memeorandum: Tough Questions We Were Right to Ask (Douglas J. Feith/Washington Post)

3:50 PM ET, February 14, 2007

Top Items:

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

House Democrats' New Strategy: Force Slow End to War — Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition's goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself.

Discussion: Confederate Yankee, PoliPundit.com, The Strata-Sphere, QandO, The Caucus, Chicago Boyz, Bill's Bites, "7.62mm Justice" ™, The Influence Peddler, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Carpetbagger Report, The Huffington Post, Power Line and First Read

Matt Stoller / MyDD:

Grace Time is Over — It's pretty obvious at this point that the Democratic leadership isn't serious about ending the war in Iraq. They won't defund the war, and keep repeating the meme that cutting off funding for the war means cutting off funding for the troops. — It's time for the blogs to stop giving them a pass.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Redstate, The Impolitic and The American Mind

Bryan / Hot Air:
Murtha and the Democrats: A new low

Discussion: Ace of Spades HQ, Ed Driscoll.com and Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

Juan / Informed Comment:

On the Mystery of Muqtada al-Sadr's Disappearance — US government sources are saying that nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled to neighboring Iran three weeks ago. Sadrist aides denied the report. — This on a day when two major bombings left 66 persons wounded or dead in the capital …

Discussion: Political Animal

Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press:
Officials linked to al-Sadr deny he fled

Discussion: AMERICAblog, Right Wing Nut House, Flopping Aces, Confederate Yankee, MSNBC, The Impolitic, Think Progress, alphabet city, NewsHog, Outside The Beltway, The Heretik, Hot Air, Decision '08, Captain's Quarters and ABCNEWS

Los Angeles Times: Sadr aides deny the cleric is in Iran

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
U.S. Says Powerful Iraqi Cleric Is Living in Iran

Discussion: INTEL DUMP, Hot Air and Brilliant at Breakfast

Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report:
Video: American Soldier Held Hostage in Iraq Alive

Discussion: CNN, Outside The Beltway and Argghhh!

White House:

Press Conference by the President — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming in on an icy day. I have just finished a conversation with General David Petraeus. He gave me his first briefing from Iraq. He talked about the Baghdad security plan. It's the plan that I described to the nation last January …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, First Draft and My Left Wing

Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:
Bush: Who Cares if Iran Ordered EFP Attacks?

Discussion: Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, The Anonymous Liberal and Political Animal

Boston Globe:
Doubts raised on linking of Iran to US deaths in Iraq

Discussion: The Corner, The Huffington Post and Think Progress

CNN:
Bush: U.S. aims to protect troops, not wage war with Iran

Discussion: protein wisdom and Decision '08

Betsy Rothstein / The Hill:

Rep. Ellison calls the cops to snuff Tancredo's cigar — Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes it is his right as a Muslim to be sworn into Congress with the Quran. But apparently, the freshman lawmaker doesn't believe it's Rep. Tom Tancredo's (R-Colo.) right to smoke a cigar in his congressional office.

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, TPMCafe blogs, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hot Air, Redstate, "7.62mm Justice" ™ and theneweditor.com

Mark Memmott / On Deadline:

Bush: 'Preposterous' to suggest intelligence on Iran is wrong — President Bush just held a press conference at the White House. Some highlights: — 11:58 a.m. ET. Sitting down with Iran wouldn't work: The last question was why — if the U.S. could negotiate with the former Soviet Union …

Discussion: The Raw Story, NewsHog, Michelle Malkin, The Impolitic, Pajamas Media and CorrenteWire

Bill Gertz / Washington Times:
Bolton hits agreement as 'bad signal' to Iran

Discussion: New York Times

Gateway Pundit:

Explosion in Iran Kills Busload of Al Quds Members!! — An explosion today killed a reported 18 Al Quds members traveling in a bus in southeastern Iran. — Fars News is carrying this picture of one of those arrested after the blast earlier today — A car bomb exploded killing 18 Al Quds members today in Zahedan, Iran:

Discussion: Yourish.com

Independent:
Explosion kills 18 in Iran

Discussion: The Huffington Post, State of the Day and QandO

Baltimore Sun:

America's view of Republicans crumbles in Iraq — According to the latest Gallup survey, Republican self-identification has declined nationally and in almost every American state. Why? The short answer is that President Bush's war of choice in Iraq has destroyed the partisan brand Republicans spent the past four decades building.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Eschaton, INSTAPUTZ and Faithful Progressive

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Neoconservatives hate liberty as much as they love war — Frank Gaffney, one of the country's most influential and well-connected neoconservatives, has a column in today's Washington Times in which he argues that the debate taking place in Congress over the war in Iraq constitutes treason.

Discussion: Washington Times, Booman Tribune, Gateway Pundit, Dr. Sanity, If I Ran the Zoo, Left in the West, The Heretik, The Strata-Sphere, The Carpetbagger Report, Liberal Values, MaxSpeak, Hullabaloo, Bloggasm, Roger Ailes and Rising Hegemon

Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:

Candidates Find A New Stump In the Blogosphere — Nearly a year before the first caucuses and primaries take place, the 2008 presidential campaign advertising war is under way online. — Candidates of both parties are already buying space on search engines, blogs and other Internet sites popular …

Discussion: protein wisdom, DonkeyRising, Gun Toting Liberal ™ and Liberal Values

Deseret News:

6 minutes of horror … In just six minutes, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic left a tragic path of destruction that forever changed the lives of dozens of people. — "His intent was to shoot as many people as he possibly could," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank.

Discussion: Classical Values, BizzyBlog, Blue Crab Boulevard, Jihad Watch and Little Green Footballs

Douglas J. Feith / Washington Post:

Tough Questions We Were Right to Ask — Promoters of the "Bush Lied, People Died" line claim that the recent Pentagon inspector general's report concerning my former office's work on Iraq intelligence supports their cause. What the IG actually said is a different story.

Discussion: Washington Wire, TPMmuckraker, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Nitpicker and Macsmind

Anne Applebaum / Telegraph:

War with Iran is in no one's interests — 'War in Iraq, war in Iran? " That's a headline I saw in Britain earlier this week. In Washington, the headlines read more like "Tentative nuclear deal reached with North Korea" and "Obama must show more than potential", but never mind …

New York Times:

Libby and Cheney Won't Testify, Says the Defense — Lawyers defending I. Lewis Libby Jr. against perjury charges surprised the courtroom on Tuesday by saying that they would rest their case this week and do so without putting on the stand either Mr. Libby or Vice President Dick Cheney.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Nation, White House Watch, TPMCafe blogs, Is That Legal? and JustOneMinute

driftglass:

I'm Spartacus. — Shakespeare's Sister has announced that she is bowing out of the Edwards campaign. — Needless to say this is a very sad and sobering development. — And needless to say that she is doing it with orders of magnitude more grace and élan than either …