5/4: Back To Iraq

Iraq is a dominant topic of discussion today, spurred by several stories that offer evidence for virtually any opinion you have. The apparent discovery of a letter intend for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi leads those on the right to the conclusion that the insurgency is on the run, and the swearing in of a new Iraqi cabinet that the country is increasingly stabilizing. On the left opponents of the war see declining popular support for the war, and claim that Joint Chiefs Chair Richard Myers' report to Congress contradicts' Pres. Bush's continued assertions that the U.S. is both winning and sufficiently prepared for the fight.

Scanning other topics: SocSec is a hot topic, mostly centered on MFS Investment Management's Robert Pozen's role in forging a new proposal. Liberal bloggers seem worried that Bush may end up making an offer they can't refuse. On the filibuster front, the right has an idea for getting a public demonstration of support for Bush's nominees. Could the Terry Schiavo issue emerge again? The left looks ahead to 11/06 with strategy advice. And Laura Bush is still a hot topic.

Finally, we think it's of note how much the blogosphere is paying attention to British elections. Though we won't focus too much on the race itself, some are drawing parallels between politics here and across the pond.

TRACKBACKS: The Glass Is Half Something

Where the blog swarm is headed, who's taking part, and what they're saying:

• AP's report on the al-Zarqawi drives discussion, mostly on the right. Linking: Little Green Footballs, Blogs for Bush, The Corner, Outside The Beltway, Citizen Smash, No More Mr. Nice Blog, The Moderate Voice, all things unsaid

  >> A few blogs link to Captain's Quarters' analysis: "It won't be long before someone tips the Iraqis off to where he can be captured, or before someone simply puts a bullet into the back of his head to end the misery immediately."

• But on the left (though not exclusively), blogs link to CNN's latest poll, as well as stories about Gen. Myers' report to Congress. Linking: Informed Comment, Reasonable Prudence, Save Anything, The Poorman, Eschaton, The People's Republic Of Seabrook, Instapudding, Faithful Conservative, Napalm News

  >> Liberal Juan Cole: "This is the most dramatic public disavowal of President Bush's military policies ever. Many of the respondents were answering the question in the wake of Bush's press conference, in which he maintained that things were going just hunky dory in Iraq, something the headlines did not support."

• The blogosphere's focus on internal workings of the MSM is seen in chatter about an Editor and Publisher report that DC reporters want to cut down on the number of "background" briefings. Linking: Outside The Beltway, Daily Kos, Political Wire, Press Think, Fishbowl DC, Romanesko

  >> Liberal Eschaton: "As ridiculous as they are, the anonymous background briefings aren't the real problem - it's the Judith Miller pressjob, in which reporters dutifully report administration official pronouncements as newsworthy, whether or not they contain any truth, believing their job is 'not to collect information and analyze it independently.'"

IRAQ: Internal Disputes, But Success In The Field? Sounds Like A Majority Party We Know

Moderate Joe Gandelman ties together nicely the various Iraq stories, which include the al-Zarqawi letter, the swearing in of the Iraq cabinet, violence in the field, and a Pakistan Times report that al-Zarqawi's followers are ready to strike the WH or Vatican. Little Green Footballs, on the letter: "This isn't good news for the inmates of Democratic Underground or useful idiots like Mike Whitney, but the 'insurgency' is falling apart."

No More Mr. Nice Blog notes the similarity between this story and one reported in aNew York Times article from last year.

Liberal "Atrios" notes continued violence and writes: "I don't know what the solution is - more troops, less troops, a greater willingness to accept US military casualties, etc... But, we've turned every corner that there is to be turned and the light still isn't at the end of that damn tunnel. At every artificial moving goalpost we were supposed to engage in the Tinkerbell Gambit and clap louder in hopes that things would improve, but they don't."

SOCIAL SECURITY: Comp-ro-mise? Never Heard Of It, Don't Want It

Brad DeLong, a USC economics prof, writes of the "Pozen Pill": "I actually don't think it's a plan to kill Social Security--it's floundering around in the hope of gaining traction by proposing something progressive." Read more in his Slate article. Liberal Max Sawicky: "The Pozen approach is bankrupt, screw the middle class liberalism. It is Bush's boob bait for the bourgeois."

Liberal blog Gadflyer speculates on Bush's "endgame": "The president ... comes out with a rather painful plan to address solvency, but still continues advocating private accounts. Democrats don't like the new plan, and still don't like private accounts. ... This sets the stage for a Grand Compromise: the president will propose to drop his beloved private accounts, giving Democrats an apparent victory, if they sign on to some form of progressive indexing, giving low-income workers the benefits they have under current law, but slashing them for everyone else. The press will hail the proposal as a generous crossing of the aisle, and berate Democrats until they capitulate. If Democrats take the bait, it would be a disaster."

Conservative Patrick Ruffini writes that the media's and politicians' obsession with polls is "creating severe distortions in assessing where we stand on issues like judicial nominations or Social Security. And it leads to a more provocative question: even on a big issue like Social Security, why should public opinion even matter? Especially when it doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know." More: "If we free ourselves of this media contrivance that the public doesn't support Social Security reform, and recognize that's it's really indifference that can yet be turned positive, then imagine the freedom of action that gives to wavering Republican Senators and Representatives. ... This is no time to go wobbly based on bad reporting on conflicting polls. Screw it. It's game time. Let's go."

Non-blog Tech Central Station's Henderson and Hooper write under the header: "The Social Security Trust Fund is Irrelevant (Or How Al Gore Was Right)

JUDGES: A Symbolic Gesture?

Several blogs refer to what appears to be an old Patterico's Pontification post, where he proposes a so-called "Conventional Warfare Option." The GOP would force a floor vote "on a non-binding resolution of support" for each filibustered nominee "using the same parliamentary tactics that they propose to use to force a floor vote on the nominations themselves. But the resolution I propose would not have any real-world effect, other then to force all 100 Senators to state publicly whether they would support a particular nominee - yes or no."

The desired result would be a public demonstration that nominees would get confirmed if allowed to come to a vote. "Patterico": "When the public sees in the headlines that Judge 'Smith' received support from a majority of U.S. Senators, many will initially assume that Judge Smith has been confirmed. When people are told that, no, Judge Smith is still awaiting confirmation, the public is going to want to know why. And then, just maybe, people will start to get it." Linking: Ace of Spades HQ, Mickey Kaus, Raje's Rants.

Right-leaning "Ace" is among those who like the sound of it, but he wonders about a hidden danger: Sens. Collins, Snowe, Chaffee, McCain, and Specter "currently don't have to actually vote on these nominees; their allies the Democrats are doing the dirty work for them. Maybe they would defect on such votes, perhaps joined by Voinovich and perhaps Hagel, thus causing the tactic to backfire."

The Next Hurrah details connections between nominee Henry Saad's wife, Mara Letica, and the SBVFT. "[A]fter all the protests by George W. Bush, his campaign and the White House about being shocked--SHOCKED--to learn about the Swifties' scurrulous attacks against John Kerry, and their denials about any associations between the Swifties and the Bushies, some enterprising reporter might want to ask Bush or Scott McLellan or somebody else at the White House what they think about the wife of one of his filibustered judges giving $10,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to help them spread lies about John Kerry's military service in Vietnam."

BUSH: It's Always Better, The Second Time Around

Righty Pejman Yousefzadeh agrees with Eric Pfeiffer's take that Bush's first 100 days went just fine, thank you very much. "To be sure, things could be going better for President Bush, but it is bizarre to claim that things are 'going wrong' for the President when he is able to pass so much of his legislative agenda already. There is more to success than poll numbers, you know."

Andrew Sullivan links to a Cato study on "the transformation of the GOP into the big government, big spending party of Karl Rove and George Bush" and concludes: "Despite promises, things are not improving."

Moderate Jeff Jarvis, on Laura Bush's act at the WHC dinner: "And, with horse dick jokes, I do think it was a message to the religious right: 'We need to lighten up.'" Conservative Michelle Malkin: "Most of Mrs. Bush's humor at the correspondents' dinner was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But I think the stripper and horse jokes were totally beneath her. Just put it to the other-shoe test: If it were Teresa Heinz Kerry standing up on the dais telling the same jokes, the conservative commentariat would be buzzing for the rest of the year about what a tasteless skank she is."

CULTURE WARS: Will This Resuscitate The Issue?

Ace of Spades HQ, PoliPundit and others link to reports about a firefighter who has woken up from a "brain damaged state." Conservative Mark Coffey: "Hmm...remind me again why it was so important to starve Terry Schiavo to death?" "Ace" can't resist a Michael Schiavo dig.

A few liberal blogs took note of FL Gov. Jeb Bush (R) declining to appeal a court decision allowing a 13-year-old girl to have an abortion. Liberal Amanda Marcotte: "Maybe he realizes there's just no way to appease the crowds that have their torches out and are fully prepared to righteously ruin another person's life, after Michael Schiavo managed to wriggle out of their grasp." Conservative blog WizBang noticed that the young girl had been in state custody for 4 years and opines: "Hillary was wrong. It doesn't take 'a village' to raises a child. It takes responsible parents. When the government can figure out how to fill all the potholes and eliminate crime, THEN maybe we can discuss them raising children."

Right Wing News also took note of the FL story, and in a separate post, offers simple advice for Dems who want the support of religious voters: "1) Like religious people. 2) Come across as genuinely religious, not as just using religion for political gain. 3) Support positions that are important to religious people. Is that really so difficult to figure out?"

DEMOCRATS: Talking Strategery

Liberal Oliver Willis gives some free advice for the '06 midterms: "Whether you're a challenger or an incumbent, you're running against the Washington Republicans and their total inability to work for America. The Washington Republicans are everything we hate about politicians - partisan, greedy, and elitist. ... Democratic candidates are not running against George Bush, but the combination of George Bush and the Washington Republicans. They are all part and parcel of the same inside-the-beltway malady."

Liberal Chris Bowers: "I have been called clueless for, among other things, demanding the Democrats run someone for all 435 House seats, every single time. This developing "scandal" about Rep. Bob Sherwood (PA-10) is but one example of why those who think this is a bad idea are the real idiots."

Matthew Yglesias, guest-blogging at Talking Points Memo, comments: "If there's no way to sell a particular good idea, then you put it on the back-burner and look at something else. What you don't do is have the political people figure out what the public wants to hear and then go have the politicians adopt whatever that happens to be as the talking point du jour. That leads to the sorry spectacle I've seen on C-SPAN in recent weeks where you have Democratic congressman up there pretending that somehow a Democratic administration could magically make gasoline cheaper or force China to solve our economic problems for us." He then offers some advice for tackling SocSec, which he's been discussing quite a bit in his stint at TPM.

Liberal blog Daily Howler wasn't too pleased with Nancy Pelosi's discussion of SocSec on ABC's "This Week." "The House Dem leader was hugely incoherent." Details follow.

DELAY: What's Good For The Goose ...

Reports that Dems also have benefited from trips paid for by Jack Abramoff didn't go unnoticed. Captain's Quarters: "The attempt to ensnare House Majority Whip [sic] Tom DeLay in ethics violations may be backfiring on House Democrats, whose own ethical closets have a skeleton or two making an appearance. ... No wonder DeLay wanted the ethics probe to continue. At this rate, he may well neutralize ten or twenty representatives on the other side of the aisle before anyone lays a glove on him." A number of righty blogs link back to this post, or raise the same point (Lorie Byrd).

Little Green Footballs links to a RightMarch.com story, which claims "the people running the big search engines are liberally biased, too -- and they're CENSORING conservative search ad results! A Google search of "Tom DeLay" yields many anti-DeLay sponsored links. "So, we took the time and spent the money so that our PRO-DeLay ad would show up too -- first." They copied an ad posted by the DCCC, but substituted "Tom DeLay" with "Nancy Pelosi." The site claims Google censored the ad, claiming that "Google policy does not permit ad text that advocates against an individual, group or organization." RightMarch urges readers to join their "media blitz" to alert outlets of the supposed Google bias.

BLOGGERS VS. THE MSM: Terry, Terry Bad

Hugh Hewitt takes to task WaPo's Terry Neal for his 5/3 story on the filibuster, saying the story "was straight from the Democrats' talking points." Neal wrote: "Eleven years ago, when Republicans were still in the minority, Sen. Orin [sic]Hatch (R-Utah) said the filibuster tool should be used because 'the minority has to protect itself and those the minority represents.'" That quote is offered by the People For The American Way. But that edited quote, "denied its context, is used to completely the opposite effect that Hatch intended when he first spoke it in 1994." Hewitt: "What Neal's abuse of the much-abused Hatch quote tells us is that Neal is either comfortable working with Democratic talking points that he did not suspect were cut-and-paste jobs, or that he didn't care since it helped make his (false) point that everybody does it." Among those linking: Power Line, Michelle Malkin

A few blogs call, including Pejmanesque and Patterico's Pontifications, out Los Angeles Times columnist David Greenberg, who wroteAbe Fortas ' nomination to succeed Chief Justice Earl Warren was filibustered for ideological reasons. Some refer to the Senate Web site to debunk the myth. UCLA prof. Stephen Bainbridge details the "inaccuracies," which include: "Unlike the current Democrat obstructionism, which is wholly partisan in nature, the filibuster of Fortas had bipartisan support." Also, "There were substantial ethical charges against Fortas."

Mark Noonan writes that the 1Q GDP report "has been widely touted in the MSM as 'proof' that our economy is on the rocks. ... We're no longer in recession and neither do we have a Clintonite 'dot com' bubble; we've got a solidly growing economy, and that is what we really want."

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: You Got Served

Moderate David Adesnik: "I tweakedMatt Yglesias for devoting all of his guest-blogging at TPM to the subject of Social Security. What I said was "Now that promoting democracy in Iraq doesn't seem like such a ridiculous notion, the President's critics need a softer target." Magically enough, at 9:40 AM on Monday, Matt starts of one of his posts by writing that 'There is more to life -- and to politics -- than Social Security. Perhaps most crucially -- as this bloody week in Iraq reminds us -- there's national security, the issue that metaphorically killed the Democrats in 2004 and literally kills people each and every day.'"

BOLTON: Blogs Don't Have Much To Say, But Know Who Does

RedState notices: "If you've not been visiting ConfirmBolton daily, you really ought to be. New guest posters arrive almost daily - with folks like Frank Gaffney and Phyllis Kaminsky, former Director of the UN Information Center, U.S. Delegate to the 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Commission and former Director of Public Liaison at U.S.I.A. weighing in."

REDISTRICTING: What Will I Do With Happen To Those Great DC License Plates

Rep. Tom Davis' (R-VA) proposal to give DC a voting Rep., and add a seat for UT is welcome news for some, but liberal Chris Bowers worries it may end up netting the GOP a seat if UT GOPers carve away favorable portions of Rep. Jim Matheson's (D) seat when creating a new one.

IMMIGRATION: Eyes Across The Pond

The blogs, as noted, are closely following the British election campaign. While we haven't delved into their analysis yet, a post by Hugh Hewitt ties it back to U.S. politics. The UK's Conservative Party is running in part on an immigration platform, and Hewitt sees it as a test case for how it may play in a stateside campaign: "A late surge by Howard would embolden the immigration-firsters here in the U.S., but a loss by the Tories is unlikely to quell their enthusiasm for harsh rhetoric." What's required is a huge push for border security --north and south-- based on the very real national security concerns couple with the immigration normalization pushed by the president: a carrot and fences approach I have flogged before."

IN THE STATES: Sweet Home Alabama

MyDD's "CAat14K" says AL could be "the political 'belle-weather' for Southern political strategy." If LG Lucy Baxley (D) gets the Dem nod, this "could be a clear gubernatorial pick-up opportunity in the South." In '08, AL may host the first southern primary. And in '10, the state will likely lose a House seat, which may pit a GOP and Dem incumbent against one another for a new seat. "Stars are falling on Alabama and I want to see the Democratic party rise up to develop its message and develop a plan to win in more than just the next election."

Glenn Reynolds alerts us to a new site set up to "get Tennessee politicians blogging." Visit VolPols.com to join the fun.

MISCELLANY: Making Matters Worse ...

Personal Democracy Forum notes comments from Carol Darr, Director, Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, who said that "the Internet will exacerbate the partisanship that already exists in national politics today," adding, "Online political activists do not cause it...but they will make it worse."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: An Opening For The Dems?

Lefty Marshall Wittman notes Gen. Myers' report and sees bad news on the Iran front, and an opportunity for '08 Dems. "The gulf between the Administration's perceived national security strength and reality is widening. It is not clear how the Bushies plan to deal with the Iranian threat. As the Moose has suggested, Iran may be the big winner in the Iraq war. Their ally, Chalabi, appears to be ascendant in Iraqi politics. Meanwhile, the Administration lacks the resources to adequately rebuild the military. ... This all presents the Democrats with a golden opportunity to move to the right of the Bushies on national security just as JFK did with the Republicans back in '60."

LEST WE FORGET: The Polls Close ...

As we mentioned, British elections are 5/5. reslog has compiled a list of candidate blogs. Perhaps tomorrow we dump U.S. politics and cover this exclusively. What do you think?