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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Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times:
Goodling: a power player behind the scenes at the Justice Dept. — The former Justice insider, a mystery to many, is set to testify under immunity in Congress on the U.S. attorneys' firings. — WASHINGTON — Last fall, after Debra Wong Yang announced that she was leaving her job …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, AlterNet.org, The Next Hurrah, Washington Post, Connecting.the.Dots and Think Progress
David Stout / New York Times:
Ex-Gonzales Aide Testifies, 'I Crossed the Line' — The Justice Department's former liaison to the White House testified before Congress today that she improperly weighed political factors in considering applicants for career positions in the department, and she said she was sorry.
Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
McNulty: I'm No Liar — During her testimony today, Monica Goodling pointed the finger squarely at Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, saying that he had not been "fully candid" in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his knowledge of White House involvement …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Rasmussen Reports:
Just 26% Favor Senate Immigration Plan — Initial public reaction to the immigration proposal being debated in the Senate is decidedly negative. — A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted Monday and Tuesday night shows that just 26% of American voters favor passage of the legislation.
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Large number of Americans favor violent attacks against civilians — (updated below) — The hysteria over the Pew poll about American Muslims continues unabated, with the focus now on the finding that while 80% of American Muslims oppose attacks on civilians in all cases, 13% said they could be justified in some circumstances.
Discussion:
National Review, The Left End of the Dial v2.0, culturekitchen, Hot Air and The Sideshow
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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.
Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:
Bush Declassifies Bin Laden Intelligence — President Bush offered two-year-old information about Osama bin Laden's connections to al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq on Wednesday, as he used a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to try to bolster his long-held contention that Iraq is a central front in the "war on terror."
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Beth Fouhy / Associated Press:
Edwards: Move Past 'War on Terror' — NEW YORK (AP) - Democrat John Edwards Wednesday repudiated the notion that there is a "global war on terror," calling it an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained American military resources and emboldened terrorists.
Discussion:
QandO, Taylor Marsh, Sister Toldjah, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs and Don Surber
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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Sirotablog, Wonkette, The BLT, Associated Press and A Chequer-Board of Nights …
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Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Giuliani's Abortion Muddle — Rudy Giuliani is understandably the Republican front-runner. And not just because of the fading echoes of Sept. 11, 2001. Giuliani is a crucial figure in the conservative movement. — In the late 1980s and early '90s, many conservatives believed …
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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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.
Jeff Emanuel / Opinion Journal:
'I Love Those Guys' — Embedded journalists in Iraq are having their minds changed left and right by U.S. soldiers. — Operation Iraqi Freedom saw the advent of a practice that revolutionized modern war reporting: the embedding of journalists with frontline combat units in war.
Discussion:
Barcepundit
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 …
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 …
Dick Morris / The Hill:
Republicans should back immigration compromise — The Republican Party would be self-destructive (not for the first time, either) if they did not let the immigration compromise negotiated by Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) pass and become law.
Mary Milliken / Reuters:
Call me Lopez, presidential hopeful says — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In the heartland of America he is just Gov. Bill Richardson. But in big Hispanic states like California the Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful tells voters he is also a Lopez. — "California has a lot of Hispanic voters …
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, National Review, Wonkette, Lonewacko, ParaPundit and The Gun Toting Liberal™
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.