She was the first democratically elected woman to become the prime minister of a Muslim country, and was poised to come roaring back to power in Pakistan's upcoming January 8 parliamentary elections. To the foreign policy establishment of the United States, she represented the last, best hope for a Pakistani leader with whom the U.S. could do business. Today, in Rawalpindi, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. The Bush administration had, you'll recall, courted Bhutto to cut a power-sharing deal with dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf , one in which he would "take off his uniform" -- give up his military post. The two had been reported to have come to such an agreement -- a short-lived rapprochement that ended for good with the imposition of the recently-lifted state of emergency. (Musharraf did indeed "take off the uniform" after he lifted the state of emergency several weeks ago, but since he remains a dictator, it's hard to see that as a particularly meaningful gesture.) The assassination...

As Brian Beutler reports today at TAP Online, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to put before the full Senate the matter of contempt citations for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for their refusal to comply with subpoenas for information on the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys. In Big Media, this is playing as no big deal, perhaps because President Bush has said that should any such citations head for the courts, he will not permit the Justice Department to prosecute them. Presto-change-o, just like that -- instant coup ! No biggie, apparently. Whether the Senate ultimately issues these criminal contempt citations or the Justice Department stonewalls on behalf of Napolean Bonehead (a.k.a., the president), there's a more efficient route the Senate could take. It's one that former Clinton Administration Chief of Staff John Podesta told me back in September: the Senate has the option of using the Capitol Police...