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McCarthyites

"Far from condemning a CIA official's damaging leak of classified information about ongoing efforts to prevent terrorism, on the Sunday morning interview shows, three panelists -- a former network White House correspondent, a newspaper and radio veteran and a current network anchor -- hailed Mary McCarthy, the CIA staffer fired last week for telling The Washington Post's Dana Priest about secret prisons in Eastern Europe," the Media Research Center's Brent Baker writes at www.mrc.org.

"ABC's Sam Donaldson heralded the revelations as 'a victory for the American people' and compared her actions with those sitting at lunch counters in the 1960s, NPR's Juan Williams trumpeted her 'right to speak' and her 'act of conscience' and CBS's Bob Schieffer characterized the prisons as what 'scares' him and claimed the 'CIA fired an agent' just 'for hanging out' with a reporter."

Backing Landrieu

The third-place finisher in the New Orleans mayoral race endorsed Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu yesterday over Mayor C. Ray Nagin in next month's runoff election.

Ron Forman, head of the organization that runs New Orleans' zoo and aquarium, said Mr. Landrieu has his "full support" in the contest to decide who should lead the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"Mitch Landrieu has the experience to implement a plan, to manage a plan and to rebuild our city," Mr. Forman said.

Mr. Landrieu said he was pleased to get Mr. Forman's endorsement so quickly. "It needs all of its people to come together. I cannot do this by myself," Mr. Landrieu said. Mr. Forman received about 17 percent of the overall vote Saturday to Mr. Nagin's 38 percent and Mr. Landrieu's 29 percent.

Mr. Forman is white, and much of his support came from Mr. Nagin's 2002 base, white conservatives. Mr. Nagin, a former cable-TV executive who is black, was largely abandoned by whites this time, but was supported by black voters, the Associated Press reports.