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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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."

Mary Cheney Gives Birth to Baby Boy  —  Mary Cheney gave birth today to perhaps the most anticipated baby in contemporary U.S. politics — her first child, Samuel David Cheney, whom she will raise with her longtime partner Heather Poe.  —  The 8-pound, 6-ounce boy is the sixth grandchild for Dick Cheney.

Goodling Admits to Breaking Law with Political Hiring  —  Both in her opening statement and in further testimony, Goodling admitted to weeding out candidates for assistant U.S. attorney positions because they were not Republicans.  —  Under questioning from Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) …

Remarks As Prepared For Delivery At The Council on Foreign Relations  —  A Strong Military for a New Century  —  Council on Foreign Relations  —  New York, New York  —  May 23, 2007  —  It is wonderful to be back here at the Council.  Thank you for having me.

GOP Candidates Criticize ABC News Report on CIA-Iran Plan  —  From The Blotter:  —  Two Republican presidential candidates today criticized the ABC News report Tuesday about the CIA's covert plan to destabilize the Iranian regime.  —  "I was shocked to see the ABC News report regarding covert action …

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.

Diary of a Christian Terrorist  —  Visitors to Mark David Uhl's Myspace page will quickly learn that Uhl is a student at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, that he is a devoted Christian, that his name means "Mighty Warrior" — and that he likes Will Smith's saccharine tear-up-the-club track, "Switch."

'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.

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 …

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.