CNN now has a State Department source contradicting other government sources who yesterday said immunity had been given to Blackwater guards by State Department investigators.
Late Update: CNN has walked back its story that immunity wasn’t offered and is now reporting that limited immunity was in fact offered by State:
No blanket immunity deal was offered to Blackwater guards for their statements regarding a shootout in Iraq last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, two senior State Department officials told CNN Tuesday.
However, some kind of limited immunity was apparently offered by State Department investigators when they questioned the Blackwater personnel apparently involved in the shootings, the officials said.
Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) has shown himself to be a pretty impressive cross-examiner, especially compared to the many clumsy questioners among his House colleagues. Today, he took a run at voting rights chief John Tanner–and made mincemeat of him.
Late Update: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)’s follow-up wasn’t bad either.
From the AP:
“We cannot send a signal that the next attorney general in any way condones torture or believes that the president is unconstrained by law,” said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
The Democratic front-runner said Mukasey has had plenty of chances to clarify his answers and state his opposition to interrogation techniques. “His failure to do so leaves me no choice but to oppose his nomination,” Clinton said.
Her statement, issued after other Democratic contenders declared their opposition to Mukasey, came as he prepared to deliver his answer on the question to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel must vote on whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate.
Too much attention on Rudy’s rubber room foreign policy advisors?
My pal Eli Lake (yes, complete neocon stooge and running dog but still my good friend, long story) has a new article out in the New York Sun noting how the Rudy team is getting a little uncomfortable about all the attention his advisors Norman Podhoretz, Michael Rubin, Daniel Pipes and others are getting. So they’re going to send out semi-sane advisor Charles Hill for a round of conversations with journalists, presumably to calm everyone’s nerves.
Rudy’s new line is that these are his advisors, until people start figuring out what cranks and screw-loosers they are, and then they’re not his advisors. All right then.
It does say a lot for Rudy’s judgment and foreign policy savvy that the folks from the rubber room crowd who even Bush keeps at arm’s length gravitate toward Rudy and vice versa.
Here’s our earlier run-down of some of the folks Rudy has advising him …
Dana Perino dodges all questions on Blackwater immunity in today’s White House press briefing:
Did Pat Leahy really fall for the latest White House bamboozle?
Breaking: Mukasey refuses–again–to call waterboarding torture.
Over at TPM Election Central, Greg has a post up about a mailer that the McCain campaign is distributing in South Carolina. You can take a look at the mailer and Greg’s post here.
But it raises another issue and with just about two months to go before the Iowa caucus, now’s as good a time as any to raise it.
We’re going to be depending on you, our readers, to help us provide the TPM brand of nitty gritty, retail-level campaign coverage in 2008. So we’ll be looking to you to alert us to things like that McCain mailer, as well as radio spots, TV ads, phone calls, campaign emails, and all the other campaign goings-on that might otherwise fly below the radar were it not for our national network of loyal readers. That goes for the presidential race, but also for Senate and House races, and any other race we happen to be covering.
So keep an eye out. We look forward to hearing from you–and thanks in advance.
Will Mukasey’s answers on waterboarding satisfy Senate Dems? Not Joe Biden.
Late Update: Leahy is “concerned” and Durbin says Mukasey’s answer “falls far short,” but neither tips his hand on how he will vote.