Top Items:
CNN:
House panel defies Bush, votes for subpoenas … WASHINGTON (CNN) — House Democrats voted Wednesday to give their leaders the authority to force White House officials to testify on the firings of U.S. attorneys. — The House Judiciary subcommittee vote was to authorize subpoenas.
Discussion:
Center for American Progress, Washington Post, Unfogged, ACSBlog and The Volokh Conspiracy
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New York Times:
What People Really Need — In nasty and bumbling comments made at the White House yesterday, President Bush declared that "people just need to hear the truth" about the firing of eight United States attorneys. That's right. Unfortunately, the deal Mr. Bush offered Congress …
David C. Iglesias / New York Times:
Why I Was Fired — WITH this week's release of more than 3,000 Justice Department e-mail messages about the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters. — Of course, as one of the eight, I've felt this way for some time.
Discussion:
Macsmind, The Mahablog, Riehl World View, Booman Tribune, Bench Conference, The Washington Note, The Sideshow, Brilliant at Breakfast, Law Blog, DownWithTyranny!, The Carpetbagger Report, Gateway Pundit, The Thinkery, All Spin Zone, Donklephant, Daily Kos, The Impolitic, TalkLeft, Norwegianity and Cliff Schecter
MSNBC:
House panel subpoenas White House aides — Move sets up a constitutional showdown over firings of U.S. attorneys — WASHINGTON - A House panel on Wednesday defied the White House and authorized subpoenas for President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove and other top aides …
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
The White House and Congress Seem Headed Toward a Familiar Collision — "Once executive privilege is asserted," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in a 2004 Supreme Court decision, "coequal branches of the government are set on a collision course."
Nico / Think Progress:
VIDEO: Former Reagan U.S. Attorney Blasts Administration Over Purge — As Atrios noted, former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who served as a U.S. Attorney under President Reagan, appeared today on CNN. — Barr blasted the White House, saying "the integrity of the Department of Justice is being used …
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report
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Bob Geiger:
Study: White House Guilty Of "Political Profiling" — In a study cited on the floor of the United States Senate earlier this week, two researchers have found that the Bush administration's Justice Department has persistently engaged in what they call "political profiling" and that there is a …
Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
Hollywood's Climate Follies — "My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource.
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Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Gore Returns to Capitol Hill a Hero and a Target — Skeptics of Global Warming Hope to Test the Former Vice President's Mettle — Al Gore wowed moviegoers and Hollywood elites with his Oscar-winning documentary on global warming. Today he faces a far tougher audience in Congress.
New York Times:
Star in New Role, Gore Revisits Old Stage — The last time Al Gore appeared publicly inside the United States Capitol, he was certifying the Electoral College victory of George W. Bush. He returns on Wednesday, a heartbreak loser turned Oscar boasting Nobel hopeful globe trotting multimillionaire pop culture eminence.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, The Swamp, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Wonkette, Althouse and Brendan Nyhan
Robert Salladay / Los Angeles Times:
Governor calls Limbaugh 'irrelevant' — Schwarzenegger's repudiation of the conservative talk show host comes as he is accused of betraying his party's values. — SACRAMENTO — After repeatedly being asked about his conservative critics, including talk show host Rush Limbaugh …
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Media Matters for America:
Latching onto L.A. Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings "Barack, The Magic Negro"
Latching onto L.A. Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings "Barack, The Magic Negro"
Discussion:
Polimom Says
Robert Salladay / Political Muscle:
Schwarzenegger Calls Rush Limbaugh Irrelevant
Schwarzenegger Calls Rush Limbaugh Irrelevant
Discussion:
RushLimbaugh.com Home, Taylor Marsh, Macsmind, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, BlondeSense and PoliPundit.com
Newsdesk / The Swamp:
Snow swallows own old words — "What kinds of conversations does executive privilege protect?...What are the limits on privilege?'' a newspaper columnist wrote in the spring of 1998 on a subject strangely familiar today. — "Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications …
Discussion:
Pam's House Blend
Washington Post:
Watching Big Sister — '1984' Takeoff on YouTube Is a Sign Of Why 2008 Won't Be Like 2004 — It's the first viral attack ad of the 2008 presidential campaign: a clever idea, visually arresting images, the sound of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's voice and, all too fittingly in this YouTube age, an anonymous filmmaker.
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R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:
FBI Violations May Number 3,000, Official Says — The Justice Department's inspector general told a committee of angry House members yesterday that the FBI may have violated the law or government policies as many as 3,000 times since 2003 as agents secretly collected the telephone …
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Mark Mellman / The Hill:
Hounding Fox News coverage — Journalists strive to report the news, not to be the news. So Fox News should have been a bit embarrassed to headline a story that ended with the Nevada Democratic Party canceling Fox's sponsorship of a pre-caucus debate. — Then again, Fox is not a typical news organization.
Eli Lake / New York Sun:
Obama Rebuffs Soros — Billionaire's Comments on Aipac Are Scored — WASHINGTON — Leading Democrats, including Senator Obama of Illinois, are distancing themselves from an essay published this week by one of their party's leading financiers that called for the Democratic Party to …
New York Times:
Doctors' Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View — Dr. Allan Collins may be the most influential kidney specialist in the country. He is president of the National Kidney Foundation and director of a government-financed research center on kidney disease.