memeorandum: Public Takes Up Pros and Cons of Edwards Bid (Kirk Johnson/New York Times)

11:45 AM ET, March 24, 2007

Top Items:

Documents: Gonzales OK'd firing attorneys — Attorney general had been said not to have been closely involved — Politicians in both major parties have called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation amid the furor over the firings of U.S. attorneys.

Discussion: The Politico, DownWithTyranny!, The Moderate Voice, The Daily Background, Macsmind, At-Largely and Hoffmania!

Real Cities:

Documents highlight Gonzales' role in the firings — WASHINGTON - Internal Bush administration e-mails suggest that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have played a bigger role than he has acknowledged in the plan to fire several U.S. attorneys. — The e-mails, delivered to Congress Friday night …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, TPMmuckraker and Political Animal

New York Times:

Gonzales Met With Advisers on Ouster Plan — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior advisers discussed the plan to remove seven United States attorneys at a meeting last Nov. 27, 10 days before the dismissals were carried out, according to a Justice Department calendar entry disclosed Friday.

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Daily Background, the talking dog, Balloon Juice, Macsmind, Outside The Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Is That Legal?, All Spin Zone, Grasping Reality …, The Next Hurrah, State of the Day, CorrenteWire and Washington Post

Dan Eggen / Washington Post:

Gonzales Met With Top Aides On Firings — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met with senior aides on Nov. 27 to review a plan to fire a group of U.S. attorneys, according to documents released last night, a disclosure that contradicts Gonzales's previous statement that he was not involved in "any discussions" about the dismissals.

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

DoJ Official Conferred with Others on Law Change — Yet another lie. — One central aspect of the U.S. attorneys firing is that the Justice Department (via a staffer for then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA)) was able to slip in a provision to the Patriot Act Reauthorization bill …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Carpetbagger Report and Prairie Weather

Laura Litvan / Bloomberg:
Reid Says Gonzales to Leave Within Month `One Way or the Other'

Discussion: The Raw Story

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Did Gonzales Lie About His Involvement?

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Gonzales: Don't Blame Me, Blame Bush

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Real Cities:
Justice's new U.S. attorneys have partisan records

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Watching Those We Chose and Hullabaloo

Kirk Johnson / New York Times:

Public Takes Up Pros and Cons of Edwards Bid — Important policy debates about the course of the nation in the next presidential election are still out there and will no doubt return. But for one day, many people all over the country seemed able to pause and reflect on something deeper …

Discussion: Conglomerate, BAGnewsNotes, PrezVid, The Moderate Voice and techPresident

Washington Post:
Ready for Another Tough Campaign

Discussion: NewsHog, The Gun Toting Liberal ™ and Blue Crab Boulevard

Media Matters for America:
Limbaugh: John and Elizabeth Edwards "turned to ... politics" …

Discussion: Eschaton, NewDonkey.com and Washington Post

Luke Harding / Guardian:

Supreme court ban on liberal party wipes out opposition to Putin — Russia's next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections. — Russia's supreme court announced that it had liquidated …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters

Michael van der Galien / The Moderate Voice: Tsar Putin Without Opposition

Anna Mulrine / US News:

Exclusive: Iranians Had Showdown With U.S. Forces — As the British government demanded the immediate release of 15 of its sailors whose boats were seized by Iranian naval vessels in the Persian Gulf on Friday, U.S. News has learned that this is not the first showdown that coalition forces have had with the Iranian military.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Flopping Aces and MSNBC

Giles Smith / Times of London:

Hostage fears over troops seized by Iran — Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor, and James Bone in New York — Britain's crisis with Iran deepened last night after Tehran justified seizing 15 British servicemen by claiming that they had strayed into Iranian territorial waters "illegally".

Discussion: Jay Currie

Bob Geiger:

The Saturday Cartoons — As a bonus today, our friend Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle, who is also the President-elect of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, tips us to a great collection of his cartoons related to the Iraq war that he has posted on his web site.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Alexandra Olson / Associated Press:

Iran's President Cancels U.N. Appearance — UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has canceled his trip to New York to address the U.N. Security Council before a vote on whether to impose further sanctions against his country for refusing to stop enriching uranium, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.

Discussion: American Thinker, Booman Tribune and Ace of Spades HQ

portlandtribune.com:

Rudeness mars peace message — If the cause of peace is worth supporting — and we believe it is — then peace protesters must demonstrate the values they promote. The vast majority of the estimated 15,000 protesters who took part in a peace march Sunday in downtown Portland did just that.

Discussion: Horses Mouth, Blue Crab Boulevard, Gateway Pundit, Sadly, No! and Ed Driscoll.com

Austin Bay Blog:

Pork for Defeat: Now the President must veto it — The House has passed its pro-defeat (and pro-pork) bill, 218 to 212. Now the President needs to veto it. — The Democratic House leaders are a laughingstock of a shameful sort. They have dug two holes, a "pork" hole and a "defeat" hole.

Discussion: Dean's World, Viking Pundit, Associated Press and PoliPundit.com