Rudy: Don’t believe the hype. I can be just as friggin’ crazy as the other ‘wingers.

Greg Djerejian brings us the news that Rudy is being advised on Iraq by none other than John Bolton. So basically Rudy’s in with the one guy who was even too whacked for the Bushies.

The guy really knows how to pick good people.

A bunch of you have asked, ‘Hey, as long as you’re taking the time to produce these daily video segments, why aren’t you making it available as a podcast?’ Well, we are. It’s on itunes. And you can go download it or subscribe whenever you want. Just go to the itunes store and search for ‘veracifier’.

Of course, that raises the question, ‘What the hell’s veracifier?’ A good question with a good answer, which I’ll answer in an upcoming post.

There are so many shoes dropping tonight that it’s hard to know which one to catch or grab on to. But here’s a decent place to start. Various White Houses have made more or less copious claims for executive privilege. But even Richard Nixon was not half this audacious. Remember those Republican National Committee emails that seem to have gone missing? President Bush’s lawyers says that if they’re ever ‘found’ then they’re covered by executive privilege too.

From the Times …

The clash also seemed to push the White House and Democrats closer to a serious confrontation over executive privilege, with the White House counsel, Fred F. Fielding, asserting that the administration has control over countless other e-mail messages that the Republican National Committee has archived. Democrats are insisting that they are entitled to get the e-mail messages directly from the national committee.

This one is worth slowing down and seeing just what the White House is saying. Executive privilege doesn’t just apply to conversations the president has with his top aides. It doesn’t just apply to conversations his top aides have with each other. It doesn’t even just apply to any presidential aides doing anything connected to the White House. Executive privilege applies to the outside political party work the president’s aides do on their own time.

Remember, members of the White House staff have outside party-funded email accounts for doing political work they are not permitted to do on taxpayers’ time. They do their official work with government phones, emails, blackberries, etc. But if they break the rules and do official work using outside party-funded email addresses then executive privilege covers that too.

Shocked and somewhat awed (CNN)…

The alleged “D.C. madam” dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named bristled at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jean Palfrey.

Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers.

In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as “one of the regular customers” of the business.

Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the “shock and awe” military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“The allegations do not dignify a response,” Ullman told CNN. “I’m a private, not a public, citizen. Any further questions are referred to my attorneys.”

TPM Reader RL sends us along this editorial from the Milwaukee alt weekly, the Shepherd Express, which gives us more helpful background on Milwaukee US Attorney Steven Biskupic’s curious habit of prosecuting Democrats and how it ties in to the US Attorney Purge.

Today’s Must Read: taking apart the White House’s “offer” to Congress.

The DCCC is up on the air with a new radio ad hammering GOP Rep. Heather Wilson over her role in the Attorney Purge. Check it out here.

More documents forthcoming from the Justice Department this morning.

Update: They’ve arrived. We’ve set a document diving comment thread at TPMmuckraker here.

Did Fred Hiatt break his own stated policies on Op-eds by publishing Liz Cheney’s attack on Pelosi without identifying the writer as the Veep’s daughter?

Update: Don’t miss what may be the crowning absurdity of this whole affair.

A Senator in the Book Club? Ron Wyden rejects the idea that we need to wait for a Democratic president to take on health care reform.