The Brent Scowcroft profile and interview, “Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft Against the Bush Administration?” by Jeffrey Goldberg has just been posted in full on the New Yorker website. If you haven’t read it, you can read it here. — Steve Clemons Ed. note: Thanks to NG at Oxford for the tip.

I just posted this entry over at TPM Cafe. I found President Bush’s positive commentary about the IMF and the Argentina bail-out surprising and out of character given the intensity of the 1997-98 debate about IMF replenishment.

American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Norm Ornstein hits the Alito ball out of the park with a powerful, incisive op-ed today in Roll Call. Essentially, Ornstein makes the key point that Alito is hostile to Congress and its role in our system of government.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld just “tried” to slide a knife into Col. Lawrence Wilkerson during a press conference yesterday, but with a smile and “aw, shucks” grin on his face.

The tension is building. The more Frist fulminates and fumes at Harry Reid, the greater the Democratic leader becomes in the eyes of Americans, on both sides of the aisle. Finally, many are saying, the Democrats are doing something of consequence. And amidst this chaos, Republican cohesiveness is eroding.

Senator Harry Reid, in a motion seconded by Senator Richard Durbin, just called for a very rare closed door executive session of the Senate. This motion is called “Rule 21” so that Senators can discuss “secret matters.” I’m impressed.

I found this short article interesting. My friend and former colleague Gordon Silverstein has noted that Samuel Alito would be the 11th Roman Catholic ever appointed to the Supreme Court — and the 5th on this court. Catholicism used to be considered a political liability, but those tensions have appropriately subsided.

Nick Kristoff just put it all the way it should be put to Vice President Cheney this morning. Everywhere he appears, someone should be asking: “What did you know about Plame, the leak, and the cover-up and when did you know it?” Read the entire piece — particularly the powerful last line: So, Mr.

This is an interesting graphic representation of the Cheney-Rumsfeld network of fellow travelers in and outside the administration. If you click on the graphic, it will download a more readable and larger version.

President Bush moved to distract the nation from the fact that his White House is the first to sustain an indictment of one of its most senior officials in 130 years by nominating Appellate Court Judge Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.