'Political theater'
Sadly, for a person who despises what this president has done to the country, I find myself in agreement with President Bush's description of yesterday's House vote on the war: 'Political theater.' Please don't tell me the vote was one of profound conscience and principles. There was also a clear element of hyper-partisanship as symbolized by $24 billion in grotesque non-military spending (see 'War vote + political pork = ...' below). Then there's the issue of simple pragmaticism. If the war is so lost and immoral, why a pullout in August 2008? Why not August 2007 or January 2008? They might as well have thrown a dart at a calendar to pick a month. I have far more admiration for the liberal and conservative Democrats who either abstained or voted against the bill. At least they showed conviction. ... I wish Dems had taken this route: 'Keep attention focused on Mr. Bush’s responsibility.' But now Mr. Mission Accomplished gets to wrap himself in the flag and surround himself with military family members as he condemns a worthless bill and 'political theater' that he himself has practiced to perfection. Political theater vs. political theater. ...

Hey, the Brits pull out of Basra and we get Shiite vs. Shiite thuggery. Isn't there a lesson here? At least give Gen. Petraeus time to see if there's a way to minimize what we all know will happen if we withdraw from a Sunni-Shiite area. ... Last but not least, final words from David Ignatius, who thinks the U.S. Attorneys controversy is less about scandal and more about deeper problems at work within the administration:

The Bush political operatives have become the people the Republicans once warned the country against -- a club of insiders who seem to think that they're better than other folks. They are so contemptuous of government and the public servants who populate it that they have been unable to govern effectively. They are a smug, inward-looking elite that thinks it knows who the good guys are by the political labels they wear.

This contempt has been evident in many of the administration's failures. The disastrous incompetence of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 flowed from its status as a clubhouse for ambitious conservatives eager to punch a political ticket in a country they knew nothing about.

This is what I had hoped Democrats would concentrate on: the incompetence. ...  ¶ 7:19 AM