Week in Review

• New docs provide further questions on the integrity of TNR "Shock Troops" author and article.
• S-CHIP Part II
• DREAM Act defeated.
• Judge Southwick is finally confirmed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Fred Thompson sums up the judge's qualifications;

His opponents do not question Judge Southwick’s qualifications to sit on the federal appeals court. Indeed, they cannot. Judge Southwick served on the Mississippi Court of Appeals from that court’s very inception in January 1995 through December 2006. Prior to serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, from 1989 to 1993, he was in a general civil private practice for 12 years. He’s taught law as an adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Law since 1998. He’s also served his country in Iraq, fulfilling his National Guard duty as Deputy Staff Judge Advocate from August 2004 to July 2005, and then as Staff Judge Advocate until January 2006. Even the American Bar Association, which often treats conservative judicial nominees unfairly, unanimously gave Judge Southwick the institution’s highest possible rating.

Cloture vote 62 yeas. Final vote 59 yeas. The Ds from red states who voted no (and also voted no on cloture):
Up in 2008:Landrieu (D-LA)Baucus (D-MT)Rockfeller (D-WV)
Not up in 08:Casey (D-PA)Nelson (D-FL)Reid (D-NV)Webb (D-VA)Tester (D-MT)Salazar (D-CO) (but voted yes on cloture).

• Rangel releases "the mother of all tax increases." Via Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Jim McCrery: This is the largest individual income tax increase in history. The bill will add a 4% surtax on Americans earning more than $150,000 a year ($200,000 for couples). That is on top of the scheduled expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. So, under Democrats’ plan, over the next few years, the individual income top tax rate in the United States will rise from 35% to 44%. See below for more commentary on the proposal:

1. Raisign taxes is an accomplishment?- Rep. Patrick McHenry
2. Larry Kudlow
3. WSJ Editorial