memeorandum: Libby Liveblog: Well's Opening Statement, Part One (Emptywheel/Firedoglake)

5:35 PM ET, January 23, 2007

Top Items:

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

Think Progress:

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: Hardblogger, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, Political Animal, Prairie Weather and The Mahablog

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: Balloon Juice, Democrats.com, The Impolitic, Wonkette, Daily Kos and Shakespeare's Sister

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: 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: 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: TAPPED, JustOneMinute and TalkLeft

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

Emptywheel / Firedoglake: Libby Liveblog: Other Issues

Washington Post:
Defense Attorney Paints Libby as Scapegoat

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and On Deadline

Digby / Hullabaloo:
Boot Scooter Boogie

Discussion: CorrenteWire

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

John Byrne / The Raw Story:
Liberal talk show host trashes Clinton's staff

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Taylor Marsh

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

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, New York Times, The Democratic Daily, Liberal Values, The Caucus, Washington Post 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, Blacksmiths of Lebanon, A Blog For All and Blue Crab Boulevard

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 and Publius Pundit

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

Los Angeles Times:

Scant evidence found of Iran-Iraq arms link — U.S. warnings of advanced weaponry crossing the border are overstated, critics say. — BAQUBAH, IRAQ — If there is anywhere Iran could easily stir up trouble in Iraq, it would be in Diyala, a rugged province along the border between the two nations.

Discussion: Think Progress, Democrats.com, TAPPED and The American Street

Washington Post:

Petraeus Confident in New Iraq Strategy — Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, President Bush's nominee to become the new top commander in Iraq, painted a grim picture today of the military challenge ahead in what both congressional Democrats and Republicans described as the "last chance" to stabilize the nation.

Discussion: New York Times and Blue Crab Boulevard

New York Times:
General Petraeus's Opening Statement

Discussion: Washington Post, INTEL DUMP and The Moderate Voice

Liz Cheney / Washington Post:

Retreat Isn't an Option — Sen. Hillary Clinton declared this weekend, " I'm in to win." Anyone who has watched her remarkable trajectory can have no doubt that she'll do whatever it takes to win the presidency. I wish she felt the same way about the war.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, The Political Pit Bull, Think Progress, The Reaction, The American Street, Matthew Yglesias, PoliPundit.com, Gateway Pundit, Don Surber, Political Animal and Armchair Generalist

Josephine Hearn / politico.com:

Black Caucus: Whites Not Allowed — Freshman Rep. Stephen I. Cohen, D-Tenn., is not joining the Congressional Black Caucus after several current and former members made it clear that a white lawmaker was not welcome. — "I think they're real happy I'm not going to join," said Cohen …

Discussion: La Shawn Barber's Corner, Redstate, Right Wing News, Texas Rainmaker, Hot Air and digg

Confederate Yankee:

CRACKDOWN: Iraqi PM Locks Down Official Media Access to Key Government Ministries — An anonymous source from within Baghdad's Green Zone has provided me with a copy of a document issued from the office of Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri Al-Malki, ordering the shutdown of contacts with the world press on …

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Jawa Report and Hot Air

PJM / Pajamas Media:

The State of the Union is a Disaster: — The Speech George Bush Should Make Tuesday Night — Don't bother standing up or clapping, any of you. I already know who won the election, and I know how you feel. — I come before you tonight not to make amends, not to make it good, curry any favor or find any middle ground.

Discussion: Power Line, The Sundries Shack, NewsHog, Jules Crittenden, The Democratic Daily, Daily Pundit, Dr. Sanity, Blinq, Blogs of War, Ed Driscoll.com, Transterrestrial Musings, BLACKFIVE, The Glittering Eye, Kiko's House and Centerfield

Associated Press:

List of Oscar Nominations — Complete list of the 79th Annual Academy Award nominations announced — Tuesday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly (AP) — Hills, Calif.: — 1. Best Picture: "Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Queen."

Discussion: Don Surber, Bark Bark Woof Woof and A Blog For All

Roger Si / politico.com:

McCain Bashes Cheney Over Iraq Policy — With his presidential hopes tied to an administration whose Iraq policy he supports but cannot control, John McCain for the first time blamed Vice President Cheney for what McCain calls the "witch's brew" of a "terribly mishandled" war in which U.S. forces are on the verge of defeat.