Top Items:
Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:
Unfit for Majority Leader — The videotape is grainy, dark and devastating. The congressman and the FBI undercover agents — the congressman thinks they represent an Arab sheik willing to pay $50,000 to get immigration papers — are talking business in the living room of a secretly wired Washington townhouse.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Anchor Rising, TIME, Blue Crab Boulevard, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Decision '08
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John Fund / Opinion Journal:
Meet the New Boss — John Murtha and Congress's "culture of corruption." — House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi's endorsement of Rep. John Murtha for majority leader, the No. 2 position in the Democratic leaderhsip, has roiled her caucus. "She will ensure that they [Mr. Murtha and his allies] win.
CNN:
Murtha decries 'swift boat-style' attacks on ethics — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Rep. John Murtha, the anti-war congressman who is the likely new House speaker's pick for majority leader, fended off what he called "swift boat-style attacks" on his ethics record Tuesday.
Discussion:
The Reaction, PoliBlog (TM), DownWithTyranny!, protein wisdom, Outside The Beltway and Donklephant
Josephine Hearn / The Hill:
Pelosi pulls out the stops for Murtha — Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is imploring her colleagues to support Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for majority leader, multiple House Democrats said yesterday, dealing an unexpected but not necessarily fatal blow to Murtha's opponent, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
Get Out Now? Not So Fast, Experts Say — One of the most resonant arguments in the debate over Iraq holds that the United States can move forward by pulling its troops back, as part of a phased withdrawal. If American troops begin to leave and the remaining forces assume a more limited role …
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Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Pawlenty: Give health coverage to all kids — The GOP governor embraces an issue that was central for DFLers in the recent campaign. — In a sweeping policy departure that aligns with a top agenda item of the newly elected DFL legislative majorities, Gov. Tim Pawlenty called Tuesday …
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Huffington Post:
FOX NEWS INTERNAL MEMO: "BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ANY STATEMENTS FROM THE IRAQI INSURGENTS...THRILLED AT THE PROSPECT OF A DEM CONTROLLED CONGRESS"... Huffington Post has obtained an internal Fox News memo written by the network's Vice President of news. The memo details Fox's game plan …
Discussion:
News Hounds, The Moderate Voice, Jesus' General, Liberal Values, Hot Air, The Reaction and State of the Day
David Johnston / New York Times:
C.I.A. Tells of Bush's Directive on the Handling of Detainees — The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President Bush, that have guided the agency's interrogation and detention of terror suspects.
Patrick O'Connor / The Hill:
House GOP may go back to the future — Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is gone, Democrats will soon control the floor and House speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will be just another member of the minority — if a member at all. — As much as last week's momentous loss ushered in a new era …
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Al Jazeera's U.S. Face — Former ABC Newsman Dave Marash Is Getting Used to Explaining His Job — The moment Dave Marash told friends and colleagues about his new job, the questions began flying. — Who? listeners asked skeptically. And why? — Nearly nine months later …
Discussion:
FishBowlDC
Agence France Presse:
Mid-flight sexual play lands US couple afoul of anti-terrorism law — A couple's ill-concealed sexual play aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles got them charged with violating the Patriot Act, intended for terrorist acts, and could land them in jail for 20 years.
Aaron Klein / WorldNetDaily:
freed for $2 million — Terrorists used cash for arms to 'hit Zionists,' payment said to encourage more abductions — JERUSALEM - Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release …
Jim Webb / Opinion Journal:
Class Struggle — American workers have a chance to be heard. — The most important—and unfortunately the least debated—issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century.
Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:
Libby: No Plot, No Crime in CIA Leak — Attorneys for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby dismissed the idea of a White House plot to leak a CIA operative's identity to the press and said Libby plans to tell jurors at his perjury trial that he had no reason to lie.
Peter Hirschberg / Haaretz:
Netanyahu: It's 1938 and Iran is Germany; Ahmadinejad is preparing another Holocaust — LOS ANGELES - Drawing a direct analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that the Iranian nuclear program posed a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire western world.
Discussion:
Blogcritics Section, Cox & Forkum, The Moderate Voice, Reason Magazine and The American Thinker
Jill Tucker / San Francisco Chronicle:
School board votes to dump JROTC program — After 90 years in San Francisco high schools, the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps must go, the San Francisco school board decided Tuesday night. — The Board of Education voted 4-2 to eliminate the popular program, phasing it out over two years.
Duncan Gardham / Telegraph:
Hate videos of Muslim group they failed to ban — A Muslim organisation which the Government chose not to ban is preaching hatred and has infiltrated the Home Office, an investigation has revealed. — Hizb ut-Tahrir is showing inflammatory videos to small groups of followers then encouraging them to attack non-believers.