Top Items:
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Taking One for the Team, When He Could Remember — Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was in his fourth hour testifying yesterday about the firing of federal prosecutors when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy cut him off.
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Washington Post:
Ex-Aide Contradicts Gonzales on Firings — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was more deeply involved in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys than he has sometimes acknowledged, and Gonzales and his aides have made a series of inaccurate claims about the issue in recent weeks …
Alan Cooperman / Washington Post:
Bush Loyalist Rose Quickly at Justice — When a college intern in the Justice Department whined that all he was doing was filing and answering phones, Monica M. Goodling took him aside. If he wanted to do "substantive work," she told him, he was going to have to prove himself first.
New York Times:
Ex-Aide Rejects Gonzales Stand Over Dismissals — The former chief of staff to Alberto R. Gonzales testified on Thursday that he had consulted regularly with the attorney general about dismissing United States attorneys, disputing Mr. Gonzales's public account of his role as very limited.
Discussion:
ScrappleFace
New York Times:
Ex-Aide Says Gonzales Was Involved in Firings — The former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified today that contrary to Mr. Gonzales's earlier assertions, the attorney general was involved in discussions to fire United States attorneys.
Joshua Partlow / Washington Post:
Gunmen Go On Rampage In Iraqi City — Killings Are Revenge For Blasts in Tall Afar — A day after twin truck bombings laid waste to predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in the northern Iraqi city of Tall Afar, marauding Shiite gunmen and police executed dozens of Sunnis in retaliatory attacks …
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Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
TAL AFAR....Last year, it seemed as if half the reporters …
TAL AFAR....Last year, it seemed as if half the reporters …
Discussion:
Think Progress
Guardian:
Tehran raises the stakes in hostage crisis — Second 'confession' letter released questioning UK's presence in Iraq — The Iranian hostage crisis took a sinister turn last night when Tehran withdrew an earlier offer to release one of the 15 captive sailors and marines and issued a second …
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Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Video: Rosie melts down on "The View" — I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the video against which all future Rosie clips will be compared. Never has so much useful idiocy about so many subjects been compressed into so little time. — It's her finest hour.
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William K. Rashbaum / New York Times:
Testimony by Giuliani Indicates He Was Briefed on Kerik in '00 — Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik's relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik's appointment …
Faiza Saleh Ambah / Washington Post:
Arabs Call on Israel To Take Peace Offer — Arab leaders on Thursday reiterated their offer to normalize ties with Israel and showed signs of flexibility in their terms for peace. — At a news conference at the end of a summit where the Arab leaders' peace plan was the main issue on the agenda …
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
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Rebecca Traister / Salon:
Fox's Ann Coulter 2.0 — Conserva-babe and star-in-the-making Rachel Marsden has a, um, colorful past. What was Fox thinking? — "Maybe [Pakistani cricket fans] should focus less on cricket and a little more on hygiene," opined Rachel Marsden on a recent episode of Fox News' middle-of-the-night talk oddity "Red Eye."
Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:
Giuliani Says Wife Could Go to Cabinet Meetings — Rudolph W. Giuliani says that if he were president, his wife would be permitted to attend cabinet meetings and advise him on federal policy, an unusually overt role in government decision-making for a first lady.
Discussion:
TalkLeft
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Dana Blanton / Fox News:
FOX NEWS POLL: MOST THINK DEMOCRATS WILL WIN WHITE HOUSE IN 2008 — NEW YORK — The latest FOX News poll finds that Americans think the next person to move into the White House will be a Democrat, and while many voters would be enthusiastic or pleased if any one of the current front-runners were to win …
Nico / Think Progress:
Boehner Repeatedly Mispronounces 'Tuskegee' During Congressional Ceremony — The Tuskegee airmen were the U.S. military's first group of African American fighter pilots, an elite unit that served with distinction during World War II only to return home to face to discrimination and harassment.