Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has lawyered up. His lawyer is George Terwilliger, one of the top contenders named as a replacement for Gonzales. Terwilliger provided legal advice to Bush in the 2000 election recount case and served as Deputy AG under Bush I.

Newsweek reports Gonzales' chief concern is DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine's investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings, the Ashcroft hospital visit over the NSA warrantless wiretapping program and whether Gonzales lied to Congress in his testimony about either or both.

One former administration official close to Gonzales’s team (who, like others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity in talking about an ongoing probe) said the former attorney general is concerned that Fine may end up making a criminal referral to the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department—or even seek the appointment of a special counsel to determine if Gonzales made false statements to Congress.

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I've missed a few big stories making the rounds of the blogosphere today, so here's a place for you to discuss them, or anything else that's on your mind.

• The S-Chip debate and blogospheric dust-up over the Frost Family. If you're new to the story, check out this New York Times and this Baltimore Sun article. Then read Ezra Klein here and here.

• Christy at Firedoglake on FISA News and Obfuscations

And stories not making the rounds:

• Qwest former CEO Joe Nacchio filed his appeal brief today in his bid to overturn his insider trading conviction. I've uploaded it here (pdf) and am about to read it before heading to Boulder for the rest of the day.

• Real Lawyers Have Blogs has an interview with me on lawyering and blogging and the future direction of TalkLeft should a Democrat be elected in 2008.

I'm still working on my taxes which need to get to the accountant tomorrow, and it's a gorgeous day outside so here's an open thread.

Some things to read:

• Sentencing Law and Policy on Sex Offender Ghettos

• Via Norwegianity, take the Online Candidate Quiz.

• The Washington Post reports the Dems are poised to introduce new electronic surveillance legislation./li>

House Democrats plan to introduce a bill this week that would let a secret court issue one-year "umbrella" warrants to allow the government to intercept e-mails and phone calls of foreign targets and would not require that surveillance of each person be approved individually.

• Marcy at Next Hurrah adds her thoughts.

• Law Prof and blogger Ann Althouse has been posting great photos of New York and Brooklyn. Turns out, she's re-located there for the year as a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law.

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I'm trying to get my taxes ready for the accountant. I've been working on them for days and it's crunch time.

So, here's an open thread for you. If anyone writes diaries, I'll add a link to them here.

I've gotten tagged by the Blawg Review's La Meme Chose: Simply the Best. While they didn't name TalkLeft, others who got tagged did (thank you Law Sites and Deliberations) so now it's my turn.

Without further ado, here's my list of daily reads of blogs covering legal issues or blogging.

• Sentencing Law and Policy
• How Appealing
• Scotus Blog
• Balkanization
• Bench Conference
• WSJ Law Blog
• Stand Down Texas Project
• Drug War Rant
• Grits for Breakfast
• Real Lawyers Have Blogs

(Since LNILR contributes to TalkLeft, I'm not naming his Fourth Amendment blog -- or the blogs who named TalkLeft -- to avoid the appearance of favoritism and reciprocity.)

Honorable mention goes to Capital Defense Weekly, the DUI Blog, the White Collar Crime Blog and Think Outside the Cage.

There are many great law blogs out there and I hope you'll check all the lists going around.

There's quite a few new diaries on TalkLeft, I hope you will check them out and recommend those you like.

• Life Was His Sentence, Life Was What He Got Back

• Krugman, Economics and the Next Civil War

• Obama Begins His Offensive Against Hillary

• Phoenix Airport Fatality

• A Dominican Heroine

I just landed at O'Hare after a nine hour flight from Madrid and am waiting to change planes to get back to Denver.

One constant thought I've had since packing the night before I left: International travel is exceedingly overrated. Thanks to Lexis Nexis and Martindale Hubbell, all of the board members flew business class (first class on the domestic portions.) I flew Denver to Chicago on American and then Iberia Airlines to Madrid. Iberia was terrific, seats that converted to flat beds for sleep, electrical outlets, even excellent food and champagne. Once in Madrid we stayed at the five star Ritz -- elegant with a great location, across the street from the Prado Museum and Botanic Gardens.

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I get to celebrate my birthday today in Madrid which is pretty cool. Almost enough to make me forget I'm the same age as Bruce Springsteen and Barry Scheck (although still younger than Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.)

Have a great day everyone, and here's your open thread.

In the tpmcafe discussion of Matt Bai's new book,"The Argument," mcjoan writes one of the best pieces I've seen on what the Netroots is. A snippet:

Just about every lefty blogger I know came to online activism because of their core belief in a traditionally liberal governing philosophy. It's best summed up by Matt Stoller in response to Jonathon Chait's thoughtful look at the blogs in TNR from a few months ago.

Basically, we're a group of people who feel very betrayed by the leadership of our country, our media, and our party. We care about ideas because bad ideas implemented tend to kill lots of innocent people, and we don't like that. We are liberal because we believe in liberal ideas, and by and large, we've been proven correct. The Iraq war was a terrible idea. Bush has been a horrible President. Running on Iraq in 2006 was a good idea. Stopping Social Security privatization was possible and necessary. A 50 state strategy made sense because a wave election was foreseeable. Don't trust the telecom companies with the internet. Let's figure out this global warming thing.

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A big thanks to TChris and Big Tent for posting while I'm in Madrid.

The big news here is the military crackdown in Burma (now called Myanmar)in which Buddhist monks are being beaten and arrested. Eight people have been killed by police firing weapons into crowds of protesters. A Japanese journalist was also killed.

CNN keeps reporting that since journalists aren't being granted entry, it is getting its reporting from citizen journalists.

I'm off to our opening reception and dinner so here's an open thread for those of you with other topics to discuss.

Plane reading: The new Rolling Stone has an oral history of Hunter S. Thompson's early years by those who knew him then. It's great reading and available online here.

I liked a lot of the new diaries, but these stood out to me:

Will Life Imitate Art?, by Kristin Levingston of Brennan Blog, about a cop, Charles Crew, returning to the justice system that wrongly convicted him of murder, along with discussion other matters.

A Profile of Lula, by Randinho, discussing a NYTimes piece on the labor leader/political dissident who rose to become the President of Brazil.

A Systems Analysis of Iraq, by John Horse, discussing the an analytical systems approach to evaluating the Iraq failures.

More great stuff in the recommended and recent diary lists. Check it out.

I'm getting ready to leave leaving for Madrid for the annual Lexis-Nexis Legal Advisory Board meeting.

Big Tent Democrat, TChris and maybe LNILR will be posting in my absence, so be sure to check in. The Dems are debating tonight and Larry Craig's plea withdrawal hearing is today, and I'm pretty sure they will cover those as well as any other big news. We'll also do diary rescues, (details here) so feel free to contribute your own posts.

I'll be checking in occasionally. In the meantime, here's an open thread.

Update: For legal readers out there, if you have an opinion of what Lexis Nexis and/or Martindale Hubbell are doing right and what they need to improve, or are willing to share your perception of their value and service to your practice, please send me an e-mail. I won't share your name if you ask me not to. They really would like to know. (And I might get extra brownie points at the meeting.)