BOISE — Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will announce Saturday he will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men’s room, Republican officials said today, according to The Associated Press. The Idaho Statesman independently confirmed the report.

Craig's office declined to confirm or deny a resignation.

Craig's communications director Dan Whiting told the Idaho Statesman, "I won't say either way."

It's official a public servant for 27yrs is now resigning because of his "wide-stance".

--timball

UPDATED 4:48 p.m. -- Craig to announce resignation on Saturday | News Updates | Idaho Statesman

In Friday's Washington Post Dan Eggen and I examine two expanding fronts of the Justice Department's internal investigation into Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his top subordinates.

Justice's Inspector General and its Office of Professional Responsibility acknowledged they are examining Gonzales's recent congressional testimony for potential lies or false statements under oath, but in addition we unearthed a key document that serves as a mini-road map for a different portion of the now sprawling probe. This part of the investigation is examining whether Gonzales's top aides improperly and possibly illegally used political considerations in the hiring process at the Justice Department.

A cover letter [PDF] and 12-page questionnaire [PDF] sent out by IG-OPR investigators went to hundreds of people who were interviewed by four top aides to Gonzales over a 40-month period, from Jan. 1, 2004 through this past April. That's a much longer timeframe than was previously known to be under inquiry by Justice's investigators, who began this spring by examining the propriety of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year and now have a multi-faceted probe on their hands.

...

• The investigators are particularly focused on whether Goodling and other Justice officials were using personal political questions when making hiring decisions. Investigators want to know if interviewees were asked:

- to name "your favorite president, legislator, public figure, or Supreme Court justice"
- "what kind of conservative you were (law and order; social; fiscal)"
- what was "your position on the war on terror"

a) Your mother
b) N/A
c) not to land in gitmo

--timball

Document Shows Widening Probe Into DOJ Hiring - Capitol Briefing

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, one of Washington's most influential voices on defense policy, whose political plans could have a significant impact on the partisan makeup of a narrowly divided Senate, announced today that he will not seek a sixth term.

Warner, 80, announced his decision at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he received his law degree in 1953. His retirement is unwelcome news for his fellow Republicans, who hope to take control of the Senate next year. Democrats hold a 51 to 49 lead.

So Senator Warner goes. Which is weird cause I can't imagine a senate w/o him (I just turned 30, he's been in the Senate 5 terms). On so many issues he's been a hawk but his resent demand that 5k troops come home by december was a huge blow to stay-the-course-ers.

At 80 yrs young he's still got that vinegar and spit (along w/ a work ethic not seen in some younger senators) that VA voters love, but now he's forced a time for change. Open seat fun run!

--timball

Va. Senator Warner Will Not Seek Sixth Term

Snow, 52, a former journalist and Fox News talk show host, has signaled in recent weeks that he probably would not finish the remainder of the Bush presidency, primarily because of financial concerns. He was leaving, he said today, "because I ran out of money."

Snow, the father of three children, earns $168,000 a year as the White House spokesman but made considerably more as an anchor for "Fox News Sunday" and a political analyst for the Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996. He also hosted "The Tony Snow Show" on Fox News Radio.

How do you make $170k/yr and go broke? ... Ah yes. Subprime.

--timball

White House Press Secretary Snow Resigns - washingtonpost.com

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation for months, submitted it to President Bush by telephone on Friday, a senior administration official said. There had been rumblings over the weekend that Mr. Gonzales’s departure was imminent, although the White House sought to quell the rumors.

OMFG! He PHONED IT IN! Oh hollywood you've made us all stupidier.

--timball

Embattled Attorney General Resigns - New York Times

WASHINGTON - Karl Rove, President Bush's close friend and chief political strategist, plans to leave the White House at the end of August, joining a lengthening line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the administration.

On board with Bush since the beginning of his political career in Texas, Rove was nicknamed "the architect" and "boy genius" by the president for designing the strategy that twice won him the White House. Critics call Rove "Bush's brain."

The DCoS is finally leaving the WH, maybe after he leaves he could finally testify before of Congress... But that's probably been the plan all along. Get all the ducks in row and leave scott free. I guess the next shoe to drop will be AG "Judge" Gonzales.

Here's a link to the original WSJ article

--timball

Karl Rove to resign at end of August - Yahoo! News

"I write at the direction of the President to advise and inform you that the President has decided to assert executive privilege and therefore the White House will not be making any production in response to these subpoenas for documents,"

oversight is overrated

--timball

Bush Won't Supply Subpoenaed Documents - washingtonpost.com

Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office of vice president. This series examines Cheney's largely hidden and little-understood role in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment.
Today: Part 1
Working in the Background

A master of bureaucracy and detail, Cheney exerts most of his influence out of public view.
Monday: Part 2
Wars and Interrogations

Convinced that the “war on terror” required “robust interrogations” of captured suspects, Dick Cheney pressed the Bush administration to carve out exceptions to the Geneva Conventions.

Tuesday: Part 3
Dominating Budget Decisions

Working behind the scenes, Dick Cheney has made himself the dominant voice on tax and spending policy, outmaneuvering rivals for the president’s ear.
Wednesday: Part 4
Environmental Policy

Dick Cheney steered some of the Bush administration’s most important environmental decisions — easing air pollution controls, opening public parks to snowmobiles and diverting river water from threatened salmon.

"Angler" is VP Cheney's SS code name. The wapo is gonna do a 4 day expose on the OVP. Should be required reading.

--timball

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency | washingtonpost.com

The House Oversight Committee is demanding that Vice President Cheney explain himself. Is his office part of the executive branch? Part of the legislative branch? Or is Cheney suggesting that as far as federal rules are concerned, his office essentially doesn't exist?

The issue at hand is Cheney's insistence that his office is exempt from an executive order issued by President Bush in 2003 requiring all federal agencies or "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" to report annually on its activities regarding the classification, safeguarding and declassification of national security information.

As Mark Silva reported in the Chicago Tribune in April 2006, Cheney's office maintains that its dual executive and legislative duties (the vice president also serves as president of the Senate) make it uniquely exempt from such rules.

Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the Oversight Committee, begs to differ, and wrote a letter to Cheney this morning saying so.

The argument is funny, but clearly bogus. The EO doesn't make any special exceptions for the OVP... But if the OVP isn't part of the executive branch how come the OVP uses the WH's webserver? http://www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/

--timball

Cheney: Neither Here Nor There? - washingtonpost.com

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is changing his party affiliation from "Republican" to "unaffiliated", a move certain to fuel talk that he is preparing for an independent run for president in 2008.

Mike Bloomberg: Registered Independent - The Fix