Gonzales v. Gonzales  —  If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had gone to the Senate yesterday to convince the world that he ought to be fired, it's hard to imagine how he could have done a better job, short of simply admitting the obvious: that the firing of eight United States attorneys was a partisan purge.

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy  —  WASHINGTON - Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.

Renzi steps down from House panel after raid on firm  —  WASHINGTON - Rep. Rick Renzi stepped down temporarily from the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, after the FBI raided his family's business in connection with an ongoing federal investigation.  —  Agents took documents …

Three days after guilty plea, Griles ties the knot  —  Two Bush administration officials who have been linked in scandal are now linked in wedlock.  —  The union of former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and Sue Ellen Wooldridge could have implications for the investigation into Griles's ties to ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

HILLARY'S POPULARITY RATINGS GO NEGATIVE  —  A new national poll shows Hillary Rodham Clinton's favorable ratings sinking like a stone, and her negatives soaring - a terrifying trend for a campaign desperately trying to convince voters she's not too polarizing to be president.

Rick Perlstein's blog  —  Last year I attended a major conference of conservative intellectuals and activists at Princeton University as the token liberal.  There I heard Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention say that the Democratic Party ostracizes all pro-life Democrats.

Canada joins anti-Kyoto bloc  —  This week's announcement by the Canadian government — that it may join a U.S.-led coalition focused on voluntary emissions cuts — could be part of a global shift away from Kyoto's binding targets.  —  In a somewhat surprising development, Canada …

Dawkins' Message to Mourners—Get Over It!  —  The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.  —Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden  —  And boy the atheists are up in arms!

A Moment of Silence  —  What can be said about the Virginia Tech massacre?  Very little.  What should be said?  Even less.  The lives of 32 innocents, chosen randomly and without purpose, are extinguished most brutally by a deeply disturbed gunman.  With an event such as this …