ne the most potentially controversial stories in recent years was successfully nipped in the bud by the Bush White House and its ever-faithful assistant, the national news media, as the ongoing story of former Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis Libby's indictment, the first of a sitting White House official in history, was relegated to page 3 by bored news directors and other major Republican-driven news stories.

Libby, called "Scooter" by his many enemies, is the first and likely only casualty of the under-covered story of a White House leak, in which the identity of a working CIA operative, conveniently the wife of Bush opponent Joseph Wilson. Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was outed as a spy by a conservative columnist, and his source was traced back to the White House. While liberals hoped the 22-month investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald would reveal the dirty tactic came from a source as high as presidential counselor Karl Rove, the most the Democrats could succeed with was a guy named Scooter. And the victory itself was short-lived.

As soon as news of the Libby indictment, a potentially president-destroying story, was announced, the Cheney Chief of Staff resigned and the White House began its onslaught of less important announcements, starting with the retraction of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, the nomination of mini-Scalia Samuel Alito, and more news from the clusterfuck in the Middle East that is Iraq. To seal the deal and firmly erase the recent memory of criminal charges against White House staff, the president released a string of obscene and bizarre comments guaranteed to push the story off the page—covered elsewhere in this edition of the commune.

Democrats and White House insiders alike were surprised by the effectiveness of the Bush administration's "Operation: Bury the Story."

DNC strategist Michael Fallusmore: "Damn, but they did it good. We were a little busy basking in the glee of what should have been a catastrophe for the Bush-ites and GOP. Then we woke the next morning and couldn't find a trace of it anywhere. The news media were suddenly much more interested in the predictable choice of a conservative white guy for the Supreme Court. Real shockaroo there. But still, you have to give them credit for weaseling out of the unweaselable. I guess all we can do now is hope some reporter finds that dead hooker in Karl Rove's Toyota."

An inside source at the White House, some Bush college buddy whose phone we tapped, agreed with the quick removal of the story.

"I totally can't believe it worked," said the source, then giggled as he did a line of blow. "I suppose it would have been a hard uphill battle if all the major media outlets hadn't bought into the importance of these other routine stories and decided to shrug off the boring details of criminal and possibly treasonous behavior inside the walls of the highest pockets of U.S Government. What? Yeah, I'm completely wasted, so what? I always talk like that."

The president did his part as leader of his party and platform to diminish the importance of the story to the news media and the American people, by dressing in ugly suits, appearing as unphotogenic as possible, and keeping his comments quite limited to make for lousy B-roll for the visually oriented media outlets. Bush responded Thursday to Libby's plea of not guilty to the charges.

"Yep, yep," said the president, quickly shuffling off to a birthday party of a friend being held at a Washington, D.C. Chuck E. Cheese.

Santa Claus on Trial: Week Three

Unknown American Philosopher Dead

Who’s the Black Pit That Killed a Night Club Prick? Elevator Shaft — Damn Right

Apple iPhone to Contain Real Fruit Filling

Anyone who knows anything about me (kids with book reports: attention) knows I have two mortal enemies: Lindsay Wagner and computers. Of course, one is a dumb electronic appliance and my fear and hatred is just an irrational phobia; and then there's computers, and my job forces me to learn to work with them.

It's still no excuse for the teamster-like attitude of my computer. This computer wouldn't work if I threatened to replace it with cheap foreign labor. It starts slow, it runs slow, it even turns off slow. And let's not get started about the mail—actually, let's do; my column needs filling up this week.

All I can say is they've hired a real slacker to deliver my e-mail, 'cause I'm the last to hear about anything in this office. I never get any memos, no electronic Christmas cards, I never even get any of Rok Finger's daily barrage of ethnic jokes. Either I'm the biggest outsider in the commune offices (and with Bludney Pludd around that role's already taken) or I've got the world's worst e-mail delivery system.

Come to think of it, I've never even received my welcome e-mail from that Bago guy. Just how long has this electronic Ferris Bueller been pulling a fast one on me? For all I know he could've unplugged the connection to all the other computers on the first day and the dildo has been loafing ever since.

I'd like to teach that biatch a lesson. I should see if there's some kind of program for doing that—send in some sort of hellfire-spitting preacher of the Internet world to punish him for disregarding my mail. A computer virus or something that acts like the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket on big puss internet couriers. I'd like to see that smooth jackass piss his electronic self when that program storms in all, "What is your major malfunction, Private Clarissa Coleman's E-mailman? I've shit things with more gumption, numbnuts!"

Boy, I'm excited about it the more I consider it. There must be some kind of program out there like that. Some kind of Equalizer-type computer software that settles things up even with asshole electronics, and keeps it all on the down-low. I asked around the commune who I would speak to about that, our tech support people, but everyone acts like I'm joking and keeps saying they want to see where I'm going with it. Maybe I'll have to place an add in a newspaper or magazine—that's what you had to do for the A-Team.

I'm not an idiot, you know. Just to make that clear. I know there's not really a little guy inside the computer with a college dorm-style apartment, just lying around, drinking beer and watching Software Gone Wild instead of delivering my e-mail. It's all real complicated computer shit I can't possibly fathom, so I translate in my own terms when talking to you. It's like the ending of Stephen King's It, when It was so completely cool and amazing you can't possibly really see it, especially not in a made-for-TV movie, so they just cheap out and make it a big spider. Man, that was suck-city.

It's real important that I start getting my e-mail. Not only do I have fans out there who want to contact me, and I'm not about to give my address out to such knobs, but I also have this big new show about to start and I'll need every possible communiqué possible. Not only for my own satisfaction, but to make sure I can fire off complaints and suggestions for script changes, all of that stuff, to the producers. So that guy needs to get off his metaphysical ass or get replaced real fast.

º Last Column: The Big Clarissa Coleman Comeback
º more columns

Hello and welcome to day four of Operation Jerkhunt, the pet project of a neighborhood group I recently organized to hunt down the freakish scum who stole my neighbor Hamms' Winnebago and, once they'd had their vile fun, dumped it in the Potomac River to conceal the evidence of their truly heinous crimes against the retired. That's the story the vigilante group is working from anyway, I personally know better but am in the unique position of being unable to correct their misconceptions without revealing the fact that Omar Bricks was the one who borrowed the Winni and, through no fault of my own, drove it into the Potomac with a half-naked record store clerk in the shower. "Drove" is actually entirely too strong a word, since in truth there was a giant stuffed carnival bear behind the wheel at the time, and the Winnebago actually rolled downhill backwards into the river thanks to the stuffed bear's poor understanding of parking brake procedures.

I have a rock-solid alibi since I was in the Winnebago's shower at the time, as can be backed up by a half-naked record store clerk named either Darlene or Danielle. That was a large part of the problem, actually, since when you're already wet and in the shower, it's not as obvious as it would otherwise be that your mobile home is steadily sinking into one of America's greatest rivers. So by the time you put two and two together, it's way too late to organize a team of pack mules to pull the Winnebago out of the river before someone's collection of rare "road music" LPs is damaged by the river water, silt, and various beaver activities therein.

So far we've had little luck tracking down the vermin, though we have concluded conclusively that there's no way in hell he could live in our neighborhood. In fact, it was likely a woman, possibly crippled, from remote Eastern Europe, making retaliation all but impractical. There is a moral victory, however, in knowing the truth, and I know that Hamms has appreciated my help and the fact that he can sleep well at night now, knowing that Omar Bricks is keeping an eye on his house and assorted goodies.

Our previous misunderstandings about my frequent trespassing in his bathroom, burning down his house while it was being built, having him arrested twice on charges of necrophilia, and taking a shit in his garden and blaming it on my dog now well behind us, Hamms and I have moved on to a beautiful new phase of our friendship. Namely the first phase after someone's been your enemy before and now you think they're okay on a provisional basis. Like I said, truly a beautiful thing.

He's had me over to his house for beers twice now, once that he knew about, and I can clearly see the roots of a lifelong friendship taking hold. Or at least as long as he's going to live, which from the looks of things should only be another seven months at best since Hamms is older than Bob Hope. But Omar Bricks is pretty good at seven month friendships. Any longer than that and you hit the dreaded "Seven Month Itch," when your friend inevitably finds out that you used their precious Hummel figurine collection for a pyrotechnic-heavy one-sixteenth scale recreation of the Spanish Civil War or that you're the one who's been painting all those crude sexual figures on their bathroom walls at night.

But those first seven months, or five, man. That's the beautiful part. Bricks out.

º Last Column: Check Your Breasts
º more columns