memeorandum: Going Nowhere Fast — DOHA, Qatar — "Are you on the road, or in the ditch?" (David Ignatius/Washington Post)

9:45 PM ET, February 21, 2007

Top Items:

UPDATE: Maureen Dowd Column Incites Hillary-Obama War of Words — NEW YORK Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times today, in which she quoted former Bill Clinton supporter David Geffen offering a few caustic comments, has incited a strong Hillary Clinton campaign attack on Geffen …

Discussion: Hotline On Call, Media Matters for America, Power Line, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, TIME, Roger L. Simon, Riehl World View, Liberal Values and Preemptive Karma

hillaryclinton.com:

Clinton Camp to Obama: Cut Ties & Return Cash After Top Booster's Vicious Attacks — As Obama rails against "slash & burn" politics, his top Hollywood fundraiser - David Geffen - personally attacks Hillary & her family — Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson issued …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hullabaloo, The Democratic Daily, AMERICAN DIGEST, The American Mind, MyDD and Tom Watson

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

Team Hillary Shoots Back At Geffen, But the Facts Get Caught in the Crossfire — In his interview with Maureen Dowd, which is filling up email inboxes all around DC and Hollywood, David Geffen made this prediction about the Hillary Clinton campaign (which Dowd dubbed "Clinton Inc") …

Discussion: Daily. Gay. News. Towleroad, Calitics and Tennessee Guerilla Women

John / AMERICAblog:

Hillary is Sistah Souljah'ing the entire Democratic Party — I don't relish writing these repeated columns deploring Senator Clinton - you'll recall that we were one of the blogs that, up until recently, didn't have a problemwith her (check our archives, you won't find a lot of Hillary (or Bill) bashing).

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Huffington Post, DownWithTyranny! and State of the Day

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
Today's Clinton-Obama flare up

Discussion: Political Animal, Pottersville, Obsidian Wings, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Impolitic

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Hillary Clinton Facing Hollywood Defections — And "Clinton Fatigue"?

Discussion: Washington Post, QandO and The Carpetbagger Report

Kate Phillips / The Caucus:
Clinton-Obama Hollywood Brawl

Discussion: The Fix and Riehl World View

New York Times:

Militants Using Chemical Bombs in Iraq — For the third time in a month, insurgents deployed a new and deadly tactic against Iraqi civilians today: A chemical bomb combining explosives with poisonous chlorine gas. — A pickup truck carrying canisters of the gas, which burns the skin …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Danger Room, A Blog For All, Decision '08, At-Largely, Hot Air and The Daily Dish

CNN:
General: Enemy fire might have downed U.S. copter

Discussion: THE CUNNING REALIST

Brian Murphy / Associated Press:
Iraqi insurgents use 2nd 'dirty' bomb

Discussion: CorrenteWire and On Deadline

Juan / Informed Comment:

Blair to Draw Down British Troops — Tony Blair is taking 1600 troops out of Basra in the next few months and will aim to be down to only 3,000 or so (from 7,100 now) by the end of the year. Denmark is also going home. — This is a rout, there should be no mistake.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Road to Surfdom, American Footprints and Political Animal

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:

EXCLUSIVE: Cheney Says British Troop Withdrawal Is Positive Sign — Vice President Tells Soldiers in Tokyo the U.S. Will Not Withdraw Until the Job Is Done — British Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement that British troops will begin withdrawing from Iraq would appear to be bad news for the Bush administration.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Gavel, Think Progress, NewsHog, Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, Danger Room, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Carpetbagger Report, The Daily Dish, Gun Toting Liberal ™, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Crooks and Liars, Don Surber, Telegraph and The Moderate Voice

Glenn H. Reynolds / Rocky Mountain News:

Arguing from ignorance — Paul Campos has beclowned himself. He did it in the usual way, by arguing loudly about things he does not understand. — Campos chose to devote an entire column ("The right's Ward Churchill," Feb. 20) to a blog entry of mine from last week …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Impolitic, Liberty Street, Neptunus Lex, INSTAPUTZ, Power Line, Instapundit.com, Ace of Spades HQ, PrairiePundit, Don Surber and TBogg

Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom:
Campos Heap, redux

Discussion: INSTAPUTZ, XDA, The Volokh Conspiracy and IMAO

thepetitionsite.com:

Petition for a Fair Presidential Debate — Target: Nevada State Democratic Party Sponsor: Fair Forum … The Nevada State Democratic Party has partnered with Fox News to host the first-ever 2008 Democratic presidential debate on August 14. — For an example of how disrespectful …

Discussion: Reno and Its Discontents, Hullabaloo and Las Vegas Gleaner

Chris Bowers / MyDD:

ACTION: Freeze Out Fox News — In response to the growing disgust over their decision to partner with Fox News to host a Democratic presidential debate, the Nevada Democratic Party issued the following statement last night: … Unfiltered, huh? Here are some "unfiltered" …

Discussion: AMERICAblog, Reno and Its Discontents, Daily Kos, Cliff Schecter and Democrats.com

democracyinaction.com:
Tell Democrats to Freeze Out Fox News

Discussion: Reno and Its Discontents and Daily Kos

Quinnipiac University News and Events:

February 21, 2007 - Giuliani Tops Clinton In 2008 Presidential Race, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Republican Runs Strong In Red, Blue And Purple States — Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani leads Sen. Hillary Clinton 48 - 43 percent among American voters …

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal, The Right's Field, race42008.com, Riehl World View, Pollster and The Political Pit Bull

Mother Jones:

Iraq's Newest Export: Refugees — 1.6 million Iraqis have been displaced within the country. As many as 1.8 million have left Iraq, with 3,000 fleeing daily. Saudi Arabia is building a 560-mile border fence to keep them out. As many as 700,000 Iraqi refugees now live in Jordan.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Political Animal and Think Progress

Michael Medved / Townhall.com:

Where Tim Hardaway Was Right — Recent comments by retired basketball star Tim ("I hate gay people") Hardaway did serious damage to his image and career but also unwittingly raised serious cultural issues about sexuality and gender. — Hardaway appropriately apologized for his harsh remarks …

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, Pandagon, Unqualified Offerings, Lawyers, Guns and Money and NewsHog

Associated Press:

Edwards: Israel NOT a Threat to World Peace — (02/21/07 — WASHINGTON, DC) - John Edwards' presidential campaign wants to make it clear that he doesn't consider Israel a threat to world peace. — Also on abc11tv.com: — A spokesman for the 2008 Democratic candidate issued …

Discussion: Liberal Values, Volunteer Voters, Six Meat Buffet and Wonkette

Jonathan Singer / MyDD:

Liveblogging the Carson City AFSCME Forum — In the interest of as clear disclosure as possible, my trip to Nevada has been sponsored by AFSCME. — I'm now in the Carson City Community Center for the first Democratic presidential forum ahead of the Nevada caucuses.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Matthew Yglesias and Las Vegas Gleaner

Atrios / Eschaton:

Worship of Incumbency — Joe Klein's just trolling at this point, so no linky for him, but I've been long fascinated by the elite consensus that there's something distasteful about running primary challengers against incumbents. Certainly primary challenges can be strategically stupid …

Discussion: TIME: Swampland, Booman Tribune and Ezra Klein