memeorandum: Sen. Biden: Troop buildup is failure (Associated Press)

6:00 PM ET, April 5, 2008

Top Items:

What Did Bill Clinton Do To Get $15M From Ron Burkle? — The campaign press statement accompanying the release on Friday of Hillary Clinton's 2000 - 2007 tax returns includes some useful summary data for the media: Bill and Hillary Clinton's total income over the past 8 years, $109 million …

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Swamp, The Caucus, Political Punch and Don Surber

Mike McIntire / New York Times:

Clintons Made $109 Million in Last 8 Years — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton released tax data Friday showing they earned $109 million over the last eight years, an ascent into the uppermost tier of American taxpayers that seemed unimaginable in 2001 …

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots, Roger L. Simon, Scripting News, TBogg, Air America Radio blogs, The Reaction, The Swamp, The Carpetbagger Report, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Buck Naked Politics, TPM Election Central, Jules Crittenden, PoliGazette, The Page, Scared Monkeys and The Politico

Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:

Looks like last call for Hillary — And it looks like it's gonna be another sleepless night ... “ — That's Crystal Gayle from the opening of her hit song, “Talking In Your Sleep,” No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts in 1978. No, hang on a minute, it's Hillary Rodham Clinton's new campaign theme.

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Power Line

Clay Barbour / Charlotte Observer: Bill Clinton: N.C. now crucial

The Big Trunk / Power Line:
THE CLINTONS' FAVORITE CHARITY (CORRECTION APPENDED)

Discussion: MSNBC, Hot Air and HillaryClinton.com

Boston Globe:
Golden years for the Clintons

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and The Caucus

Deborah Sontag / New York Times:

Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells — Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care …

Discussion: TalkLeft, FOX Embeds, Swampland, Hot Air, AMERICAblog, TownHall Blog, NewsBusters.org, Liberal Values, Political Machine, Classical Values, Balloon Juice, Spin Cycle, Fox News, Comments from Left Field, The Page, Election Geek Blog … and Patterico's Pontifications

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

TIME FOR MARK PENN TO GO. — Looks like Mark Penn — Hillary Clinton's chief strategist — met with Colombia's ambassador to the US this week to advise him on how best to pass a bilateral free trade pact.. So, on the one hand, Clinton voices opposition to this Free Trade Pact while running …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The Daily Dish and Washington Wire

John M. Broder / The Caucus:

Colombia to Penn: You're Fired — More fallout from the Mark Penn Colombia episode: — The Colombian government said on Saturday that it was ending its relationship with Burson-Marsteller, the global public relations firm headed by Mark Penn, who is also Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's pollster and chief strategist.

Discussion: Don Surber, The Carpetbagger Report and AMERICAblog

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Colombia fires Penn — Mark Penn yesterday called his meeting with Colombia, a client of the firm he heads, an “error,” and the Colombian government, in a statement from its embassy, calls the notion that its hired gun won't meet with it “unacceptable,” and fires the firm. — Here's the statement:

Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:
The Trail — Clinton Aide Admits ‘Error in Judgment’

Discussion: The Trail, Obsidian Wings and MoJoBlog

Mike Hall / Topeka Capital-Journal:

Walls close in on Phelpses — Judge orders liens on church building, law office — A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday ordered liens on the Westboro Baptist Church building and the Phelps-Chartered Law office. — If the case presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett …

Discussion: Wake up America, The Jawa Report, Blue Girl, Red State and Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars: Fed Judge Orders Liens On Fred Phelps' Church, Law Office

Ben Smith / The Politico:

The Democratic veep prospects: A guide — Four years ago today, The New York Times reported that an adviser to John Kerry had completed interviews with four contenders for the vice presidential nomination. — Today, both Democratic campaigns are laughing off the notion of choosing a running mate …

Discussion: GregsOpinion.com, Patterico's Pontifications and Prairie Weather

Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:

Olbermann Watch - Bonus Saturday Edition — Can we count on Keith Olbermann's pinch-ranter, Rachel Maddow, to pick up on the now-updated/discarded ThinkProgress fantasy and describe McHenry's “two-bit security guard” as an American soldier? Yes we can! — Check the video next to this summary from the Countdown site:

Discussion: Hot Air and The News Buckit

Rick Maze / Army Times:
Lawmaker apologizes for comment on Iraq guard

Discussion: BlueNC and Wizbang

The Daily Howler:

HOW WE GOT HERE! McCain could still win it. Here's why: — WHERE THE WH*RES ARE: In our view, it's been a sad and sobering week for “liberal” and “progressive” values. We'll start with the suspension of Randi Rhodes, who displayed appalling bad judgment in letting us know “Where the Wh*res Are.”

Associated Press:

Sen. Biden: Troop buildup is failure — WASHINGTON - A leading Democrat on Saturday declared last year's troop buildup in Iraq a failure. — Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the military push didn't succeed because U.S. troops remain committed …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com and Gateway Pundit

Thom Shanker / New York Times:

Army Worried by Rising Stress of Return Tours to Iraq — WASHINGTON — Army leaders are expressing increased alarm about the mental health of soldiers who would be sent back to the front again and again under plans that call for troop numbers to be sustained at high levels in Iraq for this year and beyond.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Shaun Mullen / The Moderate Voice:

Phil Gramm: McCain's Terrorist In Pinstripes — There is a ticking time bomb in the John McCain campaign and the sooner that Barack Obama can turn his full attention to exploiting it the bigger and consequential the explosion should be for this phony maverick.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Newshoggers.com, DownWithTyranny! and Middle Earth Journal

Matthew Mosk / The Trail:
McCain Returns Donor Cash

Discussion: The Seminal

Little Green Footballs:

British Muslims Wanted to Take Families on Suicide Missions — More repellent details from the 2006 Islamic terror plot to blow up multiple jetliners over the Atlantic: British Muslims in airliner terror plot ‘talked of taking families on suicide missions’.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Telegraph

Charlotte Gill / Daily Mail:
British Muslims in airliner terror plot 'talked of taking families …

Discussion: Wake up America, Telegraph, Reason Magazine and Guardian

Mark Schmitt / American Prospect:

SUPERDELEGATES AND THE STRONG PARTY. — Who would imagine that there was more to say on the subject of the Democratic Party's superdelegates? Yet posts this week on The Democratic Strategist and PolitickerNJ add some important context to the historical role of superdelegates and make clear …

Discussion: TalkLeft and Matthew Yglesias

Mark Steyn / The Corner:

The Witchpointer-General — One of the striking features of my current troubles with Canada's “Human Rights” Commissions is the way, in the name of ersatz “human rights”, these pseudo-courts trample on one of the bedrock human rights: the presumption of innocence.

Discussion: Daily Pundit