As part of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the Bush White House’s potentially illegal partisan briefings at various government agencies, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) has agreed to a request by Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) to determine whether Clinton did it too. The Clinton White House was thoroughly investigated both during and after its term. Waxman said he believes most of the documents Davis is seeking are already in the committee’s archives:

“You have asked that the committee make a number of document requests of the National Archives for records of the Clinton administration,” Waxman wrote. “The Clinton administration was subject to vastly more scrutiny by this committee than the Bush administration has been, and many of the records you seek may already be in the committee archives.

“However,” Waxman continued, “I do agree that the committee would benefit from requesting copies of any political briefings that the Office of Political Affairs in the Clinton administration may have given to federal agencies.” [...]

Waxman added that the committee’s “own archives of Clinton-era documents are so broad and voluminous that they should already contain” other documents Davis wanted, if they exist.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) “said Tuesday that he was right from the start about the war strategy in Iraq. ‘For almost four years we pursued a failed policy in Iraq. … I condemned it, I was criticized by Republicans and others for doing so, and I saw it was doomed to failure and I argued for the strategy that is now succeeding,’ McCain said.” McCain has repeatedly proclaimed himself as “the greatest critic” of Bush’s Iraq strategy, even while endorsing “stay the course” from the very beginning.

The Democratic Caucus has a nice summary of the Petraeus and Crocker testimonies.

UPDATE: Speaker Pelosi: “President’s Policy is a Path to 10 More Years of War in Iraq”

New Media Matters study finds that in newspapers around the country, conservative syndicated columnists receive more space than their progressive counterparts:

– “Sixty percent of the nation’s daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.”

– “In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 153 million.”

– In 38 states, “conservative columns reach more readers in total than progressive columns.”

“Hustler publisher Larry Flynt took a fresh jab on Tuesday at scandal-plagued Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), administering a lie detector test to a New Orleans prostitute who contends that she and Vitter had a relationship in 1999. Vitter has denied extramarital relations with Wendy Cortez, who appeared with Flynt in Los Angeles to address reporters. Flynt said the lie detector offers 99.9 percent proof that Cortez, whose ties to Vitter have long set tongues wagging in Louisiana, is telling the truth.”

In a letter to the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee today, a coalition of human rights and advocacy groups urged the Senate to reject President Bush’s nominee for General Counsel of the CIA, John Rizzo. The coalition, which includes the Center for American Progress Action Fund, objects to Rizzo’s record of sanctioning the use of torture in American interrogation of detainees.

In 2002, Rizzo approved a memo written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee that stretched the definition of torture, arguing that physical pain must be “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death” in order to be considered torture.

During Rizzo’s confirmation hearing in June, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked him if he “should have objected at the time” to the Bybee definition of torture. “I honestly — I can’t say I should have objected at the time,” replied Rizzo. Watch it:

Unsatisfied by Rizzo’s answers at the hearing, Wyden has put a hold on his nomination, saying that he is going to keep it “until the detention and interrogation program is on firm footing, both in terms of effectiveness and legality.”

Given Rizzo’s intimate knowledge of the administration’s use of interrogation techniques that are “tantamount to torture,” and his utter refusal to stop them, confirming Rizzo would “send an extraordinarily negative message” to the world about America’s attitude toward the use of torture.

Midwesterner Ann Friedman has some advice for Rudy Giuliani on mistakes he might want to avoid during future Iowa campaign events.