Top Items:
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
House Democrats' New Strategy: Force Slow End to War — Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition's goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself.
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Matt Stoller / MyDD:
Grace Time is Over — It's pretty obvious at this point that the Democratic leadership isn't serious about ending the war in Iraq. They won't defund the war, and keep repeating the meme that cutting off funding for the war means cutting off funding for the troops. — It's time for the blogs to stop giving them a pass.
Bryan / Hot Air:
Murtha and the Democrats: A new low — Disgusting. … If they do what they're apparently planning to do, "slow bleed" will be a very apt description. Those doing the bleeding, slowly, will be US troops. … This is the strategy of a corrupt, dishonorable man. Yes, I realize I'm talking about a former Marine.
White House:
Press Conference by the President — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming in on an icy day. I have just finished a conversation with General David Petraeus. He gave me his first briefing from Iraq. He talked about the Baghdad security plan. It's the plan that I described to the nation last January …
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Juan / Informed Comment:
On the Mystery of Muqtada al-Sadr's Disappearance — US government sources are saying that nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled to neighboring Iran three weeks ago. Sadrist aides denied the report. — This on a day when two major bombings left 66 persons wounded or dead in the capital …
Discussion:
Political Animal
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Betsy Rothstein / The Hill:
Rep. Ellison calls the cops to snuff Tancredo's cigar — Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes it is his right as a Muslim to be sworn into Congress with the Quran. But apparently, the freshman lawmaker doesn't believe it's Rep. Tom Tancredo's (R-Colo.) right to smoke a cigar in his congressional office.
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister, TPMCafe blogs, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hot Air, Redstate, "7.62mm Justice" ™ and theneweditor.com
Mark Memmott / On Deadline:
Bush: 'Preposterous' to suggest intelligence on Iran is wrong — President Bush just held a press conference at the White House. Some highlights: — 11:58 a.m. ET. Sitting down with Iran wouldn't work: The last question was why — if the U.S. could negotiate with the former Soviet Union …
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Bill Gertz / Washington Times:
Bolton hits agreement as 'bad signal' to Iran
Bolton hits agreement as 'bad signal' to Iran
Discussion:
New York Times
Baltimore Sun:
America's view of Republicans crumbles in Iraq — According to the latest Gallup survey, Republican self-identification has declined nationally and in almost every American state. Why? The short answer is that President Bush's war of choice in Iraq has destroyed the partisan brand Republicans spent the past four decades building.
Lizette Alvarez / New York Times:
Army Giving More Waivers in Recruiting — The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in 2003, Department of Defense records show. — During that time …
Steve Kornacki / New York Observer:
Why Al Gore Won't Let the Rumors Die — It's too much to say that Al Gore has decided to run for President in 2008. — But it does seem that he wants to preserve the option. — Certainly, the recent buzz about a possible Gore campaign in 2008 doesn't seem to be spontaneously generated.
Discussion:
Liberal Values
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Neoconservatives hate liberty as much as they love war — Frank Gaffney, one of the country's most influential and well-connected neoconservatives, has a column in today's Washington Times in which he argues that the debate taking place in Congress over the war in Iraq constitutes treason.
driftglass:
I'm Spartacus. — Shakespeare's Sister has announced that she is bowing out of the Edwards campaign. — Needless to say this is a very sad and sobering development. — And needless to say that she is doing it with orders of magnitude more grace and élan than either …
Discussion:
Lean Left, QandO, Balloon Juice, The Mahablog, Althouse, The Navel of the Internet, PSoTD and Patterico's Pontifications
Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
Candidates Find A New Stump In the Blogosphere — Nearly a year before the first caucuses and primaries take place, the 2008 presidential campaign advertising war is under way online. — Candidates of both parties are already buying space on search engines, blogs and other Internet sites popular …
Deseret News:
6 minutes of horror … In just six minutes, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic left a tragic path of destruction that forever changed the lives of dozens of people. — "His intent was to shoot as many people as he possibly could," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank.
Discussion:
Classical Values, BizzyBlog, Blue Crab Boulevard, Jihad Watch and Little Green Footballs
Douglas J. Feith / Washington Post:
Tough Questions We Were Right to Ask — Promoters of the "Bush Lied, People Died" line claim that the recent Pentagon inspector general's report concerning my former office's work on Iraq intelligence supports their cause. What the IG actually said is a different story.
New York Times:
House Begins Full Debate on the Iraq War — The House opened a full-throated debate on Tuesday over the Iraq war as lawmakers began considering a resolution to denounce President Bush's plan to add troops. Democratic leaders said the debate was the first step in using Congressional authority to intervene in the conflict.
Anne Applebaum / Telegraph:
War with Iran is in no one's interests — 'War in Iraq, war in Iran? " That's a headline I saw in Britain earlier this week. In Washington, the headlines read more like "Tentative nuclear deal reached with North Korea" and "Obama must show more than potential", but never mind …
New York Times:
Libby and Cheney Won't Testify, Says the Defense — Lawyers defending I. Lewis Libby Jr. against perjury charges surprised the courtroom on Tuesday by saying that they would rest their case this week and do so without putting on the stand either Mr. Libby or Vice President Dick Cheney.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Nation, White House Watch, TPMCafe blogs, Is That Legal? and JustOneMinute