I’m spending my day watching the Gonzales “Attorneygate” hearing. So instead of a big post, let me throw out a few things that caught my eye in my feeds:

• The CFP Board’s Giant Step Forward - John Ritter, CFP praises the CFP Board for adopting a fiduciary responsibility requirement for all CFPs.
• Investment Advisor Magazine announced their annual awards for the best separate account managers. They mention a 24.8% increase in SMA assets.
• Morningstar acquired S&P’s mutual fund research business for $55 million. Meh. That’s over the $50 million HSR limit that requires them to file with the DoJ. I wonder if there was an investigation. (Can you tell I’m watching the AG hearing while I’m writing this?)
• The readership of Investment News, 2 to 1, does NOT think that Don Imus should have been fired.
• The CIO of PIMCO thinks the bad housing market is going to drive interest rates down.

On the Gonzales front, it looks like he’s going with the “extreme incompetence” defense. Wow Schumer just said he wasn’t in control of his department and asked him to step down. Points out that Gonzales is answering virtually all questions with “I don’t recall.” Wow! Specter just did the same thing and he’s a friggin’ Republican. Leahy’s piling on.

They just ended the hearing early due to their overwhelming disgust with Gonzales’ testimony. Gonzales is walking out and you can hear people in the background singing, “Sha na naaa na, hey hey hey, Good bye.”

Tough room.