Howard Dean is the last man standing. Tim Roemer has dropped out of the race for DNC Chair.

It's curious that Roemer is still pitching that Dems need to be more inclusive and less divisive. What could be more divisive to Democrats than his anti-choice position:

Roemer said he hoped to make the party more inclusive, especially on the issue of abortion. He opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Contratulations, Dr. Dean.

Watergate's "Deep Throat" is ill and the Washington Post has already written his obituary, according to John Dean who also writes that Deep Throat's identity will be revealed shortly.

Dean thinks it's one of his former compatriots at the Nixon White House. He will be discussing this tonight on MSNBC's Countdown.

Over at Romanesko, Author Adrian Havill writes that Deep Throat is none other than former President George Walker Bush. Who is not ill, as far as we know. Editor and Publisher has more.

Time Magazine's cover story trumpets the 25 most influential evangelicals in America....all of them chafing at the bit to push Bush's faith-based initiatives.

Number 5 is the rehabilitated Charles Colson, who is praised by none other than Bush's former Solicitor General and Richard Mellon Scaife crony from American Spectator and Arkansas Project days, Ted Olson. Check out Media Transparency's analysis of religious groups funded largely by the Scaife Foundations.

Bump and Update: We wrote this Saturday but it's a big story today so we're bumping it.

***************
Here's what Bush is proposing in his new budget:

• slashing grants to local law enforcement agencies
• cutting spending for environmental protection,
• cutting funds for American Indian schools
• cutting funds for home-heating aid for the poor

He's alloting 1/2 the amount he allotted last year for school districts in poor neighborhoods. Here are some more details:

According to this Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial , young workers are the real victims of Bush's proposed social security revisions.

Please pay attention, young workers, because you get taken to the cleaners by his plan.

Bush is not telling the truth when he says that private acccounts would offset the future cuts he proposes for everyone, thereby leaving younger workers better off. The paper lays out the numbers to show how twisted his logic is.

More lies concern the claimed wnership and inheritance features of Bush's proposed plan:

Following Simon Rosenberg, Donnie Fowler has dropped out of the race for DNC Chair. That leaves Howard Dean. (Roemer may still be in but he's toast.)

Dean will get the job. He'll do a great job, the Democrats should be pleased. Congratulations, Dr. Dean.

Senator Chris Dodd gave a moving speech in the Senate in opposition to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It was personal for Dodd. It's very impressive, I highly recommend reading it.

In related Connecticut news, Senator Joe Lieberman characterized the kiss Bush gave him at the State of the Union address as a "manly embrace." Here's the kiss in close-up. You decide if Lieberman could have mistaken it for a "manly embrace."

[Via Political Wire.]

Jesselyn Radack, whistleblower and former legal advisor in the Justice Department's Professional Responsibility Section, who advised a federal prosecutor that "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh should not be questioned without a lawyer, writes this op-ed about Michael Chertoff in Friday's Los Angeles Times. She begins:

On Wednesday, in hearings on his nomination to be head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff had this to say: "If you are dealing with something that makes you nervous, you'd better make sure that you are doing the right thing. And you'd better check it out…. You had better be very careful to make sure that whatever it is you decide to do falls well within what is required by the law."

I could hardly believe my ears.

Bump and Update: Simon Rosenberg posted the following statement to "fellow Kossaks" at DailyKos:

Today I endorsed Howard Dean to be the next chair of the DNC. While I am disappointed that I did not win, I believe Governor Dean - with help from all of us - will be a good Chairman and will help write a new and better chapter to the already remarkable story of our Party. My full statement is below in the extended entry.
As for you all, thank you. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for your concern about our Party. Thank you for the money you've raised, the people you've touched, the passion you bring and your fighting spirit that has inspired me every day for so long now. You are doing good my friends. Keep it up. We still have a lot of work to do.

Sen. John Kerry (via e-mail):

"I will vote against the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General. As Counsel to the President he committed grave errors in formulating the administration's detention and interrogation policies which have put American troops in greater danger. American presidents for decades have believed in the Geneva Conventions because they protect American troops captured by the enemy. It's a mistake to choose as our nation's chief law enforcement officer someone who called these protections 'quaint' and opened a Pandora's Box that has tarred America's image in the world and placed our troops at even greater risk.

It's official. Alberto Gonzales has been confirmed as our Attorney General

The Senate voted 60-36 to put the first Hispanic ever into the job, with all of the "no" votes coming from Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Last week, 12 Democrats and Jeffords voted against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's confirmation.

Reactions:

Bump and Update: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) gave this statement (html) on the floor of the Senate today opposing Alberto Gonalzes' nomination for Attorney General. Here's a portion from the last segment:

I respect and admire Alberto Gonzales for his inspiring life story and the many obstacles he has overcome. Some of my colleagues suggested his life story embodies the American dream. But there is more to the American dream than overcoming difficult circumstances to obtain prominence and prosperity. We also must honor Fred Korematsu's dream that our country be true to the fundamental principle upon which it was founded: the rule of law.

.....I cannot in good conscience vote to reward a man who ignored the rule of law and the demands of human decency and created the permissive environment that made Abu Ghraib possible.