There’s obviously been a lot of chatter and confusion this morning about just what Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) told the Times and whether the Times got the story wrong. Times reporter Jeff Zeleny is standing by the story and says that Lewis will cast his super delegate vote for Obama, apparently regardless of who wins the most pledged delegates, to honor the wishes of his constituents. Whatever the particulars, the gist seems to be what I characterized it as last night. This isn’t mainly about an endorsement or an unendorsement. The real issue here is the Clinton camp’s professed willingness to win on super delegates even if they end up with fewer pledged delegates than Obama. The Times may have gotten some nuances wrong, or perhaps Lewis’s camp wasn’t completely comfortable with how things looked when they saw it on paper. But the bottom line message is that he won’t go along with the Clinton strategy.

A Democratic Hill aide checks in:

I can’t remember which show it was – something like the Brady Bunch – where the protagonist is being picked on by a bully and at a certain point lashes out and inadvertently bloodies the bully’s nose (and ends the bully’s tyrannical reign, etc). It seems that the House may have inadvertently done just this. In the face of an all-too-familiar pattern of administration fear mongering instead of cowedly acceding to the administration’s wishes (and tacitly reinforcing the effectiveness of the administration’s fearmongering) the House seems, through something other than a concerted response, to have stumbled into a situation where they have bloodied the administration’s nose. Short of cancelling his Africa trip and spending all of next week demagoging this issue, I don’t see how the admin keeps their credibility on this. A line has been crossed.

I’m not a pop culture aficianado, but I think it was a Brady Brunch episode. In any event, bullying is precisely what the Bush Administration has done to cow Democrats. I’m not yet convinced that we have crossed the Rubicon in terms of Democrats punching the bully in the nose. But even if we have, what took so long?

Late Update: We’re having a Brady Bunch v. A Christmas Story throwdown in the emailer comments. Here’s TPM Reader DM:

It’s definitely possible that The Brady Bunch had an episode where one of the boys bloodied a bully’s nose, but I’m reasonably confident that the reader is thinking about “A Christmas Story,” where Ralphie finally snaps at all the taunting he is receiving from Scut Farkus, attacks ol’ Scut and beats the crap out of him.

Later Update: The Andy Griffith Show fans are making a late push. Writes TPM Reader JR:

Sorry, but the best example in sitcom land of a bully getting a blackeye is the “Opie and the Bully” episode No. 33 of Andy of Mayberry. In fact, it is far more relevant to the current House-White House showdown than the Brady Bunch. Opie had previously been giving the bully his milk money whenever the bully demanded it. Andy tells Opie a story about how Andy had faced down his bully when he was younger and how even when the bully hit him, it didn’t hurt. So, Opie refuses to give up his milk money the next day, takes a shot from the bully (which he doesn’t feel) and punches out the bully, who runs home crying.

Pop Culture Arcana Update: TPM Reader SS does the honors:

In that Brady episode, Peter doesn’t bloody Buddy Hinton’s nose, he knocks his tooth out, giving Buddy a lisp much like the one he mocked Cindy for having.

Yesterday, a top Justice Department official, Stephen Bradbury, gave the most detailed description ever given of the Department’s legal analysis with regard to a particular interrogation technique — waterboarding.

One of the challenges of covering the Bush Administration these days is resisting the temptation to assume that everything they do is a stunt or a con. Sure, more often than not it is. But you have to keep your wits about you.

So when I first saw the reports yesterday that the Pentagon was planning on shooting down this failing satellite before it re-enters the atmosphere, my first reaction was, you’ve got to be kidding me. It didn’t ease my suspicions when the first AP wire story referred to it as “the option preferred by the Bush administration.”

Sure enough, it looks like this whole Star Wars operation is fishy as well, according to actual rocket scientists.

Without a Rudy Giuliani or a Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential race, the TPMtv Weekend Clip Extravaganza wasn’t sure where to turn to for its material. Luckily, the blessed Chris Matthews answered our prayers. Plus, a special look back at the recent Capital Hill performance of Roger Clemens and his crack legal team.

Watch this episode on YouTube.

At TPM Cafe, we’re wrapping up this week’s Book Club on E.J. Dionne’s new book.

In his final post, Dionne argues that the era of the Religious Right began in 1980 and may well have ended in 2004 and predicts that broad economic and foreign policy questions will supplant the cultural arguments of the last quarter century.

Arguing this week against the premise of Dionne’s book has been Richard Parker, who, in his final post, suggests that the retrenchment Dionne describes is less fundamental and the result of recent political setbacks for the Republican Party. He compares the Religious Right to a trophy wife:

They felt neglected and abused by their Democratic first husband, and started fooling around with the rich Republican. But now they’re married to the GOP, and they’re surprised that the romance has gone away?

Our thanks to all the participants this week.

Federal prosecutors ask judge to sentence Duke Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes to 25 years in prison.

Mark Penn: “Winning Democratic primaries is not a qualification or a sign of who can win the general election. If it were, every nominee would win because every nominee wins Democratic primaries.”

From McClatchy:

If elected president, Hillary Clinton would ask the Justice Department to determine if alleged 9/11 plotters currently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be tried in civilian courts or regular military courts rather than face military commissions that have sparked controversy both inside and outside the United States, her campaign says.

Clinton’s response to questions about charges filed last week against six Guantanamo prisoners was the most far reaching of the three leading presidential candidates.

Her opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said that the so-called “high-value detainees” at Guantanamo should be tried in federal or traditional military courts, but did not say what actions he would take to move the trials.

Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, said he plans to continue the military commissions even if the detention center in Cuba is closed, as he has advocated.

Barack Obama made his pilgrimage to North Carolina today, seeking John Edwards’ endorsement.