We've all heard the jokes about mothers-in-law. Still, at least most people don't have to fight with theirs through the press. Not Levi Johnston, however: Though he's split from Bristol Palin, the mother of his child and the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, he's still battling with the governor in public, and getting heat from her spokeswoman as a result.

It was Johnston who set off the latest kerfuffle. He did it by saying, during a press conference, that he believes his ex-fiance's mother decided to resign her post for financial reasons. Back when he was living with the Palin family, in December and January, Johnston said, the governor lamented her inability to take the lucrative offers that were pouring in.

"She had talked about how nice it would be to take some of this money people had been offering us and you know just run with it, say 'forget everything else,'" he said. "I think the big deal was the book. That was millions of dollars."

Johnston is pursuing book and movie deal of his own, though. That provided fodder for Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton, who shot back: "It is interesting to learn Levi is working on a piece of fiction while honing his acting skills."

If you want to know where America will be in ten years, they say, look at California. But today it seems like the Golden State is showing us where we were ten years ago.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Carly Fiorina, the CEO-celebrity who ran Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, is likely to run for Senate against incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. Fiorina ran HP during the burst of the dot-com bubble, and, as one of the country’s most prominent corporate chieftains, attracted a lot of national attention for her drawn-out war with the company’s board. The dispute ultimately ended in her dismissal as CEO.

Fiorina waded into politics during the 2008 campaign as one of John McCain’s favored surrogates on the economy, and her name was periodically floated as a potential running mate. However, she was sidelined after saying she didn’t think John McCain or Sarah Palin (or Barack Obama or Joe Biden) was qualified to run a major corporation. “It is a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company,” Fiorina said.

Most likely, the former HP chief won’t be the only Silicon Valley veteran on the ticket. The frontrunner for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination is Meg Whitman, the former head of eBay, and another prominent 2008 Republican surrogate.

Though it’s probably a good strategy for the Republicans to emphasize the Silicon Valley wing of their party, which is generally more moderate and successful in statewide elections, there’s still something a bit funny about a Hewlett-Packard/eBay slate. We probably won’t be hearing many more lines like the one that got Fiorina in trouble, that's for sure.

One final word of advice to these two Golden State warriors: Try not to wax too nostalgic for the good old days. Dwell too much on 1999, and you’re going to end up sounding like you’re a shill for Pets.com.

Say this for Sen. Arlen Specter: When the guy falls for a new party, he falls hard. Specter, the erstwhile Republican seeking reelection as a Democrat in Pennsylvania, is going after likely Democratic primary rival Rep. Joe Sestak for, of all sins, insufficient party loyalty.

“Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress," Specter said in a statement. "His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process.” In a tweet sent Thursday, Specter asked of his rival's voting record, "Is this the record of a 'true Democrat,' @JoeSestak?"

In a statement of his own, Sestak reiterated that he had remained registered as an independent because he believed that partisan registration was inappropriate for a military officer, and said his apparent record of political non-participation is a result of uncounted absentee ballots.

There’s no way of really telling if Sestak is telling the truth here, but is this really a fight Specter wants to pick? He’s pretty much inviting responses like the one Sestak made:

We've learned today that Arlen Specter can abandon his party, but he just cant quit making Republican swift-boat attacks on the integrity of Democrats who served in our military. My question to Arlen Specter is this: do you regret voting for George Bush and John McCain? Why should Democrats support someone like you who actively campaigned as recently as last year for politicians with values like George W. Bush?

Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., won't run for a full term in 2010, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The paper says he'll officially announce his decision on Friday.

Burris was appointed to his seat by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich; he was filling a vacancy created by Barack Obama's election to the presidency. Blagojevich made the announcement that he was appointing Burris after he was arrested by federal authorities who charged he'd tried to sell the seat -- that led to a battle between Burris and Senate Democrats, who didn't want to seat him.

In another situation, it might be surprising that Burris is now going to give up the seat he fought so hard to get. But the taint of the former governor has remained on him, and it's been clear for some time he would not be able to win in 2010, or even muster any real support for a campaign.

Reuters/Jason Reed

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009.

Drudge is leading with this picture right now, with a banner headline that reads "Mr. President!" Gotta give it to him, though he's probably just trying to drum up some controversy, that's a pretty funny headline. The look on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's face may be even funnier.

I've been waiting for some conservatives to work themselves up into a lather over this photo, but so far, except for the occasional comparison to President Clinton, everyone just appears to be laughing, and giving President Obama a little well-deserved ribbing. Which is good -- because hey, let's face it, we all have that occasional impulse to stop and appreciate certain features of our fellow men. And women. Obama just has the misfortune of being on camera for the better part of his day. Let's just hope, for his sake, that the first lady is willing to buy that excuse.

Plus, Obama has clearly gotten in that European spirit. Turns out this is only one of at least three photos from the G-8 summit currently underway in which he, Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apparently got caught in flagrante gluteus. (The other two are here and here.)

And yes, you're allowed to laugh at this: I checked with Broadsheet.

Update: ABC News found video of the moment captured in the photo. You can watch it below -- it's potentially exculpatory, and seems to suggest Obama's attention was actually elsewhere, as he was about to help the woman above him walk down, but it could go either way. Sarkozy, however, doesn't even try to be discreet. Gotta love the French.

Either way? It's funny. And it's summer. And we can all use a laugh sometimes.

For some time now, it's seemed that Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was able to successfully weather the disclosure of his affair with a staffer and could continue his political career, albeit with his reputation tarnished and any hopes for higher office dashed for now. But this week, attention was back on the senator, and people are raising new questions about payments made to his mistress and her husband, a longtime friend. Now, a new revelation from Ensign's lawyer is likely to open the floodgates.

In a statement released Thursday, Ensign attorney Paul Coggins said that the senator's parents had given $96,000 to their son's former staffer, Cindy Hampton, and her family. The full statement:

In April 2008, Senator John Ensign’s parents each made gifts to Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton, and two of their children in the form of a check totaling $96,000. Each gift was limited to $12,000. The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts.

After the Senator told his parents about the affair, his parents decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time. The gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others.

None of the gifts came from campaign or official funds nor were they related to any campaign or official duties. Senator Ensign has complied with all applicable laws and Senate ethics rules.

Even before this news broke, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, announced that it had asked the Justice Department to investigate an allegation that Ensign had paid $25,000 in severance to Cindy Hampton without reporting it.

That allegation came from an interview Doug Hampton gave to a Las Vegas reporter. In that interview, Hampton also said a group that includes Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., encouraged Ensign to pay millions of dollars to help the Hampton family pay off their mortgage and move to a new home away from him.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin might not have military or foreign policy experience, but according to a new Rasmussen poll, GOP voters who rank national security as the issue most important to them would break for her in a hypothetical 2012 primary. (Hey, she can see Russia from her house, after all.)  

Overall, according to the poll, if the GOP primaries were held today, Palin would finish second to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The two tied for first place among Republican voters who consider economic issues as their highest concern. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee finished third out of a field of six possible candidates, which also included big names like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The Rasumussen results come in the wake of a USA Today-Gallup poll showing Palin had increased her popularity among Republican voters by her unexpected resignation announcement. However, that's not to say that all Republicans are gung-ho for a possible Palin presidential candidacy. The Rasmussen poll also shows that 40 percent of GOP voters said Palin's resignation has hindered her chances of claiming the White House, and she's one of the two candidates conservative voters least want to win the nomination.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has just released the witness list for hearings on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, which will begin Monday. It provides a pretty strong insight into the Republicans' plans for opposing Sotomayor: Hit her hard, and often, on race and guns.

Two names, especially, stick out in the Republicans' witness list: Frank Ricci, the director of Fire Services with the Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health, and Lieutenant Ben Vargas of the New Haven Fire Department. Ricci was the named plaintiff from one of the most controversial rulings in which Sotomayor has taken part, Ricci v. DeStefano.

The case centered around a test given to firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who were seeking promotion; the results of the test would have meant 13 out of 15 available promotions would go to whites, two to Hispanics and none to African Americans. Because of the lack of racial balance, the city elected to throw out the test and try to come up with some more equitable system. Sotomayor voted in favor of the city and against the group of firefighters who sued; the Supreme Court recently reversed that decision.

As my colleague Glenn Greenwald quipped when the news broke, the two firefighters are unlikely to be asked to comment on the complex legal issues involved in their case. Instead, ironically, their testimony is going to be about the dreaded "empathy," making Sotomayor out to be a racist victimizing innocent white firefighters.

Other big names on the list, like Sandy Froman, the former president of the NRA, suggest that Sotomayor's rulings on the Second Amendment will also be a big issue. And, of course, there's at least one witness there to talk about social issues: Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life.

The Democrats' list seems to hint mostly that they'll want to emphasize Sotomayor's long resume and her performance in her various jobs. But they're not above a bit of showmanship, either: They'll be calling former New York Mets pitcher David Cone, presumably to talk about Sotomayor's ruling that ended the 1995 Major League Baseball strike.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prefers practicing gentle persuasion to hardball politics when it comes to prompting his fellow Democratic Senators to get behind healthcare reform. But even he has his limits.

On Tuesday, Reid told Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who is heading an effort to create a bipartisan solution on healthcare, that reform legislation needs to include a public, government-supported option to compete with private insurers. Reid reportedly indicated to Baucus that a bill without a public option might gain a few GOP votes, but would lose a lot more Democratic ones -- and so Baucus should stop trying to win over Republicans.

But on Wednesday, Baucus ignored Reid's admonitions. He continued his push to create a bipartisan solution with Republicans, even if that means sacrificing the public option that Democrats and a large majority of Americans support. Baucus seemed to suggest yet again that bipartisanship is as important, it not more so, than the merits of any proposed healthcare plan. “Everything’s on the table," Baucus said. "By far the better approach is a bipartisan approach to get this moving.”

Some Democrats are worried that Baucus is trying to force them into a corner by creating a healthcare proposal that might have Republican support but would be inferior policy-wise. Democratic sources told Roll Call that "Baucus’ calculation ... is that Democratic leaders and President Barack Obama would be hard-pressed to ignore any measure that attracts bipartisan support if the Finance chairman is actually able to get it done."

Throughout his career, Baucus has had a tendency to play for the middle ground in politics. In 1993, he opposed an employer mandate that helped to derail Bill Clinton's healthcare reform push.

Baucus had advocated taxing some employer-provided health benefits as a way to offset the cost of any healthcare plan, but that idea has faced sharp criticism from Democrats who think the senator is trying way too hard to win the support of Republicans like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who seem more determined to oppose a public option than to come up with a solution of their own.

Baucus' continued focus on bipartisanship comes as at least one centrist Democratic senator is beginning to soften her opposition to a public plan. In a piece in Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. wrote, "Health care reform must build upon what works and improve inefficiencies. Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans. Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan." Lincoln had not come as close to supporting a public option in the past but has been under pressure from liberal advocacy groups to change her position on the issue recently.

Wednesday, Reid also seemed to backtrack on his earlier prodding of Baucus. Reid sought to assuage Republicans worried that healthcare legislation would be rushed through the Senate and assured them that Democrats still want to work with them to come up with a solution.

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced her resignation, one of the reasons she gave was the cost of all the ethics complaints that have been filed against her. "Every one -- all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We've won! But it hasn't been cheap -- the State has wasted THOUSANDS of hours of YOUR time and shelled out some two million of YOUR dollars to respond to 'opposition research' -- that's money NOT going to fund teachers or troopers -- or safer roads," she said. (Emphasis in the text sent out by her office.)

But as Joan Walsh writes in her blog, that total appears to have been inflated, and most of the complaints were not actually about opposition research.

Plus, the Anchorage Daily News reports, the money that went to investigating the ethics complaints wasn't really diverted from "teachers or troopers -- or safer roads." It was money that would have gone to state lawyers anyway.

Now, that doesn't mean the investigations were without cost, or that they didn't divert resources from places they might have been more valuable. The Palin administration's defense of the governor's statements is that lawyers and other employees had to be pulled off other work, leaving it to less-qualified replacements or being forced to put less time into their normal priorities. That does appear to be true, and it certainly didn't help Alaskan taxpayers much. But they didn't see money earmarked for schools, police or roads go elsewhere, either.