Top Items:
New York Times:
Rice and Rumsfeld Express Confidence in Iraqi Leader — BAGHDAD, April 27 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld concluded a one-day visit to Iraq on Thursday morning with a declaration of confidence in the prime minister designate, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki …
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Peter Whoriskey / Washington Post:
Pain at Pumps May Be Felt at Polls — As Gas Prices Soar, Voters Want to Send a Message to Lawmakers — FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 26 — One of the soaring bridges to the beach here is named for longtime Republican congressman E. Clay Shaw Jr., and at its foot is a gas station where drivers …
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John Harwood / Wall Street Journal:
Republicans Sag in New Poll — Bush and Congress — Get Perilously Low Marks — As Gas Prices Rise — Rising gas prices have intensified discontent with Washington and handed Congress a frightening midterm election backdrop: a deeply pessimistic electorate, despite a robust economy.
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Going a Short Way to Make a Point — Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. — Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing. — "Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president …
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
Grand Jury Gets Rove Testimony Over C.I.A. Leak — WASHINGTON, April 26 — Karl Rove, the senior counselor to President Bush, testified for several hours on Wednesday before the federal grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case, in an appearance that was a sign of renewed attention by the special prosecutor …
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Scot J. Paltrow / Wall Street Journal:
Prosecutors May Widen Congressional-Bribe Case — Cunningham Is Suspected — Of Asking for Prostitutes; — Were Others Involved? — Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Balloon Juice, Think Progress, The All Spin Zone, Wonkette, TPM Muckraker and Talking Points Memo
David Espo / Associated Press:
Privately, Bush Says He Favors Citizenship — WASHINGTON — President Bush generally favors plans to give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship without leaving the country, but does not want to be more publicly supportive because of opposition among conservative House Republicans …
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Ari Fleischer / Washington Post:
Showtime at the White House — The Washington press corps — working in an industry that's been transformed by talk radio, 24-hour cable news and the Internet — still views the White House briefing room as it was back in the 1950s — or the '60s, '70s, '80s or even early '90s.
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Projected Iraq War Costs Soar — Total Spending Is Likely to More Than Double, Analysis Finds — The cost of the war in Iraq will reach $320 billion after the expected passage next month of an emergency spending bill currently before the Senate, and that total is likely to more than double …
MSNBC:
Solidarity without sentimentality — The power of one (woman) over history — But first, Tony Snow: The fun starts here and here and a few free comments from me, here on "Comment is Free." (I'm not responsible for the "Yellow Snow" hed, for goodness sakes.)
Dana Bash / CNN:
Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks — Under proposal, every U.S. taxpayer would get one — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Every American taxpayer would get a $100 rebate check to offset the pain of higher pump prices for gasoline, under an amendment Senate Republicans hope to bring to a vote Thursday.
weblog.blogads.com:
2006 blog reader survey results (56,000 of 'em) — We've wrapped up tallying the results of this year's blog reader surveys, conducted last month. When we surveyed blog readers in 2004, we got 17,000 responses. Last year we got 30,000. This year we had 56,000. — A fantastic result!
Kos / Daily Kos:
CTG: Pity poor Drudge — What's a poor partisan hack like Drudge to do with his idols running the country and Iraq into the ground? Aha! Claim that some book isn't doing so hot. … Bookscan just surveys a sampling of big box retailers, so it's not a complete market analysis.
Discussion:
TBogg, Unclaimed Territory, PunditGuy, Roger L. Simon, Right Wing News, NewsBusters.org, Common Sense and Wonder and GOP Bloggers
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
Senate Panel Urge FEMA Dismantling — WASHINGTON, April 26 —The Federal Emergency Management Agency was so fundamentally dysfunctional during Hurricane Katrina that Congress should abolish it and create a new disaster response agency from scratch, according to a draft of bipartisan recommendations proposed by a Senate committee.
CBS News:
'We Know What's Best For You' — (CBS) This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer. — For several weeks in a row there have been headlines like "Bush Approval Rating Hits New Low." This week, it was CNN's turn to break the news, with a poll showing just 32 percent …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Glittering Eye, Blue Crab Boulevard, Dean's World, Brainster's Blog, Power Line and Austin Bay Blog
New York Times:
Second Thoughts in Congress on Oil Tax Breaks — WASHINGTON, April 26 — As anxiety spread in Congress on Wednesday over soaring oil prices, lawmakers in both parties said they were ready to take a tough look at oil and gas incentives they passed as recently as eight months ago.
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
CIA warns ex-agents over talking to media — The Central Intelligence Agency has warned former employees not to have unapproved contacts with reporters, as part of a mounting campaign by the administration to crack down on officials who leak information on national security issues.
David Beamer / Opinion Journal:
United 93 — The filmmakers got it right. — The calendar says it's April 25, 2006. At noon, my wife, Peggy, and I are walking around Battery Park—near the Tribeca area—in New York. It is our first time. The flowers are blooming; kids are fishing; people boarding the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Chris Strohm / govexec.com:
House panel pressured to defeat cargo inspection amendment — A coalition of industry groups is mounting an aggressive lobbying campaign to persuade House Homeland Security Committee Republicans to oppose an amendment that would require all cargo to be scanned at foreign ports before being shipped to the United States.