Why Immunity Matters

"Officials from both sides acknowledged that there are probably enough votes in the House to pass the measure protecting telephone companies. But splitting the bill would give Democrats who oppose the immunity provision political cover for voting in favor of the broader legislation."

Glenn Greenwald blogs for Salon: "The signs are unmistakably clear that what was always inevitable -- full compliance by the House Democratic leadership with Bush's demands on warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty -- is now imminent. . . .

"This is, of course, everything except surprising. No rational person who has watched Congressional Democrats since they took over Congress could possibly have expected them to do anything but what they always do: namely, whatever they're told to do by the White House."

Greenwald's only question: "If the plan all along was to give Bush everything he wanted, as it obviously was, why not just do it at the beginning? Instead, they picked a very dramatic fight that received substantial media attention. . . .

"And now, after picking this fight and letting it rage for weeks, they are going to do what they always do -- just meekly give in to the President, yet again generating a tidal wave of headlines trumpeting how they bowed, surrendered, caved in, and lost to the President."

Plagiarist Resigns

Michael Abramowitz and William Branigin write in The Washington Post: "An aide to President Bush responsible for outreach to conservative and Christian groups resigned Friday after acknowledging that he had plagiarized material for a column he wrote for his hometown paper in Fort Wayne, Ind.

"Special assistant Tim Goeglein admitted lifting material from an essay about college education by former Dartmouth professor Jeffrey L. Hart and presenting it as his own in a guest column Thursday for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Other allegations of plagiarism quickly surfaced after Goeglein informed White House officials of the situation Friday morning, and by day's end he said he would step down. . . .

"Goeglein declined to discuss the matter. He referred questions to the White House press office, which released copies of apologetic e-mails he had sent to [the paper's editor] and Hart.

"'There are no excuses. I am entirely at fault, and you have my sincerest apology. I pray you will forgive me,' Goeglein, 44, said in the e-mail to Hart. Neither e-mail alluded to other cases of plagiarism or offered an explanation for the use of the plagiarized material. . . .

"Peter Wehner, a former Bush aide, said Goeglein was regarded as 'a person of sterling character' who was Bush's 'eyes and ears' in the conservative world. 'It is an important job, and he really developed a bond of trust with the conservative world,' Wehner said."

Here is the official statement from the White House press office.

Ashley Smith writes in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: "An internal investigation begun Friday has revealed that since 2000, Goeglein plagiarized 20 of 38 columns The News-Sentinel published. A review of his columns prior to 2000 continues."

Here's a list of the plagiarized columns and their sources.

Smith writes: "News-Sentinel Editorial Page Editor Leo Morris said writers of guest columns are given a certain level of trust to ensure the information they supply is correct and not plagiarized.

"'You don't have the time or the manpower to check everything that comes in,' he said.

"'If you can't trust the faith-based assistant to the president, who can you trust?'"

Nancy Nall, the blogger who first broke the story, was trying to make sense of it all over the weekend: "My guess is, Goeglein did what he did to be thought intellectually substantial, a thinker, the sort of guy who can keep up with the Buckleys' cocktail chatter. But what in the world would lead a young man with so much to lose to risk it all for such a small reward?"

Meanwhile, her commenters kept finding more examples of Goeglein's plagiarism. Apparently it wasn't limited to the Fort Wayne paper. One reader found that a piece Goeglein wrote for Poetry magazine was ripped off in part from the Wall Street Journal.

Bush Still There

The Associated Press briefly sent out a version of the Goeglein story with the headline: "Bush Resigns Because of Plagiarism."

The mistake was caught quickly, and "kill bulletins" promptly wiped away the offending headline -- but not before bloggers snagged screengrabs of the headline and the kill bulletins.

Contempt Watch

Laurie Kellman writes for the Associated Press: "Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to refer the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers committed no crime.

"As promised, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court."

From Pelosi's statement in response to Mukasey's letter: "By ordering the U.S. Attorney to take no action in response to congressional subpoenas, the Bush Administration is continuing to politicize law enforcement, which undermines public confidence in our criminal justice system."

Torture Watch

James Carroll writes in a Boston Globe op-ed: "A piece of legislation sits on the desk of President Bush today, awaiting his signature. Every expectation is that he will veto it. . . .

"The bill is the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal 2008, with a provision tying CIA interrogation techniques to the US Army Field Manual, which is explicit in prohibiting 'acts of violence or intimidation, including physical or mental torture, or exposure to inhumane treatment.' The CIA would henceforth be forbidden to engage in any kind of torture, but so would any 'instrumentality thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location.' The legacy of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, renditions, and black sites would finally be sealed. The United States would bind itself to one standard of interrogation, completely prohibiting any form of torture. The nation would be back in line with standards of the Geneva Convention, and, as a group of retired admirals and generals put it recently, with 'the moral principles on which this country was founded.'

"Dozens of former military leaders, in a campaign orchestrated by the human rights organization Human Rights First, have been actively working to get all forms of inhumane interrogation outlawed, including those practiced by the CIA. The three points the military leaders make are that information obtained through brutality is unreliable, American soldiers will be subject to similar mistreatment, and that procedures in violation of internationally recognized norms are dishonorable. . . .

"That torture is even a subject of debate in this country is a flabbergasting development."

For background, see my Feb. 14 column, A Question of Human Dignity.

Iraq Watch

Wisam Mohammed writes for Reuters: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed a new chapter in ties with Iraq and took a jab at the United States over its policies in the Middle East during a landmark visit to Baghdad on Sunday. . . .

"Pomp and ceremony greeted Ahmadinejad on his arrival, the fanfare a stark contrast to Bush's rushed and secretive visits. . . .

"Ahmadinejad's motorcade drove from Baghdad's airport to Talabani's presidential palace. Visiting foreign dignitaries normally fly by helicopter to avoid the dangerous airport road."

Sudarsan Raghavan and Amit R. Paley write in The Washington Post: "Declaring his visit 'a new chapter' in Iran's relations with Iraq, the Iranian leader signaled that his country now rivals the United States, the chief financial and military backer of Iraq's government, in terms of influence.

"Standing next to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, Ahmadinejad rejected American assertions, repeated as recently as Saturday by President Bush, that Iran was fueling violence inside Iraq.

"'We tell Mr. Bush that accusing others will increase the problems of America in the region and will not solve them,' Ahmadinejad told reporters inside the Green Zone, the fortified heart of the Iraqi government and the U.S. diplomatic mission here. 'The Americans have to understand the facts of the region. Iraqi people do not like America.'"

Library Watch, Part I

The Washington Post editorial board writes: "Imagine a country whose leader collected huge sums for his personal benefit from corporations, from wealthy individuals with interests before the government and maybe even from foreign countries. Imagine that the leader didn't have to reveal anything about the size of the checks or their sources. If this sounds like some corrupt, second-rate republic, think again. It's happened right here, in the United States, and it may be about to happen all over again. We refer, of course, to George W. Bush's presidential library, which recently finalized an agreement with Southern Methodist University to build a library, museum and public policy institute there, at an estimated cost of around $250 million."

Library Watch, Part II

Kathy A. Goolsby writes in the Dallas Morning News: "The Chronicle of Higher Education recently invited creative types to a challenge -- submit a design for the George W. Bush Library on the back of a No. 10 envelope. . . .

"The quirky request brought in some elaborate creations, but also a fair number of political digs. Some designs featured toilets, outhouses and one-book bookshelves. There were bunkers and temples, cross- and W-shaped buildings. One came with tissue paper smelling of gasoline."

Here are the nominees. And here is a video from the Chronicle's Scott Carlson describing the best, the worst, and the weirdest.

Don't miss these options: the bunker; suspended disbelief; the hole in the ground; and the cruciform plan, complete with the Statue of Liberty flipping the bird.

Cartoon Watch

It's the economy, stupid. John Sherffius on Bush as Hoover; Mike Luckovich on Bush's recession aversion therapy; Steve Kelley on perjury; Walt Handelsman on the view from inside the White House; Joel Pett on Bush's new economic plan.