Top Items:
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.
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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 …
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
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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Rick Klein / Boston Globe:
As Kerry ponders, Democrats crowd in
As Kerry ponders, Democrats crowd in
Discussion:
Washington Post, politico.com, The Democratic Daily, Liberal Values, The Caucus, CNN Political Ticker and New York Times
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Washington Post:
Internal Rifts Cloud Democrats' Opportunity on Warming — The House Democrats had not quite finished their "100 hours" agenda when they met in the Capitol basement Thursday morning, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) was already looking ahead. As her colleagues ate bagels and turkey sausage …
Nadine Elsibai / Bloomberg:
Bush Poll Ratings Before Speech Fall to Nixon's Level (Update2) — Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Jonathan Martin / politico.com:
Hastert To Endorse Romney — Sources inside former Gov. Mitt Romney's camp tell The Politico that they've picked up yet another major Washington endorsement: former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The Illinoisan is set to publicly endorse Romney today. — Romney has cultivated …
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …