The blogosphere is all over the map on whether Monica Goodling has the right to invoke her 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refuse to testify before a Congressional committee investigating the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

• Christy at Firegoglake
• Eric as Is That Legal?
• Talking Points Memo
• Appellate lawyer Peter Goldberger in the comments to Big Tent Democrat's post here yesterday

I think she has the right to take the 5th. And, here's what a TalkLeft reader, who happens to be a former high-ranking Justice Department official during the Clinton Administration, whom I have known for many years and have the utmost respect for, writes in to say:

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Sad news from the White House today. Tony Snow's cancer has not only returned but spread to his liver. Cancer is not a political disease. I feel badly for him.

May he keep an optimistic attitude and keep up the fight.

Phillip Thompson, an aide to Virginia's Democratic Senator Jim Webb, was arrested today for bringing a semiautomatic, 9 millimeter pistol and two magazines through security at the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. Thompson faces felony charges of carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.

Another Congressional official briefed on the case said the aide had told the authorities that Mr. Webb gave him the pistol while being dropped at the airport and that he inadvertently took it to the Capitol complex.

Webb gave him the gun? He inadvertantly took it through security? There has to be more to this story.

When Robert Novak's Republican sources weigh in against Bush and Gonzales, it's worth a read.

"Gonzales never has developed a base of support for himself up here," a House Republican leader told me. But this is less a Gonzales problem than a Bush problem. With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress -- not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment.

Republicans in Congress do not trust Bush to protect them. That alone is sufficient reason to withhold statements of support for Gonzales, when such a gesture could be quickly followed by his resignation under pressure. ....

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Two of the fired U.S. Attorneys were on Meet the Press this morning. They said they believe they were fired for political purposes, there's a cloud over the Justice Department.

Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter, said Alberto Gonzales' credibility is at stake.

Now the attorney general's statement of just a few days ago has been contradicted by a fact,'' Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.,) said of Gonzales on NBC News' Meet the Press today. "He was involved in a meeting… It really raises a question of credibility.

"This shadow, this cloud, across the U.S. attorney offices all across the country has to be lifted,'' Durbin said, adding of Gonzales: "I don’t believe he enjoys the confidence of the American people or the Congress.''

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Florida Governor Jeb Bush won't be getting an honorary degree from the University of Florida. The Senate Faculty voted against it on Thursday.

Some faculty expressed concern about Bush's record in higher education.

"I really don't feel this is a person who has been a supporter of UF," Kathleen Price, associate dean of library and technology at the school's Levin College of Law, told The Gainesville Sun after the vote.

Other dealbreakers:

Bush's approval of three new medical schools during his tenure has diluted resources, Price told the newspaper.

Bush has also been criticized for his "One Florida" proposal, an initiative that ended race-based admissions programs at state universities.

Rejection is a rare phenomenon.

"It is unheard of that a faculty committee would look at candidates, make recommendations and then (those candidates) be overturned by the Senate."

I and other opposers of the Iraq supplemental funding bill are taken to task by a blog because of supposedly:

find[ing] a feeling of sickness because Move On dares to stick to it's founding principles . . . and applauding members of Congress who chose to vote the Dem line.

Following the Dem line is what Move On is about? It seems so but why then did Eli Parisier say:

"the job of a party is to get elected and the job of a movement is to promote ideas and an ideology," and that "we're definitely on the movement side of the equation. We don't want to be the party."

I buy that actually. I just think that Move On is incredibly wrong on the Iraq supplemental and will soon discover this. The tragedy is there is no going back. The die is cast. I predict that in a month Move On, MYDD, David Sirota, et al. will be vituperatively protesting against "cave in" Dems. They will be a month late with that cry.

Fred Hiatt can not understand why the Republicans blocked the voting rights bill for the District of Columbia:

WASHINGTONIANS probably could live with Republicans' sabotaging their latest chance at congressional representation; that's nothing new. More galling are those Republicans too gutless to admit their true position.

Well, I doubt Washingtonians are quite as nonchalant about their voting rights as Fred Hiatt is with their voting rights, but the intriguing question is 'what true position is that Mr. Fred'?

Mr. Fred asks:

The ferocity of GOP opposition to democracy for the District became clear last week when the White House dropped its pretend indifference in favor of an all-out assault, complete with the threat of a presidential veto. What's unclear are the reasons for this antipathy.

Unclear? What is it that you are not seeing Mr. Fred? Do you NOT see black people? There is your reason.

McClatchy newspapers has posted yesterday's document dump in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal.

The problem for Alberto Gonzales in a nutshell:

The e-mails, delivered to Congress Friday night, show that Gonzales attended an hourlong meeting on the firings on Nov. 27, 2006 - 10 days before seven U.S. attorneys were told to resign. The attorney general's participation in the session calls into question his assertion that he was essentially in the dark about the firings.

At a news conference last week, Gonzales said....
"We never had a discussion about where things stood," Gonzales said on March 13. "What I knew was that there was an ongoing effort that was led by Mr. Sampson ... to ascertain where we could make improvements in U.S. attorney performances around the country."

Also check out the LA Times:

More below, including the 16 day e-mail gap and DOJ lawyer Monica Goodling goes on personal leave.

Bloomberg News reports Harry Reid said on their tv program, to be aired this weekend, Alberto Gonzales will be gone in a month, "one way or the other."

As to the others,

``Certainly, Karl Rove, with his resume, would have to be under oath,'' Reid, 67, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' scheduled to air this weekend. ``He simply in my opinion, and I think the majority of the American people, is not trustworthy.''

The House and Senate judiciary panels voted this week to authorize subpoenas to compel testimony by Rove and other White House officials. The administration is insisting that the officials be permitted to talk in private with lawmakers and not under oath.

Reid stressed that he thinks a compromise is possible, and that not all officials need to give sworn statements. ``Well, I think that there could be some testimony taken in private'' and ``would be recorded,'' Reid said. ``We could do that.''

[Hat tip Raw Story.]

Remember when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he wasn't very involved in the firing of U.S. Attorneys?

He said at a news conference on March 13 that he had not participated in any discussions about the removals, but knew in general that his aides were working on personnel changes involving United States attorneys.

The AP now reports that documents released today show he signed off on the plan.

A Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Gonzales' aides said late Friday. There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was drafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week. Another Justice aide closely involved in the dismissals, White House liaison Monica Goodling, has also taken a leave of absence, two officials said.

[Hat tip Atrios.]

Update: The Daily Background provides a review and analysis of the newly released documents.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today defended the firing of Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay, even though a month before the firing, his Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, wrote e-mails to the White House Counsel's office urging support for McKay to be named a federal judge, saying "it's highly unlikely that we could do better."

Check the double speak. All of a sudden, Gonzales claims what Sampson writes is "just the opinion of one person."

"That doesn't represent the views of the department, nor does it represent my view," Gonzales said.

So now we have an Attorney General who allowed a loose cannon shooting off his mouth to serve as his Chief of Staff? What does that say about his leadership?

Update: Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake predicts things are going to get worse for the White House in this scandal.