Ostensibly, DOJ is trying to withhold Dick Cheney’s interview materials for the following three reasons (in order of their centrality to the argument):Law enforcement privilege: If DOJ turns over Cheney’s interview, it will make future Vice Presidents unwilling to cooperate in investigations. This argument fails given the evidence that it has long been routine to release interview materials from high ranking White House figures, going back to the era of Cheney’s

The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, and health care.

Good morning!  If you haven’t read emptywheel’s post, Meet the Press STILL Lets Guests “Control the Message”, I urge you to read it.

Bad Ol’ Putty Tat.  This Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Tweety and Sylvester was released on July 23, 1949.  Produced by Edward Selzer.  Directed by I. Freleng. Story by Tedd Pierce.  Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Manuel Perez, Ken Champin, and Virgil Ross.  Backgrounds by Paul Julian.  Layouts by Hawley Pratt.  Vocal characterization by Mel Blanc.  Musical direction by Carl Stalling.

What’s on your mind?   

John Hinderocker of the Power Line blog can’t be trusted — even on the subject of the weather in the city he lives in. Impressive!

Threats to private healthcare insurers? Single payer leading to socialism? As the House and Senate move further in on their dissection of healthcare reform, we had our own house call from Dr. Howard Dean.

Tim Russert may be gone. But his craven ways have not ended at Meet the Press. Like Russert, David Gregory allows his guests to control the show when they appear.

Andrea Batista Schlesinger’s commentary has a simple thesis. An inquisitive attitude is essential to dutiful citizenship in a democracy, and the attitude is waning among American youths. Teenagers and 20-year-olds in the United States have little curiosity about the workings of government, they don’t follow the actions of their representatives, they don’t read the newspaper or watch the network news, and, worst of all, they don’t care—or at least they are taught not to. The institutions that should inspire civic inquiry—schools, media, governments—fail their responsibility, sometimes deliberately so, and the rising generation follows their lead. We’ve lost the crucial interrogative “Why?”

The labor union AFSCME and one of the nation’s largest health advocacy organizations, HCAN, went up with a huge $800,000 ad buy in eight states urging Blue Dog Democrats to support the passage of health care reform in the House of Representatives.

The Blue Dog Democrats that voted against health care reform in the Education and Labor Committee and the Ways and Means Committee over the past two days were Ross, Tanner, and Altmire.

There are inherent First Amendment and equal protection issues with any “hate crime” legislation as I pointed out when Eric Holder started aggressively pushing Congress. That said, if you are going to enact such laws, they must be targeted, rational and designed to effect the result desired and not any other. The Senate just violated that with their Hate Crimes Bill passed last night.

The health care reform debates have interesting parallels to the Enron-dominated discussions of electricity market reforms 15 years ago. What lessons can we learn?