Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Edwards! Affair! Scandal! Drudge's two-month-old breaking news gossip

By Brendan Loy

The National Enquirer's John Edwards affair rumor that's currently the Drudge Report's lead story is not actually new -- though the claim that Johnny Boy's alleged paramour is pregnant with his love child is a new and salacious twist. But the claim of an 18-month affair between Edwards and former campaign staffer Rielle Hunter has been a hot item in the blogosphere for more than two months, ever since it surfaced in the National Enquirer on October 10... and was, surprisingly, not picked up by Drudge.

Drudge did, however, link to Edwards's public denial... of an affair Drudge had never previously mentioned. The denial wasn't reported nearly as widely as you'd expect, though. The media at large, notwithstanding its usual tendency toward sensationalism, pretty much ignored the whole story. Hence, assuming this latest "developing" item from Drudge seeps into the MSM (as his lead stories usually do), this will be totally new information to a lot of people.

When the original scandal reports basically fizzled, there was much blogospheric talk -- particularly by Edwards-Hunter gossipmonger-in-chief Mickey Kaus -- about why Drudge and other media sludges weren't running with the story. The chief line of speculation was that sympathy for cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards was holding the usual suspects back from their usual "release the hounds" mentality. Well that, and the whole conspiratorial liberal-MSM blah blah blah. (That doesn't work for Drudge, though.)

Apparently, however, the prospect of a hidden love child was too much for Drudge to pass up. Either that, or bringing this scandal into the mainstream now, 16 days before the Iowa caucuses, better suited his not-so-hidden agenda(s). Either way, there is certainly plenty of room to question Drudge about his rationale for turning this National Enquirer story into a major headline when he totally ignored a previous story from the same publication about the same alleged scandal. It's not like the Enquirer somehow magically gained credibility in the last two months.

Mitt Muskie?

By Brendan Loy

The AP has a story today, linked near the top of Drudge, with the headline, "Romney Gets Tearful Recalling War Toll." The lede reads:

Mitt Romney's eyes filled with tears Monday as the Republican presidential contender recalled watching the casket of a soldier killed in Iraq return to the United States and imagined if it were one of his five sons.

This follows on the heels of Romney's Meet the Press performance Sunday, in which he got teary-eyed while telling the story of how he wept openly -- tears of joy, of course -- when he learned in 1978 that the Mormon church had ended discrimination against blacks.

Both of these are perfectly reasonable things to get emotional over, but methinks Mitt needs to watch his public displays of emotion, lest he become another Ed Muskie. Somebody needs to tell him there's no crying in baseball... or politics. The American people like their women unwrinkled and their men unemotional! (And their beer cold, their TV loud, and their homosexuals flaming.)

An acappella Christmas carol

By Victoria Lopez

I know Brendan loves all things acappella, so Enjoy! :) 

Peter Jackson to produce The Hobbit!!

By Brendan Loy

Mike Huckabee was right: There is a God!

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy "The Lord of the Rings."

Jackson, who directed "Rings," will serve as executive producer for "The Hobbit." A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.

Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after "Rings," despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting "The Hobbit" 50/50, spokesmen for both studios said Tuesday.

"I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson said in a statement. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."

Two "Hobbit" films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three "Lord of the Rings" films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!

(Hat tip: yea.)

P.S. If I recall correctly from previous rumors, the first prequel will chronicle the events of "The Hobbit" (including, I imagine, considerably more detail about the White Council driving Sauron out of Dol Guldur than is featured in the book), while the second movie will deal with what occurred in the 60 years between "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Ring."

A lot of important stuff happens in that 60-year period, but to be honest, I'm not sure how you make a coherent movie out of it. However, with Peter Jackson involved (albeit not in the director's chair), I have faith that it won't suck. Anyway, after the jump, I've copy-and-pasted Wikipedia's list of the events that occurred in that time period.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

-- Aruban prosecutors office says the three suspects in disappearance of Natalee Holloway will be not charged.

Merry Christmas to all...

By JLR

Even if you don't believe in Jesus. Just awful. Huckabee's Merry-Chirstmas-whether-you-believe-in-Jesus-or-not makes my stomach churn. I don't know if I'm getting sick right now because (a) Huckabee doesn't even mention that there are some people in the country who might not celebrate Christmas, (b) the message is sponsored by his campaign, and since Huckabee has taken public funds for his campaign, public dollars went to fund this ad, (c) the only thing Huckabee has going for him right now is his Jesus-invocation, so he thinks that this will make him more popular, (d) he somehow thinks that this is better than all of the other televeision campaign ads because he's saying "Merry Christmas," or (e) the only thing that "really matters" in December according to his ad is celebrating the birth of Christ. ... And now you all can tell me how wrong Jew-boy JLR is.