Droppin’ like flies (from Roll Call …)

In a second blow to House Republicans this week, the FBI raided a business tied to the family of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) Thursday afternoon as part of an ongoing investigation into the three-term lawmaker.

Details of the raid on Patriot Insurance Agency in Sonoita, Ariz., were not immediately available. Renzi’s most recent financial disclosure form lists the business as an asset belonging to his wife, Roberta, and valued at $1 million to $5 million.

A lot’s been said so far about Attorney General Gonzales’s testimony today. I’ve said plenty myself. The key though was the response from the committee’s Republicans. You know that Sen. Coburn (R-OK), an extremely conservative but not necessarily party-regular senator, told Gonzales he should resign. There was more though. Two other Republican senators, I think, basically told Gonzales that they weren’t going to tell him to resign but that he should. That’s my interpretation of Sens. Specter and Graham’s statements, certainly. And you don’t have to agree. But I think it’s a fair one. And even Sen. Sessions (R-AL), who normally I’d expect to be signing the administration line, was pretty damning.

I think it’s fair to say that Gonzales has lost the confidence of at least half the Republican senators on the committee. He’s given people too many causes of termination to choose from. You can want him to go for subverting the federal justice system. Or if that’s too much for you to handle you can say he should go for running Main Justice like some ungainly combination of a Young Republicans summer camp and Michael Brown’s FEMA. And if even that creates too much collateral damage for you to deal with you can just say he should go for lying about everything that happened.

Plenty of reasons to go around.

Today’s Must Read: Alberto Gonzales’ supporters at the Justice Department provide a lesson in positive thinking.

New TV ad slams McCain for his “bomb Iran” song. We’ve got the video.

Want to do some sleuthing? Help the Sunlight Foundation snoop out the anti-transparency senator who put a hold on the electronic disclosure filing bill.

Here’s something that’s been oddly missing from all the media discussion of Harry Reid’s assertion that the “war is lost”: Much of the American public agrees with Reid.

The verdict on Alberto Gonzales is in. And here’s our updated rundown of Republican calls for his resignation — by our count four senators have done so outright and two more have stopped just short.

And his supporters? Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) floated an odd reason for keeping Gonzales on.

Reminder: today is the last day to apply for the prestigious TPM Summer Internship.

CNN reported this morning that “the White House is waiting to see how this plays out with the public and members of Congress over the next couple of days.”

Well, with respect to Congress, the signs are bad.

Guess who agrees with Harry Reid that the Iraq war is “lost”? Tony McPeak, who was a member of the Joint Chiefs during the Gulf War.