by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
Republican presidential candidates held a mostly polite debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in which the hottest action consisted of Fred Thompson, the former senator from Tennessee, hitting Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who has polled well in the important southern primary state, as Thompson tried to peel away Huckabee's conservative support.
With the presidential campaign moving to larger states like Michigan, gone are the living-room meet-and-greets as Republican candidates make quick stops on airport tarmacs around the state and rely on TV ads in the run-up to next week's Michigan primary.
Bank of America said it would buy, for $4 billion in stock Countrywide Financial, the troubled lender and nation's largest mortgage lender, buffeted by its heavy reliance on sub-prime mortgages and other unconventional home loan products.
President Bush said Palestinian refugees who were driven off their land during the establishment of Israel should receive compensation, a change in position, and said Israel should end its occupation of lands it seized after the 1967 war with Arab states.
The promise of electric cars has been held out as one of the solutions to the nation's oil dependence but car makers haven't yet figured out how to make batteries small and cheap enough and to minimize the risk of fires.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested the central bank could make significant interest-rate cuts in order to reduce some of the downside risk to the economy.
Rep. John Doolittle, who came under federal criminal investigation, along with his wife, as part of the probe into disgraced Washington lobbyists Jack Abramoff, announced that he would retire from Congress but denied that it had anything to do with the investigation.
Comments by Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton that appeared dismissive of the contributions of Martin Luther King Jr. in the passage of civil-rights legislation and of Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy gave heartburn to the most powerful black in the congressional leadership, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, and set off rumblings that he might move from being neutral to endorsing Obama, which would be a boon to the Illinois center and major blow to Clinton.
The Air Force is trying to afix blame for a manufacturing defect in the aging F-15 fighter that caused one to break apart in flight last year. To do so, the service is combing through decades' old contracts in the hopes of pinning down liability.
• 
• 
• 
• 
Comments
"In other news the biased Swamp wants to keep from their readers..." For the first time in memory, it has snowed in Baghdad! The Swamp Libune reporters refuse to report the gods are happy. Than again, who would I rather have report on this sign of holly victory? Reporters who are certified in reporting or me who is certified in complaining. I pick me and my friends. Reporters would probably liken the snow to that convenient truth about that non-issue, global warming.
Posted by: Newspaperman | January 11, 2008 10:32 AM
Who won the ABC Republican Debate in South Carolina?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=1503
.
Posted by: PollM | January 11, 2008 11:38 AM
"In other news the biased Swamp wants to keep from their readers..." For the first time in memory, it has snowed in Baghdad! The Swamp Libune reporters refuse to report the gods are happy. Than again, who would I rather have report on this sign of holly victory? Reporters who are certified in reporting or me who is certified in complaining. I pick me and my friends. Reporters would probably liken the snow to that convenient truth about that non-issue, global warming.
___________________________
Well, I had a different comment until I read this comment. But now I know why the connies think the Conservabune is not what they insist it is. They can't read, write, spell, or use grammar properly. Wow, the depth and level of illiteracy in the comment is amazing. Probably an English firster too! Next time a knee jerk, insufferable, fear-mongering 9/11-Tourette's suffering, un-medicated gun-fondling, lying, truthiness-telling idiopathic, bloodthirsty, Constitution-shredding reichwinger posts stuff like this I'll definitely pity johndyslin because I know he is completely illiterate and incapable of using English like, oh, I don't know, illegal immigrants deserving of amnesty.
Posted by: rncbs | January 11, 2008 6:34 PM
Posted by: rncbs | January 11, 2008 6:34 PM
______________
Wow, my Brucebot parody struck a cord.... ^^^ Hands down THE best comment ever!
On another note, other potential Pulitzer Prize pieces...
Oh and BTW - so predictable! Like a rat in a amze.
Posted by: RNCBS | December 11, 2007 11:15 PM
That is, if you know what a book is. faux noise doesn't usually include citations.
Posted by: rncbs | December 1, 2007 6:26 PM
And in other news, the.worst.vice.president.in.history is going to make America less safe:
Posted by: rncbs | November 30, 2007 7:56 PM
Who cares. baseball is dead
Posted by: rncbs | December 14, 2007 5:48 PM
does anyone get roger morris? i don't. maybe i'm just dumb.
Posted by: rncbs | December 14, 2007 7:29 PM
They've been trying THAT for thousands of years,and he thought he could do it in Iraq, and so far he's failed miserably (like all his business ventures) and he'll fail in this too.
What a joke this is. The worst vice president in the history of the universe.
Posted by: rncbs | January 10, 2008 11:54 AM
So now for the next 12 months, bu$hco, when ever asked about this, will say there is an ongoing investigation and they can't talk about.
Posted by: rncbs | January 2, 2008 5:25 PM
You typo, love your periods, lack capitals, and and and and end your sentences in odd places. You have set the bar high for my Brucebot parodies. Thanx.
Posted by: Newspaperman | January 12, 2008 1:50 AM