Top Items:
Hotline On Call:
Schumer: Dems Have Their 8th — At a briefing for the Washington, D.C. political press corps today, DSCC chair Chuck Schumer was in a mood to marvel and brag. Last night, with the victory of Jim Webb, Democrats finally found their eighth competitive Senate contest.
RELATED ITEMS:
Susan Haigh / Associated Press:
Lieberman weighing run as independent — HARTFORD, Conn. - Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, warily watching his primary challenger advance in the polls, must soon decide whether to start collecting signatures for a possible independent bid this November. — Lieberman's campaign contends …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Blogcritics.org, ConnecticutBLOG, Booker Rising, MyDD and Blue Crab Boulevard
Editor and Publisher:
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Orders U.S. Reporters to Exit Guantanamo — NEW YORK In the aftermath of the three suicides at the notorious Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba last Saturday, reporters with the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald were ordered by the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to leave the island today.
RELATED ITEMS:
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
A Prison We Need to Escape — When I hear U.S. officials describe the suicides of three Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay last Saturday as "asymmetric warfare" and "a good PR move," I know it's time to close that camp — not just because of what it's doing to the prisoners but because of how it is dehumanizing the American captors.
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
GOP Measure Forces House Debate on War — Divisions Within Party Likely to Surface — Nearly four years after it authorized the use of force in Iraq, the House today will embark on its first extended debate on the war, with Republican leaders daring Democrats to vote against a nonbinding resolution …
RELATED ITEMS:
Hotline On Call:
Boehner On The Contrasts GOPers Will Try To Draw With Dems — House Maj. Leader John Boehner (R-OH), in a "confidential" memo to his caucus, previews the distinctions GOPers will draw with Dems as the debate over Iraq gets underway. The House will consider a resolution equating the war in Iraq with the broader war on terror.
Rick Klein / Boston Globe:
Kerry demands US troop pullout — Regrets his vote for war resolution — WASHINGTON — Senator John F. Kerry is placing himself at the center of congressional action over the war in Iraq this week with a crisply worded resolution to require President Bush to withdraw almost all US troops by the end of this year.
Agence France Presse:
Democrats in disarray as Bush basks in glow of Iraq trip — US President George W. Bush's triumphant return from his unannounced visit in Iraq found opposition Democrats more divided than ever on US policy in the wartorn country, and how best to capitalize on administration missteps there.
RELATED ITEMS:
Peter Baker / Washington Post:
Top Bush Adviser to Step Down — Michael J. Gerson, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and author of nearly all of his most famous public words during the past seven years, plans to step down in the next couple weeks in a decision that colleagues believe will leave a huge hole in the White House at a critical period.
Associated Press:
Marine says song he wrote about killing Iraqi was a 'joke' — JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A Marine Corps corporal seen in a video signing about killing members of an Iraqi family says the song was only a joke and not tied in any way to allegations that Marines killed as many as two dozen unarmed civilians in Haditha last year.
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com, California Conservative, Confederate Yankee, Hot Air, Associated Press, lgf, First Draft and Texas Rainmaker
RELATED ITEMS:
NY Daily News:
It's 'Putdown With Keith Olbermann' — Now that Dan Abrams has given up his MSNBC show to run the third-place cable news outlet, he might want to focus on the rising tensions between two of his prime-time personalities: Keith Olbermann and Rita Cosby. — Olbermann, whose …
USA Today:
'New Direction' is new theme for Democratic plan — WASHINGTON — Democratic House and Senate leaders are planning to reduce the cost of student loans and prescription drugs, raise the minimum wage and launch an effort to develop alternative fuels if they win back control of Congress.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Gateway Pundit, Situation Report, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Mahablog, Decision '08 and BrothersJudd Blog
RELATED ITEMS:
William A. Niskanen / Cato-at-liberty:
House Faces the Dumbest Bill of the Year (So Far): A $2.10 Increase …
House Faces the Dumbest Bill of the Year (So Far): A $2.10 Increase …
White House:
Press Conference of the President — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Thank you. I've just returned from Baghdad, and I was inspired to be able to visit the capital of a free and democratic Iraq. — It was a pleasure to meet face-to-face with the Prime Minister.
Discussion:
Think Progress, NewsBusters.org, New York Times, Hot Air, The Carpetbagger Report, The Horse's Mouth, PSoTD, Angry Bear, StrategyPage and Gateway Pundit
Adam Cohen / New York Times:
Could a 15-Year-Old With a Laptop Be the New Campaign Media Guru? — Daily Kos's convention — the in-person gathering of the nation's most-read online political blog — was practically carpeted with presidential candidates. But perhaps the most notable presentation came from Ava Lowery …
Discussion:
Brainster's Blog, The Politburo Diktat, USS Neverdock, Blog for America and NewsBusters.org
David Zucchino / Los Angeles Times:
An English-Only Beef in a Cheesesteak Joint? Comin' Right Up — PHILADELPHIA — The sign contains just eight words and is hardly big enough to wrap around a cheesesteak. But here in South Philadelphia, home of the cheesesteak, the sign that Joey Vento posted at Geno's Steaks speaks volumes.
Discussion:
Crooked Timber, The Washington Monthly, Public Eye, Blue Crab Boulevard and Alternate Brain
sunlightfoundation.com:
Dennis Hastert's Real Estate Investments — Written by Bill Allison on June 14, 2006 - 2:16pm. — House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has used an Illinois trust to invest in real estate near the proposed route of the Prairie Parkway, a highway project for which he's secured $207 million in earmarked appropriations.
Medea Benjamin / commondreams.org:
Peace Activists at Hillary Clinton's Speech Try to Take Back "Take Back America" — The Take Back America conference, an annual event held in Washington DC this year from June 12-14, is supposed to be a venue for prominent progressives to gather and debate the major issues of our day.
New York Times:
Congressman in F.B.I. Inquiry Corrects Errors in Financial Disclosure Forms — WASHINGTON, June 13 — Nearly two months after stepping down as the top Democrat on the House ethics committee, Representative Alan B. Mollohan on Tuesday filed some two dozen corrections to his past six annual …
Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:
House panel approves line-item veto bill — WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to give President Bush and his successors greater power to try to weed bills of certain spending, though the new power would pale compared with the line-item veto law struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998.