Top Items:
Think Progress:
Goodling Hints Attorney Firings Came From 'White House Judicial Selection Committee' — In her opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee today, Monica Goodling — the Department of Justice's White House liaison — said she had no idea where the idea to fire several U.S. attorneys may have originated.
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Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Today's Must Read — An ideologue, yes, but an ideologue acting on orders or on her own? — When Monica Goodling goes before the House Judiciary Committee this morning, that will be the central question. — No one can read the two profiles of Goodling in The Los Angeles Times …
Michael Brady / Keeping the Majority Accountable …:
Freshmen fail first ethics test — Despite last week's media blitz promoting tougher ethics enforcement, a group of freshmen Congressmen failed their first practical test Tuesday night, when they refused to reprimand one of their colleagues for an apparent ethics violation.
Discussion:
Club for Growth
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David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
DEMOCRATS FIND ETHICS OVERHAUL ELUSIVE IN HOUSE — House Democratic leaders pushing a promised lobbying overhaul are facing resistance from balky lawmakers and fending off accusations that a prominent member is flouting new ethics rules. — The Democratic leaders were forced to scrap …
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Democrats Pull Troop Deadline From Iraq Bill — Congressional Democrats relented Tuesday on their insistence that a war spending measure set a date for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq. Instead, they moved toward a deal with President Bush that would impose new conditions on the Iraqi government.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, AMERICAblog, Norwegianity, MSNBC, BAGnewsNotes, Taylor Marsh, TIME: Swampland, rubber hose and Ice Station Tango
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Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Bush: Bin Laden tried to start Iraq unit — NEW LONDON, Conn. - President Bush, stressing that Americans face an ongoing threat from terrorists, shared intelligence on Wednesday asserting that Osama bin Laden was working in 2005 to set up a unit inside Iraq to hit U.S. targets.
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Ed Henry / CNN:
White House: Bin Laden wanted Iraq as a new base … WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Tuesday declassified intelligence showing in 2005 Osama bin Laden planned to use Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks in the United States, according to White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Michael Cooper / New York Times:
Political Memo: Giuliani Above the Fray as McCain and Romney Skirmish — The contrast could hardly be more striking. Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney have been mixing it up on the trail with increasing intensity ever since their feisty exchange at the last Republican debate.
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Washington Post:
McCain Turns Focus To His Fundraising — As the Senate debate over immigration raged yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had breakfast, brunch and lunch fundraisers in Houston before heading north to gather money at a supporter's home in Dallas and, later, from young professionals at a gourmet Mexican restaurant.
Alan Cooperman / Washington Post:
Survey: U.S. Muslims Assimilated, Opposed to Extremism — Unlike Muslim minorities in many European countries, U.S. Muslims are highly assimilated, close to parity with other Americans in income and overwhelmingly opposed to Islamic extremism, according to the first major, nationwide random survey of Muslims.
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New York Times:
Senate Votes to Keep Temporary Worker Program — A comprehensive immigration bill survived a significant test on Tuesday as the Senate voted to keep a provision that would let hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers enter the country each year. — If the guest worker program …
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Associated Press:
Iraqis in Hunt for Missing GIs Find Body in U.S. Uniform — BAGHDAD — Iraqi police found the body of a man who was wearing what appeared to be a U.S. military uniform and floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad on Wednesday morning. One Iraqi official said the body was that of an American soldier.
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New York Post:
WOLFOWITZ AND GAL PAL SPLIT UP — PAUL Wolfowitz has really had a bad couple of weeks. He not only lost his job, he lost his girlfriend, too. — Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq war, was pushed out as president of the World Bank over a controversial pay and promotion package …
Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher:
McClatchy's D.C. Bureau Claims It's Barred From Defense Secretary Plane — NEW YORK Staffers at McClatchy's Washington, D.C., Bureau — one of the few major news outlets skeptical of intelligence reports during the run-up to the war in Iraq — claims it is now being punished for that coverage.
Discussion:
mediabistro.com
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
New Strategy for War Stresses Iraqi Politics — U.S. Aims to Oust Sectarians From Key Roles — Top U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq are completing a far-reaching campaign plan for a new U.S. strategy, laying out military and political goals and endorsing the selective removal …
Hotline On Call:
Boehner: Immigration Bill Is "Piece Of S**t" — House Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking to a private gathering of Republican activists last night, called the Senate's immigration compromise bill a "piece of s**t" but said that he had promised President Bush earlier in the day that he would let his teeth …
Thomas Harding / Telegraph:
Taliban 'stalled by lack of commanders' — The Taliban's much-vaunted spring offensive has stalled apparently due to lack of organisation after dozens of middle-ranking commanders were killed by British troops in the past year, according to military sources.