Are we there yet? Part II
Reader No. 1 sends along a Michael Barone piece that crunches the Iraq poll numbers and finds Republicans can still frame the Iraq debate to their advantage in November. David Ignatius said roughly the same thing without crunching poll numbers: Dems are vulnerable as long they don't offer a viable solution -- and they haven't. An Iraq pull-out at this point would be a disaster -- and most Americans know it. ... Of course Republicans can't frame everything to their advantage, such as, oh, a GOP congressman hitting on an underage teenage male page. Now we all know that a congressman hitting on a teenage male page is not necessarly a bad political thing in Massachusetts. But in Ohio, no. War or no war. ... Doesn't the House Republican leadership's reaction to the Mark Foley revelations eerily remind you of a certain recent local sex-abuse scandal and how it was shunted aside by leadership until it couldn't be shunted aside any longer? ... I told Dennis Hastert. Wait, no, I didn't! God. ...

Where were we? Oh, right. Iraq! Republicans and Dems spent much of yesterday spinning and reacting to Bob Woodward's new book. My question is: What exactly does the White House mean when it says the book covers 'old news'? Pray tell, what part of screwing up execution of an important war are they talking about? ...  ¶ 7:12 AM