A Christmas gift for lovers of political intrigue: Was the death in a plane crash of Mitch Connell, Karl Rove's technology guru, really an accident? And why aren't all the Rove-hating newspapers writing about it?

Here's an interesting idea courtesy of author Michael Gross: If you're doing a little year-end cleaning around the house and you have a few pairs of shoes you were planning to give to charity or toss in the trash, why not wrap up a single shoe in a pretty package with a bow and send it to the President Bush? The only thing better than seeing George Bush duck a flying shoe would be the sight of 50,000 of them piled up on the White House lawn. [MGross.com]

The White House has issued not one but two press releases accusing the New York Times of "gross negligence" in blaming George W. Bush's policies for the housing bubble.

• President Bush announced a rescue plan for General Motors and Chrysler that will provide $13.4 billion in federal loans. [CNN]
• Jamie Dimon and Bob Rubin will go bonus-less this year. [Reuters]
• Not surprisingly, Credit Suisse's plan to pay out bonuses with "toxic" securities has "elicited livid reactions from senior bankers." [WSJ]
• A former Lehman employee has been charged with insider trading. [CNN]
• One person who will profit from the Madoff mess: Bruce Wasserstein. Lazard has been appointed to sell the trading operations of Madoff's company. [WSJ]
• There are two—yes, two—books already in the works about Madoff. [TBS]

Poor Elisabeth Hasselbeck. After stepping up to the podium at the Republican National Convention and then hitting the campaign trail to stump for John McCain and Sarah Palin, how does the White House repay her for her valuable service? By denying her an invite to the annual White House Christmas party! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she's never bothered to register as a Republican? [NYP]

Aside from the shoe thrower himself, the other victim of Sunday's shoe attack was White House press secretary Dana Perino, who returned to the White House yesterday with a black eye.

The Bush administration will be remembered for breaking the law to spy on Americans. One lawyer will be remembered for blowing the whistle.

Dubya's Web-design contractors forgot to pay for georgewbushlibrary.com — and ended up paying $35,000 to get it back.

We should start off by saying that Lauren Bush is our favorite member of the Bush family. In fact, sometimes we forget that her uncle is the President, and what could be a greater compliment than that? She even deserves credit for dating David Lauren. Hooking up with a billionaire heir is rarely a commendable act, but since her relationship with Ralph's son is clearly a source of angst for the rest of the Bush clan—possibly because he's a decade older, Jewish, leans Democratic, or all three—it works in her favor. So it's with love and respect that we share the one thing about Lauren that we're decidedly less impressed with: Those burlap FEED bags she's been shlepping to every event she's attended for more than a year now.

A momentous power summit accompanied last weekend's Kennedy Center Honors, where Barbra Streisand had her first-ever audience with President George Bush. Video from the event features Streisand — a vicious Bush critic who spent much of the recent election cycle as the Obama campaign's Deputy Director of Fundraising Medleys — welcoming the outgoing president to not only within bitchslap's-length, but actually close enough to share a skin-searing bipartisan kiss.

Barack Obama and George Bush have plenty of policy differences, of course, but does the President-elect really represent change when it comes to the wardrobe he's bringing with him to Washington? Maybe not! Both men are fond of American-made suits, white dress shirts, and light blue ties. And you'd be hard-pressed telling them apart if you only focused on the clothes, and you didn't get to peek at the size inside. (In case you're wondering, Obama wears a size 40 or 42; Bush is a 44 long.) On your left, you'll find our very own Presidential Fashion Challenge. See if you can tell which one is Barack Obama and which one is George Bush. It's harder than it looks.

Just in case the plunging stock market, mass layoffs, falling real estate prices, and wave of bankruptcies wasn't sufficient proof that the sky is falling, here's a bit more evidence: Peru's official news agency reports that teetotaler-in-chief George Bush downed a Pisco Sour during his trip to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last weekend. [Andina.com via HuffPo]

Michael Wolff is Vanity Fair's media columnist and the author of a brand new book about Rupert Murdoch. He's also a man with inside info and impeccable sources. "My 83-year-old mother (today is her birthday) in New Jersey has just called me to say that she has just heard through sources who must remain anonymous, though she hinted at friends who have children who might or might not know people in the State Department, that George Bush is back on the sauce and Laura is getting ready to leave him." [Newser.com]

With the presidential election just hours away, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on what George Bush will miss most when he goes from running the most powerful nation on earth to becoming the most hated president in modern American history. Will it be the power? The ability to twist the law to suit his own political agenda? Not according to his former chef, Walter Scheib. What he's really going to miss are the delicious huevos rancheros whipped up for him on Sunday mornings. Fortunately Scheib was willing to share Bush's fave recipe with Fox News, which you can see for yourself in the video to your left.

Oliver Stone is keeping everyone waiting today at Slate, where he's set to engage Bob Woodward and a few other reporters over the facts and slip-ups threading his new film W. Thing have remained mostly civil so far — no Taser jokes or Christian Bale casting rumors — though a few factual liberties have set off a bit of protest in the ranks. Thankfully, while they wait for Stone, Lionsgate now offers a pleasing historical reference for the rest of us. Behold — W. For Dummies.Or, officially, W. — The Official Film Guide, an obsessive, somewhat addictive gathering of footnotes for amateur scholars ("14. Cheney - Unitary Executive Theory") and culture mavens ("80. W. loved Cats) alike, crammed with supporting details and citations behind some of W.'s more out-there moments. Like "W. on Non-Alcoholic Beer":

♦ The Senate is expected to vote this evening on a revised version of the bailout bill. [NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg]
♦ Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has spent the past day and a half working over lawmakers and lobbyists, trying to change minds. [Bloomberg]
♦ President Bush has signed into law a low-interest loan package for American automakers. [WSJ]
♦ UBS plans to cut 1,900 investment banking jobs. [Bloomberg]
♦ Wells Fargo chair Richard Kovacevich says "he feels like a kid in a candy store." At least someone is feeling good. [DB]

♦ A recap of what happened on Wall Street yesterday, just in case you've been asleep for the last 36 hours. [NYT]
♦ In a statement this morning President Bush said he was disappointed the bailout bill didn't pass and warned that "painful and lasting'' economic damage will follow if a settlement isn't reached. Then, like the rest of Congress, he used Rosh Hashanah as an excuse to skip out for the rest of the day. [CNNMoney, Bloomberg]
♦ Wall Street bonuses could be down as much as 50 percent this year. [DB]
♦ Mitsubishi has completed its deal to invest $9 billion in Morgan Stanley; thanks to yesterday's market it's only down $500 million since the deal was announced last week. [NYT]

♦ President Bush turned up outside the White House early this morning to urge lawmakers to pass the $700 billion bailout and a vote is expected later today. Bored today? The full text of the bailout is here. [NYT, WSJ]
♦ Citigroup has agreed to buy Wachovia in a deal brokerered by the FDIC. [Dealbook]
♦ The governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have teamed up to bail out Fortis, one of Europe's largest banks. [WSJ, Bloomberg]

♦ President Bush urged Americans to support the $700 billion bailout during his televised address last night, the first time he's ever devoted a primetime speech to the economy. Meanwhile, thousands of politicians continue to clash over the specifics. [NYT]
♦ Warren Buffet was drinking a cherry coke and eating mixed nuts last Tuesday when he got a call about investing in Goldman Sachs. He hammered out the $5 billion deal in about 15 minutes and then moved on to Cheetos and "licorice pastel candies." [WSJ]
♦ WaMu may not have much time left. [Bloomberg]
♦ Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld reached out to GE CEO Jeff Immelt before the firm filed for bankruptcy. [NYP]

Here's a photo from Vanity Fair's article about Oliver Stone's upcoming George Bush biopic W. that is, deliberately we assume, reminiscent of their own cover portrait of the actual war mongers. We have the real Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and Dubya on the left and then Jeffrey Wright (Powell), Richard Dreyfuss (Cheney), and Josh Brolin (Dubs) on the right (along with fake Karl Rove and fake Paul Wolfowitz). The teaser trailer suggests that the impersonations (if that's what you want to call them), especially Brolin's, are spot-on and we think the likenesses are pretty uncanny, too. Anyone you would have cast differently?