memeorandum: Father defends Bush on Iraq war (USA Today)

11:40 AM ET, November 9, 2007

Top Items:

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

What happened to the Senate's "60-vote requirement"? — Every time Congressional Democrats failed this year to stop the Bush administration (i.e., every time they "tried"), the excuse they gave was that they "need 60 votes in the Senate" in order to get anything done.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Capitol Briefing, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, The American Street, The Caucus, Daily Kos, Balkinization, Cliff Schecter and The Impolitic

Dan Eggen Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Senate Confirms Mukasey By 53-40 — Historically Low Tally for New Attorney General — A divided Senate narrowly confirmed former federal judge Michael B. Mukasey last night as the 81st attorney general, giving the nominee the lowest level of congressional support of any Justice Department leader in the past half-century.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Newshoggers, Los Angeles Times, Power Line, Outside The Beltway, The Heretik, UrbanGrounds, MSNBC, PoliBlog (TM), Washington Monthly, Law Blog, Donklephant, Prairie Weather and ScrappleFace

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Mukasey Wins Vote in Senate, Despite Doubts — The Senate confirmed Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general Thursday night, approving him despite Democratic criticism that he had failed to take an unequivocal stance against the torture of terrorism detainees.

Discussion: The Hill, The Texas Blue, The Glittering Eye, Unqualified Offerings, Liberty Pundit, At-Largely, DownWithTyranny!, Buck Naked Politics and The Agonist

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Clinton tops 2008 rivals, gets $530M in earmarks — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) has won tens of millions of dollars more in federal earmarks this year than her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, even though two of them have significantly more Senate seniority.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Taegan Goddard's …, Los Angeles Times, Outside The Beltway and QandO

Washington Post:
On Campaign Bus, Obama Opens Up About Challengers

Discussion: MSNBC, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Tennessee Guerilla Women, The Politico, The Caucus, TIME, Liberal Values, Obama HQ and ImmigrationProf Blog

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
'President Clinton's Not on the Ballot'

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

NationalJournal.com:
Transcript: Barack Obama On Hillary, Iraq And More

Discussion: Lynn Sweet and The Fact Hub

New York Times:

Kerik's Corruption Case Dogs Giuliani — The scene outside the old Victorian-style courthouse in Dubuque on Thursday morning showed that the indictment of Bernard B. Kerik is at the very least a big distraction for Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential campaign.

Discussion: MSNBC, A Blog For All, Brilliant at Breakfast, Connecting.the.Dots, Donklephant and The Heretik

NY Daily News:

Rudy Giuliani won't say if he'd pardon Kerik as President — BY MARY RAE BRAGG in Dubuque, Iowa, and DAVID SALTONSTALL in New York — Rudy Giuliani refused to say if he'd consider pardoning his old friend Bernie Kerik - who was indicted Thursday on federal corruption charges - if elected President.

Discussion: Think Progress, Firedoglake, Daily Kos and New York Times

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Cash-N-Kerik — So Bernie Kerik is finally getting indicted.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, All Spin Zone and AlterNet.org

Richard Esposito / ABCNEWS:
Bernard Kerik: America's Cop Indicted

New York Times:

Police Block Bhutto From Attending Rally — The opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest this morning, her political party said. Streets were filled with police officers carrying batons and shields, and trucks blocked roads, trying to prevent access to a protest rally …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, ShrinkWrapped, Soccer Dad, Associated Press, Guardian, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Outside The Beltway, The Moderate Voice, The Democratic Daily, The American Street, The Pakistan Policy Blog and Registan.net

Washington Post:
Bhutto Detained at Home

Discussion: Associated Press, Captain's Quarters, MSNBC, Redstate and On Deadline

New York Times:
Thousands of Police Block Pakistan Rally

Discussion: CNN, A Blog For All and The Pakistan Policy Blog

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Things Are Tough All Over — But Mrs. Clinton is no Iron Lady. — The story as I was told it is that in the early years of her prime ministership, Margaret Thatcher held a meeting with her aides and staff, all of whom were dominated by her, even awed. When it was over she invited …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Blue Crab Boulevard, Betsy's Page and Don Surber

CNN Political Ticker:
Bill Clinton takes blame for health care plan failure

Discussion: Cafe Hayek

Fisnik Abrashi / Associated Press:

59 schoolchildren killed in Afghan blast — KABUL, Afghanistan - Dozens of schoolchildren and five teachers were among those killed in a suicide attack in northern Afghanistan earlier this week — the country's deadliest since the fall of the Taliban — the government said Friday.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, TigerHawk and The American Street

Michael Stittle / CTV.ca: Warlords no better than Taliban, says Afghan MP

NPR:

Editor's Note: The Tale of the Tip — · It started as an aside in a longer interview, but it became an Internet sensation within hours. — Anita Esterday, a waitress at the Maid-Rite in Toledo, Iowa, told NPR's David Greene in a report that aired on Morning Edition Thursday that …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Reaction, RealClearPolitics, Blue Crab Boulevard and Hotline On Call

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Clinton Gets an Instant Chance to Wield a New Weapon

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, New York Post and The Stump

Karl Rove / Opinion Journal:

A Failure to Lead — The Democratic Congress is more interested in acting out than in taking positive action. — This week is the one-year anniversary of Democrats winning Congress. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid probably aren't in a celebrating mood.

Discussion: At-Largely, The American Street, Sister Toldjah, Blue Crab Boulevard and Don't Go Into The Light

David Brooks / New York Times:

History and Calumny — Today, I'm going to write about a slur. It's a distortion that's been around for a while, but has spread like a weed over the past few months. It was concocted for partisan reasons: to flatter the prejudices of one side, to demonize the other and to simplify …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, TalkLeft, Bark Bark Woof Woof, QandO and INSTAPUTZ

Joerg Wolf / The Moderate Voice:

Germany's Day of Destiny — While 9/11 has shaped US foreign policy and national identity significantly, German identity and foreign policy has been shaped even more by 9.11. — that's how we write "November 9th." — This is what happened on November 9th in Germany:

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Associated Press: Merkel, Bush to focus on Iran in talks at Texas ranch

Josh White / Washington Post:

Waterboarding Is Torture, Says Ex-Navy Instructor — A former Navy survival instructor subjected to waterboarding as part of his military training told Congress yesterday that the controversial tactic should plainly be considered torture and that such a method was never intended for use …

Discussion: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2007 and TPMCafe blogs

USA Today:

Father defends Bush on Iraq war — COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Former president George H.W. Bush forcefully defended his son's handling of the Iraq war Thursday, saying critics of the current president have forgotten the "extraordinary brutality" of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Discussion: Think Progress and Telegraph