The Morning Read: October 9, 2006

The City defends how it searched through 9/11 debris at Fresh Kills.

Jeanine Pirro will run a television ad, maybe as early as tomorrow, saying she didn't break any laws.

Hillary Clinton donated more than $2 million to Democratic campaigns recently.

Bill Thompson is taking Spanish lessons, and I'm presuming it's with thoughts of 2009.

The 87-year-old Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, will have a fundraiser for his re-election next Monday.

Embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert is skipping a fundraiser at Mike Bloomberg's townhouse for upstate congressman John Sweeney.

State Republicans start to form a circular firing squad.

Richard Clarke lays out 7 steps need to get US troops out of Iraq.

Ben says Russ Feingold is the candidate of "liberal ideological purity."

The Dolan family offers $19.2 billion to take the Cablevision empire private.

When New Jersey state Democrats said a Republican plan for ethics reform was partisan, the Times editorial board responded: "Of course they were. But in a state rocked by one scandal after another, who cares?"