by TChris

Dana Milbank observes that the president, particularly when confronted with uncomfortable questions (and what questions in his disastrous fifth year aren’t uncomfortable?), has been fidgeting like a grade school kid with a serious attention deficit problem.

[D]uring Bush's 14-minute pre-sunrise interview [with Matt Lauer] … [t]he president was a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.

by TChris

The mayor of Colorado Springs refuses to support a program that matches volunteer mental health counselors with soldiers who served in Iraq because, he says, the program’s supporters are “anti-war” and “anti-Army.” The two men who organized the program both served in Iraq. What’s anti-Army about their desire to help soldiers cope with the stress and trauma of war?

The mayor initially supported the program, but later flip-flopped.

by TChris

Bill Frist apparently hasn't given up his dream of running for president, as evidenced by this "exploratory meeting with local power brokers" in Miami. While he's on the campaign trail, he'll have plenty of opportunities to explain his ethical missteps.

Investigators are already questioning Frist's suspiciously timed stock sale, which occurred despite his assurances that his family stock was held in a blind trust so as not to influence his Senate votes. The trust wasn't as blind as he wanted voters to believe, but now the AP reveals that his brother controlled a family investment partnership that accumulated HCA stock. Frist owns a share of that partership and earned more than a quarter million dollars from it over a recent four year period.

Arianna has news of Democrats searching for the "Anti-Hillary" candidate in 2008. In Hollywood, Al Gore is a hot topic.

"He's been strongly against the war since the beginning," a big Dem donor who is hoping to convince Gore to run told me, "and with gas prices going through the roof and killer hurricanes wreaking havoc, he's the gold standard on global warming, alternative energy, and the environment. What's not to like?"

And Lawrence Bender, who after producing "Kill Bill" is now producing what I hear is a killer documentary featuring Gore and his fight to get our country to take action on global warming, told me that the former VP "would be a hell of a candidate. Unlike 2000, he's now clearly very comfortable in his own shoes. Bold, passionate, committed, and very funny. It's been amazing working with him."

I can see it. While I wasn't crazy about Gore's centrism in 2000, I agree he's had a major turnaround. I appreciate especially his outspokenness about Iraq. The important thing is for Dems to be united in 2008 and to have a clear message. Gore seems to have found his message. Hillary seems to be playing both sides.

Focus on the Family James Dobson aired a broadcast Wednesday disclosing what Karl Rove told him about Harriet Miers the weekend before she was nominated. I agree with Markos of Daily Kos, it sounds like spin.

But we also talked about something else, and I think this is the first time this has been disclosed. Some of the other candidates who had been on that short list, and that many conservatives are now upset about were highly qualified individuals that had been passed over. Well, what Karl told me is that some of those individuals took themselves off that list and they would not allow their names to be considered, because the process has become so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter, that they didn't want to subject themselves or the members of their families to it.

Crooks and Liars adds its criticism here.

Does the Associated Press know something we don't know? Check this out, what else could it be besides a political obituary?

[Via Josh Marshall and TL reader Squeaky]

[Warning: This is another one of those posts intended only for the seriously addicted PlameGate followers among you. While I mostly refer to TalkLeft posts in which I talk about Fitzgerald's likely concentration on the White House Iraq Group and the Defense Policy Board, I do so because in each post I support my speculation with quotes from a wide variety of news sources that I find myself returning to time and again to support the theory. Those sources are the reason to click on my prior posts, far more than my conclusions. ]

So, the latest: The Wall Street Journal (free link) reports today that Fitzgerald is widening his probe.

Judith Miller's notes of her June 23 meeting with Lewis Libby must be important. After meeting with her today, Fitzgerald has now requested she testify tomorrow before the grand jury.

This doesn't bode well for Lewis Libby.

On the other hand, it does bode well for Judith Miller. Fitzgerald couldn't let her go back to the grand jury without a target warning if he viewed her as a putative defendant. Had he given her that warning, her lawyers would have had her take the 5th, not go back in and testify.

The New York Times provides this version of her appearance tomorrow. There's one comment by Kellor that doesn't make sense.

by Last Night in Little Rock

White House denizens are complaining that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is "very aggressive" and a "bully" as reported on CNN.com and picked up by leanleft.com.

That prosecutors are aggressive is reality and expected. Get used to it. That prosecutors are bullies depends upon which end of the subpoena one is standing.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Rep. Tom DeLay's defense attorneys have subpoenaed DA Ronnie Earle and two assistants to testify concerning alleged improper contacts with the grand jurors that indicted DeLay as reported here in their effort to get the indictments dismissed. Earle and his assistants, however, refused the subpoena because they had not been issued by the court clerk, so defense counsel will have to get the clerk to issue the subpoena and do it again.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The Oregonian reported Sunday that "Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, molested three female family members when they were pre-teens."

The Oregonian interviewed the family members, but Beres denies the allegations, a la Tom DeLay:

Great news. In the first opinion issued by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court ruled for the defendant in a murder case. Law Prof Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy has the details. Berman quips:

So, when playing the "law nerd" version of Trivial Pursuit, remember that the question "Who prevailed in the first written decision of the Roberts Court?," should be answered "convicted murderer Paul Allen Dye."

The case is Dye v. Hofbauer, No. 04-8384 (S. Ct. Oct. 11, 2005) (available here). More analysis is at Objective Justice.