Top Items:
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Alito Seeks to Distance Himself From Previous Abortion Statements — Nominee Faces Senators in Second Day of Hearing — Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., facing tough questioning on the second day of his Senate confirmation hearings, distanced himself today from a statement …
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Bob Fertik / Democrats.com:Bush Wired for Alito Remarks
Discussion:
The Sideshow, The Mahablog, THE BRAD BLOG, Unclaimed Territory, AMERICAblog and Daily Kos
Jane Hamsher / firedoglake:It Can Be Done — Much prognostication today about how the Alito hearings will progress.
National Review:
The Abramoff Scandal (R., Beltway) — Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in the "Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into the scandal over savings …
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George F. Will / Washington Post:
For the House GOP, A Belated Evolution — Before evolution produced creatures of our perfection, there was a three-ton dinosaur, the stegosaurus, so neurologically sluggish that when its tail was injured, significant time elapsed before news of the trauma meandered up its long spine to its walnut-size brain.
Jennifer McKee / missoulian.com:
Burns says Democrats behind Abramoff scandal — HELENA - Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Monday his political enemies are behind newspaper reports linking him to confessed felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. — Burns, who is on a media tour of Montana this week …
USA Today:
Most consider lobbying scandal a big deal, poll shows — WASHINGTON — Americans are paying close attention to the lobbying scandal in the Capitol and say corruption in government will play a big role in their vote for Congress in November — more important than Social Security, taxes, abortion or immigration.
Jason Leopold / truthout.org:
Fitzgerald Maintains Focus on Rove — Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is said to have spent the past month preparing evidence he will present to a grand jury alleging that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove knowingly made false statements to FBI and Justice Department investigators …
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Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Russert Resisted Testifying on Leak — Lawyers for NBC News reporter Tim Russert suspected in the spring of 2004 that his testimony could snare Vice President Cheney's top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in a lie and Russert resisted testifying at the time about private conversations with Libby …
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute: A Crumb For The Plamaniacs — The WaPo teases us with a near non-story …
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:NAME THAT SOURCE — Why are the courts leaning on journalists?
Discussion:
TalkLeft
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Bush Issues Stark Warning to Democrats on Iraq Debate — WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - President Bush issued an unusually stark warning to Democrats today about how to conduct the debate on Iraq as midterm elections approach, declaring that Americans know the difference "between honest critics" …
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White House:
President Addresses Veterans of Foreign Wars on the War on Terror — Washington, D.C. — Fact Sheet: Progress and the Work Ahead in Iraq — National Strategy for Victory in Iraq — In Focus: Renewal in Iraq — In Focus: National Security — In Focus: Veterans
Fred Kaplan / Slate:
GI Schmo — How low can Army recruiters go? — Three months ago, I wrote that the war in Iraq was wrecking the U.S. Army, and since then the evidence has only mounted, steeply. Faced with repeated failures to meet its recruitment targets, the Army has had to lower its standards dramatically.
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Chris Bowers / MyDD:
Is Alito Lying About Concerned Alumni for Princeton? — Well, yes, he is lying, but I wanted to ask other people the same question. So, during the lunch break, I went down to the press area with Tim Tagaris, armed with only a single question: — "Do you believe Judge Alito is telling …
Discussion:
The Democratic Party
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Michael J. Totten:
Send Me to Iraq — It's time for me to go to Iraq. — I am not going to embed with the military. While it sounds exciting (as well as terrifying), I'm only going to be there a few weeks. War correspondence isn't something a person does for two weeks. — Instead I'm going to the part of Iraq most journalists ignore: the North.
radioblogger.com:
The Joseph Biden Princeton Waffle — Grab a drink, settle into your chair, because this is going to be fun. — First off, Senator Biden had half an hour today with Samuel Alito, and the judge's word count, according to John Podhoretz at the Corner, was about 72 words.
New York Times:
I.R.S. Limited Tax Refunds of Poor, Congress Is Told — Tax refunds sought by hundreds of thousands of poor Americans have been frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent, blocking refunds for years to come, the Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer advocate told Congress today.
