How the Media Covered U.S. Attorney Firings

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Recent Precedent

News stories reporting that the Bush administration had considered firing all 93 U.S. attorneys across the country failed to mention that that is exactly what Bill Clinton did soon after taking office in 1993.

The only sitting U.S. attorney Clinton did not cashier was Michael Chertoff, now the Bush Homeland Security Secretary. At the time Chertoff was U.S. attorney in New Jersey and then Democratic Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey intervened to save Chertoff's job. None of this was noted, even in passing, in front-page stories today in The New York Times and Washington Post, or in the AP's story on the subject.

By the way, the mass Clinton firings generated some news stories, some complaints from Republicans in Congress, but no Congressional investigations, and not a word from Chuck Schumer.

Terminated Trek

An expedition to the North Pole to call attention to the effect of global warming had to be cut short because one of the explorers got severe frostbite and the extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their gear.

Ann Bancroft, a cross-country skier from Minnesota, reported that it was so cold she was in danger of losing three of her toes. The explorers applied hot water bottles to her toes every night, but had to keep waking up because the hot water bottles froze.

The event's organizer acknowledged that it was colder than they had expected with global warming, but added, "one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."

Barred Broadcasters

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which says it's the nation's biggest Muslim civil rights group, barred a camera crew from the Christian Broadcasting Network from covering a CAIR news conference today, accusing CBN of "vicious bigotry" against Muslims.

The subject of the news conference, held at CAIR's office in Washington, was a suit the group is filing on behalf of those Imams who got bounced off a U.S. Airways flight after what airline officials thought was suspicious behavior.

House Republicans, meanwhile, are protesting an invitation by Democrats to CAIR to use a Capitol conference room for another event today.

The House Republican Conference called CAIR "terrorist apologists." CAIR responded that the GOP is seen "as a reservoir of anti-Muslim hate."

Cold-Shoulder Conservative

And John McCain has decided not to attend yet another conservative gathering in Washington, the fourth such event he has skipped in the past two months. McCain has passed up the Conservative Political Action conference this month, the Heritage Foundation's retreat, and the National Review Institute's summit.

This time, according to the Hill newspaper, it's The Club for Growth's winter meeting in Florida that won't hear from McCain. Three of his rivals, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sam Brownback will be there.

—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.