Majority Leader Tom DeLay may have faded from the front pages, but he’s still up to his dirty tricks. Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman revealed that DeLay slipped ?a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas? into the energy bill. But it gets worse. The provision was “mysteriously inserted” into the text of the energy bill “after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure.”

Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, announced that his commitee will be “reviewing” the criminal probe by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald of the White House leak of the identities of covert CIA agents. My guess is that Sen. Roberts is looking to throw the White House a lifeline on this one.

Joe Wilson came forward with his op-ed and appearances on Sunday talk shows to say the President lied to the American people in his State of the Union address. Bush made flat claims that he KNEW he didn’t have the evidence to back up.

John Roberts — a smooth-talking corporate lawyer turned appeals court judge, whose Waspy good looks and blue-chip credentials may conceal an ultraconservative legal agenda. The perfect Stealth nominee, in other words.