Couple of late notes

Item 1: Nancy Pelosi has a blog. Or her office does and they have the text of a letter from Henry Waxman to the White House Counsel regarding numerous security lapses in handling classified documents, including renewing Karl Rove's security clearance, refusing oversight efforts to simply document classified documents, and one White House official "leaving classified documents unattended in a hotel room."

Two thoughts. I say again that had this occurred under Clinton, Republicans would be besides themselves and the religious right would be leading the charge. Second, nice to see Waxman and others attempting to return something called "checks and balances" to our process.

Item2: Watched Olbermann tonight and thought that Dana Milbank completely undersold the importance of Richard Lugar's speech attacking our Iraq policy. It is a tipping point--one that might take longer than we want, but Republicans are starting to desert this sinking ship.

Item 3: Also saw this on Olbermann and it is just too funny. Turns out Bill O'Reilly had a 16 year old on his show and tried to brow beat him about a sex-ed program in Boulder. The kid (shock) was smarter than the bully and made Billo look silly:

"Last week, O'Reilly imploded during an interview with Jesse Lange, a rising junior at Boulder High School in Colorado (video above). He was on the program to address O'Reilly's criticism of the Boulder High sex-education program. Lange tells Radar that he knew he was brought on for an opposing view, but his main concern before the show was how to address O'Reilly. "I wasn't sure whether or not I should call him Bill or Mr. O'Reilly," Lange tells Radar. "In the end, I decided to call him Bill, because if I called him Mr. O'Reilly, it would imply that I viewed him as some sort of expert or authority figure." Lange also says that in a brief pre-show interview, O'Reilly asked him not to quote the incendiary parts from The O'Reilly Factor For Kids. "Bill expressly asked me not to talk about it on the air," he says, but the book was the perfect counterpoint to O'Reilly's thinly constructed premise.

When Lange did quote from the book, the hotheaded host got so defensive that he labeled Lange a "pinhead" and cut him off when he tried to read the kiddie propaganda book's inflammatory passages."

Item 4: Kudos to Elizabeth Edwards. As if I didn't like her already, she called Chris Matthews show during a shameful interview with Ann Coulter (Matthews justified it because he said she "sells books" and Edwards asked Coulter to stop the personal attacks. You know, like mocking their dead son.

Amazing that Coultergeist still has a platform. Shame on Matthews and anyone who buys her books. Good for Elizabeth Edwards.

Item 5: I have been pushing to impeach Cheney, but don't believe that the Dems have the guts to do it. I think, however, they should go back to the weak link in the Administration. No, not Bush. Gonzales. He is the least liked, least respected, and dumbest. Go after him and force him out, and then replace him with an actual lawyer. See what happens then. It won't fix everything, but it might do something.

On that note, btw, I have been musing about some of the between the lines stories coming out of several high profile events. The WaPo series on Cheney; the late night visit to Ashcroft's hospital bed, etc. In those stories, you find a couple of unlikely reasonable people. Ted Olson, John Ashcroft, Condi Rice and Colin Powell. Powell, we knew about, but I have been surprised to read about Rice dressing down Gonzales (though she appears cowed by Cheney), and even Ashcroft standing up to Cheney. Any possibility that Ashcroft and Powell were pushed out as well?