memeorandum: A Nuclear Ruse Uncovers Holes in U.S. Security (Eric Lipton/New York Times)

9:40 AM ET, July 12, 2007

Top Items:

Bush to Declare Gains in Iraq on Some Fronts — The Bush administration will assert in the next few days that progress in carrying out the new American strategy in Iraq has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

Discussion: Washington Post, Pottersville, Daily Kos, Jules Crittenden, The Democratic Daily and Rising Hegemon

Bob Woodward / Washington Post:

CIA Said Instability Seemed 'Irreversible' — Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House. — For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give …

Discussion: Think Progress, The Atlantic Online, Jules Crittenden, Macsmind, Brilliant at Breakfast, Rising Hegemon and AMERICAblog

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

A Consensus Waiting to Happen — The last time I remember Ambassador Ryan Crocker warning about a possible bloodbath, it was in September 1982 as the Sabra-Shatila massacre was taking place in Beirut. So when Crocker tells the New York Times that a rapid U.S. withdrawal from Iraq could produce …

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings, Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein and If I Ran the Zoo

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Specter says Dems broke their promise — Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has fired an early volley in what Senate Republicans and conservative activists predict will escalate into another pitched battle with Democrats on judicial nominees.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Against Claims of Executive Privilege, a Committee Comes Up Dry — Yesterday's Senate testimony by former White House political director Sara Taylor was a watershed. — Not in the newsmaking sense: Taylor, as instructed by the White House, invoked executive privilege so often that the session …

Discussion: TPMCafe blogs and TPMmuckraker

Sridhar Pappu / Washington Post:
A Bush Aide's Long Road From The White House

Discussion: TalkLeft, Balkinization, Corrente, The Heretik and Abovethelaw.com

Alex Koppelman / Salon:
Cummins: "My professional reputation has already been slandered"

Discussion: Firedoglake, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Prairie Weather and New York Times

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Rocking the Hard Place

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, New York Times, TPMmuckraker and The Carpetbagger Report

Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times:
Disregard subpoenas, Justice Dept. says

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Capitol Briefing, ACSBlog, Think Progress and Shakesville

Connecting.the.Dots:

Farewell to a Lady — "My mother," Lynda Bird Johnson once told me, "thinks well of everybody. She's even sure the Devil's been maligned. Just got a bad press." — I got to know the First Lady during the time her daughter worked for me when I was editor of McCalls.

Discussion: New York Times, UrbanGrounds, The Moderate Voice, Kiko's House, commonsense.ourfuture.org, The Democratic Daily, Outside The Beltway, Happy Furry Puppy Story … and Kevin Sullivan

Claudia Feldman / Houston Chronicle:
Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker and Burnt Orange Report

CNN:
Lady Bird Johnson dead at 94

Discussion: Wizbang

New York Times:

McCain Call Raises an Ethics Question — About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone. Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was making a conference call …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Politico, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Don Surber and Shakesville

Laura Rozen / MoJoBlog:

Intelligence Briefing on the Hill Today — The top intelligence analysts for the CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) provided a Global Security Assessment to the full House Armed Services Committee today.

Discussion: CNN, The American Street and At-Largely

Washington Post:
U.S. Warns Of Stronger Al-Qaeda

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Prairie Weather, The Strata-Sphere and ProfessorBainbridge.com ®

Associated Press:
Al-Qaida has rebuilt, U.S. intel warns

Discussion: Empire Burlesque, ThreatsWatch and Scrutiny Hooligans

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

A Nuclear Ruse Uncovers Holes in U.S. Security — Undercover Congressional investigators set up a bogus company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a so-called dirty bomb.

Discussion: Reason Magazine, Brilliant at Breakfast and Obsidian Wings

Orlando Sentinel:

Rep. Bob Allen arrested on sex charge — TITUSVILLE - State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said. — Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Tallahassee Democrat, Associated Press, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Watching Those We Chose, Unqualified Offerings and Bark Bark Woof Woof

James Taranto / Opinion Journal:

Best of the Web — Today's Video on WSJ.com: James Taranto on what the BBC didn't say about a Scotland demonstration. — The Roe Effect, by the Numbers — Overbrook Research, an Illinois-based polling firm, has a fascinating study out on public opinion and abortion.

Elana Schor / The Hill:
Flynt is tracking 20 congressional sex scandal leads

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Scrutiny Hooligans, Wonkette, On Deadline and New York Times

Jules Crittenden:

Lazy, Stupid or Willfully Ignorant? — Right now, all the talk in DC is whether there has been any progress in Iraq. No one can wait till September. They need to know now. Primarily, it appears, because they need to kill the war for their own domestic political reasons before it kills them.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Gateway Pundit, Confederate Yankee, Michael Yon and Hot Air

Ben Johnson / Front Page Magazine:

Whatever Happened to Lynne Stewart? — PASSION DISTORTS PERSPECTIVE. Nowhere is that more evident than in Rep. John Conyers' inquiry into the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence. — Yesterday, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wasted a calendar day holding hearings on …

Discussion: The Gavel and NO QUARTER

The Big Trunk / Power Line:

FRED THOMPSON: "A LAWYER WHO IS A PROSPECTIVE CANDIDATE" — Fred Thompson has sent us the following column on the subject of his career in the practice of law. We are delighted to bring it to our readers: … Supplementing Senator Thompson's historical observations …

Discussion: Riehl World View, A Chequer-Board of Nights … and Captain's Quarters

The Atlantic Online:

"My Oath, Like Your Oath, Is to Uphold the Constitution" — This is some good indignation right here from Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) in response to Sara Taylor's view that her oath of office was an oath of personal loyalty to George W. Bush: — Expressing good, old-fashioned outrage …

Discussion: Unfogged

John McCormick / Chicago Tribune:

Obama launches book clubs to win over voters — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Stealing a page from Oprah Winfrey — his close friend and fellow Chicago celebrity — Sen. Barack Obama launched book clubs in a dozen New Hampshire towns and online this week. — His life story is the first topic of discussion.