And now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine:
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Courting Cooperation
A couple of years back Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign (search) and fellow Nevada Sen. Harry Reid (search), a democrat, struck a deal. The deal would let Reid choose one of four nominees to be presented to President Bush for vacancies on the state’s U.S. District Court. Well, Sen. Ensign has handed in the list of names, and Sen. Reid’s own son, Leif Reid, is on it. Leif Reid is a 35-year-old litigation attorney who’s been practicing law for about seven years and hasn’t made partner yet. Sen. Reid’s office says the pick was “entirely Ensign’s decision,” but that Sen. Reid “didn’t object.”
Warranted War?
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (search), who created a firestorm right before Operation Iraqi Freedom, began by saying President Bush “failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war” seems to have undergone a change of heart. The Argus Leader in Daschle’s home state of South Dakota quotes the senator as saying Bush now deserves “great credit” for his leadership. In addition, the Aberdeen News in South Dakota says Daschle now thinks the war in Iraq was justified, even if coalition forces don’t find weapons of mass destruction. Daschle says regime change itself was a legitimate goal, adding, “In 21 days we eliminated somebody who for 20 years has repressed and tortured his own people and posed a serious risk not only to his country, but to countries all over the world, including the United States.”
Suspicious Similarities
And remember The New York Times reporter we told you about on Wednesday, whose article about a Texas mother’s son lost in battle in Iraq was suspiciously similar to an article in the San Antonio Express-News a week earlier? Well, The New York Times reporter Jayson Blair has handed in his resignation. Following an internal review, The Times says it has been “unable to determine what original reporting Mr. Blair did” and “regrets this breach of journalistic standards.” But this apparently isn’t anything new. The Washington Post says Blair has run into a number of problems with the Times, forcing his newspaper to run 50 corrections on his stories.
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