memeorandum: Govt's Kooky Cult Terrorism Case Goes Bust (Paul Kiel/TPMmuckraker)

10:30 PM ET, December 13, 2007

Top Items:

Mevanh / The Page:

Bill Shaheen Resigns from Clinton Campaign — New Hampshire pol, husband of former Gov. Jeanne, quits national co-chair position over Wednesday's drug comment about Obama. — "I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down ...." Read his full statement.

Discussion: MSNBC, The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh, New York Daily News Blogs, Associated Press, JunkYardBlog, The Carpetbagger Report, The Daily Dish, Washington Post, Blue Crab Boulevard, Roger L. Simon, Slog, TIME: Swampland, Riehl World View, Oliver Willis, Hot Air and Connecting.the.Dots

John Distaso / New Hampshire Union Leader:

Bill Shaheen quits Clinton campaign — Bill Shaheen has resigned as a co-chair of Hillary Clinton's national campaign, UnionLeader.com has learned. — Shaheen last night apologized for telling a reporter that if Barack Obama becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, Republicans will use his admitted past drug use against him.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Wake up America, Newsday and New York Daily News Blogs

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Democratic Debate: Winners and Losers — DES MOINES, Iowa — The final Democratic debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses is in the books. — Rather than give Fix readers a roundup of what just happened (you can get that here from the AP's Nedra Pickler), we figured we would take a page …

Discussion: The Caucus and John Edwards for President

CNN:
Clinton aide resigns over Obama drug remarks

Discussion: MoJoBlog

Charles Babington / Associated Press:

Pelosi: Republicans `like' Iraq War — WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Republicans on Thursday, saying they want the Iraq war to drag on and are ignoring the public's priorities. — "They like this war. They want this war to continue," Pelosi, D- Calif., told reporters.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, BLACKFIVE, PoliPundit.com, Blue Crab Boulevard, Gateway Pundit and QandO

Mike Soraghan / The Hill:

After losing spending battle, Pelosi eyes '08 election — Congressional Democrats have lost their end-of-the-year showdown with President Bush, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) countered Thursday that the House succeeded in showing what Democrats can do, and would do, if a Democrat were in the White House.

Discussion: Power Line, michellemalkin.com, Flopping Aces, Daily Kos and Right Voices

Pamela Hess / Associated Press:

House OKs bill banning CIA waterboarding — WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday approved an intelligence bill that bans the CIA from using waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods. — The 222-199 vote sent the measure to the Senate, which still must act before it can go to President Bush.

Thomas Ferraro / Reuters:
Lawmakers vote to hold Bush aides in contempt

Discussion: New York Times, michellemalkin.com and MSNBC

John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Judiciary approves contempt resolutions

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, Wonkette, The Carpetbagger Report, The Swamp, Neptunus Lex, macsmind.com/wordpress, Alternate Brain, The Debate Link and Washington Post

Marc Ambinder:

Democratic Debate: First Take — Everyone had a good debate. — (Campaign pull-quote compilers, take note.) — But who did best? The audience is undecided Democratic caucus goers. Who stood out? Who was different? Who seemed most presidential? Who parlayed their strengths?

Discussion: The New Republic, Spin Cycle, MyDD and Salon

Ben Smith / The Politico:
HRC struggles for points at last debate

Discussion: The Swamp and CNN Political Ticker

Rick Klein / Political Radar:
Live-Blogging during Democratic Debate

Discussion: Reason Magazine, TalkLeft, The Swamp, Wake up America, John Edwards for President and TPM Election Central

Sean Hackbarth / Fred File:

Fred Thompson Campaign Apologies — From Karen Hanretty, Deputy Communications Director: — In light of Mike Huckabee's heartfelt apology to Mitt Romney for making reference to Romney's religion in the New York Times Magazine, we at the Thompson Campaign would like to offer Huckabee …

Discussion: The Campaign Spot, Hot Air, Redstate and Riehl World View

ESPN:

Mitchell report: Baseball slow to react to players' steroids use — NEW YORK — George Mitchell's 20-month report into steroid use in professional baseball blamed both players and management for the problem. — Mitchell addressed the media and released his report Thursday.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The New Republic, Crooks and Liars, Publius Endures, Right Wing Nut House, Associated Press, LAist, Outside The Beltway, Patterico's Pontifications and THE LIBERAL JOURNAL

New York Times:
Steroid Report Implicates Top Players

Discussion: The Agonist, Norwegianity, Debsweb, The Moderate Voice, JustOneMinute and Deadspin

Martin Kady II / The Crypt's Blogs:
Mitchell, Major League Baseball big wigs called to testify on Hill

Discussion: The Swamp and WBBM-TV

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Govt's Kooky Cult Terrorism Case Goes Bust — The Miami "Seas of David" terror bust was such an important blow in the War on Terror that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales himself gave a press conference in July of 2006. Federal agents had stopped a plot to blow up the Sears Tower, he said.

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal

Curt Anderson / Associated Press: Jurors deadlock on 6 of 7 in Sears plot

ArkansasTimes:

Dumond goes viral UPDATE — Mike Huckabee's advocacy of rapist/killer Wayne Dumond's release has hit YouTube in a piece Talking Points Memo terms brutal in the course of looking into its provenance. The mother of Dumond's Missouri murder victim is featured. — An Arkansas Republican, Keith Emis, takes responsibility.

Discussion: TPM Election Central, Redstate, The New Republic, Hot Air, eyeon08.com, Shakespeare's Sister, Matthew Yglesias, race42008.com, Democrats.com, Taylor Marsh and Corrente

Eve Fairbanks / The New Republic:
Huck's Sins — The Huckabee-as-really - good-guy meme? It doesn't wash.

Discussion: Associated Press, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Reaction, GregsOpinion.com, Examining Presidential … and The RBC

David Hazinski / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Unfettered 'citizen journalism' too risky — You're beginning to get a lot more news ... from you. — It ranges from the CNN YouTube debates to political blogs to cellphone video of that sniper who opened fire at an Omaha Mall. These are all examples of so called "citizen journalism," …

Discussion: Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, TigerHawk and Riehl World View

Jared Bernstein / The Coffee House:

Boy, Have We Got an Inequality Problem — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just updated their invaluable data series on income inequality and the results are startling. Income inequality among households, both before and after Federal taxes, grew more quickly over the last two years of the series …

Discussion: Angry Bear

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Military Leaders: Ignore Bush Veto Threat, Ban Waterboarding — Thirty retired admirals and generals have penned a letter to key Democrats, urging them to defy President Bush's veto threats and pass legislation requiring U.S intelligence agents to follow strict standards for detainee treatment.

Discussion: The Gavel, Daily Kos, The Carpetbagger Report, Think Progress, ArchPundit and Riehl World View

Melanie Mason / The New Republic:

Hillary's Parking Lot Obstacle — Adam Nagourney notes the Obama camp's vastly superior Iowa expertise. And in my experience, those guys do have a stunningly deep knowledge of the minutae of the state that dates back decades. — But Hillary has a much bigger problem on her hands.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, The Caucus and Viking Pundit