From Cheney & Gonzo to Helen Thomas...

From American Progress:

Think Fast...

"I’m a big fan of Al's," Vice President Cheney said yesterday, referring to Alberto Gonzales. He dismissed Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy's lack of trust in Gonzales as irrelevant. "I've had my differences with Pat Leahy," Cheney said.


The Iraqi parliament adjourned yesterday for a month-long recess without passing key laws "concerning oil investment and revenue-sharing among regions, the re-integration of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime into government, and provincial elections."

65 percent: Number of people under the age of 30 who are "paying at least some attention to the 2008 presidential campaign," according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. That number is up considerably from July 2003, when just "36 percent of those under age 30 were paying attention to the election."

Federal prosecutors may have differed with their political bosses at the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue fraud charges against the maker of the narcotic painkiller OxyContin. The NYT reports "higher-ups within the Justice Department appeared initially to favor a less aggressive approach to the case against OxyContin's producer."

The Federal Communications Commission will meet today to "set the rules for the government's biggest auction of wireless airwaves, with Google Inc. fighting against carriers such as AT&T Inc. to force the winning bidders to open up the spectrum to more users."

Former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has found a new home. He will be joining the law firm Baker & McKenzie "where he'll work in the business crimes and investigations practice." McNulty, who was embroiled in the U.S. attorney scandal, left the Justice Department, citing the "financial realities of college-age children."

"The U.S. will hit its debt limit of nearly $9 trillion in early October, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Monday, and asked lawmakers to raise the limit 'as soon as possible.'" Markos writes. "That's your 'fiscally responsible' [conservatives] once again at work. Record deficits, record debts, record mismanagement of our nation's fiscal health."

And finally: UPI's White House correspondent Helen Thomas is miffed at Garry Trudeau's portrayal of her in one of his comic strips. One of the characters in the strip jokes that Thomas has "been here since the Truman administration! Some say she was Truman's lover." Thomas, who has been covering the White House since 1961, responded, "I wish he'd said I was Jack Kennedy's lover."

Wrap...