memeorandum: Firings Had Genesis in White House (Washington Post)

12:10 PM ET, March 13, 2007

Top Items:

White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors — The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday. — Last October, President Bush spoke …

Washington Post:

Firings Had Genesis in White House — Ex-Counsel Miers First Suggested Dismissing Prosecutors 2 Years Ago, Documents Show — The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors last year …

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Fast-Riser's High Hopes and Sudden Fall — D. Kyle Sampson has never worked full time as a federal prosecutor. But for much of the Bush administration he played a considerable role in vetting who served in the Justice Department. And last year he used his post as chief of staff …

Discussion: TIME: Swampland, Democratic Underground and The BLT

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Today's Must Read — OK, there's a lot to sift through in the two stories out from The Washington Post and New York Times today, but let's just focus on the tick-tock of events outlined in the two stories. — So here's the storyline (and please save your expressions of disbelief until the end):

Discussion: Daily Kos and Shakespeare's Sister

Associated Press:
White House mulled firing all prosecutors

Discussion: NewsHog

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Congress Demands Rove Testimony on Attorney Firings

Discussion: Firedoglake, BobGeiger.com and Norwegianity

Jeralyn / TalkLeft: How U.S. Attorneys Get Appointed

Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times: Key figure in Justice Dept. to step down

Amanda / Think Progress: Gonzales Lied Under Oath, Said All Bush-Appointed Attorneys …

Washington Post:

The Pelosi Plan for Iraq — THE RESTRICTIONS on Iraq war funding drawn up by the House Democratic leadership are exquisitely tailored to bring together the party's leftist and centrist wings. For the Out of Iraq Caucus, which demands that Congress force a withdrawal of all U.S. troops …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Influence Peddler, Don Surber, Argghhh!, White House, Jules Crittenden, Confederate Yankee, Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, TigerHawk, The Strata-Sphere, ScrappleFace, Betsy's Page and Michelle Malkin

Associated Press:

Gen. Pace calls homosexuality immoral — WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Discussion: QandO, Argghhh!, Democratic Underground, HorsesAss.Org, Left I on the News and theneweditor.com

Reuters:
Top U.S. General Calls Homosexuality Immoral: Report

Discussion: TAPPED

Aamer Madhani / Chicago Tribune:
Top general calls homosexuality 'immoral'

Discussion: Think Progress, SLDN, AMERICAblog, Taylor Marsh, The Carpetbagger Report, Outside The Beltway, Shakespeare's Sister, Pam's House Blend, Unqualified Offerings and Nitpicker

William J. Broad / New York Times:

From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype — Hollywood has a thing for Al Gore and his three-alarm film on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," which won an Academy Award for best documentary. So do many environmentalists, who praise him as a visionary, and many scientists …

USA Today:

General: Al-Sadr's fighters feel heat — Coalition forces have detained about 700 members of the Mahdi Army, the largest Shiite militia in Baghdad, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Monday. — The militia, which is loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and has clashed with U.S. troops in the past …

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Hundreds Of Mahdis, Thousands Of Insurgents Detained

Jonah Goldberg / Los Angeles Times:

Unity is overrated — Calls to 'put politics aside' really mean 'stop disagreeing with me and shut up.' — BECAUSE WE'RE AT the start of the electoral roller coaster, the part where the car slowly chugs upward, building anticipation for the gut-wrenching plunges and loop-the-loops ahead …

Discussion: TAPPED

Adam Schreck / Los Angeles Times:

Congressman says he doesn't believe in God — Democrat Pete Stark of California is the highest-ranking elected official in the U.S. to make such a public acknowledgement. — WASHINGTON — Cue the jokes about godless politicians and Bay Area liberals. — Secular groups Monday applauded …

Discussion: Street Prophets, TAPPED and Secular Coalition for America

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

When No News Is Strange News — The 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a giant in the field of logic. The 21st-century philosopher Chuck Hagel? Not so much. — The Republican senator from Nebraska, flirting with a 2008 presidential run, scheduled …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Betsy's Page, Blue Crab Boulevard and Omaha World-Herald

Gail Shister / Philadelphia Inquirer:

FOB (and Hillary) sees no effect on 'CBS Evening News' — Can a friend of Bill's cover Hillary? — Absolutely, says new CBS Evening News chief Rick Kaplan, a pal of both Clintons' since 1974. He slept in the White House twice during Bill Clinton's administration.

Discussion: TVNewser

Pat Toomey / Opinion Journal:

The McCain Record — Arizona's senior senator is not a consistent defender of individual freedom. — Political candidates often attempt to burnish their economic policy credentials on the campaign trail. As part of an effort to provide a fair and thorough analysis of the real economic records …

Discussion: Redstate and Betsy's Page

irs.gov:

IRS Issues Winter 2006-2007 Statistics of Income Bulletin — WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the release of the Winter 2006-2007 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin. Highlights include articles on individual income taxes, split-interest trusts and tax-exempt organizations.

Discussion: Chronicle of the Conspiracy

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Clinton nabs K St. backers her rivals shun — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has a network of lobbyists and political insiders three times the size of her closest Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), but many influential party members inside the Beltway are holding back to see how their race plays out.

Discussion: TIME, Sirotablog and The Caucus