Top Items:
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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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 …
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 …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster, Daily Kos, The Sundries Shack, The Democratic Daily Blog, Hotline On Call and ScrappleFace
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Bob Fertik / Democrats.com:Bush Wired for Alito Remarks
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Sideshow, The Mahablog, THE BRAD BLOG, Unclaimed Territory, AMERICAblog and Daily Kos
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
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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Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:A Crumb For The Plamaniacs — The WaPo teases us with a near non-story …
Discussion:
firedoglake
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:NAME THAT SOURCE — Why are the courts leaning on journalists?
Discussion:
TalkLeft
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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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.
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.
Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Warner's Triumphant Legacy No Easy Feat — Bipartisan-Minded Governor Broke Tax Vow but Revived Va. — RICHMOND — Mark Robert Warner, the businessman-turned-politician, faced an immense budget gap, a steep learning curve and a legislature happy to see him fail when he was inaugurated as Virginia's 69th governor in 2002.
Kevin Zeese / rawstory.com:
National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace group, documents show — The National Security Agency has been spying on a Baltimore anti-war group, according to documents released during litigation, going so far as to document the inflating of protesters' balloons …
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.
Christopher Hitchens / Slate:
The Bush Bombshell — Did the president propose to take out Al Jazeera? — Tomorrow morning, in a court in London, two men will appear to face charges under Britain's Official Secrets Act. The first man, David Keogh, a former employee of the Cabinet Office, is accused of unlawfully handing …
