The Other White Meat: There are some couplings that are so perfect, so made-in-heaven that it approaches successful cloning. With new talk of Bill Clinton doing a network show, this suggestion of a co-host is so obvious its enough to make one slap the forehead and breath, "Of course." Who more fitting, what more perfect match than Anna Nicole Smith. Here's a roundup of how other talkers feel about Bubba in the afternoon.

Sick and Sicker: There is an old ethnic joke (you pick the ethnicity, we aren't going there) that has a girl telling her mother she is pregnant. Her mother replies, "How do you know it's yours?" This springs to mind upon learning Michael Jackson is walking around with his "new baby" in tow and no one knows who its mother is. Isn't there some law about showing up with a "mystery baby"?

Taking Them To The Wood Shed: One of our sheer summer delights has been to watch Donald Rumsfeld smack down the perfidious White House press corps time and time again. Check Bill Sammon's report on yesterday's action in Crawford as Rummy does his thing one more time. How could we all have ignored this man all these years?

Inside Ashleigh Banfield's Bus: Calling MSNBC's over-rated Ashleigh Banfield an "exaltation of the ditz," Tunku Varadarajan gives the lady, famous for being covered in WTC dust, a second pounding for general airheadedness. Curious Ldot-staffers did a small phone-around to see who watches her anyway. Official count - zero.

Save Terry McAullife: Republicans should start a fund to protect Terry McAuliffe's job. The Clinton sock-puppet and strategy-purveyor is their most valuable asset as his summer-long blame-game boomerangs on the entire dem party. Deborah Orin sums it all up nicely in today's New York Post.

-Your Watchful LComStaff