memeorandum: Group Advocating for Muslims in U.S. Gets More Scrutiny (Neil MacFarquhar/New York Times)

2:10 PM ET, March 14, 2007

Top Items:

WHY HAVEN'T WE WRITTEN ABOUT THE US ATTORNEYS' STORY?: In an unrelated comment thread, anonymous commenter "CrazyTrain" writes: … First, I would like to clear up something: Of course we are all political hacks! Our secret trick is that we alternate which side to spin …

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, Confederate Yankee, QandO, PrawfsBlawg, Outside The Beltway and JustOneMinute

Real Cities:

Current situation is distinct from Clinton firings of U.S. attorneys — WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and its defenders like to point out that President Bush isn't the first president to fire U.S. attorneys and replace them with loyalists. — While that's true, the current case is different.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Macsmind, The Carpetbagger Report and Donklephant

Washington Post:

Gonzales:'Mistakes Were Made' — But Attorney Genera Defends Firings ofEight U.S. Attorneys — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales took responsibility yesterday for "mistakes" related to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year but rejected calls for his resignation from Democrats who accuse him of misleading Congress.

Discussion: New York Times, About U.S. Politics, Talking Points Memo, Law Blog and Prairie Weather

Opinion Journal:

The Hubbell Standard — Hillary Clinton knows all about sacking U.S. Attorneys. — Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated from—gasp—the White House. Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun yesterday …

Discussion: Betsy's Page, Gates of Vienna, NewsBusters.org, The Right Angle and Macsmind

Editor and Publisher:

Editorial Pages Call for Axing Attorney General — NEW YORK The New York Times got the editorial ball rolling on Monday, calling for the firing of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales due largely, if not completely, to the burgeoning scandal involving the forced departure of eight U.S. attorneys.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

White House:

Press Briefing by Dan Bartlett, Counselor to the President — MR. BARTLETT: Good afternoon, everyone. I'll start with a few brief comments, before I take your questions. — The two Presidents are concluding their lunch pretty much as we speak, in which they — is on the heels …

Discussion: Firedoglake, First Draft and Extreme Mortman

New York Times:
'Mistakes' Made on Prosecutors, Gonzales Says

Discussion: Washington Post, Real Cities, Dick Polman's American Debate, The Swamp, Brilliant at Breakfast, Angry Bear, The BLT, Is That Legal?, The Carpetbagger Report, Bench Conference, Balloon Juice, THE CUNNING REALIST, PoliBlog (TM), Wonkette and If I Ran the Zoo

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
The Trap That Gonzales Fell Into

Discussion: MyDD and Redstate

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
The Grand Elusion — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced …

Discussion: Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, The Heretik, The Gun Toting Liberal ™, The Democratic Daily, Crooks and Liars, Outside The Beltway, CorrenteWire and Daily Kos

Bloomberg:
Gonzales Has Few Republican Defenders on Prosecutors (Update1)

Discussion: TalkLeft, Right Wing News and Washington Post

New York Times:
Politics, Pure and Cynical

Discussion: Firedoglake, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Moderate Voice, Obsidian Wings, The Mahablog, The Carpetbagger Report, Shakespeare's Sister, Middle Earth Journal, Pacific Views and TalkLeft

CNN: Fired attorneys say apologies are in order

Washington Wire:
Gonzales: It's Up to President Bush

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister

ABCNEWS:
EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton Calls for Gonzales' Resignation

Alan K. Simpson / Washington Post:

Bigotry That Hurts Our Military — As a lifelong Republican who served in the Army in Germany, I believe it is critical that we review — and overturn — the ban on gay service in the military. I voted for "don't ask, don't tell." But much has changed since 1993.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Political Animal, Captain's Quarters, The Carpetbagger Report, Midtopia, Pam's House Blend, Lawyers, Guns and Money and ABCNEWS

Washington Post:
The Right to Serve — GEN. PETER PACE, chairman of the Joint Chiefs …

Discussion: Pam's House Blend, Pandagon, AMERICAblog and Michael P.F. van der Galiën

Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:

Group Advocating for Muslims in U.S. Gets More Scrutiny — With violence across the Middle East fixing Islam smack at the center of the American political debate, an organization partly financed by donors closely identified with wealthy Persian Gulf governments has emerged as the most vocal advocate …

Discussion: Big Lizards

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Gray Lady Uses Skirts To Hide CAIR

Discussion: Gates of Vienna

Patrick Healy / New York Times:

Clinton and Obama Court Jewish Vote — As Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama compete for Jewish donors and voters, Mrs. Clinton is following a tried-and-true rule of hers from New York — support Israel to the last — while Mr. Obama is trying a more delicate strategy that hit some bumps this week.

Discussion: Rootless Cosmopolitan, Ezra Klein and TIME: Swampland

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Obama's Jewish Problem

Discussion: Hang Right Politics and Ace of Spades HQ

Matt Stoller / The Politico:

Republican Propaganda Is Not News — Over the past three weeks or so, the progressive movement - bloggers, Moveon.org, grassroots activists, filmmakers - pressured the Nevada Democratic Party to drop Fox News as the host of a presidential debate in August. In pursuing this short campaign …

Discussion: QandO, Hullabaloo, Taylor Marsh, Firedoglake and The Sideshow

Eric Boehlert / Media Matters for America:
Fox News can't take a punch

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, MyDD and Think Progress

Ynetnews:

London report: Senior Iranian officer 'disappears' — Tehran has lost contact with a senior Iranian officer serving in Iraq, according to London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat. Iranian source speculates that he may have been taken into custody by Americans — Roee Nahmias

Discussion: Roger L. Simon and Confederate Yankee

Sasha Volokh / The Volokh Conspiracy:

DECONSTRUCTIONISM AND CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISM: The Critical Legal Studies movement is heavily influenced by the deconstruction movement. Jack Balkin explains how deconstruction as a literary and philosophical tool migrated into the law, in his 2005 Cardozo Law Review article Deconstruction's Legal Career:

Discussion: TAPPED and The Debate Link

Cain Burdeau / Associated Press:

Corps placed faulty pumps in New Orleans — NEW ORLEANS - The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush's promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Eschaton, Polimom Says and Brilliant at Breakfast

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The president receives "lessons" from his neoconservative tutors — Last week, George Bush hosted what he called "a literary luncheon" to honor "historian" Andrew Roberts. Accounts of that luncheon — which describe the "lessons" the guests taught the President (and they call them "lessons" …

Discussion: Council for Secular Humanism, Weekly Standard, TAPPED and Michael P.F. van der Galiën

Ahmed Rasheed / Reuters:

U.S. says car bombs a concern despite Baghdad plan — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs in Baghdad, at a record high in February, remain a serious concern despite a month-old U.S.-backed crackdown, a U.S. general said in a more sober assessment than one given by Iraqi officials on Wednesday.

Discussion: Power Line and Gateway Pundit