Considering how lofty Idiot Al "The Torture Guy" Gonzales's standards are, when he says to you, "Good job," this means . . . uh, what, exactly?

Once again, in presenting an item from Al Kamen's Washington Post "In the Loop" column, we are unable to separate it from a wacky follow-up item:

Fredo Finally Gives U.S. Attorney a Good Evaluation

In the Justice Department's Great Hall (the very room where giant, blue drapes covered the underdressed statuary during John Ashcroft's tenure as attorney general), an array of prosecutors, securities regulators and FBI honchos gathered yesterday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force.

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who famously prosecuted former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby, was chatting with a pair of reporters about his upcoming appearance on the National Public Radio program "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!" when none other than Attorney General Alberto "Fredo" Gonzales appeared at his side.

"Good job," Gonzales said, extending his hand to Fitzgerald. Must have been thinking of Fitzgerald's office's successful prosecution last week of media mogul Conrad Black for fraud, obstruction, etc. Fitzgerald, taken aback, didn't say much in response, our colleague Carrie Johnson reports.

Loop Fans may recall that a former Gonzales aide had placed Fitzgerald's name on a list of prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" in March 2005, just after Fitzgerald had indicted former GOP Illinois governor George Ryan and as he was investigating the leak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

[In our photo, Fredo looks on in March 2006 as Prosecutor Pat--presumably doing that crappy old job he was doing till he finally turned it around--announced charges againt 27 people in nine states and three other countries alleged to be involved with an Internet child pornography ring.--Ken]


Red Lawn

Speaking of Gonzales, old-timers covering the White House often compare its vaunted secrecy to that of the Kremlin in Soviet days, when reporters would try to figure out who was in or who was gulag-bound by noting how far each official stood from the top guy on the podium at Moscow's annual May Day parade.

So President Bush's failure to acknowledge the presence of his attorney general at Sunday's White House Tee Ball game had reporters buzzing.

Bush, in pregame remarks, acknowledged the VIPs there: "I do want to thank John Warner, Senator John Warner, from the great state of Virginia, and his family, for joining us," Bush said. "Proud you're here, Senator. I see Alphonso Jackson and Dirk Kempthorne, of my Cabinet, who have joined us. I'm proud you all are here."

Gonzales, who was listed on the White House info sheet given to reporters, was sitting in button-down shirt and dark sunglasses just behind Jackson and Kempthorne.

Was Bush not "proud" he was there? The Kremlinologists wondered.

Meanwhile, these are banner times for Bush regime hilarity, and you should still check out today's "In the Loop" for these other developments:

• Wondering how Chimpy the Prez distinguishes between the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, whose names are Abdullah and, er, Abdullah, respectively? A recent White House announcement suggests that perhaps he calls the Saudi monarch Abdallah. Which is better, Al suggests, than one of the famous Chimpster nicknames, like perhaps "Ab-man."

• Sec'y of State Condi Rice has cleared $6 million in aid for Serbia as a reward for doing about as little as one country could to clear up the human-rights mess that caused Congress to suspend aid. ("You missed this news? You weren't checking the State Department's announcements at 9 p.m. on July 3?") Our Condi did warn the Serbs that they're going to have to come up with No. 1 and 2 war-crimes candidates Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic ("for years, the duo had been--if not exactly on the Belgrade party circuit--fairly visible, though of late they've been maintaining a more discreet profile"), or . . . or . . . well, I'm not sure she specified "or what." You can be sure, though, that they'll be sorry.

Serb bad boys Mladic and Karadzic: Condi wants you!

* FEMA is dumping the remaining three-eighths of the 112 tons of ice it bought after Hurricane Katrina in 2005--and then sent truckloads of the stuff touring the country, eventually paying $12.5 million in storage fees.