memeorandum: Tom Vilsack's Very, Very Bad Idea (Hilzoy/Obsidian Wings)

12:40 PM ET, February 22, 2007

Top Items:

In Both Parties, 2008 Politeness Falls to Infighting — The sun was not yet up yesterday, and members of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign team were confronted with the kind of attack that most infuriates them: one questioning the character of Mrs. Clinton and her husband.

Discussion: Associated Press, CBS News, The Daily Dish, NewsBusters.org, Daily Pundit, Wonkette, Althouse, Macsmind and Editor and Publisher

Washington Post:

Clinton, Obama Camps' Feud Is Out in the Open — An increasingly acrimonious competition between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to enlist the Democratic Party's leading fundraisers and operatives burst into the open yesterday, overshadowing what was billed as the presidential campaign's …

Discussion: The Caucus, TIME: Swampland, The Hillary Spot, Sirotablog and workingforchange.com …

Lynn Sweet / Chicago Sun Times:
Geffen-Clinton snit tests Obama

Discussion: Redstate and Matthew Yglesias

William Saletan / Slate:
The War on Error — HILLARY CLINTON'S SORRY NONAPOLOGY.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Brendan Nyhan

Mark Preston / CNN: Clinton, Obama camps mix it up verbally

Fox News:

PELOSI CALLS BUSH TO COMPLAIN OF CHENEY'S COMMENTS ON DEMOCRATS' IRAQ STRATEGY — WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday phoned President Bush to air her complaints over Vice President Dick Cheney's comments that the Congressional Democrats' plan for Iraq would "validate the Al Qaeda strategy."

Discussion: Associated Press, Hot Air, QandO, The Heretik, Daily Pundit, Jules Crittenden, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit, PrairiePundit, The Gavel, Blogs for Bush, MyDD and alphabet city

Gerard Baker / Real Clear Politics:
The Thinking Behind Blair's Iraq Decision

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and QandO

Washington Post:
Ally's Timing Is Awkward for Bush

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Blair: We'll Go Back If Needed — Critics of the Iraq war …

Donald Lambro / Washington Times:

GOP 'darlings' slow to sign tax-cut pledge — The two front-runners for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination — Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — have not signed an anti-tax-increase pledge that has been embraced by several of their rivals.

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

David S. Cloud / New York Times:

National Guard May Undertake Iraq Duty Early — The Pentagon is planning to send more than 14,000 National Guard troops back to Iraq next year, shortening their time between deployments to meet the demands of President Bush's buildup, Defense Department officials said Wednesday.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The Heretik, PoliBlog (TM), Think Progress, The Gavel, Obsidian Wings and This Modern World

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
They don't even have the right rifles — Thousands of National Guard …

Discussion: The Politico, Democratic Underground and Angry Bear

Hilzoy / Obsidian Wings:

Tom Vilsack's Very, Very Bad Idea — I didn't watch the Democratic debate (debates? This early??), but then I noticed (h/t Atrios and Matt Yglesias) that Jonathan Singer at MyDD wrote this: … Price indexing? Yikes. Like Matt, I didn't want to leap to conclusions …

Discussion: Political Animal, Eschaton, Blogometer, TAPPED, MyDD, Pacific Views, The Corner, Matthew Yglesias and Lawyers, Guns and Money

George F. Will / Washington Post:

A Lack of Courage In Their Convictions — Indiscriminate criticism of President George W. Bush is an infectious disease. Some conservatives seem to have caught it, but congressional Democrats might be crippled by it. — Consider some conservatives' reflexive rejection …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, PrairiePundit and Decision '08

New York Times:

Iraq Insurgents Employ Chlorine in Bomb Attacks — A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas blew up in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it might represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians. — It was at least the third truck bomb …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, the talking dog, Outside The Beltway, PrairiePundit and Daily Kos

Thomas Sowell / Real Clear Politics:

Obama's Worn-Out Economic Ideas — Senator Barack Obama recently said, "let's allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country's middle class again." — Ironically, he said it at a time when Detroit automakers have been laying off unionized workers by the tens of thousands …

Discussion: PrairiePundit and Decision '08

The Big Trunk / Power Line:

REMEMBERING THE INDISPENSABLE MAN — Today is the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington's greatness was the rarest, the most necessary, and, at this remove in time, the hardest to understand.

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House

New York Times:

American Liberty at the Precipice — In another low moment for American justice, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that detainees held at the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, do not have the right to be heard in court. The ruling relied on a shameful law …

Discussion: Right Wing News and This Modern World

Smash / The Indepundit:

The One Man Counter-Protest — ERIC ODESSIT takes on 300 defeatist protesters in San Diego. … What Eric does next is so simple and elegant, it drives the "artist" nuts. … Ah, so now defeatist protests are considered "art," and passing out flags is "vandalism." Got it.

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Bill Harlan / Rapid City Journal:

Committee kills abortion ban — PIERRE—An abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother was rejected Wednesday morning by legislative committee in Pierre. — The Senate State Affairs Committee just voted 8 to 1 to kill HB1293 without a vote of the full Senate.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Liberty Street and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Cynthia Leonor Garza / Houston Chronicle:

Of great import: bilingual teachers — Texas schools increasingly recruit in Mexico, other nations to meet language demands — MONTERREY, MEXICO — At the onset, there's a mad rush to be the first in line to talk to the school recruiters. Within seconds, the candidates …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

Christiane Amanpour / CNN:

Iranian official offers glimpse from within: A desire for U.S. ally … TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — As I sat down recently with a senior Iranian government official, he urgently waved a column by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times in my face, one about how the United States and Iran need to engage each other.