I thought this is the lady that was going to bring peace to the middle east?

Condi Rice, January 29, 2006: "I don't know anyone who wasn't caught off guard by Hamas' strong showing."

As Arianna quotes her:

Condi Rice, May 16, 2002: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."

Larry Johnson: "There she goes again. Miss "Who Could Have Imagined an Al Qaeda Attack" Rice has struck again. Are you kidding me? Secretary of State Rice was "surprised" by the election results in Palestine?...read on

Matthews: insinuates Ted Kennedy molested Mrs. Alito
Each day brings with it a new dawn and Chris Matthews keeps saying things that boggle the mind. While predicting how the SOTU would be played out, Chris used this analogy to describe how the Republicans would use Alito's wife tomorrow night and be on "top of their game":

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT (rough transcript)

Matthews: ...won't they say something up beat and (bucking up)... isn't she a great woman, didn't she stand up-and then they'll put the camera right on Ted Kennedy and show how he was the guy that molested her basically-that's the way they'll play it...

Nora: Well-I-sure. The President always uses his box and those who sit next...

One day it's Latinos in their flower shops and bodegas and the next it's sexual assault.

Here's more...

Check out the ad here : Rubberstamp Website.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund/Think Progress is hosting a little SOTU party in conjunction with the Majority Report tomorrow night.

FiredogLake: "The announcement this morning that Lincoln Chaffee would vote "no" on Alito but "yes" on cloture was a hollow gesture to NARAL and the pro-choice community he pretends to cultivate. A vote for cloture is a vote for Alito. It's that simple. I just got off the phone with NARAL and I am being told that they do not consider Chaffee's vote on cloture to be significant. They are not going to pull their support for him over this....read on

Georgia10 has a similar opinion...

(Udate) Republican and Democratic senators on a 72-25 vote agreed to end their debate.

The NY Times broke this story today :

"Judge Alito's confirmation is also the culmination of a disciplined campaign begun by the Reagan administration to seed the lower federal judiciary with like-minded jurists who could reorient the federal courts toward a view of the Constitution much closer to its 18th-century authors' intent, including a much less expansive view of its application to individual rights and federal power...read on

Ted Kennedy let his thoughts be known about the use of the 'Swift Boat' PR Firm

Download | play -WMP

Chris Matthews seems to think that the public is firmly behind Bush over the NSA eavesdropping scandal.
Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT (hat tip David Edwards for the video)

MATTHEWS: Elisabeth, a couple weeks ago the Democrats thought they had the president's number on this NSA spying thing and then Karl Rove came out a week ago and said: "no," this is a big winner. How is the president turning the NSA surveillance question into a winner politically?

ELISABETH BUMILLER, NYT: It took them a while. It took them about a month to get their act together on this…

Think Progress proves them wrong: "Three of the most recent polls on the issue paint an completely different picture...read on"

Go read the letter.

Coulture of Corruption

Rep. David Burnell kicked out of office

An Arizona legislator has been removed from office for overspending during his 2004 primary race, making him the first lawmaker in the country to be ousted for violating a state's public campaign financing system...read on

(hat tip sans-culotte)

The second part of the Senate investigation into bungled pre-war Iraq intelligence is still being held up by an internal Pentagon investigation of Douglas Feith...read on"

I thought they would be a joke because Lindsey Graham was leading the charge with Alito. He should have been kicked off the group if they actually were serious about principles, but obviously that would never had happened.

Reddhedd has an update in which she says that Ed Henry is full of it...

"Gang, I am getting very conflicting information on the Gang of 14 story from Ed Henry. What I'm hearing is that they aren't meeting until 3:30 pm today and that the Dems in the group are split on how they will vote -- which means that cloture is still very much up in the air. I'm beginning to smell a GOP story plant with Ed Henry at CNN...read on

Glenn Greenwald:

"The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled the first day of hearings for its investigation into the NSA eavesdropping scandal for Monday, February 6 (a week from today). The first (and only) witness for that day will be Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.-- I have divided the 10 questions into the following two posts -- first, questions 1-5, then questions 6-10. Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter last week sent a list of fifteen questions to Attorney General Gonzales...read on"

Please tell us what other questions you would like asked. We're making our list so go for it. This is a very important hearing.