Thursday Roundup: The Brave New World

I checked the Politics page over at MSNBC this morning, and from looking at the headlines I was immediately struck by how different the news world and political climate are from a few years ago or, in some cases, a few months ago. The tide has officially turned in the court of American opinion, and it seems as if the media has at least made some strides towards doing the job we wish they'd been doing the last six years. In case you were wondering, the headlines that inspired these thoughts and the rest of the Roundup are after the jump.

A headline set seemingly not of this Earth:
Is Cheney losing White House clout?
Dems to propose '08 pullout
Poll: US Pessimistic about Iraq outcome
Bush faces pressure to pardon Libby
Christian Coalition losing influence?
Gingrich admits to 'moral failings'

See? I've been blogging about national politics for years and ledes like that just seem impossible, even now. These may have changed by the time you see them, but it was a wonder to behold.

It seems as if the "Out of Iraq" caucus among House Democrats is going to get something resembling what it wanted: a proposed timetable for the pullout of American troops was hashed out and will soon be argued in Appropriations. The proposal is actually tied to the Iraq spending bill everyone has been up in arms about on both sides. There will likely be some sort of Pelosi news conference this morning in which she'll discuss some of the details.

The New York Times gets credit this morning for use of silly words in stories about politics — they describe the calls for and arguments against a pardon for Libby as a 'donnybrook'. Since the verdict wasn't surprising at all, I think the most surprising thing to come out of the jury in this whole deal is their public sympathy for Libby and their desire to have been frying the bigger fish. Journalist and Juror #9 Denis Collins provided the Huffington Post with a great first-person perspective from inside the jury box.

In some Texas news, the TYC investigation revealed that a registered sex offender was working as a guard at a West Texas facility, with 'was' as the operative word. The responsibility for this chestnut is being set upon the private company that ran the Coke County facility, which is overseen by the TYC. While this isn't good news for people involved in the whole TYC ordeal, I'm still waiting for the other 10,000 lb. shoe to drop. There are many questions being asked, and I think the right one is going to end up being "If this investigation was underway since 2005 and there was obviously something so very wrong at these facilities, why wasn't something done, and why didn't the AG file charges against someone?"

California's done it. So have Florida and New Jersey.The Texas Democratic Party is in support of it, and so is Rep. Leo Berman. The House Elections Committee heard arguments for and against moving Texas' primary to February 5 in Austin yesterday, and even though they didn't do much with the actual legislation, you can rest assured that this is almost certain to happen. Welcome to the MegaPrimary, where half the country will vote on the same day of primaries and the richest candidates will drive the others before them.

Lastly today, Mary Ann Akers from the Washington Post has this story about how LBJ may finally get a federal building named after him in Washington. I'm surprised this didn't happen during his first 10 years or so in Washington, but alas, it did not. Now it seems that the Department of Education building will be renamed the Lyndon Baines Johnson Federal Building. Akers also reports that the biggest opponent of the long-suffering plan was Tom DeLay. LBJ Says, "Take that, Tom."