memeorandum: Hagel: "There Is No Plan" — Here's Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) … (Paul Kiel/TPMmuckraker)

10:10 PM ET, January 24, 2007

Top Items:

Kerry won't run for president in '08 — WASHINGTON —Senator John F. Kerry plans to announce today that he will not run in the 2008 presidential race, and will instead remain in Congress and seek reelection to his Senate seat next year, according to senior Democratic officials.

CNN:

Source: Kerry decides against 2008 presidential run … WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, won't make a second bid for the White House, sources familiar with Kerry's thinking said Wednesday. — A source close to Kerry …

Discussion: Pollster, MyDD, Sirotablog, Liberal Values, The Carpetbagger Report, Political Animal, TalkLeft and A Blog For All

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

Kerry Bows Out of 2008 Race — Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who narrowly lost the presidency to George Bush in 2004, stepped away today from what he had described as an almost all-but-certain second bid for the White House, bowing to a Democratic Party that was clearly unreceptive …

Discussion: the talking dog, The BRAD BLOG, The Moderate Voice, The Democratic Daily and neo-neocon

David Espo / Associated Press:

Kerry bows out of '08 presidential race — WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats' losing presidential candidate in 2004, said Wednesday that he won't run for the White House again in 2008. — "I've concluded this isn't the time for me to mount a presidential campaign," Kerry said.

Discussion: Donklephant, The Democratic Daily, Pam's House Blend and Blue Crab Boulevard

Adam Nagourney / The Caucus:
2008: Kerry Not Running

Discussion: Blinq and Wonkette

David Espo / Associated Press:
Kerry Will Not Seek White House in 2008

Discussion: Power Line

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Hagel: "There Is No Plan" — Here's Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) barnburner of a speech this morning during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting on the resolution against the president's troop increase in Iraq. — An excerpt: … Update: We've added a complete transcript of this portion of his remarks below.

Discussion: The Mahablog, The Reaction, Angry Bear and Suburban Guerrilla

Washington Post:
Senate Panel Votes Against Bush on Iraq

Discussion: DownWithTyranny! and Crooks and Liars

Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:
Senators eye rejection of Bush war plan

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, CNN Political Ticker and Outside The Beltway

Fox News:
SENATE PANEL PASSES RESOLUTION OPPOSING TROOP ESCALATION IN IRAQ

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Blogs of War, Hot Air and Right Voices

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Transcript: CNN Interview with Cheney — We've just received the transcript for Vice President Cheney's interview with Wolf Blitzer this morning. It's posted in full below the fold. — Q And joining us now, the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Mr. Vice President, thanks very much for doing this.

Discussion: AMERICAblog, CANNONFIRE, Happy Furry Puppy Story …, The Carpetbagger Report, Suburban Guerrilla and Horses Mouth

Drudge Report:

CHENEY CALLS BLITZER QUESTION ON DAUGHTER'S PREGNANCY 'OUT OF LINE' — In an interview taped to air for today's 'Situation Room' on CNN, Vice President Cheney responded sharply to anchor Woilf Blitzer's line of questioning regarding the pregancy of Cheney's lesbian daughter:

Discussion: Hot Air, Right Voices, NewsBusters.org and Andrew Sullivan

SilentPatriot / Crooks and Liars:
Cheney Spars with Blitzer Over Criticism of Iraq, Mary's Pregnancy

Discussion: Attytood, The Agonist and Hullabaloo

WRAL-TV:

Nifong Faces More Serious Ethics Charges — RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Bar Wednesday filed new and more serious ethics charges against Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, accusing him of withholding DNA evidence and misrepresenting the truth to the judge in the Duke lacrosse case.

Discussion: Durham-in-Wonderland, Hot Air and Sister Toldjah

The Smoking Gun:
New Ethics Charges For Nifong

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Scared Monkeys, A Blog For All and Right Voices

Raleigh News & Observer:
Nifong faces additional ethics charges

Discussion: Reason Magazine and On Deadline

Bob Geiger:

Senate Republicans Block Minimum Wage Increase — Despite a united front from Senate Democrats for passing the same stand-alone minimum wage increase approved by the House of Representatives two weeks ago, the Republican minority voted against cloture on the bill today …

Discussion: MyDD, Blue Crab Boulevard, Left in the West and KnoxViews

Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:
Tax break talks slow minimum wage hike

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:

The Knee-Jerk Opposition — If George W. Bush proposes something, it must be bad. Such is the knee-jerk state of partisan suspiciousness that when the president actually endorses a tax increase — a tax increase that would primarily hit the well-off, no less — Democrats still howl.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, urban.org, Political Animal, Ezra Klein, Grasping Reality …, The Mahablog, Sigmund, Carl and Alfred, Eschaton, Winds of Change.NET, Opinion Journal, Polimom Says and Greg Mankiw's Blog

Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
IT'S THE POLICY, STUPID....Ruth Marcus on the Bush health plan:

Discussion: MaxSpeak, Media Matters for America, The Mahablog, The Sideshow, Washington Post, Grasping Reality …, The Carpetbagger Report and Eschaton

Hugh Hewitt / Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog:

Take The Pledge — Take the pledge. This is the temporary site. The full-service site will be up soon. — If you are a blogger who has taken the pledge and linked to the site, please send me a note so I can add your support here. — I interviewed Tony Snow at the top of the program today …

Discussion: Democracy Project, Riehl World View, Instapundit.com, Bill Hobbs, INSTAPUTZ, Drumwaster's Rants, Wizbang and Oliver Willis

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

OBAMA TAKES ON FOX NEWS. If this is a sign of how Barack Obama intends to deal with the right-wing media during his Presidential campaign, then I'm all for it. — Obama is aggressively going after Fox News today for pushing that smear-job report claiming that he went to an Islamic "madrassa" school as a child.

Discussion: Hotline On Call, Nitpicker, democracyarsenal.org, Unfogged, The Political Pit Bull and Oliver Willis

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE NEW YORK MONEY PEOPLE: — I've admired Wes Clark for a long time. But his comments to Ariana Huffington about wealthy Jews pushing the country toward war with Iran strike me as nutty and disturbing. Either I seriously misjudged the man, or his comments were misquoted or taken wildly out of context.

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, Ace of Spades HQ, Matthew Yglesias, Reason Magazine, American Prospect and Outside The Beltway

KSTP-TV:

MN congresswoman can't keep her hand off President — Newly-elected Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann got quite a bit of face time with President Bush after his State of the Union Speech Tuesday night. — While the President was signing autographs for members of Congress after the speech …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, newsweek, The Huffington Post, Wonkette, Norwegianity, The Caucus, Pam's House Blend and SCSUScholars

Michael J. Gerson / Newsweek:

Exceeding Expectations — Bush's former speechwriter on what the president did right—and on Jim Webb's wobbly wordcraft. — All the commentary leading up to the State of the Union noted the president's historically low poll ratings and unpopular Iraq strategy.

Discussion: The RBC, TIME and Chicago Boyz

Rick Perlstein / Salon:

Why Democrats can stop the war — Pundits say if the party gets too tough with Bush, it will be blamed for "losing" Iraq. But the real political risk is going too easy on Bush, and losing the trust of war-weary voters. — Clockwise from top left: Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, a Vietnam War protest and Richard Nixon

Discussion: MyDD