King-Sized Mistake

"If you are interested in a vapid and insulting Republican response - which ran along the lines of 'oh those mean, evil, Democrats are politicizing a great woman's funeral' (to which one might note - uh, she was a political activist who opposed pretty much everything the president stands for and was the subject of a host of big-government abuses including wiretaps you dumbasses . . . so, what? people aren't supposed to honor her work and her interests at her funeral?)"

SusanG at Kos is fightin' mad:

"Not only do these hypocritical conservatives want to step in and tell me and my family that I can be kept alive for years against my wishes, a petri dish harboring their precious 'culture of life,' now they want to control the 'message' at my funeral. Well ... I've got news for them. It's time they shut their yaps, this GOP party of control freaks extraordinaire.

"Not that I plan on departing anytime soon, but the hyped-up, hand-wringing caterwauling about the 'politicizing' of Coretta Scott King's funeral makes me inclined to officially endorse any political use that can be made of my death. Just to [tick] them off, you know."

The liberal group Think Progress is trumpeting an e-mail from Jack Abramoff, sent to Washingtonian editor Kim Eisler, who says the convicted lobbyist told him he's met Bush almost a dozen times and talked about details of Abramoff's family:

"HE HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET. IT WAS ONE IF [sic] HIS TRADEMARKS, THOUGH OF COURSE HE CAN'T RECALL THAT HE HAS A GREAT MEMORY! THE GUY SAW ME IN ALMOST A DOZEN SETTINGS, AND JOKED WITH ME ABOUT A BUNCH OF THINGS, INCLUDING DETAILS OF MY KIDS. PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. WHO KNOWS."

John Dickerson reveals his tangential involvement in the Plame leak when he was at Time (in a Slate piece titled "Hey Pat, Where's My Subpoena"):

On a trip to Africa, a "senior administration official spoke to me on background about Wilson and the president's amazing decision to blame the CIA. Other reporters wandered in and out of the conversation, but there were stretches where it was just the two of us (my tedious newsmagazine questions always had a tendency to drive other deadline-oriented reporters away). The official walked me through all the many problems with Wilson's report: His work was sloppy, contradictory, and hadn't been sanctioned by Tenet or any senior person. Some low-level person at the CIA was responsible for the mission. I was told I should go ask the CIA who sent Wilson. . . .

"An hour later, as Bush spoke at an AIDS treatment center, I chatted with a different senior administration official, also on background. We talked about many different aspects of the story--the fight with the CIA, the political implications for the president, and the administration's shoddy damage control. This official also pointed out a few times that Wilson had been sent by a low-level CIA employee and encouraged me to follow that angle. I thought I got the point: He'd been sent by someone around the rank of deputy assistant undersecretary or janitor."

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake questions why we're hearing this now: "It grows ever more apparent that Time Magazine's hands are exceptionally dirty here, joining NBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post in the Plame Hall of Shame."

On the cartoon front, some people have given up their jobs, reports the New York Observer :

"The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out Wednesday, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight.