Top Items:
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Loose Lips Sink . . . Biden's Leadership Is Lost in All His Talk — The only thing standing between Joe Biden and the presidency is his mouth. That, though, is no small matter. It is a Himalayan barrier, a Sahara of a handicap, a summer's day in Death Valley, a winter's night at the pole …
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Washington Post:
Alito Leaves a Door Open on Roe v. Wade — Membership In Controversial Group Decried By Democrats — The once-sluggish confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. turned confrontational yesterday, as the nominee signaled he might be willing to revisit the ruling …
New York Times:
Judge Alito, in His Own Words — Some commentators are complaining that Judge Samuel Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearings have not been exciting, but they must not have been paying attention. We learned that Judge Alito had once declared that Judge Robert Bork - whose Supreme Court nomination …
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
The Democrats' Last Roar, By Way of Princeton — It looked to be a second dreary day in the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court pick Samuel Alito, as the senators droned and the nominee dodged. Then, just before lunch, the old lion roared. — Actually, it started as a growl.
New York Times:
Democrats Take Aggressive Tack; Alito Is Unfazed — WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - Democrats tried with increasing frustration on Wednesday to elicit more specific views from Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. about abortion and other topics and sought to build a case against his nomination to the Supreme Court …
Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
Biden His Time — Judge Alito's low-affect tour de force. — If everyone in America—the butcher down the block, the college professor, the car mechanic, the mother of two working at home, the CNN analyst—knows that the U.S. senators questioning Sam Alito are posing …
Discussion:
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
An Intense Experience for Family Members, Too — WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - While the nominee at a confirmation hearing at least gets to respond to criticisms, his family members and supporters are obliged to sit stiffly and stoically behind him as a backdrop for the cameras.
Dale Russakoff / Washington Post:
Alito Disavows Controversial Group — As a Princeton alumnus and professional basketball player, Bill Bradley in 1973 renounced his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, calling it a "right wing" organization that opposed the admission of women and minorities to the school.
John Cole / Balloon Juice:
Wow- Hacktacular — This headline is pretty hacktacular even for Drudge: — The headline states: — "ALITO WIFE LEAVES HEARING IN TEARS AFTER DEM ATTACK" and links to this Drudge write-up: … I don't like Kennedy. At all. I think Schumer is a grandstanding fool and a pompous ass.
Jane Hamsher / firedoglake:Subtle — Mrs. Strip Search Sammy sure had herself a Kodak moment today, didn't she?
James Wolcott:THE CRYING GAME
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Captain's Quarters, The Corner on National …, Suburban Guerrilla and The Sideshow
New York Times:
Local Insurgents Tell of Clashes With Al Qaeda's Forces in Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 11 - The story told by the two Iraqi guerrillas cut to the heart of the war that Iraqi and American officials now believe is raging inside the Iraqi insurgency. — In October, the two insurgents said in interviews …
Elizabeth Holtzman / The Nation:
The Impeachment of George W. Bush — Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush—not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat …
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Glen Johnson / Associated Press:
AP Newsbreak: GOP group to give up $500,000 in Abramoff-related donations donations — BOSTON —Days after calling on his party to exhibit higher ethical standards, Gov. Mitt Romney said the Republican Governors Association would donate to charity $500,000 in contributions it received …
Josh White / Washington Post:
General Asserts Right On Self-Incrimination In Iraq Abuse Cases — Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, a central figure in the U.S. detainee-abuse scandal, this week invoked his right not to incriminate himself in court-martial proceedings against two soldiers accused of using dogs to intimidate captives …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, TAPPED, The Heretik, War and Piece, The Stakeholder and The Washington Monthly
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
More Body Armor Is On the Way for U.S. Troops — The Army announced yesterday that it will soon start producing 230,000 sets of side armor plates and field them over the year to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, after a recently disclosed Pentagon study indicated that such plates …
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Hindrocket / Power Line:
MEANWHILE, THERE'S A WAR ON — We noted here the mysteriously under-covered story of the three would-be terrorists who were arrested in Italy after vowing to launch an attack on America that would dwarf September 11. A reader sent us a link to this article, which has more:
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Rick Lyman / New York Times:
Texas Redistricting Is One More Hurdle for DeLay — HOUSTON, Jan. 11 - Representative Tom DeLay is in the toughest re-election campaign of his 11-term House career, a battle that might be decided not only by his legal problems, but also by the Congressional redistricting plan he spearheaded in 2003.
