United States Attorney General Eric Holder is contemplating something pretty big. Here’s the scoop from Newsweek: “Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration’s brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama’s domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform.”

John Fund has an interesting OP-ED in today’s Wall Street Journal on “Why Palin Quit.” In a nutshell, he says that the Beltway media have likely gotten it wrong. Fund suggests that there may not have been any political strategery involved in this decision to resign the governorship. The reasons for her departure were uncomplicated. Not only were Palin’s legal bills piling up due to frivolous ethics complaints, but her family was also taking a beating in the press. Fund writes: “Ms. Palin gave birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome in 2008, and also has a six-year old. Everyone in the family was weary of endless personal attacks, including…

In today’s New York Times, Ross Douthat talks about what might have become of Sarah Palin’s political fortunes: “Had she refused John McCain, Palin would still be a popular female governor in a Republican Party starved for future stars. Her scandals would be the stuff of local politics, her daughter’s pregnancy a minor story in the Lower 48, her son Trig’s parentage a nonissue even for conspiracy theorists. There would still be plenty of time to ease into the national spotlight, to bone up on the issues, and to craft a persona more appealing than the Mrs. Spiro Agnew role the McCain campaign assigned to her. “Most important, nobody would…

According to the New York Times, President Obama will select Sonia Sotomayor to fill Souter’s vacancy on the Supreme Court. “President Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as his first appointment to the court, officials said Tuesday, and has scheduled an announcement for 10:15 a.m. at the White House. “If confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, Judge Sotomayor, 54, would replace Justice David H. Souter to become the second woman on the court and only the third female justice in the history of the Supreme Court. She also would be the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Court.”

President Barack Obama and former Vice-President Dick Cheney squared-off on Thursday in a pair of dueling press conferences. Cheney and Obama advanced national security opinions that are diametrically opposed to one another. It was close, hand-to-hand, political combat. It was a good, clean fight and exactly the kind of debate that we should have heard last Fall during the general election but didn’t. In case you missed the speeches, I’m posting audio, video, and transcript links below. President Obama (audio), (transcript) [audio:http://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/2009/May/20090521_Protecting_Our_Security.mp3] Vice-President Cheney (audio), (transcript) [audio:http://static2.capitalreach.com/aei/media/10762.mp3]

R. Albert Mohler has written a response to President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame. Mohler also discussed the speech on the Monday edition of his radio program (listen below or download here). [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/totl/2009/AMP_05_18_2009.mp3] Here’s an excerpt from Mohler’s essay, and the analysis is spot-on:

In last Friday’s The New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg described President Obama’s approach to the abortion issue: “In nearly four months in office, President Obama has pursued a careful two-pronged strategy on abortion, enacting policies that secure a woman’s right to the procedure while vowing to move beyond the culture wars that have divided the nation on the issue for more than three decades.” This description is astonishingly candid, and it is no compliment to the President. Notice that Obama’s strategy has two parts: enacting and vowing. Essentially, she is saying that President Obama supports policies that are substantively pro-abortion, while adopting rhetoric that makes it sound as if…