Odds and Ends While Blogger's Working

Watching my local news at 5. The ditzy blond newsreader was going on about the big win in The War on Terror with Al-Zarqawi's killing, complete with interview with a corporal who had been to Iraq. It's clear that all it will take to neutralize Iraq in the 2006 elections will be a couple more well-timed "wins" together with staged troop pullouts. Nixon wrote this playbook in '72, well before most of today's bloggers were zygotes or at least could function by themselves. Unless there's some kind of Tet (another obscure reference) or other newsgrabber that can't be denied, I can see Iraq being a wash.

That goes for "corruption," too, as the media are clearly settling in to their "both sides do it" story structure. More shots of William Jefferson will go a long way to offset Delay, Libby, and even Rove in the average voter's "mind." Digby predicts that the Repubs will have the testicular matter to make corruption and election theft their issues. Could the Dems be that hapless and stupid? Bwahahahahahaha.

Will Iran be invaded and to what effect? That's still up in the air, although, as I've noted, it could be a wash or move in the Repubs direction. Dems can't take a voter backlash for granted, especially since all of them but Feingold will be supporting it. Issues in 2006? They'll be decisive? Since when? Especially when you consider how the British and Canadian governments are both benefiting from hauling out the "we found some terrorists" card. Wanna bet on us finding some here in, say, September or October?

In other words, as you look at 2006, everything on paper says the Dems will do well, and they could. Bush and Congress could still be in the 20s in November. But it's obviously not done. And then, assuming the Dems win a house, remember when they last controlled a house? That Senate that ignored Enron (thanks, Lieberman), voted for Iraq, and assumed it could win by playing it safe and supporting Bushnev on war. Hmmm.

In other matters, Billmon has a mighty post up on the new Stalinists' victory over academic hiring at Yale and how Israel may be more hurt than helped by these scholarly lynchings. James Galbraith, sitting in at the Washington Note, does a nice job with the RFK, Jr., effort on the 2004 election. His basic point is that IT DOESN'T MATTER if the Busheviks actually stole enough votes to win Ohio. Attempted burglary is a felony, too! He points out that vote-by-mail is a workable solution with a track record. He needs to be listened to, as usual. Finally, Crooks & Liars notes that Jack Cafferty did indeed have reality handed to him about Arlen Specter as the senator likely to protect our civil liberties against Bushnev, Cheneyov, and the Repub Politburo. Specter's been selling this country out for over 40 years. Keep him away from anything important. Nice to see Jack figure it out.

That is all for now. We'll be burning the midnight oil to make up for the posts not filed by our Las Vegas colleagues the next few days. (If we don't get too tired.)