News Roundup, 3/11/08: Spitzer and the Feds

In an otherwise fairly slow news cycle, the Big Deal was a federal wiretap being released that tied New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to a prostitution ring.

The story has been taking a lot of column inches, primarily because 1) Spitzer built his history on cracking down on such prostitution rings and 2) it was a slow news day. Many see those as the reason he's being admonished for this, while, for example, Republican senator David Vitter effectively got a pass for doing the same thing. A Kos diarist notes, however, that the discovery was based on observation of Spitzer's bank accounts — and that the fact that that sort of observation was going on on his transactions to the level where they could trace movements of cash from one place to the other brings up a number of legal questions, not the least of which is why Spitzer would have that level of scrutiny placed on him.

The U.S. attorney firing scandal took its next step yesterday, as House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers filed suit against the Bush administration for not complying with congressional subpoenas.

The price of the war has been skyrocketing since the beginning of the surge, and will cost us approximately $12 million this year.

And newest details on Bush's domestic surveillance program show that the National Security Agency has been frighteningly overbroad in their examination of American's private details, from email and internet searches to personal financial information.

In election news, there is a push for McCain to consider Romney as his vice presidential candidate, whose deep pockets may be a serious help to McCain's serious hurt with regard to fundraising.

And apparently one of the sleeping children in Senator Clinton's notable "3 a.m." ad is now seventeen, and an Obama supporter and precinct captain. (A precinct captain that can't vote? Hey, enthusiasm is enthusiasm, right?) There are rumblings that would make for a very interesting counter ad.

Bad news came out yesterday regarding U.S. drinking water: apparently the vast majority of municipalities don't bother regulating their water supply for pharmaceuticals, and an AP investigation shows many cities with levels of pharmaceuticals in their drinking water that concerns the medical community. The article has more details, including which Texas cities passes, which failed, and which just refused to answer.

For some news on news, rumor has it that MSNBC's Tucker Carlson will be losing his show, remaining on as a political contributor to MSNBC through this presidential election.

And locally, John McClelland's campaign for state House District 64 has put out an amusing ad highlighting what it sees as incumbent Myra Crownover's primary problem: Where's Myra?