memeorandum: Wolfowitz Backed Friend for Iraq Contract in '03 (New York Times)

1:50 PM ET, April 20, 2007

Top Items:

Maybe Gonzales Won't Recall His Painful Day on the Hill — Alberto Gonzales's tenure as attorney general was pronounced dead at 3:02 p.m. yesterday by Tom Coburn, M.D. — The good doctor, who also happens to be a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made this clinical judgment …

Discussion: Happy Furry Puppy Story …, TPMCafe blogs, Sweetness & Light, Democrats.com and Prairie Weather

Washington Post:

Senators Chastise Gonzales at Hearing — Members of His Own Party Pile On as Attorney General Defends Firings — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales came under withering attack from members of his own party yesterday over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, facing the first resignation demand …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker

New York Times:

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.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, NION, The Carpetbagger Report, Crooks and Liars, TIME, Hullabaloo, Kiko's House, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Think Progress, White House, Power Line, DownWithTyranny!, Central Sanity and The American Street

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
The Media, The Killer & The Video

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, No More Mister Nice Blog, Don Surber, PoliPundit.com, Public Eye, The Doc Searls Weblog, TVNewser and The Huffington Post

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Al, the President's Man

Discussion: Balkinization and TPMmuckraker

Jack Shafer / Slate:
THE NETWORKS CANCEL HIS VIDEOS AFTER ONE HOT RATINGS PERIOD.

Discussion: MSNBC, Public Eye, A Blog For All and ABCNEWS

Washington Post:
Gonzales Testifies Before Senate Panel

Discussion: BobGeiger.com, blogs.usatoday.com, TalkLeft and The Caucus

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
On a Very Hot Seat With Little Cover and Less Support

Discussion: Washington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, Captain's Quarters, Discourse.net and Patterico's Pontifications

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
The Reviews Are In... (Photo of angel statue giving a thumbs down via R80o.)

Discussion: Hullabaloo and TPMmuckraker

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
The Nature Of Accountability And At-Will Employment (Updated)

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal

Washington Post:
Gonzales Testifies Before Senate Panel, Part II

Discussion: The Next Hurrah

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

Leading Democrat in Senate Tells Reporters, 'This War Is Lost' — As Congressional Democrats sought to reconcile their differences and send an Iraq spending bill to the White House, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said Thursday that "this war is lost," a stark assessment …

Discussion: Horses Mouth, The Swamp, GINA COBB and PoliPundit.com

Michelle Malkin:
More letters for Harry "Lost It" Reid

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House and A Second Hand Conjecture

Democrats.senate.gov:
Pentagon Confirms President Misstating Funding Facts In Iraq

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Gavel, The Mahablog, democracyarsenal.org and Agence France Presse

Nancy A. Youssef / Real Cities:

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.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, QandO, Needlenose, Political Animal, The Gavel, OxBlog, Right Wing Nut House, Whiskey Fire, The Moderate Voice, The Carpetbagger Report and Angry Bear

Mike Soraghan / The Hill:

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.

Discussion: WSJ.com

Pajamas Media:

A HERO IS LAID TO REST — The funeral of Professor Liviu Librescu, who gave his life to save his students at VA Tech, took place this morning. PJM Tel Aviv editor Allison Kaplan Sommer was there. — The Middle Eastern sun shone bright in the cemetery where Professor Liviu Librescu …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin and On Deadline

Martin C. Evans / Newsday: Witness tells a hero's story

White House:

President Bush Discusses the Global War on Terror in Tipp City, Ohio — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. I'm honored you're here. Steve, thank you for the invitation. It's a real pleasure to be with you. What I thought I would do is share some thoughts with you about a couple of subjects …

Discussion: First Draft and The Carpetbagger Report

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Bush muses on marriage, chicken-plucking

Discussion: Firedoglake, Shakesville and MaxSpeak

Kathleen Hennessey / Associated Press:

McCain: Critics of Iran joke should "get a life" — LAS VEGAS — Sen. John McCain has a message for any critics who thought his musical joke about bombing Iran wasn't funny: Get a life. — While campaigning for president in South Carolina on Wednesday, McCain responded to a question …

Discussion: WSJ.com, The Carpetbagger Report, CNN Political Ticker and Think Progress

Paul Blumenthal / Sunlight Foundation blogs:

12 Senators Left! Keep Calling. — Major media outlets are reporting that the Senator in question is definitely a Republican. Since we know that the Senator is a Republican we can narrow down our search to the remaining 12 Republican Senators. Help find the anonymous Senator and call these 12 Senators today.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Daily Kos and Washington Post

Mike Madden / Arizona Republic:

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 …

Discussion: The Caucus, DownWithTyranny! and Cliff Schecter

Joe Bel Bruno / Associated Press:

Stocks Up on Earnings; Dow Nears 13,000 — Stocks Advance Sharply After Google Profit Beats Expectations, Dow Pushes Toward 13,000 — NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street bounded higher Friday after Google Inc. led a series of stronger earnings reports that propelled the Dow Jones industrials further …

Rusty / The Jawa Report:

Fauxtography at CBC: Global Warming — The CBC decides to add some dramatic effect to a story about global warming by changing the coloration this picture of the Toronto skyline. And they didn't even bother to change the file name from the original. Oh, and those smokestacks? Torn down in 2006.

Discussion: The Mahablog

Atrios / Eschaton:

How's all that working I wonder.

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Hullabaloo

John Nichols / The Nation:

Impeachment Fever Rises — When Nancy Pelosi announced last fall that impeachment was "off the table," official Washington accepted that the primary avenue for holding lawless Presidents to account had been closed off by the new Speaker of the House. But the Republic's citizenry has not been so inclined.

Discussion: Democrats.com, The Raw Story and The Strata-Sphere