Confessore in the Times …

Four Spitzer administration officials violated the state’s ethics law when they used the State Police last summer to gather travel documents they hoped would tarnish Joseph L. Bruno, then the State Senate majority leader, according to a report released on Thursday by the State Commission on Public Integrity.

CQ changes its ratings on 14 House races — 12 in the direction of the Dem. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

Today’s the deadline for applications for our Fall cycle TPM internship. Find all the details here.

The Pentagon confirms to TPM Election Central that military officials told the Obama campaign he could not visit Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany yesterday with campaign aides in tow because that would violate DOD regs.

“We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff,” a Pentagon spokesperson tells EC.

Here’s Mark Halperin’s top of the page headline at ‘The Page’. Rush devoting show to attacks on Obama’s overseas trip. That’s the top news of the day …

The text at the bottom reads “El Rushbo uses his Friday show to express obvious frustration about Obama’s mid-course corrections on the international trip.”

World (a.k.a. Michael Berube) writes open letter to John McCain.

John McCain has laid claim to having the courage, foresight and leadership to stand up to President Bush’s mismanagement of the war in Iraq (the strategic miscalculation is another matter).

But was McCain the critic of Bush that he makes himself out to be? Or was he a unabashed supporter of the President and his “my way or the highway” approach to Iraq?

TPM Election Central set out to compile McCain’s public statements on the War, and we’ve put together an extensive timeline.

The record is considerably muddier than McCain would have us believe. His criticisms about troop levels, while clear and unmistakable, were hardly outside the mainstream — and were sprinkled in among regular and vocal praise for the President and his policies.

Judge for yourself.

Late Update: The timelines we compile are in their nature works in progress. We compiled examples based on our own research, from McCain’s website (which emphasized McCain’s criticism) and from other lists focused on examples of McCain’s support for Bush’s policies. And we believe our list provides an accurate representation of the totality of McCain’s comments over the years. But inevitably many examples have been left out. So review our list and if you believe you have more examples that should be included in the list send them to our comments email address with the subject heading “McCain Timeline”. Be sure to include the exact quote as well as a citation to the source of the quote — jmm.

John McCain tells CNN that if Osama bin Laden were captured on his watch he’d be sent to an “internationally supported” Nuremberg-style tribunal.

Sen. McCain’s made a series of pretty extraordinary statements on his interview on CNN. First, apparently Maliki didn’t really mean what he said. Second, Wolf Blitzer read back to McCain his repeated claim that Obama would rather lose a war if it helped him win a political campaign. This is close to an accusation of treason. So Blitzer asked him whether this wasn’t an attack on Obama’s patriotism. McCain said ‘no’ that he was only questioning Obama’s judgment. In any rational world the maverick label wouldn’t survive a fib of that magnitude.

Perhaps best of all McCain appeared to embrace Maliki’s timeline for withdrawal, but said there was no conflict with that also being Obama’s timeline for withdrawal, because Maliki’s was based on conditions and Obama’s wasn’t.

Last but not least, Blitzer asked McCain if it didn’t make sense to scrutinize McCain’s judgment in going to war in the first place if he’s placing so much emphasis on scrutinizing Obama’s judgment on the surge. McCain’s answer, in so many words, that’s old news.

We’ll bring you video shortly.

So in the interview that just ran on CNN, John McCain said that al Maliki’s 16 month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is a “pretty good timetable.” He only adds that “they have to be based on conditions on the ground.”

In other words, Barack Obama’s 16 month timetable is a catastrophe but al Maliki’s is “pretty good”. And the difference is that al Maliki’s is based on conditions on the ground and Obama’s isn’t — even though they’re both 16 months.