News Roundup, 5/14/08: Special Victories

A special election day round up: election results, movement on FISA, and why torture doesn't work. It's all here.

Before we come home to national news, in Russia, Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the United States of conspiracy against his country. We previously reported that Russia has thrown American diplomats out of their country.

Turning to the American presidential race, the Dark Prince himself, Robert Novak, suggests that John McCain will continue to struggle with the evangelical vote as they continue to wait for Mike Huckabee's potential return in 2012. Huckabee's incredibly active supporters have also formed their own PAC. Its name? "Government is Not God."

In West Virginia last night, Sen. Clinton won the state's presidential primary by a greater than 2-to-1 margin. We'll continue updating the Primary Tracker as delegates are allocated.

As we look on to the general election, Dan Balz of the Washington Post suggests that the scrutinizing of John McCain will occur once the Democratic primary ends. We here at the Blue probably won't hold our breath.

In response to the Democratic party surging recently, the GOP has sent out a memo on how to "stop the bleeding." While the memo suggests that the Republican party refocus on the issues, scandals and special election losses continue to dominate Republican news.

Speaking of special election losses for the Republicans, Democrat Travis Childers won a resounding victory over Republican Greg Davis last night in Mississippi. This is the third special election loss for the Republicans this year.

The FISA domestic surveillance bill has begun to move forward again. While the Republicans appear to making the compromise to the Democrats, their concession on allowing courts to determine if companies are or are not exempt from litigation seems strangely familiar to an amendment previously offered by Sen. Feinstein (D-CA).

Torture continues to make America less safe. One of the six persons who faced prosecution for his involvement in the September 11 terrorist attacks had his charges dropped due to his subjugation to torture while he was held by the federal government.

And finally yesterday, Stewart tried to gain a better understanding as to the intelligence that led to the war in Iraq from Douglas Feith. Feith countered that the public "misremembers" the whole ordeal.