memeorandum: Documents highlight Gonzales' role in the firings (Real Cities)

1:25 PM ET, March 24, 2007

Top Items:

Documents highlight Gonzales' role in the firings — WASHINGTON - Internal Bush administration e-mails suggest that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have played a bigger role than he has acknowledged in the plan to fire several U.S. attorneys. — The e-mails, delivered to Congress Friday night …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, PoliBlog (TM), TPMmuckraker and Political Animal

New York Times:

Gonzales Met With Advisers on Ouster Plan — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior advisers discussed the plan to remove seven United States attorneys at a meeting last Nov. 27, 10 days before the dismissals were carried out, according to a Justice Department calendar entry disclosed Friday.

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Daily Background, The Daily Dish, JustOneMinute, Balloon Juice, Outside The Beltway, the talking dog, Macsmind, Talking Points Memo, Is That Legal?, All Spin Zone, Grasping Reality …, TalkLeft, State of the Day, The Next Hurrah and CorrenteWire

MSNBC:

Documents: Gonzales OK'd firing attorneys — Attorney general had been said not to have been closely involved — Politicians in both major parties have called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation amid the furor over the firings of U.S. attorneys.

Discussion: The Politico, The Moderate Voice, DownWithTyranny!, Crooks and Liars, The Daily Background, Discourse.net, Macsmind, Watching Those We Chose, PoliBlog (TM), At-Largely, Hoffmania! and Oliver Willis

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Did Gonzales Lie About His Involvement? — The termination of eight federal prosecutors has been compared by supporters of the Bush administration to the abrupt dismissal of all 93 US Attorneys by Bill Clinton in 1993. Today, they may be comparing Alberto Gonzales' use of the word "involved" …

Dan Eggen / Washington Post:

Gonzales Met With Top Aides On Firings — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met with senior aides on Nov. 27 to review a plan to fire a group of U.S. attorneys, according to documents released last night, a disclosure that contradicts Gonzales's previous statement that he was not involved in "any discussions" about the dismissals.

Discussion: Tennessee Guerilla Women and Brilliant at Breakfast

Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:
Reid Says Gonzales to Leave Within Month `One Way or the Other'

Discussion: The Raw Story

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
DoJ Official Conferred with Others on Law Change

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Prairie Weather

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
DoJ Docs: AG Met with Aides before Purge, DoJ Flack Brainstormed on Dismissals

Discussion: Booman Tribune and The Carpetbagger Report

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Gonzales: Don't Blame Me, Blame Bush

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Kirk Johnson / New York Times:

Public Takes Up Pros and Cons of Edwards Bid — Important policy debates about the course of the nation in the next presidential election are still out there and will no doubt return. But for one day, many people all over the country seemed able to pause and reflect on something deeper …

Discussion: Conglomerate, BAGnewsNotes, PrezVid, The Moderate Voice and techPresident

Media Matters for America:
Limbaugh: John and Elizabeth Edwards "turned to ... politics" …

Discussion: Eschaton, The Carpetbagger Report, NewDonkey.com and Washington Post

Washington Post:
Ready for Another Tough Campaign

Discussion: The Gun Toting Liberal ™, NewsHog and Blue Crab Boulevard

Luke Harding / Guardian:

Supreme court ban on liberal party wipes out opposition to Putin — Russia's next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections. — Russia's supreme court announced that it had liquidated …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters

Michael van der Galien / The Moderate Voice: Tsar Putin Without Opposition

Anna Mulrine / US News:

Exclusive: Iranians Had Showdown With U.S. Forces — As the British government demanded the immediate release of 15 of its sailors whose boats were seized by Iranian naval vessels in the Persian Gulf on Friday, U.S. News has learned that this is not the first showdown that coalition forces have had with the Iranian military.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Flopping Aces

Giles Smith / Times of London:
Hostage fears over troops seized by Iran

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Jay Currie

Pajamas Media:
SHOWDOWN IN THE PERSIAN GULF: IRAN NAVAL VESSELS SEIZE 15 BRITISH SERVICEMEN IN IRAQ

Discussion: Guardian and Associated Press

Chicago Tribune:

The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth — Shaped by different worlds, an outsider found ways to fit in — HONOLULU — The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. — A boy wants to find his place in a family …

Discussion: Political Radar

Associated Press:

Jeb Bush Denied Honor at U. of Florida — GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Friday he was "tremendously disappointed" with the school's Faculty Senate vote to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree. — The Senate voted 38-28 Thursday …

Hindrocket / Power Line:
FLORIDA DENIES JEB BUSH HONORARY DEGREE

Discussion: Strange Women Lying in Ponds

Bob Geiger:

The Saturday Cartoons — As a bonus today, our friend Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle, who is also the President-elect of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, tips us to a great collection of his cartoons related to the Iraq war that he has posted on his web site.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Think Progress:

WATCH LIVE: New Leadership On Health Care 2008 Presidential Forum — The Democratic presidential candidates are in Las Vegas today for the New Leadership on Health Care 2008 Presidential Forum. ThinkProgress is featuring exclusive streaming video. Watch it live at 9am PT/noon ET:

Discussion: MyDD

portlandtribune.com:

Rudeness mars peace message — If the cause of peace is worth supporting — and we believe it is — then peace protesters must demonstrate the values they promote. The vast majority of the estimated 15,000 protesters who took part in a peace march Sunday in downtown Portland did just that.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, Horses Mouth, Gateway Pundit, Sadly, No! and Moonbattery

Slavoj Zizek / New York Times:

Knight of the Living Dead — SINCE the release of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's dramatic confessions, moral outrage at the extent of his crimes has been mixed with doubts. Can his claims be trusted? What if he confessed to more than he really did, either because of a vain desire to be remembered …

Discussion: culturekitchen and Prairie Weather