memeorandum: It's All About Al-Qaeda Again (Dana Milbank/Washington Post)

4:10 PM ET, May 3, 2007

Top Items:

Democrats Back Down On Iraq Timetable — Compromise Bill in Works After Veto Override Fails — President Bush and congressional leaders began negotiating a second war funding bill yesterday, with Democrats offering the first major concession: an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

Check this out — the offices of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are denying a Washington Post story today saying that Congressional Democrats have backed down to the White House by offering to remove Iraq withdrawal language from the now-vetoed Iraq bill. — Pelosi just went before the Democratic caucus …

Discussion: Firedoglake, WorldwideStandard.com, Redstate, TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh, MyDD, The Carpetbagger Report, Virtual Scratchpad, QandO, Eschaton, Daily Kos, The Mahablog, Grasping Reality …, Riehl World View, Tennessee Guerilla Women and ScrappleFace

New York Times:
Iraqi Blocs Opposed to Draft Oil Bill

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Moderate Voice, TIME: Swampland, Kiko's House, God's Politics and On Deadline

Associated Press:

Rice meets with Syrian foreign minister … SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Syria's foreign minister Thursday in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years. — The meeting came hours after the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Bring it On!

CNN:
No safe way for U.S. to leave Iraq, experts warn

Discussion: Wake up America, David E's Fablog, WorldwideStandard.com and PoliPundit.com

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: LAT: Early Withdrawal Would Be A Disaster

Reuters:

Senior al Qaeda leader killed in Iraq: ministry — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed the head of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, an al Qaeda-led militant group that has claimed many major attacks in the country, Iraq's deputy interior minister said on Thursday.

Discussion: Reuters, Captain's Quarters, Jules Crittenden, Redstate, The Jawa Report, The Strata-Sphere, Outside The Beltway, Counterterrorism Blog and Don Surber

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

It's All About Al-Qaeda Again — President Bush is at odds with the American public and a restive congressional majority over the Iraq war, and even some Republicans talk about imposing new requirements that could trigger a troop withdrawal. — It's time to play the Qaeda card.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Firedoglake, The Garlic, Needlenose and mediabistro.com

Ryan Sager / New York Sun Politics:

Q-Poll: Giuliani Tumbles, Thompson Explodes, McCain Tastes Hope — Ahead of tonight's first Republican primary debate, the Quinnipiac Poll out this morning has bad news for Rudy Giuliani (and Mitt Romney), good news for Fred Thompson, and mixed news for John McCain. — To the Ludicrously Early Poll Mobile, Robin! ...

Discussion: Betsy's Page, Reason Magazine and Redstate

Quinnipiac University News and Events:

May 3, 2007 - Obama Runs Best Against GOP Front-Runner Giuliani Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Clinton Still Leads Dem Primary Race — Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has a slight 44 - 41 percent lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in a possible 2008 presidential face-off …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and TIME

New York Times:

Justice Dept. Announces Inquiry Into Its Hiring — The Justice Department has begun an internal investigation into whether a former senior adviser to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales improperly tried to fill vacancies for career prosecutors at the agency with Republicans loyal to the Bush administration …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, TPMmuckraker, WSJ.com, Bench Conference, Norwegianity, All Spin Zone, Think Progress, Mirror of Justice and The RBC

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Comey: Justice Dept. Must Be An "Other" in American Life

Discussion: Firedoglake and Talking Points Memo

Washington Post:
Ex-Aide to Gonzales Accused Of Bias

Discussion: Associated Press, Firedoglake, Balkinization, The Carpetbagger Report, Shakesville, TPMmuckraker, Abovethelaw.com and If I Ran the Zoo

The Blotter:

D.C. Law Firm Suspends Woman Who Worked as Escort — Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood Report: — A legal secretary at one of Washington's most prominent and well-connected law firms, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, has been suspended after telling her bosses she secretly worked …

Discussion: Riehl World View, Abovethelaw.com and PoliBlog (TM)

Mary Ann Akers / The Sleuth:
DC Madam Scandal, Yawns and Wows

Discussion: The Blotter

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The Politico: Exhibit A for our broken political press — This week, the Bush administration sought vastly increased powers to spy on the telephone conversations of Americans, and then threatened to begin spying again illegally and without warrants. It was revealed that Condoleezza Rice …

Discussion: TAPPED, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, TalkLeft, The Carpetbagger Report, Booman Tribune and The Sideshow

Associated Press:

Veto may hit sexual orientation in hate crime bill — WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation that would expand federal hate crime law to include attacks motivated by the victims' gender or sexual orientation. — The hate crimes bill …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Shakesville, The Moderate Voice, AMERICAblog, Bradford Plumer, Pam's House Blend, Donklephant and The Hill

Bryan / Hot Air:

Virgin Atlantic Loose Change update: Axed Update: Audio added Update: Virgin Atlantic statement added — Folks, we made a difference. After our post about Virgin Atlantic airing the 9-11 conspiracy film Loose Change 2 as in-flight entertainment last night, the producer …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, The Right Angle, Donklephant, Daimnation! and Ed Driscoll.com

Mark Finkelstein / CNSNews:

Defense Official Contradicts Murtha Claim that Petraeus Didn't 'Talk to Any of Us' — (CNSNews.com) - Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) this week criticized Gen. David Petraeus for not meeting with members of Congress during a recent visit to Washington, D.C., to report on the status of operations in Iraq …

Discussion: The Right Angle, Redstate and Hot Air

IAN / Hot Air:
Video: Murtha says Petraeus is a political hack

Discussion: Riehl World View, protein wisdom and Macsmind

Roxana Tiron / The Hill:

'08 hopefuls would grow the military — Despite their stark differences on Iraq, presidential frontrunners from both parties are vowing to increase the size of the military if elected as commander in chief. — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) …

Discussion: The Newshoggers and blackprof.com

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
G.O.P. Contenders Ponder What to Say About Bush

Discussion: USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, Wonkette, The Corner, First Read and The RBC

James Pethokoukis / U.S. News & World Report:

Productivity—Not Stock Market—Shows the New Economy Lives — The Dow Jones industrials may already be back in record territory, but the S&P 500 has yet to return to its March 2000 high of 1527, though it's moved near the 1500 level. And the Nasdaq, of course, is still off some 50 percent from its 2000 high.

Discussion: Daniel W. Drezner

Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
ECONOMIC UPDATE....Productivity figures dropped precipitously last year …

Discussion: The Street Light and Ezra Klein

Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:

The Times Names Public Editor — The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain's coverage that questioned the Bush administration's case for the Iraq war.

Discussion: Chronicle of the Conspiracy

Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher: Hoyt Plans to Write Often as New 'NY Times' Public Editor

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / The Caucus:

Bush: "I'm the Commander Guy" — WASHINGTON, May 2-And you thought he was still "the decider." — President Bush coined a new nickname for himself — ''the commander guy" — on Wednesday, as he criticized Congressional Democrats in a speech to the annual gathering of the Associated General Contractors …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, Debsweb, CorrenteWire, The Mahablog, MotherJones.com, WorkingForChange, Liberal Values, Outside The Beltway and digg

Hope Yen / Associated Press:

Lawmakers wants VA to explain bonuses — WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders on Thursday demanded that the Veterans Affairs secretary explain hefty bonuses for senior department officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1 billion short and jeopardized veterans' health care.

Discussion: The Gavel, CorrenteWire and Liberty Street

Associated Press:

Leo, Rosie Make Time's Most Influential — NEW YORK (AP) - Heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio and envelope-pushers Rosie O'Donnell and Sacha Baron Cohen are among the entertainment newsmakers on Time magazine's list of 100 people who shape the world. — The list of 100 most influential …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Liberal Values and Heading Right

Amir Efrati / WSJ.com:

Law Firm Rescinds Offer to Ex-AutoAdmit Executive — For those of you following the AutoAdmit message board scandal, this just in: — The Law Blog has learned that law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge rescinded its job offer to Anthony Ciolli, the 3L at Penn Law who resigned as "Chief Education Director" of AutoAdmit last month.

Discussion: Feministe, Overlawyered, Abovethelaw.com and Concurring Opinions