David Broder take note. Via Greg Sargent, Beltway insider Stu Rothenberg says Dems are the moderate political party:

If you really want to see how times have changed across the nation in general, and on Capitol Hill in particular, all you need to do is consider both the way high-profile Democrats have reacted to recent events and how the Democrats are proceeding in Congress. It’s stunning, and that’s not mere hyperbole. . . . So far, in other words, there is little or no evidence that Democratic leaders are being dragged away from their post-election strategy of keeping toward the political center and demonstrating their moderation.

On substance, the post is utter nonsense, but who cares really? The important thing here is that Beltway insider Stu Rothenberg says the Dems are the moderate party.

Pass the word. We are the middle.

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.

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.

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.

The entire membership of the Democratic Caucus, including Joe Lieberman, wrote this letter responding to David Broder's silliness:

In this post, TalkLeft cautioned against the euphoria that might spring from news that Karl Rove is under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel. Adding to that cautionary note is this story about Scott Bloch, who heads that office.

For three-and-a-half years, Scott Bloch has managed to hang onto his job as head of the federal government’s Office of Special Counsel, despite a flurry of allegations about anti-gay discrimination, cronyism, political use of his office, retaliatory firing of staff, and general incompetence. ... Bloch is a die-hard conservative whom Bush stood by when congressional Democrats assailed him. Moreover, Bloch told the Times that his investigation would work independently of others, including House Democrats, which could allow him to bury unsavory tidbits. This is a highly unusual — unprecedented, even — use of the Special Counsel’s powers, making it irregular to the point of odd.

Additional skepticism is reported in this LA Times article.

This reaction from Obama is noteworthy to me because he may finally be learning that playing nice with Republicans gets you nowhere:

Rudy Giuliani today has taken the politics of fear to a new low and I believe Americans are ready to reject those kind of politics. America’s mayor should know that when it comes to 9/11 and fighting terrorists, America is united. We know we can win this war based on shared purpose, not the same divisive politics that question your patriotism if you dare to question failed policies that have made us less secure. . . .

I liked the sarcastic "America's Mayor" crack. Good job by Obama. Hillary, who already knows that playing nice with Republicans is a waste, ripped the GOP and Bush. Edwards also danced on Rudy's head, but he gave up the Johnny Sunshine schtick long ago and has been knocking heads for a while. Obama was the one needing a lesson. Maybe he got one.

Think Progress reports that the House Judiciary Committee has voted to grant Monica Goodling immunity for her testimony about the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

On MSNBC yesterday, fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, in addition to saying he filed a Complaint with the Office of Special Counsel against Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales (and Goodling) for violating the Hatch Act,

It’s is something I filed back on April 3 of this year…based on, you know, Special Counsel having powers to investigate where evidence goes. I actually filed a Hatch Act complaint against Gonzales, McNulty, Sampson and Goodling and they’re already getting documents from the Justice Department and possibly from the White House. […]

...I think Monica Goodling is holding the keys to the kingdom. I think if they get her to testify under oath with a transcript, and have her describe the process between the information flow between the White House counsel, White House and the Justice Department, I believe the picture becomes a lot clearer.

As to Rove,

More...

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a possible explanation for the traffic accident that sent New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to the hospital.

New Jersey State Police are investigating an allegation that the trooper who was driving Gov. Corzine's SUV two weeks ago when it crashed going 91 m.p.h. may have been distracted by e-mails sent to his mobile phone or BlackBerry.

Perhaps Trooper Rasinski is adept at checking his BlackBerry while driving at high speeds, but was startled by the content of the messages.

A Berkeley Heights police sergeant was quoted in the Star-Ledger of Newark yesterday saying he sent an e-mail shortly before the crash to Trooper Robert Rasinski, confronting him over having a two-year affair with his wife, Susan. He said he enclosed a family photo as an attachment.

U.S. News & World Report’s David E. Kaplan, in Foreign Affairs, reveals a pending class action lawsuit by past and present female CIA employees over alleged bias in the handling of “close and continuing” relationships with foreigners. From the press release (no link, received by e-mail):

The article reports never-before-told stories of female case officers falling in love and paying for it by losing their careers -- while men in similar situations, they say, merely got their wrists slapped.

For the details, see below:

As TalkLeft reported here, the Seventh Circuit reversed Georgia Thompson's conviction and ordered her immediate release from prison before issuing a written decision. (Additional TalkLeft posts here and here raise questions about US Attorney Biskupic's handling of the prosecution.)

Today the Seventh Circuit issued its well-reasoned opinion (pdf) explaining the reversal. There's a lesson in it for Congress, as well as for overreaching federal prosecutors:

This prosecution, which led to the conviction and imprisonment of a civil servant for conduct that, as far as this record shows, was designed to pursue the public interest as the employee understood it, may well induce Congress to take another look at the wisdom of enacting ambulatory criminal prohibitions. Haziness designed to avoid loopholes through which bad persons can wriggle can impose high costs on people the statute was not designed to catch.

Further cementing in the public record the public's growing disdain for the Bush administration, the Vermont Senate passed a nonbinding resolution today calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Bush and Cheney's actions in the U.S. and abroad, including in Iraq, "raise serious questions of constitutionality, statutory legality, and abuse of the public trust," the resolution reads.