painting by renowned local artist Robert Moore. … But Craig was careful to clarify the status of the painting after taking the microphone. He said the painting would be on loan until he finishes his term in office next year. Only then would he accept it as a gift.

“We’re going to remain ethically correct for the remaining nine months,” Craig quipped.

President Bush “had a powerful effect” on New Hampshire’s Republican primary. Roughly half of GOP voters “had a negative opinion of the Bush administration, and those voters significantly went for Arizona Sen. John McCain by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.” Of those with a “positive opinion of the administration,” 37 percent voted for Mitt Romney.

There was record turnout in yesterday’s New Hampshire primaries. “With ballots from 12 percent of voting precincts still to be counted, about 453,000 residents had cast votes, breaking the previous primary turnout record of 396,385 ballots cast in 2000.”

President Bush chastised the “provocative” acts of a few Iranian high-speed boats that confronted U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf. According to a video released by the Pentagon, the Iranian boats swarmed around the American ships, and a man speaking heavily-accented English threatened, “I am coming to you. … You will explode after…minutes.”

With just “two members and unable to muster a quorum,” the Federal Elections Commission “has decided to offer advice instead of binding decisions on questions from political campaigns.” The four vacancies are a result of President Bush’s refusal to withdraw the nomination of Hans A. von Spakovsky, despite strong opposition from Congress.

As President Bush arrives in Israel today “to start a tour of six Middle Eastern countries,” he “has yet to fulfill a key diplomatic promise to name an envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a promise he made seven months ago.” In a June speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, Bush pledged to name an envoy to the grouping of 57 Muslim states.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) with federal prosecutors yesterday, accusing her of violating federal bribery law by obtaining a $2 million earmark for Voyager Expanded Learning just days after receiving $30,000 in campaign contributions from company executives and their relatives.

In a new court filing, lawyers for Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) argue “that the underlying act” of his airport bathroom arrest “wasn’t criminal because it didn’t involve multiple victims.” Craig’s lawyers also claim that hand signals should be considered “constitutionally protected speech.”

“Faced with recession fears, the White House is considering tax rebates for individuals to encourage spending and tax breaks for businesses to encourage investment, according to people familiar with the matter.”

And finally: Gloria Squitiro, wife of recently elected Kansas City, MO, mayor Mark Funkhouser, recently sent out a holiday letter to her friends and family. But instead of talking about her kids or job, she talked about Funkhouser’s prostate exam, which was “the highlight of his year.” She also said that watching it was her “biggest joy.” “I waited in gleeful anticipation,” she wrote, noting “the doctor’s sausage-sized fingers.” Ever since someone leaked Squitiro’s letter, it’s been the “talk of the town.”

What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.

Craig is traveling to Bali this week for the U.N.-led climate change conference as the “Republican representative from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,” which is led by chief global warming denier Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).

Prior to his travels, Craig attacked EPW Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for creating “all-pain, no-gain” climate change legislation that would call for caps on greenhouse gas emissions. It “demonstrates nothing more than her intent to revert the United States to a developing country,” he asserted:

I’ve been to three of the last six “COP” conferences, so I’d expect the COP-13 crowd will be singing a familiar tune. Sen. Boxer will be welcomed as the liberator, and Al Gore will probably receive another award, but in the end, the only impact the conference will have will be the pollution and consumption they all create in traveling to Bali in the first place…we can avoid suffering for symbolism, and continue to keep things cool in our own backyard, even if there’s nothing but hot air in Bali.

Notably, Boxer is also the Chairwoman of the Senate Ethics Committee, which is investigating “allegations of sexual misconduct” by Craig and is currently “continu[ing] to conduct its preliminary inquiry into the matter.”

Craig has long history of climate change denial. Some highlights:

— Denied that global warming was at all responsible for the California wildfires. [LINK]

– In 1998, said Kyoto Protocol was “unnecessary response to an exaggerated threat the vice president himself [Al Gore] is caught up in making.” [LINK]

– Claims “scientists are not certain how much man contributes to climate variability compared to nature.” [LINK]

Isolated from his own party and now “a wisp of his former self in the Senate,” Craig will have to rely on the support of fringe, discredited global warming deniers.