The big news in Washington this morning was already shared with City Desk readers early yesterday evening: Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted to having an affair with a campaign staffer.  There's no word on whether Ensign plans on resigning but he wishes he could take it all back.  Obviously.  He was a member of the Promise Keepers, for Pete's sake.  There's a lot to be said about Ensign's contradictory behavior but at least he came public without the help of the fine journalists at the National Enquirer.

Drug recalls, crime bills, and a double dose of foreign policy after the jump. Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Truth Telling Edition" »

In her policy speech yesterday, her first, Palin and Palin's people based it on her one talking point not yet deemed a "lie" or "false"--motherhood. She tries to drop some science on fruit-fly research. She deems fruit-fly research a joke. One of those wasteful earmarks.

Science bites back. Science doesn't like Sarah. At all:

"This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? — and countries like France and Germany and England and Canada and China and India and others are all respected participants in these efforts.

Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation."

Last night, on Countdown, a Newsweek reporter who usually can be counted on to spout dull Conventional Wisdom declared that Sarah Palin's quip that fruit fly research is a joke may in fact be the Dumbest Thing Sarah Palin Has Ever Said.

Via Coates.