For those of you waiting with baited breath for Andew Sullivan’s response to Philip Nobile’s devastating counter-response, I belive this is it. In its entirety:

Speaking of which, Philip Nobile will be on O’Reilly tonight. Can you imagine the derision of Tripp’s thesis that will ensue? Let’s just see if Nobile says what he once wrote: that he believes that most Lincoln historians have been homophobes and that Lincoln was certainly bisexual. And let’s see whether he discloses – as he didn’t in the Standard – that after he quit the Tripp project, he tried to sell a rival book making the same case.

Is that a surrender?

On Friday, January 28, at 5pm, just after the markets close, the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition Board will announce the next maker of the president’s helicopter, Marine One. Some see this as good news for Lockheed Martin, whose US101 is up against the incumbent contractor Sikorsky. Why is this good for them? Because 35 percent of the helicopter is contracted out to the United Kingdom and Italy. Next month President Bush is scheduled to meet up with both Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi. Both prime ministers have leaned on Bush to go with their product. Would Bush visit these members of the Coalition of the Willing after snubbing their helicopter? The contract may be for only 23 helicopters, but the R&D value of it comes to about $1.5 billion. Stay tuned…

In the Washington Times William Campenni make a point I haven’t seen before: That the Killian memo ordering Bush to report for a physical, May 13-14, 1972, the Ellington Air Guard Base was closed because it was Mother’s Day weekend (evidently National Guard bases routinely close on Mother’s Day).

Interesting, no? But here’s the more interesting part: Campenni sent this information, along with a witness list, to Thornburgh and Boccardi while they were conducting their investigation. They ignored it.

In the Wall Street Journal Greg Ip wonders if the housing bubble will soon burst. It’s about time. While the popping will not do me any financial good, I will derive an enormous psychological payoff from it.

I never met Marjorie Williams, but I did admire her work from afar. Our thoughts and prayers are with her husband, Tim Noah, her children, and the rest of her family.

I just spent this past weekend in Las Vegas for a bachelor party. The group decided to go old-school and spent the entire time downtown–what had been for many years downtrodden. But Fremont Street has undergone a massive renovation (such as the Fremont Street Experience light show) and the casino hotel where we stayed, the Golden Nugget, was the best on the block. (If it’s good enough to host Regis Philbin and Tony Bennett, it’s good enough to host me.) The great advantage of staying at the Nugget are the cheap tables (such as $5 craps and blackjack). The lowest bet at the Sports Book is also $5 and you get a free drink coupon to boot. Of course this does attract a more colorful crowd but it’s also all the more entertaining.

And speaking of the Sports Book, there was nothing worse than getting burned by the Steelers who failed miserably to cover the spread (9.5 at the time). By overtime I was rooting for the Jets (along with a lot of angry bettors). My money would have been better waged on the Georgetown-Villanova game. Despite playing on Villanova’s campus in front of a packed crowd commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Wildcats’s victory over the Hoyas in the NCAA final, the Hoyas managed to squeak out another win. By sheer coincidence, the final score was 66-64, the same score for the 1985 game. Even 20 years late, revenge is sweet.

I still think that on most counts, Kos is on higher moral ground than either Armstrong William or Jon Lauck and Jason Van Beek. But Zephyr Teachout’s latest post is a serious, serious problem for Kos.

If what Zephyr is saying is true, Kos wasn’t on the take for opinions he actually believed in–instead, he went on the take and then changed his public advocation. In Armstrong terms, he wasn’t doing it because it’s something he believes in.

The problem with payola is that it makes it difficult to tell whether someone is telling you something because they believe it, or because they’re being paid. I believe Armstrong when he says he supported Bush’s education policy before he went on the payroll.

That doesn’t mitigate Armstrong’s sins, but it does make Kos’s much, much worse: His payola wasn’t just icing on the cake. The Dean campaign literally bought his opinion, and stole him away from the Clark campaign. I don’t know how anyone could read his site for anything other than entertainment value now.

Done right, gloating can be an art form. For my part, I’ll be happy to buy Steve Hayes lunch this week.