memeorandum: Congressman Sought Bribes, Indictment Says (New York Times)

Scooter Libby Love Letters — Washington elite petition judge on behalf of convicted Cheney aide — Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, and John Bolton top the list of individuals who wrote a federal judge on behalf of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Daily Kos and My Two Sense

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:

Prison for Libby in leak case — WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation. — Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Carpetbagger Report, Daily Kos, The Newshoggers and CorrenteWire

Washington Post:

Libby Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison, Fined $250K — I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying to investigators about his role in leaking the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

Discussion: Stubborn Facts, Wonkette and Macsmind

Emptywheel / Firedoglake:

Libby Sentencing Five — Need to consider seriousness of offense. Investigation extremely serious. Conduct of Mr Libby is serious behavior. Has to be a sentence that promotes respect for law. Indivs should understand there are consequences. Obviously, punishment has to be considered.

Emptywheel / Firedoglake:

Libby Sentencing Four: Libby Speaks — Libby: Family and I appreciate considerations shown to us during this conviction. In all taht time I have recieved nothing but kindness from Court's personnel, your honor's staff, court administrators, US Marshalls, Court security officers, and probation officer.

Emptywheel / Firedoglake:
Libby Sentencing Seven

Discussion: Think Progress

Jeralyn / TalkLeft: Scooter Libby Faces the Music: Sentencing Time

New York Times:

Congressman Sought Bribes, Indictment Says — Representative William J. Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat at the center of an investigation that included an F.B.I. raid at his Congressional office and accusations that he hid $90,000 in bribe money in his home freezer, was indicted Monday …

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast and On Deadline

Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Democratic earmark reforms lasted 100 days — When Democrats took control of Congress four months back, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., bragged it would take her party less than 100 hours to curb wasteful pork spending by requiring members to attach their names to their …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:

Democrats Fear a Wider Black Caucus-Pelosi Rift — Democratic leaders fear that Rep. William J. Jefferson's indictment yesterday on racketeering and bribery charges, coming exactly one year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered his ouster from the powerful Ways and Means Committee …

Discussion: CNN, Captain's Quarters, Slate, Michelle Malkin, Daily Kos, American Pundit and MSNBC

A Times / St. Petersburg Times:
Pet projects pushed out of public eye

Discussion: National Review

NewDonkey.com:

Two What-Ifs — The big what-if in the news today was in sports, when Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan scuttled back to Gainesville four days after penning a big-bux contract to go to the NBA's Orlando Magic. This was a what-if not only for the Magic, but for the daisy-chain of hirings …

Discussion: Sports Illustrated

USA Today:

Obama now virtually tied with Clinton, poll shows — WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are essentially tied for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the first time that the New York senator hasn't clearly led the field.

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN Political Ticker, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog, Salon, The Atlantic Online, The Moderate Voice, MyDD, Latest Politics, Liberal Values, Pollster.com, The Heretik, Taegan Goddard's …, IMAO, Sister Toldjah, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Connecting.the.Dots and Dean's World

The Atlantic Online:

Peril! — In the course of a post with which I otherwise agree, Ed Kilgore remarks "Edwards' efforts to separate himself from Clinton and Obama by deriding the 'war on terror' (accurate as it is with respect to the terminology involved) is politically perilous, to say the least."

Discussion: Reason Magazine and Needlenose

Susan Jo Keller / New York Times:

Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming Dies at 74 — Senator Craig Thomas, a three-term Republican from Wyoming, died Monday evening, just hours after his staff reported that the treatment he was receiving for leukemia was no longer working. He was 74. — Under Wyoming's election laws …

Mary Clare Jalonick / Breaking News and Opinion …:
Wyoming Sen. Thomas Dead at 74

Discussion: The Politico, CNN, Bloomberg, CQPolitics.com and Captain's Quarters

Damien Cave / New York Times:

Cheated of Future, Iraqi Graduates Want to Flee — They started college just before or after the American invasion with dreams of new friends and parties, brilliant teachers and advanced degrees that would lead to stellar jobs, marriage and children. Success seemed well within their grasp.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Shakesville and Outside The Beltway

Dan Senor / Opinion Journal:

Realists on Iraq — Democratic presidential candidates should listen to the "experts" they so often cite. — During Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate, the candidates cited an oft-repeated source of the mess in Iraq: The White House's refusal to heed knowledgeable advice.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Jules Crittenden, TBogg, Blue Crab Boulevard and New York Times

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

A Top Clinton Aide Draws Criticism From Unions — The presidents of two large labor unions have written to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain that Mark Penn, her pollster and chief strategist, is chief executive of a public relations firm that is helping a company fight a unionization drive.

Discussion: The Nation, The Politico, TIME, The Atlantic Online and New York Post

Robert Dallek / New York Times:

Shining a Halogen Light on a Senator's Dark Corners — Two new biographies of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York Democrat who is a leading contender for her party's presidential nomination, will put readers in mind of Edward Gibbon's observation that history is essentially the recounting of …

Discussion: Althouse