White House Seeking Gonzales Replacements  —  Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose support among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to party sources familiar with the discussions.

President Bush Discusses Fourth Anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom  —  THE PRESIDENT: Good morning.  Four years ago today, coalition forces launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to remove Saddam Hussein from power.  They did so to eliminate the threat his regime posed to the Middle East and to the world.

Presidential candidate bungles speech in Miami  —  People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami.  —  But when he mistakenly associated Fidel …

In hospital  —  As earlier mentioned in the comments section, my mother is in the hospital.  The doctor says that right now they're just making her comfortable.  She's sedated, with painkillers among other things.  Lungs collapsed so right now we just want to make sure she has dignity and is not in pain.

So, Mr. Hitchens, Weren't You Wrong About Iraq?  —  HARD QUESTIONS, FOUR YEARS LATER.  —  Four years after the first coalition soldiers crossed the Iraqi border, one can attract pitying looks (at best) if one does not take the view that the whole engagement could have been and should have been avoided.

A New Power Rises in Iraq  —  ERBIL, IRAQ - What a difference a year makes.  —  Fourteen months ago I flew to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, from Beirut, Lebanon, on the dubiously named Flying Carpet Airlines.  Flying Carpet's entire fleet is one small noisy plane with propellers, cramped seats, and thin cabin pressure.

Detainee confesses to USS Cole bombing  —  WASHINGTON - Waleed bin Attash, a suspected key al-Qaida operative, confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two U.S. embassies in Africa, according to a Pentagon transcript of a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Howard Kurtz, Michael Barone & Argument by Anecdote  —  Following up on this post from the other day, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz this morning wrote about the regular commenters at Little Green Footballs who expressed support for Al Qaeda's plot to assassinate former President Jimmy Carter.

EXCLUSIVE TO PJM: FRED THOMPSON ON "300"  —  The comic book movie "300" about the Spartans and the Persians in 480 AD is still breaking box-office records.  Now it seems the rulers of modern-day Persia, Iran, are not amused.  —  "300," shows a small band of Spartans saving the lives …