How are Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson handling the revelation that they contacted a federal prosecutor with the apparent desire to gain a political advantage by influencing the timing of an indictment? They don't want to discuss it.

Mr. Domenici has apologized, saying he was not seeking to intimidate Mr. Iglesias. The senator did not respond to requests for an interview.

Ms. Wilson, after first declining to confirm her own call to Mr. Iglesias, conceded that she had made it but denied trying to pressure the prosecutor. She also declined to be interviewed.

A broadly exculpatory denial followed by an exercise of the right to remain silent.

I can not let go of this statement:

Pelosi's political consigliere, Rep. George Miller (D-CA)'s pitch was blunt: If the liberals team up with Republicans to bring down the Iraq bill, Democratic leaders would have no choice but to come back with a spending bill that simply funds the war, without any policy restrictions. It would pass easily, with Republican votes and the support of many Democrats.

Forget querying the why the Dem leadership would have to do that, forget the fact that Mitch McConnell will filibuster Miller's "great Compromise bill" - Bush has said he will veto it. Pelosi, Miller, Emanuel and the rest of them are negotiatating against themeslves.

There are two possibilities here: the first seems the most likely - the Dem leadership in the House is truly not very good or very bright. If this is their plan for ending the Iraq Debacle, then it will never end.

The other possibility is chilling -- the Dems do not want to end the Iraq Debacle before 2008. They want to pretend that they want to, not do anything concrete to end the Debacle, and then run against the GOP on the war in 2008.

This is not only morally reprehensible, it is politically stupid.

McClatchy newspapers reports today:

Presidential advisor Karl Rove and at least one other member of the White House political team were urged by the New Mexico Republican party chairman to fire the state's U.S. attorney because of dissatisfaction in part with his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation in the battleground election state.

In an interview Saturday with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh, the party chairman, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House.

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My old friends know this is one of my favorite times of the year - the NCAA tournament bracket comes out tonight, March Madness begins.

Who will you be rooting for? And for those who have degrees in bracketology, who do you predict for the 4 No. 1 Seeds?

Games are being played today that could determine the 4 No. 1 seeds. Here are my choices - Ohio State (win or lose over Wisconsin today), Kansas (win or lose over Texas today), UCLA (despite 2 straight losses to end their regular season), Florida (if they beat Arkansas OR if NC State beats North Carolina). Two teams that might be whining about this? Wisconsin and the Tar Heels. They could win and still be 2 seeds.

This is an Open Thread. Feel free to bring other very important issues to the table.

Did Mishal al-Harbi suffer brain damage at Guantanamo because he was beaten in his cell by guards or did he try to hang him himself? The Washington Post tells his story today.

From interviews with many released detainees, a portrait is painted of guards mistreating and withholding the Koran and beating prisoners.

Some of the detainees started refusing to hand over the Koran during searches and went on hunger strikes to protest its mistreatment, Azmi said. They also cursed and screamed at the guards, he said. According to Pentagon transcripts, Mishal once spit at a guard.

It was during this fraught period that Mishal was injured, several days after being transferred to isolation block India, said Hammad Ali, a former detainee from Sudan who was in the same isolation block at the time.

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Say hello to The "Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007" and "Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007."

Introduced last week Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Jane Harman (D-CA) respectively, the bills would restore habeas and other rights to the detainees at Guantanamo.

The ACLU welcomes the bills.

The "Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007" mirrors a bill, S. 185, offered in the Senate by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill would restore habeas corpus for those detained by the American government.

The "Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007" would also reinstate habeas rights and clarify the definition of "enemy combatants." Additionally, it would block the federal government from making up its own rules on torture. The Geneva Conventions have governed American behavior during war for decades. The bill makes clear the federal government must comply with the Conventions, and no one in the federal government - not even the president -- can make up their own rules on torture and abuse.

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I am now convinced that the House Dem Leadership has no clue how to end the Iraq Debacle. What convinced me is this:

[In] [a] meeting in Pelosi's office Thursday . . . Pelosi's political consigliere, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). . . 's pitch was blunt: If the liberals team up with Republicans to bring down the Iraq bill, Democratic leaders would have no choice but to come back with a spending bill that simply funds the war, without any policy restrictions. It would pass easily, with Republican votes and the support of many Democrats.

Now why in the hell is that true? Why must the Dem leadership introduce such a no restrictions bill? Why would they "have no choice?" Sez who?

(Again, just speaking for me, not Talk Left.)

The New York Times Editorial Page:

During the hearing on his nomination as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales said he understood the difference between the job he held — President Bush’s in-house lawyer — and the job he wanted, which was to represent all Americans as their chief law enforcement officer and a key defender of the Constitution. Two years later, it is obvious Mr. Gonzales does not have a clue about the difference.

He has never stopped being consigliere to Mr. Bush’s imperial presidency. If anyone, outside Mr. Bush’s rapidly shrinking circle of enablers, still had doubts about that, the events of last week should have erased them.

. . . It was Mr. Gonzales, after all, who repeatedly defended Mr. Bush’s decision to authorize warrantless eavesdropping on Americans’ international calls and e-mail. He was an eager public champion of the absurd notion that as commander in chief during a time of war, Mr. Bush can ignore laws that he thinks get in his way. Mr. Gonzales was disdainful of any attempt by Congress to examine the spying program, let alone control it.

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The Independent reports that Richard Gere and Sharon Stone may be under consideration for the Valerie Plame - Joseph Wilson movie:

Warner Bros studios is developing a feature film based on the lives of Wilson and his wife. Reports suggest that Richard Gere and Sharon Stone may be in line to play the couple.

Who would you cast?

Anyone have something to say? Here's some space. All topics welcome.

Newcomers: links must be in html format or they skew the site (use the buttons in the comment box.)

The media continues to analyze the effect of Rudy Giuliani's troubled personal life on his chances of getting the Republican nomination for President.

The radical right will never go for him.

Republican strategists say Giuliani's troubled family relationships are likely to hinder his standing among conservatives who already have questions about his positions on social issues. They say the estrangement could raise a question in voters' minds: If Giuliani can't keep his family together, how will he keep the country together?

In fact, Giuliani's support for abortion and gay rights, his backing of gun control measures and his very New Yorkness already had given conservatives pause about his candidacy. He has also marched in gay pride parades, dressed up in drag and lived temporarily with a gay couple and their Shih Tzu.

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Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post brings us up to speed on Karl Rove, whom he aptly notes, was up to his ears in PlameGate, but unlike Scooter Libby, talked his way out of getting indicted.

It turns out he's alive and well and plotting in his windowless West Wing office just how to spin Bush's greatest weakness into a great strength -- and in that way burnish his boss's legacy.

What's he pushing? The Bush Doctrine.

The Bush Doctrine...maintains that regimes that harbor terrorists are as culpable as the terrorists themselves and that the U.S. is entitled to take preventative military action to neutralize potential threats before they have materialized.

More....