SCRAPBOOK

...No word on whether those 58 appearances include "public service" ads for E.D...

...The tipoff: Flynt's media-hoax track record...

...We are not messing around anymore...

...He could have subscribed to Nexis and saved a lot of money...

...In his report, he promises a book detailing further "revelations...

...In the spirit of the self-aggrandizing pornographer, The Scrapbook is pleased to report that we were right...

...It would be a service to readers if the Times made public more of the editorial opinions that shape its news stories...

...A few more Kosovos, and Sen...

...20036...

...But no doubt Pat Moynihan and George Mitchell are feeling his hot Hoosier breath on the backs of their necks, for they are tied for fourth place, at 28 appearances each...

...The explanation for this astonishing editorial comment came a week later in an Editor's Note: "As published, the article included an opinionated sentence casting doubt on [Bush's] mastery of the issues...

...Flynt later admitted his tape was as "fake as a $3 bill...

...The Scrap-book is prepared to believe that Loren was just being demure...

...Yes," writes Wanniski to Hutchinson, "it will sound outrageous at first, but I want to compare Yugoslavia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic, to Abe Lincoln...

...HELP WANTED The Weekly Standard has a full-time position available for a staff assistant working with the circulation and business staff...

...BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana is widely admired as one of the more modest fellows on Capitol Hill— which is, as they say, a little like being one of the tallest buildings in Cedar Rock, Nebraska...

...Scrapbook TARRY FTYNT SHOOTS BLANKS Ever since offering a million-dollar bounty last October for dirt on Republican officials, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has vowed to defend Bill Clinton against the politics of personal destruction—even if he had to destroy people's personal lives to do it...

...No calls, please...

...In a Richard L. Berke story a couple of weeks ago on the large number of policy experts going to Austin, Texas, to advise Bush for his run at the GOP presidential nomination, there was this catty line about all the expert advice Bush was getting: "There may never have been a 'serious' candidate who needed it more...

...George magazine has christened Flynt one of the "20 Most Fascinating Men in politics," so Flynt will likely keep playing his games...

...There are eight pages of testimonials from fans, including a mash note from Geraldo Rivera...

...As a public service to those who tuned out the tedious Oscars before Kazan's moment, The Scrapbook took careful notes—a list!—of every attendee it could identify who sat...

...Depending on when you caught Flynt or his deputies, they flip-flopped on every detail from the report's release date to the nature of the scandals it would reveal...

...COMMAND ERROR At last we know what New York Times editors really think about George W. Bush...

...The hands-down all-time leader, however, is Bob Dole, who appeared on the show 58 times...

...NAMING NAMES During the weeks before the Academy Awards, Army Archerd raged a ruthless campaign against Elia Kazan in his column in Daily Variety...

...Sen...

...Archerd implored the Hollywood glitterati to stand up to the supposed evil of Kazan by sitting down and folding their arms when Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese presented the eminent director with an Oscar for lifetime achievement...

...The list proves—as if proof were necessary!—that with this latest appearance, Senator Lugar has now moved into sixth place, past Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who is presumably without hope of ever catching up with the gentleman from Indiana...

...Yes, they are...

...In 1983, he claimed to have an audio-tape that proved government agents had threatened John DeLorean's life if DeLorean didn't buy cocaine in their sting operation...

...Watts has illegitimate children, Republican backbencher Ken Calvert once got caught with a hooker) and a handful of uncorroborated charges (one Republican is rumored to have been photographed in the embrace of a Mexican prostitute, "an elusive photo, if it exists...

...There is a 16-page discussion of Flynt's media treatment...

...The Flynt Report finally landed in The Scrapbook's mailbox last week in a brown paper bag...

...It's outrageous all the way to the end...

...Political philosophy on Crossfire...

...And trust us: The Honest Abe Milosevic stuff doesn't sound outrageous just at first...

...The only certainty, it seemed, was, as Flynt's chief investigator Dan Mold-ea said in January, "This is going to get dark, and it's going to get mean...

...The Scrapbook extends its sympathies to Republican senator Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, who through no particular fault of his own managed to become the recipient of the latest Wanniski-gram, a March 25 memo posted on his Web site on "the essence of democracy," titled "Abe Lincoln and Slobodan Milosevic...

...As for scoops, besides bombshells such as the revelation that Richard Scaife funds right-wing interests, Flynt has stitched together sloppy clip jobs lifted from previously published scandals (J.C...

...But his highly anticipated Flynt Report—a compendium of politicians' indiscretions provided by fee-seeking snitches—seemed perennially delayed...

...That same year, he came up empty after claiming he possessed sex tapes involving members of Congress and president Reagan (not with each other...

...Lugar's modesty knows it limits...

...Please mail your resume to: Business Manager, The Weekly Standard, 1150 17th Street, NW, Suite 505, Washington, D.C...

...Then the New Jersey-based publicist for supply-side economics started falling for political thugs like Louis Farrakhan, Saddam Hussein, and, now, Slobodan Milosevic...

...Lugar may even overtake number two, Dick Gephardt (31 appearances...

...A more appropriate response would be the one he gave reporters after the DeLorean scam: "Yes, this is a publicity gimmick, and I thank God you all fell for it...

...Happily, it turned out that the crowd was less than sympathetic to the cause of Stalinist secrecy (Kazan had dutifully and patriotically "named names" to House investigators when they questioned him under oath about Communists in the movie business...

...To which the only appropriate response is, "Oh...

...WANNISKI UPDATE It's hard to remember while perusing Jude Wanniski's Web site these days that the man was, until recent years, an intimate and trusted adviser of serious Republican presidential candidates like Jack Kemp and Steve Forbes...

...But even Sen...

...More than half the crowd rose to applaud Kazan...

...But the press release went on: "Following are the people with the most all time appearances on Meet the Press...

...Half the 84-page "report" consists of self-congratulation...

...I chose you for this exercise because I saw you on CNN's Crossfire last night and realized you had a mind that was comfortable with political philosophy...

...The sentence was sent as a message between the editors after the article was written, and the reporters were never aware of it...

...And now we will name names: Ed Harris (nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Truman Show), Amy Madigan (from Field of Dreams, and Harris's wife), Nick Nolte (nominated for Best Actor for Affliction), Vicki Lewis (from NewsRadio, and Nolte's girlfriend), paula Coburn (wife of James Coburn, winner of Best Supporting Actor for Affliction), and Sophia Loren...

...In January, The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash speculated that Flynt was bluffing...

...Last week, his office helpfully faxed out his schedule to reporters, with an interesting "FYI" item attached to the bottom...

...Or fax us at (202) 2934901...

...Please...

...The comment was typed in a nonprinting computer script, but converted into print through a command error...

...Lugar made his 27th appearance on Meet the Press Sunday March 14," said the press release...

...Flynt purportedly spent $4 million on his "investigation...