Top Items:
Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
Hit Refresh? — Why Bush may be thinking about replacing Cheney. — The Dick Cheney shooting incident will, in a way, go away. And, in a way, not—ever. Some things stick. Gerry Ford had physically stumbled only once or twice in public when he became, officially, The Stumbler.
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Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Brit Hume, Cheney's Choice For a Straight Shooter — Brit Hume was in his morning staff meeting at Fox News yesterday when his cell phone rang. It was Dick Cheney. — The network's Washington managing editor had been pressing for the interview that every news organization was hotly pursuing …
AOL News:
Rove Pushed Cheney to Talk — (Feb. 16) — President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, pushed Vice President Dick Cheney to speak publicly about shooting a fellow hunter, sources tell CBS News. — Rove worried the vice president's silence on the issue was becoming a political problem …
Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:
Spoiled brat media — The first revolt of the American colonists against their British rulers was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the shot heard round the world." Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident has now become the shot heard round the Beltway.
New York Times:
Silence Broken as Cheney Points Only to Himself — WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 —Vice President Dick Cheney broke a four-day silence on Wednesday about his accidental shooting of a hunting partner, saying he took full responsibility for the incident while vigorously defending his decision to delay releasing news about it until the next day.
Pete Yost / Associated Press:
Cheney Says He Can Declassify Secrets — WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney says he has the power to declassify government secrets, raising the possibility that he authorized his former chief of staff to pass along sensitive prewar data on Iraq to reporters.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
Todd J. Gillman / Dallas Morning News:VP accepts blame in shooting accident
Discussion:
RIGHTWINGSPARKLE
Ralph Blumenthal / New York Times:From Arrival to Errant Shot, a Timeline of Cheney's Hunting Accident
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Norwegianity
Radio Blogger:
Helen Thomas hangs up on Hugh Hewitt. — The dean of the White House press corps, known lovingly around the Hugh Hewitt Show as Aunt Bethany... appeared on the program a little while ago, and it didn't end well, with Ms. Thomas hanging up on Hugh. Here's how it went: — 02-15thomas.mp3
Discussion:
Fraters Libertas
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Michelle Malkin:
THE QUESTION EVERYONE'S ASKING — Watching the news in my hotel room before my speech, I just saw CNN air a few of the new, highly inflammatory Abu Ghraib photos now making the rounds. — No pixelation of the nude prisoners in the photos. No disclaimers about paying respect to members …
Discussion:
The Poor Man Institute, BLACKFIVE, Amygdala, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Stop The ACLU, The Peking Duck, A Blog For All, Booman Tribune, In the Bullpen, RightWinged.com, Dr. Sanity, Sister Toldjah, USS Neverdock, The Reaction, Democracy Project, Ace of Spades HQ, Jay Currie, The Moderate Voice, Democrat Taylor Marsh … and azerbic
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George F. Will / Washington Post:
No Checks, Many Imbalances — The next time a president asks Congress to pass something akin to what Congress passed on Sept. 14, 2001 — the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) — the resulting legislation might be longer than Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past."
Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:
The Lessons of Counterinsurgency — U.S. Unit Praised for Tactics Against Iraqi Fighters, Treatment of Detainees — TALL AFAR, Iraq — The last time the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment served in Iraq, in 2003-04, its performance was judged mediocre, with a series of abuse cases growing out of its tour of duty in Anbar province.
ABCNEWS:
EXCLUSIVE: Saddam Transcript — 'Terrorism Is Coming' — Ruler Said Anti-U.S. Terror Attacks Inevitable, But That Iraq Would Not Be Behind Them — Feb. 15, 2006 — The following is a translation of portions of an undated conversation between Saddam Hussein and Tariq Aziz, his deputy prime minister …
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Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Court Veteran Remembers a Scary Start — WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — No one will blame Justice Stephen G. Breyer if he flashes back more than 11 years to his own challenging start on the Supreme Court when Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. is ceremonially sworn in there on Thursday.
Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
The New Documents — FOR MORE than a year, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has sought the release of documents captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have pressured Pentagon officials, cajoled intelligence analysts, listened to would-be whistleblowers, interviewed Iraqis and filed numerous Freedom …
USA Today:
Senate aide's spouse gets a windfall — WASHINGTON — Sen. Arlen Specter helped direct almost $50 million in Pentagon spending during the past four years to clients of the husband of one of his top aides, records show. — Specter, R-Pa., used a process called "earmarking" …
Discussion:
QandO
Washington Post:
The Legal Woes Of Rep. Jefferson — Probe of La. Democrat Provides Fodder for GOP — Around Washington, Rep. William J. Jefferson nurtured a reputation as a serious, even wonkish, lawmaker, a grade-school dropouts' son who graduated from Harvard Law School and was elected Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction.
BBC:
France steps up rhetoric on Iran — France has for the first time explicitly accused Iran of using its nuclear programme as a cover for clandestine military nuclear activity. — Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told French TV no civilian programme could explain Iran's activity.
