memeorandum: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S DUMBEST LEGAL ARGUMENTS OF THE YEAR. (Dahlia Lithwick/Slate)

6:45 PM ET, December 29, 2007

Top Items:

Kristol: The New York Times ‘Should Be Prosecuted,’ 'It Isn't A First-Rate Newspaper' — For years, Bill Kristol has been at the forefront of a vitriolic right-wing crusade against the New York Times. Sadly, the Times has chosen to reward him for it. — After the New York Times …

Discussion: MoJoBlog, The New Republic, BitsBlog, Political Machine, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, Wake up America, UrbanGrounds, Multi Medium, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Washington Monthly and The Anonymous Liberal

Matthew Yglesias:

All's Well — When I heard that Bill Kristol was leaving Time I got seriously worried about the state of the world. After all, everyone knows that conservative pundits don't get held accountable for saying tons and tons of wrong stuff — that's not how it works.

Discussion: Blog of the Moderate Left, The Edge of the American West, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post and American Power

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
Kristol gets an unearned promotion

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, TPMCafe blogs, Liberty Street, Booman Tribune, Think Progress, Connecting.the.Dots, PBD, Wonkette, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Angry Bear

CNN:

Bhutto exhumation okay, Pakistan official says — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — The Pakistani government has no problem with officials from Benazir Bhutto's political party exhuming the slain opposition leader's body if they see a need to do so, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday.

Discussion: Hindustan Times, Guardian, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Voice of America, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, New York Times, Comments from Left Field, Time, The Newshoggers, BAGnewsNotes, At-Largely, Talking Points Memo, Macsmind, The Heretik, THE REACTION, On Deadline and Buck Naked Politics

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Remarks on Pakistan Are Tailing Huckabee — In discussing the volatile situation in Pakistan, Mike Huckabee has made several erroneous or misleading statements at a time when he has been under increasing scrutiny from fellow presidential candidates for a lack of fluency in foreign policy issues.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Carpetbagger Report, Washington Post, ThePoliticalCat, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, Betsy's Page, Wizbang, Washington Wire, NY Daily News, MSNBC, CALIFORNIA YANKEE, The Heretik and Brendan Nyhan

Washington Post:

The Pakistan Test — Some presidential candidates show they can respond quickly to a foreign policy crisis. Some flunk or foul. — THE ASSASSINATION of Benazir Bhutto presented U.S. presidential candidates with a test: Could they respond cogently and clearly to a sudden foreign policy crisis?

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, TalkLeft, TPM Election Central and CNN

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT FOREIGN POLICY....In October, David Brooks …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Telegraph:
Pakistan offers to exhume Benazir Bhutto

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Agence France Presse, Voice of America, New York Times, Captain's Quarters, A Blog For All, PoliGazette and New York Post

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:
What Gore, Clinton and Democrats Can Learn from Benazir Bhutto

Discussion: TPMCafe blogs

Robert Novak / Real Clear Politics:

Huckabee Slipping — WASHINGTON — While public polls show Mike Huckabee leading Mitt Romney in Iowa, a new survey of an oversized sample shows Huckabee slipping and no longer ahead of Romney. — A private corporate interest commissioned a phone bank survey of 15,000 Iowans …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Des Moines Register, Captain's Quarters, Outside The Beltway and Power Line

New York Times:

Days Before Voting, Gloves Come Off — DES MOINES — In the last weekend before the Iowa caucuses, the Republican presidential candidates are bloodying the field with a blizzard of negative attacks, showing the strains of a wide-open and unpredictable race.

Discussion: The Swamp, AMERICAblog, Donklephant and TIME: Swampland

New York Times: Candidates Digging for a Deeper Pool of Iowa Voters

Washington Post:
Romney Eyes Huckabee Lead

Discussion: The New Republic, Boston Globe, The Caucus, MSNBC, Captain's Quarters, PoliGazette and The Politico

USA Today:

Thompson: Doesn't like campaign process, ‘will not be devastated’ if he loses — Bill Theobald of Gannett News Service has been following Republican Fred Thompson around Iowa. In a dispatch today from Burlington, Bill quotes the former Tennessee senator as saying he doesn't like modern campaigning …

Discussion: The Campaign Spot

Redstate:

“Hello. My name is Jill Lawrence. I'm a jealous harpy and I hate Fred Thompson because he does not bow down to me.” — JILL LAWRENCE PULLS A ROGER SIMON — By now we should all be familiar with Roger Simon's stunt. Fred Thompson, failing to bow down before Roger Simon …

Discussion: Flopping Aces

James Pindell / Boston Globe:

Paul: Fox News is ‘scared of me’ — PLAISTOW, N.H. — Ron Paul said the decision to exclude him from a debate on Fox News Sunday the weekend before the New Hampshire Primary is proof that the network “is scared” of him. — “They are scared of me and don't want my message to get out …

Discussion: Think Progress

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Because Oil Companies And Pizza Hut Couldn't Afford It — I've figured out how to get conservatives and liberals together on the issue of pork. All we need to do is show how earmarks put money in the pockets of a progressive bete noir, and if possible, throw in a dash of Congressional cluelessness.

Discussion: The Newshoggers and Publius Endures

Aaron Keith Harris / xeniagazette.1upmonitor.com: Hobson helps make gas station a reality

Rudy Giuliani / You Decide 08!:

RUDY GIULIANI VETERANS' CO-CHAIRMAN RESIGNS OVER MUSLIM REMARKS — A co-chairman for Rudy Giuliani's veterans' coalition in New Hampshire resigned Saturday after telling a British newspaper that Muslims need to be chased “back to their caves." — The response was swift …

Discussion: MSNBC, TPM Election Central, Unfogged, The Carpetbagger Report and Blue Hampshire

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S DUMBEST LEGAL ARGUMENTS OF THE YEAR. — This time last year, I offered up a top 10 list of the most appalling civil-liberties violations by the Bush administration in 2006. The grim truth is, not much has changed. The Bush administration continues to limit our basic freedoms …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Carpetbagger Report

Matt Bai / New York Times:

Invisible Blogger — The sidewalks of Harlem's main thoroughfares are wide and inviting, and in the 1960s the kids playing “boxball” shared the asphalt squares with some of the greatest orators in creation. The most famous spot for speechifying was the “Speakers' Corner” …

Discussion: Althouse, Firedoglake, protein wisdom, Group News Blog, Tom Watson, Chris Dodd National Blog, Liberty Street, driftglass, TBogg, American Street and Brilliant at Breakfast

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Obama robocall: HRC's ‘misleading attacks’ — Obama's campaign is out with a sharp-edged robocall from an Ames physician, “Dr. Bob” (his last name isn't clearly audible in this recording), pushing back on Clinton's criticism of his health care plan. — The opening: “Hillary Clinton and her allies have launched misleading attacks.”

Michelle Malkin:

Impeachment Watch: Extreme BDS in Vermont — Frustrated by the failure of the Dem leadership to carry through with impeachment, some Bush-haters in Brattleboro, Vermont want to subject President Bush and VP Cheney to arrest if they set foot in their town. Consider it sort of a do-it-yourself impeachment alternative: