Monday Update

by Steve

Here are some items for your review and comment.

First, the Washington Times tells us that Samuel Alito said some negative things about Roe v. Wade when he was trying to get a job with the Reagan White House. No surprise there. But I do think that the conservative groups are whistling past the graveyard if they think their pushback against the progressive TV campaign against Alito starting this week will be effective by reinforcing his views on employment discrimination, privacy, and gay rights.

Second, Murray Waas says that Rove is nowhere out of danger yet, because Fitzgerald is trying to see how much Libby wants to help himself at Rove’s expense. My guess is that Fitz will have a long wait, and that Scooter thinks of this as a badge of honor to protect his boss.

Third, as Kos says this morning, the recent story over the weekend about how much more money the RNC is raising than the DNC is nothing more than a hit piece against Dean, when in fact a look at the numbers shows that Dean has done a better job relative to the RNC than what McAuliffe raised back in 2003. It would be nice if the media actually paid attention to something far more significant for the DNC than a slanted hit piece at the instigation of Kenny-Boy Mehlman, you know, something like the kick-off of the 50-State Strategy tomorrow. I suspect that the true political media professionals will spend more time talking months from now about why the Democrats are competitive in more places than before. The truth is that Dean is doing fine.

Losing New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester is blaming Bush’s unpopularity for his loss.

Germany, Italy, and now Spain will investigate what the CIA has been doing with detainees that have been transported through their countries to torture-friendly endpoints.

The premature departure by the head of the CBO is, as Steve Clemons says, a loss for us all.

Before the White House’s latest spin effort gets too much steam behind it, please remember that they did make the claim that Saddam was an imminent threat, and any claim by them to the contrary would be, well shucks, just another lie as Jane notes over at FireDogLake.

If you want to see one element of how the Democrats in general, and a particular outgoing Democratic governor could wage a successful campaign in 2008, read Ruy Teixeira's op-ed in today's NYT.

And is anyone going to cry, or lose any sleep for the drug companies because their sales are down and their image is in the toilet? Not me.