Cheney VS Plame...Wolfowitz on the phone...

From American Progress:

Think Fast

The civil lawsuit brought by outed CIA agent Valerie Plame "is expected to face a withering attack this morning at a court hearing in Washington," where attorneys for Vice President Cheney, Scooter Libby and others will urge Judge John Bates -- a Bush appointee and former Ken Starr aide -- that "the case be thrown out."

"Newly declassified data show that as additional American troops began streaming into Iraq in March and April, the number of attacks on civilians and security forces there stayed relatively steady or at most declined slightly, in the clearest indication yet that the troop increase could take months to have a widespread impact on security."

Al Gore will release his new book The Assault on Reason next week. Gore tells Time that he began questioning why "our democracy hasn't responded" to both the climate crisis and the Iraq war. "So I started thinking, What's going on here? ... Our democracy was pushed around by false impressions and wasn't able to hold its focus," he says. "That's the common denominator. Once I'd thought through all of that, I couldn't not write this book."

Filmmaker Michael Moore is "launching his own probe into the U.S. government's investigation of him for making an unauthorized trip to Cuba to film scenes for his latest movie 'SiCKO,'" beginning with a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all documents regarding the investigation.

"The Justice Department on Wednesday told an angry Senate Judiciary Committee chairman it does not have documents described in a subpoena that demands all materials relating to Karl Rove's possible involvement in the U.S. attorney firings. Instead, it said, Rove's lawyer must have them."

Robert Novak claims that Rove's former aide Susan Ralston "has nothing to say that would cause problems for Rove." But Novak concedes Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) investigation of Rove is causing concern in conservative circles. "One prominent conservative House member who did not want his name used told me, 'We just want it to be over.'"

"Federal funding for abstinence education will likely fall considerably this year" as House commerce committee chairman John Dingell (D-MI) said Wednesday he will "let a $50 million grant program expire on June 30." "Abstinence-only seems to be a colossal failure," Dingell said.

"The Commerce Department's inspector general, who is supposed to look into complaints of wrongdoing by government officials, committed 'egregious violations' of the federal law that protects whistle-blowers by retaliating against two subordinates, a government investigation has concluded."

Former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman has refused a request by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (R-NY) that she testify about the "government's failure to respond adequately to the environmental crisis in Lower Manhattan" after 9/11.

And finally: CNN's Ed Henry fumbles his big scoop. On Wednesday, when he called attorney Bob Bennett, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz accidentally picked up. Henry recalls, "Just then I heard a gruff voice pick up another extension on the phone line and say abruptly, 'This is Paul Wolfowitz.' I stuttered and stammered -- wait, was this really him?! And when I heard the familiar voice say, 'Hello?' I knew it was indeed Wolfowitz." But Wolfowitz's attorney quickly picked up the line, and the golden opportunity was gone.

Wrap...