memeorandum: Report: Gulf States Prepared to Back U.S. Military Strike on Iran (Daniel Freedman/It Shines For All)

9:00 PM ET, January 23, 2007

Top Items:

BREAKING: Libby Destroyed Evidence Prior To Testifying, Cheney 'Deeply Involved' — Under oath, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby told a grand jury that he first learned that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent from conversations with the media.

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, Hardblogger, The Carpetbagger Report, JustOneMinute, DownWithTyranny!, Liberal Values, The RBC, Political Animal, Prairie Weather and The Mahablog

MSNBC:

Prosecutor: Libby 'wiped out' Cheney memo — Defense in CIA leak trial counters that White House tried to set up Libby — WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to allege that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff lied …

Discussion: Attytood, Washington Post, The Washington Note, Crooks and Liars, The Caucus, Media Blog, ACSBlog, Outside The Beltway, NO QUARTER, Tennessee Guerilla Women and Democratic Underground

Digby / Hullabaloo:

Holy Moly — Norah O'Donnell is asking Andy Card and Leon Panetta if the president is going to have to ask Dick Cheney to resign as a result of what's being alleged at the Libby Trial. (They both punted.) — If that's the beltway chatter, look for the Republican noise machine to go into high gear.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Balloon Juice, Democrats.com, The Impolitic, Political Animal, Daily Kos, Wonkette and Shakespeare's Sister

Washington Post:

Defense Attorney Paints Libby as Scapegoat — I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was "put through the meat grinder" by the White House shortly after the Iraq war began, scapegoated to cloak the leak of a CIA officer's identity to the media by presidential adviser Karl Rove, Libby's lawyer contended today as Libby's perjury trial began.

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and Middle Earth Journal

Emptywheel / Firedoglake:

Libby Liveblog: Wells' Opening Statement, Part Two — Picking up after lunch. — To remind you of housekeeping. This is not a transcript. It is as close as I can get. — And I'll timestamp my updates. I'll try to update every 15 minutes. So don't overtax the servers by trying to update every two minutes.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, TAPPED and TalkLeft

Emptywheel / Firedoglake:

Libby Liveblog: Fitzgerald's Opening Statement — Here goes Fitzgerald... It will be utterly fascinating to see how Fitzgerald operates. I'm most interested, though, in how Fitzgerald will describe the obstruction charge and Libby's motive. What will Fitzgerald say Libby was obstructing, and why?

Emptywheel / Firedoglake:

Libby Liveblog: Well's Opening Statement, Part One — Wells up. — As you learned a few days ago, my name is Ted Wells. And I speak for Scooter Libby. Scooter Libby is innocent. Totally innocent. — He is an innocent man and he has been wrongly and unfairly accused.

Discussion: TalkLeft and Booman Tribune

Emptywheel / Firedoglake: Libby Liveblog: Other Issues

Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Libby a Scapegoat, His Lawyer Tells Jurors

Discussion: On Deadline, whatever already! and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press: Lawyers Paint Libby As Sacrificial Lamb

Digby / Hullabaloo:
Boot Scooter Boogie

Discussion: CorrenteWire

John Byrne / The Raw Story:

Liberal talk show host trashes Clinton's staff — Fargo's liberal talker Ed Schultz broke out enraged against the staff of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in remarks broadcast Monday — and then met this morning with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), RAW STORY has learned. A Schultz aide said the meeting was long planned.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, The Democratic Daily and Taylor Marsh

Ed Morrissey / Examiner:

Richardson could be '08's most dangerous candidate — WASHINGTON - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's entry into the 2008 presidential sweepstakes Sunday garnered little notice, overshadowed as it was by the announcement of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the day before.

Discussion: TIME, Captain's Quarters and Reason Magazine

Rick Klein / Boston Globe:
As Kerry ponders, Democrats crowd in

Discussion: Washington Post, The Democratic Daily, politico.com, Liberal Values, The Caucus and CNN Political Ticker

Michael J. Totten:

Hezbollah Riots in Lebanon (Continuously Updated) — While I was in Lebanon gathering the material I've been publishing, Hezbollah kept threatening to strangle the country by seizing major roads, including the one that leads to the airport. I was worried I might get stuck there, but I didn't.

Discussion: From Beirut to the Beltway, Blogs of War, A Blog For All, Blacksmiths of Lebanon, Blue Crab Boulevard and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Abu Kais / From Beirut to the Beltway:

Hizbullah, Aoun unleash terror on Lebanon — continuous updates — Hundreds of masked men are setting fire to tires and dumpsters after filling them with fuel in Beirut and other areas. Eyewitnesses told me that they saw bulldozers assisting the protestors by shoveling dirt and dumping it on some of the roads.

Discussion: Blacksmiths of Lebanon, snapped shot, Publius Pundit and Blue Crab Boulevard

Think Progress:

Embargoed: State of the Union Text — We'll start respecting White House embargoes when they start telling the truth. — Embargoed Until Delivery of the State of the Union Address at 9:01 PM EST — January 23, 2007 — STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS — As Prepared For Delivery

Discussion: Angry Bear and The Mahablog

Jay Carney / Swampland:

Re: The Clinton Playbook — Amazingly, some Swampland readers seem to think my earlier post about President Bush's State of the Union address was too sympathetic to Bush, which proves nothing but that the left is as full of unthinking Ditto-heads as Limbaugh-land.

Discussion: Personal Democracy Forum blogs and Seeing the Forest

Atrios / Eschaton:
Swampland — In this edition, Jay Carney demonstrates …

Discussion: Morning Call, Swampland and Daily Kos

Globebusiness / Daily Business Update:

Boston Globe to close foreign bureaus — The Boston Globe is closing its foreign bureaus as part of the newspaper's efforts to trim costs, editor Martin Baron said today. — The move follows the recent decision by the New York Times Co.'s New England Media Group, of which the Globe is the biggest holding …

Discussion: Instapundit.com and Romenesko

Ynetnews:

Iran: Israel, US will soon die — Ahmadinejad: Be assured that the US and Israel will soon end lives — Israel and the United States will soon be destroyed, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday during a meeting with Syria's foreign minister, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) website said in a report.

Drudge Report:

[EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:45pm ET] — Good evening. — I'm Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown - an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.

Discussion: Hot Air