What Caught My Eye Today

Justice Department - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received a subpoena on Tuesday from a U.S. congressional panel for documents related to the firing of federal prosecutors, a controversy that has prompted calls for his resignation. The House of Representatives and the Senate are investigating the Bush administration's dismissal last year of the eight U.S. attorneys. While the administration has insisted the firings were justified, Republican and Democratic critics question if the dismissals were politically motivated. Gonzales, who with Bush's public support has rejected calls to resign, is to appear next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to authorize subpoenas of its own on Thursday for administration documents. Does it strike anyone as odd that Gonzales is planning to appear before Congress while everyone else with ties to this is resigning?

Stem-cell Research - The White House threatened on Tuesday to veto a new bid to lift the President's restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research as the Senate began considering the bipartisan bill. While the Democratic-led Senate seemed certain to pass the legislation as early as Wednesday, it was unclear if backers would have the needed two-thirds majority to override a veto. In the first and only veto of his presidency, Bush rejected a similar measure last year. Earlier this year, the House passed a similar stem cell bill on a vote of 253-174 -- about three dozen votes short of a two-thirds majority. So in the first 7 years of his Presidency, Bush used his veto once. Now he's threatening to use it for this and Iraq. Interesting how the politics change when the President loses control of Congress.

Hockey - This probably won't mean much, unless you are Canadian. Don Cherry, the outspoken former coach of the Boston Bruins, who has been a fixture on CBC's "Hockey Night In Canada' telecasts for more than 25 years, will make his U.S. broadcasting debut as part of NBC's Stanley Cup playoff telecasts. Despite, the entertainment that he brings to a hockey telecast, I'm betting, the television ratings will still be in the toilet.

Racism - The Rutgers women's basketball team blasted radio host Don Imus Tuesday for "racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable and abominable" and agreed to meet with the embattled radio host. Starting Monday, Imus will be suspended for two weeks for calling the players "nappy-headed hos." In Washington, a White House spokeswoman President Bush thought Imus' punishment was strong enough. "The president believed that the apology was the absolute right thing to do," Perino said Tuesday. "And beyond that, I think that his employer is going to have to make a decision about any action that they take based on it." Must be a slow week, if this is making it into the White House press briefings. One can only hope that the President did not actually take the time to respond to this himself. Dude has a few other things that he should be tending to.