Senate votes 48-50 to defeat an amendment that would have removed the withdrawal timetable from the Iraq funding bill.

UPDATE: Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) joined Republicans voting against the time line. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) joined Democrats in supporting a withdrawal time line. Sens. Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) did not vote.

Matt Drudge is currently linking to a “fact sheet” produced by the Republican Budget Committee claiming that the new House budget plan “represents the ‘largest tax increase in American history.’” It’s not true. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes:

Consistent with the Pay-As-You-Go requirement that all tax cuts and entitlement increases be paid for, the plan assumes the same level of revenues over the 2007-2012 period as projected by the Congressional Budget Office under its current-policy baseline; the baseline essentially assumes no change in current laws governing taxes. … [C]harges that the plan requires multi-hundred-billion dollar tax increases are not correct.

More at The Gavel.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dashed out of a Chicago news conference this afternoon in just two and a half minutes, ducking questions about how his office gave U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a subpar rating.

Gonzales, who increasingly faces calls for his resignation, was here to promote a new ad campaign and had planned a 15-minute press availability. He left after taking just three questions over a firing scandal consuming his administration.

Before leaving, Gonzales said he wanted to “reassure the American people that nothing improper happened here.”

UPDATE: At yesterday’s appearance in Denver, reporters were barred from asking any questions.

UPDATE II: A photo of Gonzales’ dash via Huffington Post:

A 117-page document obtained by Salon.com highlights a “secretive plan” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to “gut” the Endangered Species Act.

The law, which is credited with saving the American Bald Eagle from extinction,” would be changed to limit the number of species that can be protected,” curtail preserved acres of wildlife habitat, and “dilute legal barriers that protect habitat from sprawl, logging or mining.”

These proposed changes are the latest in the Bush administration’s attempts to weaken the Endangered Species Act in favor of special interests:

– Scientists pressured to alter findings. FWS scientists had been “forced to alter or withhold findings that would have led to greater protections for endangered species,” according to a 2005 survey.

– Political appointees overruled scientists’ findings in favor of industry positions. Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald consistently “rejected staff scientists’ recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act.” She called scientific studies “opinion” and told employees to treat them “as we would treat an industry publication.”

– FWS lists fewer endangered species under Bush. Since January 2000, President Bush has listed only 57 species as endangered — “fewer than any other administration in history.” George H. W. Bush listed 234 and Bill Clinton listed 512.

The proposed changes are also “littered with language lifted directly” from former Rep. Richard Pombo’s (R-CA) failed attempt in the 109th Congress to cripple the Endangered Species Act, and mirrors legislation that current Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthrorne — who oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — attempted (and failed) to pass while in the Senate in 1998.

– Ryan Powers

The Western Business Roundtable (run by a former employee of Vice President Cheney) has sent out an activist email warning of the “major new threat to all businesses/industries” if the polar bear is added to the endangered species list:

Environmental extremists and activist lawyers are pushing the federal government to add the Polar Bear to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) list. Such a listing would have major negative implications for virtually every business and industry operation in the United States. The ESA is a very powerful law and could subject virtually any human activity in ALL 50 STATES to review and regulation by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) bureaucrats if the Polar Bear is listed as threatened or endangered. This will essentially declare “open season” for environmental lawyers to sue to block virtually any project that involves carbon dioxide emissions.

“Two nearly simultaneous truck bombs — including one detonated by remote control — ripped through markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens, police said, as violence surged outside the Iraqi capital.” Dozens more were killed in other explosions around the country.

UPDATE: “He can swagger all he wants but we have 3,241 dead Americans.” — Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), on President Bush’s threat to veto an Iraq war spending bill that includes a timetable for troop withdrawal.

It’s not about a gun. From his press conference today:

We do have an amendment on Iran coming up over the next couple of days. It’s something that I have worked on for a good bit of time. I hope in all of the attention that’s been given to the situation with my staff, we don’t lose sight of the importance of that legislation. And secondly, the other piece of legislation that I have been working on with Senator Hagel, which will come to a vote over the next two days. Those are both important pieces of legislation, and please, let’s not forget that.

Webb’s Iran bill would prevent President Bush from launching a war without explicit congressional approval. His Iraq bill with Hagel focuses on “redeployment, training and equipment.” He’s right, those are important bills.

UPDATE: More on Webb’s Iran provision HERE.

McClatchy reports on Goodling, the top aide to Alberto Gonzales who is taking the Fifth Amendment:

Goodling, 33, is a 1995 graduate Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., an institution that describes itself as “committed to embracing an evangelical spirit.”

She received her law degree at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. Regent, founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, says its mission is “to produce Christian leaders who will make a difference, who will change the world.”

E-mails show that Goodling was involved in planning the dismissals and in later efforts to limit the negative reaction. As the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House, she could shed light on the extent of White House involvement in the dismissals.