It was coming to this. Responding to Sen. Feingold, Sen. Specter is now arguing on the floor of the senate that FISA is unconstitutional. Ergo, President Bush couldn’t have been violating the law becuase it’s not valid law.

Quite a way for Specter to end his career.

The CNN/Gallup poll has always been comparatively friendly to President Bush. Today they have him at 36% approval.

The Independent: “Middle Eastern anger over the decision by the US to block a Dubai company from buying five of its ports hit the dollar yesterday as a number of central banks said they were considering switching reserves into euros. The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the US move as ‘discrimination’. Separately, Syria responded to US sanctions against two of its banks by confirming plans to use euros instead of dollars for its external transactions.”

Reversal of fortune watch (from the SD Union-Tribune) …

In the Vietnam war, Randy “Duke” Cunningham piloted Navy F-4 Phantom jet fighters to fight the enemy.

While a congressman, he lounged aboard private jets hired by contractors who bribed him for government contracts.

On Thursday, he flew in shackles alongside other criminals on “Con Air,” the nickname for the government airline used to transport prisoners around the country.

The flight from San Diego to Oklahoma City was his first – but surely not his last – aboard an airplane operated by the U.S. Marshals Service.

After a layover of a week or less, the former congressman will board another plane bound for North Carolina, where doctors at a federal prison hospital will evaluate his physical and mental health.

Passed on without comment.

(ed.note: Thanks to TPM Reader PP for the tip.)

According to a new piece out in tomorrow morning’s Post, when first caught shoplifting, former presidential advisor Claude Allen admitted “that he was committing fraudulent returns.”

This appears to stand in at least some contrast with the subsequent claims of Allen’s lawyer, Mallon Snyder, that the series of at least 25 thefts were a product of “misunderstandings.”

After the initial incident, a detective with the Montgomery police department was assigned to the case and using credit card statements and surveillance videos was able to document the string of “fraudulent returns.”

Cut-n-Run by any other name would smell as …

President Bush vowed for the first time yesterday to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, setting a specific benchmark as he kicked off a fresh drive to reassure Americans alarmed by the recent burst of sectarian violence. Bush, who until now has resisted concrete timelines as the Iraq war dragged on longer than he expected, outlined the target in the first of a series of speeches intended to lay out his strategy for victory.

More from the Post.

The first signs of distancing?

From the Times …

At the White House, senior staff members continued to express astonishment about the theft charges against Mr. Allen, who was described as an engaging, devout and largely powerless adviser to Mr. Bush.

Although Mr. Allen had the vaunted title of assistant to the president for domestic policy and worked from a coveted West Wing office, he did not set policy so much as carry out the decisions of Mr. Bush’s inner circle, particularly Karl Rove, the deputy chief of staff. Mr. Allen managed some of the domestic policy paper flow between the White House and government agencies.

Wasn’t he put in charge of quarterbacking the Katrina response at the White House?

Actually, maybe that does mean he was powerless…

Late Update: Sunday’s Post had this too say …

Bush named Allen his top domestic policy adviser last year. With a West Wing office and a salary of $161,000 a year, Allen was the top-ranking African American on the White House staff. His broad portfolio involved advising Bush on policy issues including health care, space exploration, housing and education.

In a White House where real power is centered in a few hands, Allen was not so much a decision maker as he was purveyor and tailor of Bush administration policy. Still, Allen was frequently at Bush’s side, accompanying him on trips around the country and briefing him and the media on the administration’s domestic policy initiatives.

Despite its prominent profile, the chief domestic policy job was only a consolation prize for Allen. Bush had named him in 2003 to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, but the nomination was scuttled by Senate Democrats who saw Allen as too conservative and too inexperienced, and blocked it from coming to a vote.

Oh, now this is just too weird.

As you know, we’ve been following the bizarre case of Claude Allen, former top advisor to President Bush who was arrested a few days ago and booked and charges stemming from a lengthy shoplifting spree.

Now, here late this evening I got an email from TPM Reader WH who directed my attention to today’s All Things Considered on NPR in which Michele Norris interviews Michael Fletcher, a reporter with the Post who’s been covering the story.

Now, right at about 1:40 into the interview comes this exchange …

Norris: We should note something, Michael. Apparently Claude Allen has a twin brother?

Fletcher: Yes, he does. He has an identical twin brother who even close friends can’t tell them apart when they see them. And people have seen him and close friends say that Mr. Allen has indicated to them that maybe his brother holds the key to this entire puzzling affair.

Now, I take it I’m not reading too much into this to think that the idea here is that this is a case of mistaken identity in which the virtuous Claude Allen has been nailed for the crimes of his evil twin Floyd.

I have to tell you this new story seems so insane and ridiculous that I half suspect it’s actually true. And, no, I’m not entirely kidding. Who could come up with such a story?

Now, through the miracle of the TPM research service (in this case, aka TPM Reader ET), we’ve acquired these two scans of the two brothers from their High School yearbook, senior and junior year …

Now, just to show we’re a good sport about all this and willing to play this out to its inane conclusion, here’s a passage from tomorrow’s piece in the Times …

People who talked to Mr. Allen Monday said he remained surprisingly upbeat in the face of the charges. He said only one side of the story had been heard, said one former colleague who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private.

Like others who know him, his stepmother cannot understand the turn of events. “I simply have no idea where things could have gone wrong in his life,” Mrs. Allen said.

Floyd was the twin who “kept running into bad times,” while Claude Allen intervened repeatedly to help him, she said.

In 2001, Floyd Allen declared bankruptcy in Virginia; a year earlier he was ordered to pay $6,450 in a civil suit brought against him by a travel company, according to state and federal records.

So who’ll put $50 down on the evil twin theory?

Niger Bamboozle Redux?

Washington Times reports on claims from “Venezuelan opposition figures and press reports” that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez may have plans to sell uranium to Iran.

(ed.note: Special note of thanks to TPM Reader JH for the tip.)

A slew of readers have written in this morning about the “evil twin” theory Claude Allen appears to be floating as a defense for his recent shoplifting spree.

Now, the great majority of you have noted that in the reality-based world this theory of the crime is exceedingly improbable. But I for one would at least like to stand up for it on the basis of originality and sheer neo-Brady Bunch theatricality.

And it got me to thinking how many other Bush administration crimes went unexplained for the lack of this straightforward approach. Has Melvin “Dutch” Libby saddled his brother with his intrigues? Can Brownie get in on the act? Dick Cheney? The possibilities are endless. Help us spin them out.