Think Progress has the transcript and video of Valerie Plame's statement to the House Committee investigating the leak of her identity this morning. (Full hearing video is here.)

I’ve served the United States loyally and to the best of my ability as a covert operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. I worked on behalf of the national security of our country, on behalf of the people of the United States, until my name and true affiliation were exposed in the national media on July 14th, 2003, after a leak by an administration official.

Today I can tell this committee even more. In the run-up to the war with Iraq, I worked in the Counterproliferation Division of the CIA, still as a covert officer whose affiliation with the CIA was classified. I raced to discover solid intelligence for senior policymakers on Iraq’s presumed weapons of mass destruction program.

Simply outrageous:

Police arrested a 7-year-old boy, handcuffed him and took his mug shot and fingerprints on a charge of riding a motorized dirt bike on a sidewalk.

At the station, Gerard Mungo Jr. was handcuffed to a bench and interrogated before being released to his parents. "They scared me," Gerard told The Baltimore Examiner before breaking down in tears.

Mayor Sheila Dixon plans on "looking into the case."

I'm pretty much out of pocket today. So far today, Virginia is cruising over Albany, UNLV jumping out on G Tech, and 2 seed Memphis struggling with 15 N. Texas.

Give us your thoughts on the tourney so far. Most intriguing performance so far for me is Vandy's blowout win. I will watch the SEC closely today to see if there is a hidden strength in the SEC we might have missed.

CBS legal analyst and author of the Washington Post's Bench Conference blog makes the case today for replacing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with Patrick Fitzgerald.

In my humble opinion, and recognizing that there may be a few other worthy candidates, there is only one person who perfectly currently fits the bill. He is a Republican and a Bush-appointee, but not a partisan or a crony or a hack like so many other current appointees. He has a sterling record of integrity and doggedness. He is obviously his own man and has shown a remarkable tendency during his career as a prosecutor for rankling partisans on both sides of the aisle. He is beholden to no one. His nomination to head the Justice Department by President Bush, and his ratification by the Congress, would send a clear message to the country that our government is willing to turn the page on the sordid recent history of the Office of Attorney General. His name? Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Who better, Cohen asks, to restore integrity and non partisanship to the Justice Department?

Acknowledging it's risky to support medical marijuana in an election year in which he's running for President, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said yesterday, "So what if it's risky? It's the right thing to do."

Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, poised to sign a bill making New Mexico the 12th state to legalize medical marijuana, said Thursday he realizes his action could become an issue in the presidential race. "So what if it's risky? It's the right thing to do," said Richardson, one of the candidates in the crowded 2008 field. "What we're talking about is 160 people in deep pain. It only affects them." The legislation would create a program under which some patients — with a doctor's recommendation — could use marijuana provided by the state health department.

New Mexico lawmakers have approved the bill and Richardson will sign it into law within the next few weeks.

If you are by a computer this morning, don't miss the Valerie Plame hearing which will be webcast on C-Span as well as the Oversight Committee's website.

Chairman Henry A. Waxman announced a hearing on whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. At the hearing, the Committee will receive testimony from Ms. Wilson and other experts regarding the disclosure and internal White House security procedures for protecting her identity from disclosure and responding to the leak after it occurred. The hearing is scheduled for Friday, March 16.

The witnesses are:

* Ms. Valerie Plame Wilson, former employee, Central Intelligence Agency * Dr. James Knodell, Director, Office of Security, The White House
* Mr. Bill Leonard, Director, Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives and Records Administration
* Mr. Mark Zaid, Attorney
* Ms. Victoria Toensing, diGenova & Toensing, LLP

I'm looking forward to hearing Valerie Plame Wilson tell her side of the story.

Former CIA Analyst Larry Johnson posts how he thinks Valerie Plame Wilson should answer the questions.

[hat tip to Susan Hu of Daily Kos.}

The Senate has rejected a Democrat proposal to complete troop pullout from Iraq by March, 2008. The vote was 50 to 48.

The vote in the Senate was 50 against and 48 in favor, 12 short of what was needed to pass, with just a few defections in each party. It came just hours after the House Appropriations Committee, in another vote largely on party lines, approved an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan that includes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The House will vote on that legislation next Thursday, setting the stage for another confrontation.

The 48 votes were 12 short of the 60 needed for passage. A “yes” vote was a vote to support the measure. Voting “yes” were 46 Democrats, 1 Republican and 1 independent. Voting “no” were 2 Democrats, 1 independent and 47 Republicans. Two senators did not vote.

Because of the House Vote, the legislation will continue moving forward.

More....

A Senate committee in Maryland today rejected a bill to abolish the death penalty.

Efforts to repeal the death penalty in Maryland were dealt an apparently fatal blow Thursday when a key state Senate committee defeated the measure, leaving a court-ordered moratorium on state executions in place and some legislators weighing a study of the issue.

Weeks of behind-the-scenes wrangling and lobbying by religious and law enforcement officials culminated Thursday with the bill's defeat in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on a tie vote.

Why it failed:

Sen. Alex X. Mooney, the Frederick Repub lican and devout Catholic who was expected to swing the Senate vote, did not support the repeal after trying unsuccessfully to exempt prisoners who kill again while serving a jail term. He told the committee that he struggled with the choice.

The newly released Rove e-mail raises a question of the White House's honesty in its original statement that the idea of possibly replacing all 93 U.S. Attorneys originated with Harriet Miers. It also shows that Alberto Gonzales was aware it was being discussed before he was confirmed as Attorney General, while he was still White House counsel.

The White House said Thursday night that the e-mails did not contradict the previous statements about former White House counsel Harriet Miers' role. The e-mail exchange, dated January 6, 2005, is between then-deputy White House counsel David Leitch and Kyle Sampson at the Justice Department. According to a senior White House official who has seen the e-mail exchange, "It's not inconsistent with what we have said."

The email is here.

It certainly is customary for Presidents to replace the previous President's U.S. Attorneys after an election. What's unusual here is that Bush was considering replacing his own appointments, since this was his second term.

So, what's the fuss about? One thing is whether the idea really originated with Harriet Miers. A second is timing...the discussions started earlier than the White House initially said. TPM Muckraker has put together a timeline. A third is whether the Administration told the truth when it said the idea of dismissing all the U.S. Attorneys was rejected out of hand as soon as Miers suggested it.

More...

David Sirota, (David responds to me here) of all people, is recommending a column that seems to endorse doing nothing to end the war in Iraq:

There is one decisive action that the Congress could theoretically take with respect to Iraq given Bush’s Constitutional authorities. Tina Richards referred to it in her exchange with Obey. Congress could simply refuse to pass any legislation providing further funding for the war. That sounds both simple and effective. But there are serious downsides to such a strategy that devoted opponents of this war should reflect upon. . . . Well-meaning people can argue about whether or not such a strategy would be good policy or whether or not it would be good politics. But there is little room for argument as to whether such a stance is a viable legislative strategy.

So there you have it, we "idiots" can do and should do nothing. Boy, aren't you glad you voted for Dems in 2006 in order to end the war in Iraq?

Murray Waas has a new article in the National Journal, Internal Affairs, in which he reports that the aborted DOJ probe probably would have targeted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

Had it not been quashed, a Justice Department inquiry into the domestic eavesdropping program would likely have examined the actions of Alberto Gonzales.

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.

Right now, if you have Stanford making an improbable run in the Tourney, you are looking none too good. The Cardinal trail the Cardinals by 25 in the first half.

Davidson is giving Maryland a real tussle, down 1 at the half.

BC leads Tex Tech by 2 at the half. Please update in the thread. I am out of pocket this afternoon.