memeorandum: Miers Resigns As White House Counsel (Daniela Deane/Washington Post)

11:40 AM ET, January 5, 2007

Top Items:

Bush to Name a New General to Oversee Iraq — President Bush has decided to name Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus as the top American military commander in Iraq, part of a broad revamping of the military team that will carry out the administration's new Iraq strategy, administration officials said Thursday.

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, toohotfortnr, ABCNEWS, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Heretik, Outside The Beltway, The News Blog, PrairiePundit, Informed Comment, TigerHawk, Middle Earth Journal, Prairie Weather, Rising Hegemon, On Deadline and Decision '08

Juan / Informed Comment:

The Adults take Charge — The Reality Based Community Strikes Back in Iraq — The professionals take charge. Bush is bringing in Ryan Crocker, a distinguished career foreign service officer, as the new US ambassador to Iraq. And Gen. David Petraeus will replace Gen. Casey as top ground commander in Iraq.

Discussion: State of the Day and Outside The Beltway

Reuters:

Bush plans changes in key advisers for Iraq fresh start — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush is planning to name a new ambassador and military commanders for Iraq as he prepares to make a fresh start on a worsening problem that has mired his administration and threatens his legacy.

Discussion: AMERICAblog and The Debate Link

Washington Post:
Bush Making Changes in His Iraq Team

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Raw Story, CNN Political Ticker, Gun Toting Liberal ™, The Carpetbagger Report and On Deadline

Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
Bush talks about Iraq war plan, Saddam

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Greg Miller / Los Angeles Times:

Negroponte shift is ruffling feathers — Some say that his assignment to the State Department will leave the national intelligence office in a lurch. — WASHINGTON — The abrupt departure of John D. Negroponte as the nation's spy chief prompted angry responses from Capitol Hill and triggered …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Al Kamen / Washington Post:
Negroponte to State? You Heard It Here First.

Discussion: TPMCafe blogs

New York Times:
Spy Chief's Choice to Step Back Feeds Speculation

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
The Predictable Problems Of The DNI

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere

John M. Broder / New York Times:

Jubilant Democrats Assume Control on Capitol Hill — In a day of transition and pageantry, exultant Democrats on Thursday took control of both houses of Congress for the first time in a dozen years and elected the first woman to be speaker of the House. — Representative Nancy Pelosi …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, the talking dog, Washington Times, Democrats.com and PoliBlog (TM)

Carl Hulse / New York Times:
For Democrats, a Choice: Forward or Reverse?

Discussion: Beat the Press and The Moderate Voice

Washington Post:
Democrats Take Control on Hill

Discussion: The Heretik and Obsidian Wings

Arizona Republic:

Guardsmen overrun at the Border — National Guard unit stormed while patroling the border — Border attack raises security concerns — A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico. — According to the Border Patrol …

Discussion: Ankle Biting Pundits, The Jawa Report, Riehl World View and Blue Crab Boulevard

Allahpundit / Hot Air: Mexican gunmen cross border, rout National Guard

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says — Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster …

Discussion: rubber hose and Needlenose

H. Josef Hebert / Associated Press:

Nuclear agency head dismissed for lapses — WASHINGTON - Tens of millions of dollars and repeated security reviews haven't stopped embarrassing security breakdowns in the government's nuclear weapons program — and now the man in charge has been sent packing.

Associated Press:
Head of nuke agency leaves over security lapses

Discussion: Defense Tech

Daniela Deane / Washington Post:

Miers Resigns As White House Counsel — White House legal counsel and failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, a longtime friend and adviser of President Bush, resigned from her White House position today, Press Secretary Tony Snow announced. — Miers, 61, will leave her job at the end …

Discussion: The Caucus, The Heretik, CANNONFIRE, Law Blog, Abovethelaw.com and Washington Wire

Richard Dawkins / Los Angeles Times:

Saddam should have been studied, not executed — Sparing Hussein and studying his makeup could have provided valuable research. — THE OBVIOUS objections to the execution of Saddam Hussein are valid and well aired. His death will provoke violent strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims …

Discussion: Reason Magazine and jules crittenden

Bill Ardolino / Examiner:

Grit and guts for Navy corpsmen in a Fallujah police station — WASHINGTON - Editor's note: Blogger Bill Ardolino is embedded with a U.S. Marine unit in Iraq. He's there to find out the truth about the U.S. war effort on the ground in Iraq. Unlike the vast majority of mainstream media journalists …

Discussion: INDCJournal and Captain's Quarters

Steven R. Hurst / Associated Press:

Iraq threatens arrest of police officer — BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military is in fact an active member of the force, and said he now faces arrest for speaking to the media.

Discussion: All Spin Zone, Orcinus, Captain's Quarters, BobGeiger.com, Firedoglake, Flopping Aces, CBS News, Unclaimed Territory, Confederate Yankee, Shakespeare's Sister, Michelle Malkin, The Right Angle, The Carpetbagger Report, NewsBusters.org, protein wisdom, Patterico's Pontifications, The American Street, Hot Air, TBogg, jules crittenden, Riehl World View, Jesus' General, Happy Furry Puppy Story …, Villainous Company, The Lede, Daily Pundit, Nitpicker, TalkLeft, The Belmont Club, Austin Bay Blog, Bill's Bites, The Moderate Voice, The Jawa Report, Attytood, Booman Tribune, EU Referendum, Blue Crab Boulevard, Crooks and Liars, Mudville Gazette, Media Blog, Dean's World, Healing Iraq, Seeing the Forest, Blinq, On Deadline, Townhall.com Blog's …, PrairiePundit, Majikthise, Decision '08, The Horse's Mouth and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Sarah Lueck / Wall Street Journal:

In New Senate, The 'Candy Desk' Gets a Kiss-Off — New Occupant Hails From — State With a Sweet Deficit; — 'Moose Doodles,' Anyone? — WASHINGTON — With Democrats back in control of Congress for the first time in years, much is changing in the nation's capital …

Kevin Drum / Political Animal:

FINAL CAT BLOGGING....I have some sad news. About an hour ago Jasmine was sitting on my desk (keeping an eye on me, as usual) when she went into a violent spasm and fell to the ground. She died within a minute. — I don't know what happened, but it was probably a heart attack.

Discussion: TBogg

David Saltonstall / NY Daily News:

N.H. bigs see Rudy Prez run — Ex-mayor played host on New Year's — Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has held a New Year's Eve bash in his Times Square offices for years, but this year he had some special guests: a bevy of New Hampshire political activists. — The contingent from the Granite State …

John D. McKinnon / Washington Wire:

Shoulder to Shoulder — Bush heaped German Chancellor Angela Merkel with praise for her leadership in Europe, perhaps making amends for his YouTube moment last summer, in which he squeezed her shoulders from behind at a summit of world leaders, causing her to recoil visibly in surprise.