memeorandum: New Book Details Cheney Lawyer's Efforts to Expand Executive Power (Washington Post)

9:15 PM ET, September 5, 2007

Top Items:

Breaking: GOP Senate Leader McConnell Says Craig Won't Resign If Cleared — Crazier and crazier. Now GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has gone and said at a press conference and said that Larry Craig won't be resigning if he's ultimately exonerated of the charges against him.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, Comments From Left Field, The Carpetbagger Report, D-Day, CQPolitics.com, DownWithTyranny! and AMERICAblog

WSB-TV:

Bathroom Sex Senator Hires Vick's Lawyer — BOISE, Idaho — Sen. Larry Craig says he may still fight for his Senate seat, a spokesman says — if the lawmaker can clear his name with the Senate Ethics Committee and a Minnesota court where he pleaded guilty after his arrest in an airport men's room sex sting.

Discussion: The Blue State, PageOneQ.com Latest, On Deadline, Pam's House Blend, BlogActive and WTF Is It Now?!?

Duff Wilson / New York Times:

Craig Moves to Block Senate Ethics Complaint — Lawyers for Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho delivered a letter to the Senate ethics committee today asking the committee to reject a complaint relating to his guilty plea in an airport sex sting operation. The move opens a potentially ugly battle between …

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, The Swamp, Idaho Statesman, The Carpetbagger Report, Daily Kos, SteveAudio, Prairie Weather and AMERICAblog

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Craig Tells Senate Leader of Plans to Fight Charge, Finish Term

Discussion: TalkLeft, All Spin Zone, Idaho Statesman and Daily Kos

Daniel W. Reilly / The Politico:
McConnell: Craig wants full term

Discussion: TPM Election Central and Reason Magazine

Fox News:

Dems Dirty Donor Norman Hsu Fails to Show for Bail Reduction Hearing Leading to Speculation He's On the Run — DEVELOPING STORY: California businessman Norman Hsu, a former New York apparel executive and major contributor to Democratic candidates and causes, failed to appear …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, michellemalkin.com, Hot Air, Wizbang, Don Surber, Blue Crab Boulevard, Right Wing Nut House, A Blog For All, Washington Times, Suitably Flip, The American Pundit, Detroit Populist Times and Fausta's blog

Gateway Pundit:

Norman Hsu Skips Bail Hearing Today! New Warrant Issued! — NORMAN HSU SKIPS BAIL HEARING! — Hsu forfeits $2 million! — Norman Hsu, center, leaves a San Mateo County jail with Jason Booth, left, and attorney Somnath Raj Chatterjee, right, in Redwood City, Calif., Friday, Aug. 31, 2007.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Examining Presidential …, Wake up America, Riehl World View, The Caucus, TigerHawk, The American Pundit, JammieWearingFool, Blue Crab Boulevard, National Review, Suitably Flip and Sweetness & Light

New York Times:
Fugitive Donor Missing From Court

Discussion: Suitably Flip, Betsy's Page, NewsBusters.org and In From the Cold

San Francisco Chronicle:
Demo fundraiser skips court hearing, whereabouts unknown

Discussion: The Belmont Club

Larry Johnson / NO QUARTER:

Staging Nukes for Iran? — Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That's like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Agonist, On Deadline, Suburban Guerrilla and Rook's Rant

USA Today:

Nuclear warheads mistakenly flown on B-52 — A B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with at least five nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified …

Discussion: At-Largely, BuzzFlash.org, The Galloping Beaver, Rook's Rant, NYT, Liberty Street and Wonkette

Sydney Morning Herald:

Don't count the man out: President — John Howard and George Bush yesterday. The US envoy to Australia, Robert McCallum jnr, and his Australian counterpart in the US, Dennis Richardson, are at left. — THE US President, George Bush, has rallied to the cause of John Howard by backing …

Tparty / My Left Nutmeg:
Shays: Surge Is "A Huge Success!"

Discussion: Firedoglake

Nick Squires / Telegraph:
Lap dance row lifts Howard's opponent

Discussion: The Corner

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
We're kicking what? — The president is in Australia this week …

Discussion: Think Progress and Booman Tribune

Fred Thompson / The Trail:

More Departures For Thompson Team — On the eve of his big day, Fred Thompson has let another staffer go. — Jim Mills, the former Fox News producer who joined the campaign only weeks ago, has resigned due to "strategic differences." This from campaign manager Bill Lacy in a memo to the staff …

Discussion: National Review, TPM Election Central, The Politico, TIME, Stop The ACLU, The Newshoggers, Weasel Zippers, The American Mind, D-Day, Crooks and Liars and MSNBC

National Review:

The Fallout From Jim Mills' Departure May Really Hurt Thompson — Jim Mills' departure from the Thompson campaign is actually even bigger than it looks. Not that Thompson couldn't function without Mills — he only been in the office for a week, I understand — but the aftershocks are huge.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Comments From Left Field and Democratic National Committee

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:
Thompson to Launch Bid Hollywood Style

Discussion: Hot Air, TalkLeft, Fox News and Ed Driscoll.com

Jackie Kucinich / The Hill:

Rep. Gillmor dies — Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) passed away suddenly Tuesday night, according to his office. He was 68. — According to an inter-conference email obtained by The Hill, Gillmor did not show up to the office this morning causing his staff to become concerned.

Discussion: Bark Bark Woof Woof, JammieWearingFool, Detroit Populist Times, On Deadline, Outside The Beltway, Shakespeare's Sister, The Gun Toting Liberal™ and Wake up America

Patrick O'Connor / The Politico:

Gillmor found dead in apartment — Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio), a 10-term congressman from northwest Ohio, has died at the age of 68. — Gillmor, who just returned to Washington after the monthlong recess, did not show up at his office today. His staff went to check in at his apartment and found that he had died.

Discussion: Associated Press, CNN, The Swamp, The Newshoggers, Liberty Pundit, Swing State Project and Sister Toldjah

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

The Next Attack — It may well happen in Europe and it may well look like this: … Congrats to the Germans. Some obvious points: these men are educated, two of three are German nationals, all seem to have been trained not in Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, a putative ally.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Associated Press, The American Street, The Mahablog and Riehl World View

Mark Landler / New York Times:
German Police Arrest 3 in Terrorist Plot

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

Terrorist Training Camps in Iran — Should they be safe havens? — Here's an official statement this morning from the U.S. military in Iraq: … It's great that the military is having success in capturing "affiliates" of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Iraq.

Discussion: The Newshoggers

Deacon / Power Line:
IRAN'S "UNIMPORTANT" TERRORIST TRAINING CAMPS

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Weekly Standard

Washington Post:

New Book Details Cheney Lawyer's Efforts to Expand Executive Power — Vice President Cheney's top lawyer pushed relentlessly to expand the powers of the executive branch and repeatedly derailed efforts to obtain congressional approval for aggressive anti-terrorism policies for fear …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Wonkette, Think Progress, Liberal Values, Law Blog, ACSBlog and AMERICAblog

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Former Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn dies at 66 — Jennifer Dunn, a former six-term member of Congress, former chairwoman of the Washington State Republican Party and one of the state GOP's most respected members, died Wednesday, her family announced. She was 66.

Discussion: TIME, The Politico, Wonkette and Outside The Beltway

Amanda / Think Progress:

Bush 'Still Believed Saddam Possessed WMD' In April 2006 — In Oct. 2004, President Bush finally admitted that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction: "Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there." — Yet according to former White House chief of staff Andy Card …

Discussion: Comments From Left Field, Democrats.com, Shakespeare's Sister and Middle Earth Journal

Gretel C. Kovach / New York Times:

Musician Is Killed for Banging on a Door — A Texas rock musician was shot to death here early Monday by a neighbor who fired through a closed door, thinking he was scaring off a burglar. — The incident occurred just three days after a new law took effect strengthening the right of Texans …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, NewsBusters.org and JustOneMinute

Michiko Kakutani / New York Times:

Bush Profiled: Big Ideas, Tiny Details — Days before the 2006 election, Robert Draper reports in his fascinating new book, as things were looking bleaker and bleaker for House Republicans, and even the party's chairman was predicting a G.O.P. defeat, George W. Bush brushed aside such forecasts …

Discussion: MSNBC, No More Mister Nice Blog, Rox Populi, bustardblog and Althouse