Today, we find Dick Cheney comfortably ensconced in the Executive Branch, which offers him the advantage of being able to assert executive privilege in the face of congressional subpoenas. (The specter of Cheney raising executive privilege came in this letter from the Vice President’s counsel to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT). This, of course, is in contrast to Cheney’s position a few weeks ago that he was part of the Legislative Branch and thus not subject to an Executive Order on the handling of classified documents.

I used to think that Cheney’s undisclosed location was an underground bunker somewhere in the wilds of Maryland. Perhaps it was really this strange new netherworld between the Executive and Legislative branches, an imaginary place of the Vice President’s own making.

The award for most misleading headline on today’s Iraq vote goes to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, whose website leads with “Filibuster Fails to Force Iraq Vote.”

Whoa. Wrong on so many levels.

We were just kicking that one around amongst ourselves. Greg Sargent pointed out that it’s a twofer: “The Dems filibustered, and they failed at it. They are filibustering losers.”

Just in case all the bamboozling has you confused, it was the Republicans who were threatening to filibuster to thwart a vote on withdrawing from Iraq. Rinse and repeat.

From Maria Bartiromo’s interview of Condi Rice in the current issue of BusinessWeek:

MB: Would you consider a position in business or on Wall Street?

CR: I don’t know what I’ll do long-term. I’m a terrible long-term planner.

Maybe you had a life and weren’t able to stay up all night last night to watch the GOP filibuster on the Iraq withdrawal bill. But with the help of TPM Readers who did we’ve put together a highlight reel of some of the best or just, well, some of the choicest moments (there’s some really good stuff). At one point, right at the end of the segment, Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) gets so wound up about how good things are going in Iraq that he appears to waver momentarily in his opposition to gays in the military. Take a look …

Hillary campaign officially responds to Elizabeth Edwards’ criticism of her record on women’s-rights issues. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.

That land deal involving Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that TPMmuckraker’s Laura McGann broke on Monday just got a whole lot more interesting.

More shortly . . .

Wow. It really does defy comprehension sometimes how bad congressional reporters can be at reporting what’s going on in Congress. Check this out.

Late Update: Looking more closely at the question and answer I linked to in this post, I can see what the Post reporter was saying. I think it’s a strained reading, but my original criticism was too strong.

New evidence surfaces of more pro-choice lobbying by Fred Thompson. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.

Laura McGann has the rundown on the breaking news from Alaska regarding the sweetheart land deal for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

Short version: Murkowski bought riverfront property on the Kenai River from a politically connected developer for $179,400, which just happened to be the assessed value of the property for property tax purposes. There are indications that the fair market value of the property may be nearly twice what Murkowski paid.

If only I could pick up real estate for the assessed value. Guess you have to be a U.S. senator for that kind of score.

Update: I’ve gotten a couple of emails–from readers in Massachusetts and Virginia, respectively–who would be happy to sell me property at the assessed value, saying that FMV is actually lower than their assessments. I’d be curious to know where else in the country this is the case.

In any event, our reporting shows that assessed value does trail FMV in the area where Murkowski’s property is located.

In today’s episode of TPMtv, we ask Afghan Ambassador Said T. Jawad about some of the more controversial aspects of the war in Afghanistan: from torture on Afghan soil to the spike in civilian casualties to the allegation that President Hamid Karzai’s brother is involved in the opium trade. His take on Iran’s influence in Afghanistan might surprise you. Take a look.