memeorandum: No One Could Have Anticipated . . . . Today's WaPo reports … (Hecate)

9:30 AM ET, September 5, 2007

Top Items:

UPDATED 7:25 p.m. — Craig may not quit after all if he's cleared of charges, spokesman says — Sen. Larry Craig says he may fight to keep his job in the U.S. Senate after all. — "Basically, as he stated on Saturday, Senator Craig intends to resign on Sept. 30th," said his spokesman Dan Whiting via e-mail Tuesday night.

Discussion: Infidels Are Cool, Hot Air, PoliBlog (TM), The Corner, Outside The Beltway, Bark Bark Woof Woof, On Deadline, Obsidian Wings, michellemalkin.com, Liberty Pundit, D-Day, The Garlic, Reason Magazine and The Huffington Post

John Miller / Associated Press:

Craig Reconsiders Decision to Resign — BOISE, Idaho — Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening. — "It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Right Voices, All Spin Zone, Dyre Portents, Right Wing News, Power Line, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Taylor Marsh, Macsmind and GregsOpinion.com

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
ARLEN! — I'm really not sure I've ever seen such a bizarre story.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily and Riehl World View

New York Times:
Craig Said to Consider Not Resigning

Discussion: Law Blog, Obsidian Wings and The Atlantic Online

Mcjoan / Daily Kos:
ID-Sen: Tough it out, Larry!

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Washington Times, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake and MyDD

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Sex scandal senator reconsiders quitting

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Sister Toldjah and Blog P.I.

David McHugh / Associated Press:

Germany: Plot targeted U.S. facilities — BERLIN - Three suspected Islamic terrorists from an al-Qaida-influenced group nursing "profound hatred of U.S. citizens" were arrested on suspicious of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Jihad Watch, The Jawa Report, Scared Monkeys and JammieWearingFool

New York Times:

Terrorism Suspects Arrested in Germany — Police in Germany have arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning major terrorist attacks on Frankfurt's airport and the United States military base at Ramstein. — The suspects — two German citizens and a Turkish resident of Germany …

Discussion: Greatscat!, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and The American Street

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Another shoe drops: "Massive" terror attack thwarted in Germany; Update: Two are German converts to Islam — As predicted in the update to yesterday's post about the Danish terror busts. I'll be shocked if these three aren't connected in some way to the eight pinched in Copenhagen.

Discussion: Spiegel Online and Los Angeles Times

CNN:
3 planned 'massive airport bombs'

Discussion: Confederate Yankee

Pajamas Media:
GERMANY: 3 HELD IN TERROR PLOT AGAINST US BASE, AIRPORT

Discussion: Associated Press, The Corner, Guardian and Gateway Pundit

Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:

Countdown Special Comment: You have no remaining credibility about Iraq, sir. — Keith Olbermann's Special Comment tonight is without a doubt, one of his hardest hitting and most emotional to date. Keith absolutely lays waste to President Bush's lies and rhetoric about the surge.

Discussion: Firedoglake, MSNBC, Shakespeare's Sister, Kiko's House, WorkingForChange, The Democratic Daily and Digg

Keith Olbermann / MSNBC:

Bush just playing us with 'troop withdrawal' — Night is day, and death is life, and enraging the world against us is safety — SPECIAL COMMENT — And so he is back from his annual surprise gratuitous photo-op in Iraq, and what a sorry spectacle it was.

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Take Our Country Back, Hoffmania!, The Democratic Daily, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Brilliant at Breakfast, Left In Alabama, The Garlic and The Galloping Beaver

Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
Kabuki at Camp Cupcake

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Eschaton, Connecting.the.Dots, State of the Day, The Newshoggers and AMERICAblog

WCBS-TV:

Couric: 'Real Progress' In Iraq — Evening News Anchor Says Police Finally Making Inroads — Featured Slideshows: — (CBS) BAGHDAD, Iraq One week before Gen. David Petraeus is expected to give his report on U.S. progress in Iraq, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Let Freedom Ring and Opinions You Should Have

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Bush Shifts Terms for Measuring Progress in Iraq — With the Democratic-led Congress poised to measure progress in Iraq by focusing on the central government's failure to perform, President Bush is proposing a new gauge, by focusing on new American alliances with the tribes and local groups …

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast, Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

Martin Miller / Los Angeles Times:

Is Clinton's candidacy blocking the "Path to 9/11?" — Screenwriter of docudrama says ABC exec said delay has been prompted by unflattering portrayal of previous administration. — Among the nearly two dozen television DVDs slated for nationwide release on Sept. 11 is the second season of …

Discussion: Burkean Reflections and Patterico's Pontifications

Horses Mouth:

Oh, man, this is an unsightly one indeed. — Take a look at this video of CNN's Kyra Phillips reporting today on the big GAO report finding that the Iraqi government has only met three of 18 benchmarks for measuring political progress. Phillips wonders whether this really carries any …

Discussion: CNN, The Sideshow and TPM Election Central

Washington Post:

Military Officials in Iraq Fault GAO Report — A bleak portrait of the political and security situation in Iraq released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office sparked sharp protests from the top U.S. military command in Baghdad, whose officials described it as flawed and "factually incorrect."

Discussion: The Swamp, Eschaton, Right Wing Nut House, The BLT, Weekly Standard, New York Times, Take Our Country Back, State of the Day, The Heretik, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, D-Day, Comments From Left Field and The Huffington Post

Hecate:

No One Could Have Anticipated . . . . Today's WaPo reports on something that I think we all saw coming. — [M]ansionization comes with a twist: Some of the new homes, neighbors and town leaders say, are being used as boardinghouses for several families or unrelated people.

Andrew Glass / The Politico:

Why can't we all practice Broderism? — How did David Broder go from being revered as the dean of the Washington political press corps to being reviled on both the left and the right as the apotheosis of what has come to be known as Broderism? — Not everybody gets to see his or her name bandied about as an "-ism."

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Accused D.C. Madam Cites National Security — Palfrey Asks for Closed Door Hearing to Discuss Muslim Clients — The woman accused of being the D.C. Madam now argues that the fact that Muslim men used her elite, Washington-based escort service before the Sept. 11, 2001 …

Discussion: DCist

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo: STATE SECRETS — Is the D.C. Madam attempting to raise the graymail defense?

David Bernstein / The Volokh Conspiracy:

WHY SHOULD LARRY CRAIG RESIGN?: OK, so he was caught soliciting sex in a public restroom. Not so good. But compare that with behavior by other Senators that is not leading to any resignations: — (1) Violating their oath to uphold the Constitution, by voting for legislation they believe …

Discussion: The Corner