memeorandum: Is John McCain Totally Off the Rails? (Richard Blair/All Spin Zone)

6:30 PM ET, April 8, 2007

Top Items:

al-Sadr calls for attacks on U.S. troops — BAGHDAD - The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate their attacks on American troops rather than Iraqis, according to a statement issued Sunday.

Discussion: NewsHog, QandO, Riehl World View, PoliBlog (TM), Wake up America, New Pairodimes and The Moderate Voice

John McCain / Washington Post:

The War You're Not Reading About — I just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq since 2003 — and my first since Gen. David Petraeus's new strategy has started taking effect. For the first time, our delegation was able to drive, not use helicopters, from the airport to downtown Baghdad.

Discussion: TPMCafe blogs, Cliff Schecter, Rising Hegemon, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Daily Kos and The Democratic Daily

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Sadr: It's On — Moqtada al-Sadr has decided to finally acknowledge that the surge strategy in Baghdad will undermine the basis of his power in Iraq, and has ordered the Mahdi Army to resist American and Iraqi forces trying to put him out of business. In a missive to his forces today …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money and Matthew Yglesias

Richard Blair / All Spin Zone:
Is John McCain Totally Off the Rails?

Discussion: Joust The Facts, Brilliant at Breakfast and State of the Day

Steven R. Hurst / Associated Press:
U.S., Iraqi troops fight Shiite militia

Discussion: Hot Air and All Spin Zone

Charlie Savage / Boston Globe:

Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school — Grads influential in Justice Dept. — VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk …

Discussion: Political Animal and Talking Points Memo

Dahlia Lithwick / Washington Post:

Justice's Holy Hires — Monica Goodling had a problem. As senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Justice Department liaison to the White House, she no longer seemed to know what the truth was. She also must have been increasingly unclear about who her superiors were.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, DownWithTyranny!, Economist's View, Rising Hegemon, All Spin Zone and Booman Tribune

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Who's the Boss? — HOW PAT ROBERTSON'S LAW SCHOOL IS CHANGING AMERICA.

Discussion: The Reaction, THE CUNNING REALIST, The Impolitic and skippy the bush kangaroo

Nico / Think Progress:

Lieberman Says Pelosi Syria Visit Was 'Bad For America,' Suggests Syria Was Behind 9/11 — Today on CNN, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said he "strongly disagrees" with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) bipartisan delegation to Syria, calling it a "mistake" and "bad for the United States of America."

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Faiz / Think Progress:

Rahall: Pelosi Personally Told Bush Of Syria Trip And He Did Not Object — Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), who traveled last week with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as part of her delegation to the Middle East, said this morning on C-Span that Pelosi told Bush of the trip to Syria a day before they left, and Bush did not object.

Discussion: The RBC

Jamie Holly / Crooks and Liars:
Guess Which One Was Defending Pelosi's Trip?: Hint: It wasn't Lieberman

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money

Telegraph:

Hero's tale is 'too positive' for the BBC — Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain's forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out. — Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Samizdata.net, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Little Green Footballs and Ace of Spades HQ

Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:

Gonzales Crams for a Senate Grilling — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has virtually wiped his public schedule clean to bone up for his long-awaited April 17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a session widely seen as a crucial test as to whether he will survive the U.S. attorney mess.

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy

Associated Press:

Gingrich: Gonzales should consider resigning … WASHINGTON (AP) — Joining a growing list of Republicans, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should consider resigning. The possible presidential candidate said the botched firing of U.S. attorneys …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily

Detroit News:

Plug it in, fire it up, Mr. President — Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation. — Mulally told journalists at the New York auto show that he intervened to prevent President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank …

Discussion: NewsHog, Bark Bark Woof Woof and CorrenteWire

Tim Watkin / Washington Post:

Self-Help's Slimy 'Secret' — It's the publishing phenomenon of the year so far, a small book with a parchment-brown cover engraved with the image of a red wax seal. — "The Secret," its title proclaims matter-of-factly, as if the slim volume held the answer to life's deepest mysteries.

Discussion: Hot Air and Blue Crab Boulevard

Ned Parker / Los Angeles Times:

Iraqi insurgents recruit among U.S.-held detainees — Former inmates say radicals operate with impunity in prison camps. — BAGHDAD — U.S.-run detention camps in Iraq have become a breeding ground for extremists where Islamic militants recruit and train supporters, and use violence …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Times of London

Telegraph:

Buoyant Teheran warns of further kidnappings — Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity. — The bullish reaction from Teheran will reinforce …