Sunday Reading

Here are my Independence Eve picks: Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) answers a few questions for the New York Times Sunday Magazine:

We built the biggest government history has ever seen under a Republican government. The Democrats are better because they are honest about it. They don't pretend. I admire that. They'll say: ''We want more money. We need more money.''

Check out the latest posts from Lawrence O'Donnell regarding the Karl Rove leak-case.

If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper's source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail.

Newsweek discusses a future biography by President George W. Bush. Yikes.

Bush will also need some raw materials. His father wrote letters and kept a diary; Clinton taped conversations about his life with former speechwriter Ted Widmer. But President Bush does not write e-mail, unlike his father and brother Jeb. He scribbles thank-you notes and greeting cards with a black Sharpie marker, but that's a long way from making a historical and best-selling tome.

Slideshow of U.S combat trauma, as photographed by Lynsey Addario for the New York Times.