Ezra Klein and Jason Zengerle agree that “Fred Thompson is to the Republicans in ’08 as Wes Clark was to the Democrats in ’04. In other words, the highpoint of his campaign will be the day he gets in the race, because once he’s a serious candidate–and not just the fevered daydream of a dissatisfied base–voters will realize he’s not all that.”

I agree that Thompson’s luster is likely to fade. But what happened with Clark is that it seemed like he’d be a strong candidate — military background, southerner, etc. — but then it turned out he was really bad at campaigning. Thompson’s actually campaigned before and it seems he was pretty good at it. If he stumbles, it’ll be for some other, not-especially-Clark-like reasons.

Tales from a broken Army: “In an about-face by the Pentagon, the military is putting many more amputees back on active duty — even back into combat, in some cases.” Sgt. Tawan Williamson, “a 30-year-old Chicago native who is missing his left leg below the knee and three toes on the other foot, acknowledged that some will be skeptical of a maimed soldier back in uniform. ‘But I let my job show for itself,’ he said. ‘At this point, I’m done proving. I just get out there and do it.’”

Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films released the second online video that calls for the commencement of impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (Watch the first video here). You can sign the petition here.

The Arkansas Times reports that the controversial U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Tim Griffin, has resigned:

The U.S. Justice Department has notified Arkansas’s congressional delegation that Interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin is resigning effective Friday, June 1.

Griffin, a former protege of Karl Rove, was formerly research director of the Republican National Committee. In 2004, BBC News published a report showing that Griffin led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of African-American servicemembers in Florida.

Griffin became the poster boy for the politicization of the U.S. attorney process. Former Justice official Kyle Sampson noted that getting Griffin into office “was important to Harriet [Miers], Karl, et cetera.” The traditional 120-day term for “interim” U.S. attorneys had expired for Griffin on April 20, yet the Justice Department continued to allow him to serve.

ThinkProgress earlier spoke with Rep. John Boozman’s (R-AR) office, which said that the congressman submitted names of replacements for Griffin to the White House on March 30. So far, no word from the Justice Department on the name of the new U.S. attorney.

In the meantime, assistant U.S. attorney Jane Duke will take over. The Justice Department had previously passed her over to install Griffin, using sexual discrimination as an excuse because Duke had been on maternity leave at the time.

UPDATE: Today the Wall Street Journal reported that Griffin was in “discussions” about working for the possible presidential campaign of Fred Thompson. But the Arkansas Times reports that it’s still unclear whether he will join a campaign or go into the private sector.

UPDATE II: Raw Story has Sen. Mark Pryor’s (D-AR) reaction to Griffin’s resignation here.

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Last night on CNN, right-wing pundit Mark Smith argued that “openly gay people” should not be allowed to serve in the military, advocating the military’s current Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. He argued that gay soldiers are unable to “focus” on the war, comparing gays in the military to himself in a platoon of “Hooters waitresses.”

He stated, “[F]or example, if you put me in a platoon with nothing but, let’s say, Hooter waitresses, that’s going to distract me, and I’m not going to be focused on winning the war. I am going to be focused on other things.” Watch it:

Smith gives no evidence for his claim that gays are unable to “focus on winning the war.” His analogy makes light of the work being done by U.S. troops by comparing them to Hooters waitresses, who serve food and beverages in skimpy outfits.

Smith has never served in the military. Jon Soltz, an Army captain who served in Iraq in 2003 and founded VoteVets, called Smith’s comments “ridiculous” and said, “There’s gay people that serve with us when we’re in combat. They serve well.”

Other members of the military also disagree with Smith. Last December, a Zogby Interactive poll of servicemembers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found 73 percent of those polled were “comfortable with lesbians and gays.” A 2004 poll found that a majority of junior enlisted servicemembers believed gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, up from 16 percent in 1992.

AMERICAblog’s John Aravosis also appeared in the segment and discussed the military’s policy of firing Arabic-speaking servicemembers just because they’re gay, even though there is a severe shortage of such linguists. Watch the full segment HERE.

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Transcript: Read more

“A U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, killing seven people, NATO officials tell CNN, adding a rescue team was ambushed.”

“Was talking to an influential Republican strategist who thinks if Iraq looks the way it does now in September, Bush will lose about 25 Senate Republicans on a bill with some sort of timetable for withdrawal.”