The Daily Background

Monica, Monica
Gonzales’ right-hand woman, Monica Goodling has refused to even appear before the House Juduciary Committee as per Conyers’ request (demand?) yesterday that she plead the fifth to individual questions in a private interview and not a blanket fifth, which they say is not possible in this situation. Quite frankly, if there’s any type of red flag that should be raised about something that needs to be investigated as part of the US Attorney purge scandal, it’s somebody acting this way.

About that Syria trip
A few right-wingers have been making a big deal out of the fact that Nancy Pelosi has gone to Syria. Now, some sensible people have been making a big deal out of the fact that Republicans have done the same thing, and that the US embassy in Syria is cooperating with the Speaker’s trip and the trip of others.

We’ve had similar situations before. Right wingers made a big deal out of the fact that Kerry went to Syria, but ignored the fact that Specter (R-PA) did the same thing. My understanding is that the State Department, crippled as it is under this President, is interested in diplomacy (despite having a totally incompetent leader in this regard who has the initials of C.R.), and will help out American politicians in any way they can no matter where they go.

And they’ll do as much as they can especially if the country the person is visiting is not on our “nice” list. So while people may be making a big fuss over whether or not the US embassy is cooperating with Pelosi’s trip, the fact is is that State isn’t going to toe the Administration’s line in this regard.
2008
I understand Richardson will be in New Hampshire this afternoon, and hopefully by tomorrow I will have some “exclusive” pictures from a townhall event he’s doing tonight.

Numbers
The Obama campaign will release fundraising numbers today from their first Quarter, according to Ben Smith.

Iraq
3,257 (3,256 yesterday).

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