The New Republic

Yikes. Dana Milbank reports that a few congressional Democrats are still "rusty" when it comes to investigations--apparently, Henry Waxman was outmatched by Paul Bremer of all people during Iraq hearings on Tuesday. (The hearings have still been extremely valuable.) READ MORE >>

There's a theory that John Warner is just the beginning: That tons of not-yet-defected Republicans are thoroughly fed up with Bush and are giving him -- by filibustering the anti-surge vote in the Senate -- a last push on the swing before they just walk away. READ MORE >>

by Sanford Levinson READ MORE >>

In Slate, Fred Kaplan argues that the FY2008 military budget submitted by President Bush yesterday comes out to $739 billion, once all the accounting gimmicks are factored in. Adjusted for inflation, "that's about one-third higher than the previous record for military spending, set in 1952, when more than 30,000 American soldiers were dying in the Korean War and the Pentagon was embarking on its massive Cold War rearmament drive." READ MORE >>

Matt Yglesias writes: READ MORE >>

Is it paranoid to think that the White House is planning to attack Iran--and soon? Reports like this one, from U.S. News & World Report, keep bubbling up every day: READ MORE >>

Yesterday Capitol Hill was the scene of a peculiar spectacle: General George Casey, the outgoing U.S. commander in Iraq and the Bush administration's nominee for Army chief of staff, came under withering fire during confirmation hearings-from the Bush administration's few remaining allies on Iraq policy. Senator John McCain told Casey, "I question seriously the judgment that was employed in your execution of your responsibilities in Iraq." Senator Lindsay Graham was similarly unimpressed. READ MORE >>

If you're among those disappointed the Democratic Congress hasn't accomplished more in its first few weeks, keep in mind that some of the most important reforms Democrats have made are simply not that high-profile, unless you're a wonk who follows public policy closely. A case in point is the arrival of Peter Orszag. READ MORE >>

The Editors can hardly believe how delusional Dick Cheney has become; Eve Fairbanks watches Iraq resolutions proliferate like bunnies; David Thomson argues that celebrity and the simple life don't mix; Robert Geilfuss READ MORE >>

I'm concerned about Government Exhibit 702 in the Scooter Libby trial. The page has been almost entirely blacked out, but toward the top left beneath all that nonsense about Joe and Valerie, if you can parse the handwriting, is this note: "Tom Cruise & Penelope Cruz at his office." I smell a Scientologist conspiracy. --Sacha Zimmerman READ MORE >>