Cheney blames Bush...DeLay lectures on ethics..

From American Progress:

Think Fast

Fox New's Bret Baier told Dick Cheney, "You are portrayed by your opponents and some in the media as this sinister figure, as this cold-blooded warmonger who doesn't care about the number of body bags going back." Cheney said that he regrets the casualties, but added, "Obviously, the President bears the major part of the burden. He's the man with the authority to commit the force."

"European leaders have told the Bush administration that Paul D. Wolfowitz must resign as president of the World Bank in order to avoid a vote next week by the bank's board declaring that he no longer has its confidence to function as the bank's leader."

Yesterday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), "a loyal Republican who's always voted with the president on Iraq issues," said he will "draft a bill that implements the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group Report...which included benchmarks and a timeline for troop withdrawal."

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick notes that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's role in the U.S. Attorneys scandal has shifted to that of a "decoy." "He's the guy who runs out in front of the hunters and draws their fire so nobody pays any attention to what's happening at the White House."

Filmmaker Michael Moore "is being investigated by the Treasury Department over a trip he made to Cuba for his new film, 'Sicko.'" The department is "investigating whether he had violated restrictions on travel to Cuba when he accompanied sick workers seeking free medical care as part of a documentary on America's health care industry."

"Senators who raised millions of dollars in campaign donations from pharmaceutical interests secured industry-friendly changes to a landmark drug-safety bill." The senators pared back the FDA's power to monitor the safety of drugs and helped defeat "efforts to curb conflicts of interest among FDA advisers and allow consumers to buy cheaper drugs from other countries."

"Larry Wilkerson, an aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in a radio interview on Thursday that the 'high crimes and misdemeanors' of the Bush Administration make the offenses for which President Bill Clinton was impeached 'pale in comparison.'"

Summers in the eastern United States will be "much hotter than originally predicted with daily highs about 10 degrees warmer than in recent years by the mid-2080s, a new NASA study says."

A 20 percent increase in "drug abuse among children and youths in Iraq is worrying specialists who say continued violence is responsible for the rising number of users -- something that is compounded by the easy availability of different narcotics."

And finally: "Attend at your own risk!" Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will be speaking at an upcoming political training seminar offering "explicit discussions of ethics." DeLay "resigned last year after being indicted on campaign finance abuses in Texas and who remains under federal scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal."

Wrap...