David Broder and Fred Hiatt both seem intent on destroying what little is left of the reputation of the Washington Post Opinion pages. Earlier Broder talked crooked about McCain's "straight talk". Today, Hiatt makes it up on McCain's delusion:

The central issue of this election is the war in Iraq, and the senator is the candidate most identified with making the case for war in the first place and for not leaving precipitously now. He did not shrink from the issue in his announcement, admitting the war "has not gone well" and referring to it in appropriately cautionary terms. . . . Mr. McCain did not say so, but he has been making these points since well before the invasion. Whatever your position on the war, then or now, Mr. McCain deserves credit for foresight and consistency about how the war should have been waged.

Hiatt is not telling the truth here. McCain did not consistently say these things. I will evidence this on the flip.

Former Senator Gary Hart lays into Rudy Giuliani in his new post at HuffPo.

He asks Rudy, "Where were you on terrorism between January 31, 2001, and September 11th?"

Hart then writes,

Before you qualify to criticize Democrats, Mr. Giuliani, you must account for your preparation of your city for these clearly predicted attacks. Tell us, please, what steps you took to make your city safer.

Until you do, then I strongly suggest you should keep your mouth shut about Democrats and terrorism. You have not qualified to criticize others, let alone be president of the United States.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made an unannounced trip to Harvard Saturday for his 25th law school reunion.

He was heckled by protestors.

"When the photographer was getting everybody set up and having people say 'cheese,' the protesters yelled: 'say torture, instead,' 'resign' and 'I don't recall,'" said Nate Ela, a protester and third-year student.

....the protesters followed Gonzales into the law school's library, chanting "shame" and "resign," before the attorney general's security detail took him to his motorcade.

From one of the protesters:

"The departure was clearly undignified," said Thomas Becker, a second-year law student who wore the black hood and orange jumpsuit during the protest. "He looked really annoyed."

The protesters were not large in number. But I bet that had the trip been announced ahead of time, more would have shown up.

Raw Story reports Gonzales had to leave through the back door.

As President Bush continues to dig in on staying the course in Iraq, our troops keep dying. Nine were killed this weekend.

April has been the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq this year. The latest deaths raise to nearly 100 the number of U.S. soldiers killed this month.

Anonymous Liberal has unearthed what appears to be an incriminating e-mail in which Monica Goodling instructed DOJ personnel to destroy documents that were clearly pertinent to an ongoing Congressional investigation. The e-mail, dated February 12, 2007, states in relevant part:

These are new and updated USA documents which can be used with the media or friendlies. Please delete prior versions. . .

Why could this be a criminal situation? Because of the federal obstruction statute. This article provides a nice background on the subject:

The New York Times reports on self-pay county jails in California, where for a fee of around $100 a day, inmates can get special accomodations and privileges.

For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades.

... Many of the self-pay jails operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry, and even if the court approves your sentence there, jail administrators can operate like bouncers, rejecting anyone they wish.

As for amenities,

More...

Before you get too excited, count me in the group (I hope there will be one) that is unimpressed with the action taken last night by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce crack cocaine penalties.

If I understand Law Prof Doug Berman's description (he's excited about the change) the mandatory minimums will stay in place and the reductions are these:

More...

I have been hard on the Left Blogs/so called "Netroots" lately on Iraq. My main reason is they have been wrong about it. But I have also been hard on them because it seemed to me they were abdicating a critical role the Left Blogs play in the political debate. I thnk Atrios explains that role nicely:

Overall what blogs have been able to do is create an unfolding political narrative which has been largely absent elsewhere. Sometimes it's about emphasizing different things, sometimes it's about combating DC conventional wisdom, sometimes it's about highlighting things which are being ignored. But taken all together it's about telling the story of politics in a different way.

When the Left blogs/Netroots decided to cheerlead the House Supplemental, playing the "pragmatic" insider, they ceded their real power in the debate. Move On and others simply failed to understand what their power is. It is not in settling for inadequate proposals and cheerleading inevitable compromises. It is describing the progressive postion and providing a narrative that keeps the Beltway, Media and politicians honest.

The Left Blogs/Netroots forgets this at its peril. If it goes down that road, and comes to resemble the Right blog relationship with the GOP in its relationship with the Democratic Party, it will be considerably weakened as a force in the political debate.

Consider Alberto Gonzales:

Gonzales, the nation's highest legal officer, has been point man for serial assaults against the rule of law, most recently in the crude attempt to politicize criminal prosecutions. Obstruction of a prosecution is a felony, even when committed by the attorney general.

Gonzales is still on the job.

Now consider Randall Tobias, head of the Agency for International Development:

On Friday night, ABC News said Mr. Tobias had confirmed on Thursday that he was a customer of an escort service.

Tobias resigned.

In Republican world, private conduct that causes only private harm, if any, is a greater reason for disgrace than repeated efforts to undermine the country's legal structure. Go figure.

Via Kevin Drum, the NYTimes tells us what we already knew, Bush's surge policy is a sham, merely designed to run out the clock on Iraq while Bush is President:

The Bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until September, and many of Mr. Bush’s top advisers now anticipate that any gains by then will be limited, according to senior administration officials.

In interviews over the past week, the officials made clear that the White House is gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The timelines they are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year.

. . . Several American officials who have spoken recently with Mr. Maliki say they believe that he would like to achieve the kind of political reconciliation that Mr. Bush outlined in January as the ultimate goal of the troop increase. But they say the Iraqi prime minister appears to have little ability to manage the required legislation, including bills requiring fair distribution of oil revenues among Iraq’s Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and reversing the American-led de-Baathification that barred many Sunnis from participation in the new government.

(Emphasis supplied.) This is predictable. Bush's feelings are what drive policy now. We can't have him face the fact that he lost the Iraq Debacle and is the worst President in history. That he destroys our military, irreparably damages our national interest and causes the needless deaths of our soldiers is of no moment compared to his feelings.

Disgusting.

The news is all agog over the arrest of a top al-Quaida guy in Iraq who allegedly was a mastermind of the July 7 London bombings.

Why is this news now? He was captured by the CIA last year.

Abd al-Hadi was taken into CIA custody last year, it emerged from US intelligence sources yesterday, in a move which suggests that he was interrogated for months in a “ghost prison” before being transferred to the internment camp in Cuba.

He wasn't even transferred today -- but earlier this week.

Is the Administration just in need of a positive news story for the weekend? It sure seems so.

It's Friday afternoon and time for a new document dump over at the House Judiciary Committee which is investigating the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

The documents are here.

Another group were released yesterday, available here.

TPM readers will be analyzing them in the comments here.

Christy at Firedoglake discusses James Comey's upcoming testimony before the Committee next Thursday. He was No. 2 at DOJ.