Top Items:
Jim VandeHei / Washington Post:
Troops Put In a Good Word to Bush About Iraq — 10 U.S. Soldiers Upbeat in Staged Teleconference — President Bush yesterday sought to rally U.S. troops behind his Iraq strategy — and he and his aides left little to chance. — Before the president spoke via a video link …
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Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:Staged Bush Military Photo Op Caught By Reporters: The Nose Grows?
Matt Margolis / Blogs for Bush:Bush Teleconference Staged? Hardly.
Discussion:
publiusrendezvous.blogspot.com, Donkey Stomp, The Daily Brief, Big Lizards and Say Anything
Matthew Scully / New York Times:
The Harriet Miers I Know — WHITE House speechwriters first learned the name Harriet Miers in January 2001, when drafts started reappearing full of corrections, instructions and particularly annoying requests for factual substantiation. In the campaign, life had been simpler, the editing and fact-checking a little more casual.
Juan / Informed Comment:
Zawahiri Letter to Zarqawi: A Shiite Forgery? — The Arabic text of the recently released letter alleged to be by Zawahiri (al-Qaeda's number two man) to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq raises questions for me as to its authenticity. — The very first element of the letter is the blessing on the Prophet.
Discussion:
Nitpicker, Associated Press, Hit and Run, The Washington Monthly, California Conservative, Harry's Place, The Heretik and Dr. Sanity
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Aljazeera:
Al-Qaida: US faked al-Zawahiri letter — A purported al-Qaida web posting has charged the United States with fabricating a letter from the group's second in command allegedly to its leader in Iraq asking for money and laying out the group's plans for the Middle East.
Richard W. Stevenson / New York Times:
Jitters at the White House Over the Leak Inquiry — WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Karl Rove nosed his Jaguar out of the garage at his home in Northwest Washington in the predawn gloom, starting another day in which he would be dealing with a troubled Supreme Court nomination, posthurricane reconstruction …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, firedoglake, TalkLeft, Charging RINO, Wonkette, Decision '08, AMERICAblog, Legal Fiction and WTF Is It Now??
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Washington Post:
Scandals Take Toll On Bush's 2nd Term — A series of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.
Vaughn Ververs / CBS News:
Outside Voices - The Anchoress Speaks — Each week we invite someone from the outside to weigh in with their thoughts about CBS News and the media at large. This week, we invited The Anchoress, one of the blogosphere's most mysterious and interesting voices who this week turned …
Carolyn Lochhead / San Francisco Chronicle:
Calls for Miers to withdraw get louder Moves to mollify critics aren't working — Washington — Calls by conservatives for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers to withdraw her nomination intensified Thursday as White House efforts to reassure critics continued to backfire.
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Richard W. Stevenson / New York Times:White House Dismisses Idea Of Withdrawal by Nominee
Discussion:
Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Wonkette, The Heretik, Roger Ailes and How Appealing
National Review:
Mm'Doh! — This is my last column on Harriet Miers until her confirmation hearings begin — or until her press conference announcing that for the good of her (insert "country," "president," "family," "party," "faith" or "sanity") she's withdrawing from consideration for the Supreme Court.
Laylan Copelin / Austin American-Statesman:
Earle seeks more records from DeLay — Prosecutors subpoena records from DeLay and his daughter; defense says move is latest in baseless inquiry. — Travis County prosecutors want to know how U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, purchased a 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan, subpoenaing …
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Sharon Theimer / Associated Press:Papers: DeLay Group Used $100K for Races
Discussion:
Democratic Veteran
Roger L. Simon / Mystery Novelist and Screenwriter:
Harold Pinter Wins Nobel Prize — For what I imagine to be a variety of reasons... perhaps because I have been a professional writer of screenplays and novels for more years than I care to admit in public or perhaps because I have served on awards committees for PEN and the Los Angeles Times …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Michelle Malkin, alicublog, Kesher Talk, Right Wing Nut House and Lawyers, Guns and Money
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
A Flu Hope, Or Horror? — While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers's long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the byzantine comings and goings of the Patrick Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime — what is left of it, as I shall explain.
Michael C. Dorf / American Prospect:
Stop Punting — The Supreme Court keeps putting off Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. It's time to take it on. — Something odd is happening in the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, for the second time in two weeks, the Court delayed deciding whether or not to grant review in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.
Discussion:
ACSBlog
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National Review:
Conservative vs. Conservative: Inside the Battle Over Miers — On Monday morning, October 3, not long after President Bush announced his decision to nominate Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, Wendy Long of the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network appeared on CNN to defend the choice.
Gateway Pundit:
Condoleezza Chases Down Dictator! — After Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made stops in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and later to Tajikistan, she was not about to put up with any silliness from the Ex-Soviet Autocratic President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, on Thursday!
Discussion:
TigerHawk
BREITBART.COM:
Leave exorcism to the experts, warns Church — A far cry from sorcerers, satanists and other practitioners whom he dismisses as "charlatans," Italian exorcist Andrea Gemma fights the devil only with the strength of his prayers and advises Catholics: 'Don't do this at home".
Discussion:
INDC Journal
Matthew Yglesias / TAPPED:
WAR FOR HEALTH CARE? Noam Scheiber has a good take on the latest go-round of "must Democrats move to the center?" debate: … Politically, that seems right to me. John Kerry showed that you can get the nomination by trying to position yourself as moderately moderate, but this creates all kind of problems.
Discussion:
Ezra Klein
Ronald A. Cass / realclearpolitics.com:
Voted Off the Island — Ever since President George W. Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, a curious game has been played. Initial reaction was cautious and reserved - from Democrats. Republicans, libertarians, conservatives, allies of the President …
