This is classic. In the interview to run tonight, Larry King asked Dick Cheney whether he ordered the Ashcroft hospital room visit. Cheney’s answer: “no recollection.”

But the priceless bit is Larry’s commentary from this afternoon on CNN, which I interpreted as ‘Cheney lied to me and wasn’t even very good at it.’

Take a look …

Tancredo: Threat to blow up Muslim holy sites in Mecca and Medina is best deterrent against terrorism.

President and Mrs. Bush welcome Sen. Stevens (R-AK) and his wife for a dinner in Stevens’ honor at the White House, May 23rd, 2007.

You learn something new every day.

The Murkowski land deal story just appeared in Wednesday’s Times as though by Virgin Birth. They don’t seem to realize that TPMmuckraker broke this story about two weeks ago.

What’s weird is that the Times reporters were apparently listening to the same Anchorage talk radio station interview Laura McGann was listening to in which Murkowski’s husband, Verne Martell, admitted that Lisa Murkowski thought the deal might “come back to bite us.”

Ms. Murkowski, who was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Frank Murkowski, a former senator who was then governor, was apparently aware that the land deal might draw unwelcome scrutiny. Her husband, Verne Martell, said two weeks ago in a radio interview in Alaska that “when we signed the loan, Lisa signed on it and said, ‘This might come back to bite us.’ ”

That’s uncanny because that’s the passage of the interview Laura transcribed in this July 23rd post.

To the folks at the Grey Lady, all we can say is, We’re Glad We Could Be of Assistance.

Just out from the Post …

The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.

John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired.

What will Rush Limbaugh say?

Statement released by Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) …

“Senator Stevens has served his country and the State of Alaska with distinction for over 60 years. With the current investigation underway, it is not appropriate to jump to conclusions until the process is complete. Senator Stevens has the right to have the facts established in this matter.”

One thing we learned last night is that not only is Dick Cheney a big liar, he’s also probably lousy at poker. Because the guy has a classic tell. If you watch when he lies to Larry King, he can’t make eye contact. Once you know what to look for it’s really jarring and obvious.

In today’s episode of TPMtv, we give you all the key highlights of last night’s fibfest on Larry King Live (special bonus no-eye-contact moment comes toward the end) …

Parsing the director of national intelligence’s “weasel words” on Alberto Gonzales’ testimony.

Obama giving big counterterrorism speech today in Washington. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.

Late Update: The full speech and some analysis of it is right here.

The most recent controversy about Alberto Gonzales telling lies centers on the apparent contradiction between his sworn testimony and that of FBI Director Robert Mueller. Gonzales and his partisans appear to be basing their defense of the AG on the notion that there’s a narrow, semantical distinction about what constitutes the ‘terrorist surveillance program’ that gets him off the hook for perjury. And there’s even some lingering question about whether Mueller really said what he appeared to say in his congressional testimony.

Maybe we’re over-interpreting what said or perhaps the strictures of classification made him speak at a level of generality that has confused people about whether he was really contradicting his nominal boss.

Indeed, Gonzales’ flack at the Justice Department is making exactly this claim. “Confusion is inevitable” when public officials discuss highly classified programs, DOJ spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told reporters.

But folks at the FBI seem to be saying, no. No confusion.

This little snippet comes from a piece that ran in Monday’s New York Daily News …

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said “confusion is inevitable” when officials discuss classified activities in public.

FBI officials bristled at that.

“If you read the [FBI] director’s testimony, it is anything but confusing,” said a top Mueller ally at the FBI.

In other words, the folks around Mueller seem pretty clear: Gonzales perjured himself.