Even before his dubious and much debated connection to the Arkansas Project and Richard Mellon Scaife, Ted Olson had issues. Big issues.

Check out David Neiwert's Salon article from May, 2001 when he ran into Judiciary Committee opposition during his confirmation process for Solicitor General.

In the mid-1980s, he became the focus of an independent counsel's investigation for much the same thing: giving misleading testimony to Congress -- some charged it was perjury -- that was intended to cover up his own misbehavior.

A careful examination of that episode raises serious questions about not merely his integrity but the legendary legal prowess to which even his critics defer. Indeed, the last time Olson served as a top presidential legal counselor, he left behind a political disaster area strewn with bad legal advice, wrecked careers and lingering scandals.

Harsh words, but read the article and decide for yourselves.

Instapundit has a podcast up of an interview with Jack Goldsmith, formerly of the Office of Legal Counsel and one of those who balked at Dick Cheney, David Addington and Alberto Gonzales' attempt to stretch the NSA wiretapping program past what he and James Comey and others believed to be the legal limits.

It was Goldsmith who was responsible for withdrawing John Yoo's torture memo.

Goldsmith's new book discusses, among other things, what went on behind the scenes with Ashcroft, Gonzales and the NSA wiretapping program.

Book details are available here.

Norman Hsu left the hospital in Grand Junction last night. He was transferred to the Mesa, CO county jail where he will be advised by video this afternoon.

There are no charges in Colorado pending against him. The only warrant is the San Mateo, California warrant on which California is seeking to extradite him. A hearing on the extradition request likely will be scheduled at the advisement.

The Mesa County District Attorney will ask that Hsu's bond be set at $4 million.

The Wall St. Journal reports that Hsu mailed a suicide note to acquaintances and some organizations before boarding the train to Grand Junction, including the Innocence Project. Hsu had been a big contributor to the Innocence Project.

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Senator Chris Dodd was interviewed by Keith Olbermann tonight and discussed his views on Iraq and his new book, Letters From Nuremberg, a collection of letters from his father, Senator Thomas Dodd, who worked with Justice Robert Jackson at the Nuremberg trials.

This is Senator Dodd at his finest. I strongly urge you to watch the interview. Of special interest is Dodd's discussion of his father's letters, which he describes as "epistles to this generation."

Denver journalist and CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen was one of a small group of journalists permitted to tour the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado yesterday. It was the first time journalists have been afforded the opportunity.

He didn't get to see the prison's most infamous prisoners like Terry Nichols or Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" but he saw and heard enough to write an interesting article. Some highlights:

We saw cement desks and bed frames and stainless steel toilets and sinks. We saw cages—straight out of the circus—where inmates who are going along with the warden’s “program” are allowed to “recreate” outside for about 10 hours a week. We saw that the windows in the cells are only a few inches wide and all look inward toward the other windows of other cells. No one has a view of the beautiful Rocky Mountains which surround the facility in the southern portion of Colorado.

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Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid warned President Bush today not to nominate Ted Olson as Attorney General:

"Ted Olson will not be confirmed," Reid, D-Nev., said in a written statement. "I intend to do everything I can to prevent him from being confirmed as the next attorney general."

Sen. Patrick Leahy also said Olson would face a tough challenge. Leahy was a principal objector to Olson's confirmation as Solicitor General.

Some Republicans are suggesting that if Olson isn't acceptable, Sen. Orrin Hatch should take the position. Why would Hatch resign his senate seat to be Attorney General for a year and a half?

Alberto Gonzales resignation is effective Monday.

Update: Dave Neiwert has much more at Firedoglake today on why Olson should not be our Attorney General. And Marcy has an op-ed in the Guardian, They Have to Be Kidding.

Jeralyn's post below on Obama's speech demonstrates to me that Obama is not ready to show he should be President by leading now on Iraq as a Senator. I agree with Matt Stoller:

I really think it's weird for Obama and various Presidential candidates to give speeches on their 'plans' for withdrawing troops from Iraq during Bush's term as President. They aren't the President yet, and they won't be President until 2009. . . . What I want to know, on the cusp of Obama's big speech, is whether he will vote to cut off funding for combat operations that are not withdrawals from the country.

And of course, I agree with Chris Dodd:

Sen. Barack Obama is unveiling a new plan for Iraq in Iowa today. Huffington Post has received an advance copy of his speech and posted excerpts.

This one is curious.

"Let me be clear: there is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year - now. We should enter into talks with the Iraqi government to discuss the process of our drawdown. We must get out strategically and carefully, removing troops from secure areas first, and keeping troops in more volatile areas until later. But our drawdown should proceed at a steady pace of one or two brigades each month. If we start now, all of our combat brigades should be out of Iraq by the end of next year." (my emphasis.)

Didn't Obama, just two months ago , call for all troops to be out of Iraq by April 30, 2008?

“It’s time to set a hard date to signal a new mission in Iraq and to begin to bring our troops home. It’s time to ensure that we complete the change in mission and the drawdown of our forces, by the end of April 2008 – a date that is consistent with the date in my plan back in January.”

Why is he now extending that to the end of 2008?

Via Brandon Friedman at Daily Kos:

Two of the seven soldiers who wrote the New York Times op-ed piece criticizing U.S. counterinsurgency strategy 3 ½ weeks ago have been killed in Iraq.  Yance T. Gray and Omar Mora died Monday in a vehicle accident in Baghdad.   The AP has reported on Yance Gray here, and KHOU, a Houston-area TV station has reported on Omar Mora here.  Their families have been notified.

Here's the August 19 NY Times op-ed, The War as We Saw It. Some snippets:

The Wall St. Journal continues its reporting of Norman Hsu's financial dealings. The latest installment (free link): A New York capital venture firm, headed by Joel Rosenman, one of the three original Woodstock creators, has asked the District Attorney's office to investigate a $40 million investment in Hsu's firm, Components Limited.

Rosenman's partner introduced him to Hsu. Both invested personally with him and made a 40% return on their money. They then pitched the idea to Rosenman's firms' clients.

The investment pool would "lend to U.S. private label designers that needed interim financing to fill orders for a select group of well-known, high-end U.S. apparel retailers." Since 2001, [Rosenman] writes, "the return of these short-term (typically 4½ months) loans has been no less than 40%."

Here's how the deal worked:

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After two days of Senate testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Republicans are worried.

By Tuesday, it was clear that although such a drawdown would remove the nearly 30,000 reinforcements by next summer, it would leave 130,000 troops in Iraq, a force size that troubled both Republicans and Democrats.

Especially concerned were GOP senators who face reelection next year. They seemed worried by the increasing likelihood that there would be little political progress in Iraq and high levels of U.S. troops there come election day 2008.

House leader Nancy Pelosi expressed her concern this way:

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A new a new L.A.Times/Bloomberg poll shows Rudy Giuliani trailing among Republicans in three critical states with early primaries, while Hillary Clinton maintains her substantial lead among the Democratic contendders.

Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, trails Mitt Romney in Iowa and New Hampshire among Republican voters, and he lags behind Fred Thompson in South Carolina. But Giuliani is only a few points behind the leader in New Hampshire and South Carolina--within the poll's margin of error--suggesting that the race in those two states is too tight for anyone to be declared a clear front-runner.

The poll also found that Republicans are only lightly committed to their favorite candidates. For example,

a sizable 72% of Iowa Republicans who favored a candidate said they might decide to back someone else.

It's a different story with the Democrats.

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