We start with what has become almost extinct – a head-to-head! Jim Webb vs Huckleberry Graham. This shouldn’t even be close.

W says Congress shouldn’t be running the war.

Webb says it’s not a war, it’s an occupation, and a failed one at that. Says that everything he and his buddies warned about has come true. He came ready for a fight.

Q: are you trying to wrest control of the war from the president?
Webb talks about checks and balances, and about protecting the military from an idiot in command.

Graham is asked about Lugar and Warner wanting a re-authorization. He’s not buying it – that’s the old strategy and ineffective – the new strategy has been “enormously effective”. This is a global struggle, bin Laden called it the Third World War, so we have to play by his (bin Laden’s) rules. Al Qaeda is coming to Iraq to destroy this young democracy. This is a gigantic global struggle between moderation and extremists. I’m guessing we’re the “moderates”, and that’s fair, if you ignore the fact that we overthrew the Afghani and Iraqi governments, and occupy both countries. Kidnap and torture people. Kill civilians at will. Stuff like that.

Putting operational control in the Senate is a “mistake for the ages”.

The Webb ammendment is brought up – an attempt to force the military to give soldiers home time, including the National Guard. Webb differentiates between his position and Murtha’s. Web flashes some impressive credentials and defends it vigorously. Mentions that Huckleberry wants to stay in 5 to 10 more years, and that you need to control deployments to accomplish that.

Webb brings up the recently disclosed info that half of the foreign fighters in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia. Which is NOT Iran, but could be argued as al Qaeda.

Huck again comes out against congress having input into operations and minimizes the effects of too many deployments. Maximizes the effects of the “surge”. Anbar is shown as a sterling success again. It’s like they don’t think we use the google, and we won’t bring this up after the next fall of Anbar province.

Timmeh points out that Huck doesn’t trust the Iraqi government, so why ask American men and women to go over there and fight for them? Huck says it’s in our national interest to make sure that AQ doesn’t have a safe haven. Timmeh cuts him off and smacks him DOWN!

Where’s Timmeh, and who is this imposter?

Timmeh says “but you keep mentioning AQ. Let me go back to the director of the CIA, Michael Hayden, again from the Post. (he) catalogued what he saw as the main sources of vilence in this order: the insurgency, sectarian strife, criminality, general anarchy, and, lastly AQ. Though Haden had listed AQ as the fifth most pressing threat in Iraq, Bush regularly lists AQ first. (Bob Woodward)”

Forget Timmeh! Who’s this Bob Woodward fellow? Have we really reached a tipping point?

Back to Huck:
He says that Petreaus also says the #1 enemy of America is AQ in Iraq. Says we have to defeat them first because they want to kill the young Iraqi democracy. He’s claiming that the surge has routed AQ from Anbar. You know, the surge that started two weeks ago. That one. The surge is AQ’s worst nightmare because the Anbari’s have rejected AQ and embraced us. Yeah. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Timmeh points out that Maliki has said we can leave any time we want to. Huck says we can turn over Anbar soon, but our national interests keep us from believing Maliki. Claims Maliki is expressing confidence in his army, not asking us to leave. I think he wants us to leave so he can get serious about killing Sunni.

Timmeh asks Webb if he believes that AQ is the primary enemy and threat in Iraq, and would we leave behind a bloodbath.

Webb says it will be bad whenever we leave, and we need to plan realistically, and leave from a position of strength – AFTER some diplomatic work which hasn’t been done. Webb then makes the important points – AQ didn’t come to Iraq to destroy a democracy, it’s there because the US is. The people in Anbar didn’t align with the US, just with the enemy of their enemy. Says it’s not the Iraqi National Army taking out AQ, just locals applying, and I quote “a redneck justice”. Says we need more diplomacy and more rest for our troops. Then he jumps Lieberman for wanting a war with Iran. I’m ready to vote for President Webb.

Huck want’s to wait for September, doesn’t want to do anything now. Says Iran is killing our soldiers and Webb jumps in with “So are Saudis, Senator Graham, so are Saudis”.

Webb ’08 has a nice ring.

Graham says the surge has been AQ’s worst nightmare, and has them on the run. He then claims, with passion, “The surge has been in place TWO WEEKS!”. Almost funny, if people weren’t dying. Webb points out that we didn’t do all that in two weeks, but Huck’s on a roll.

Timmeh presses him to answer how long the surge should last. Whatever Timmeh had for breakfast should be given to him every Sunday morning. Huck’s fine with doing whatever Petraeus says to do, and ends his rant with a spittle-flecked pronouncement, “I’m gonna listen to this general, and I’m not gonna let any politician take the place of the general.” I assume he either meant “this” general, as opposed to previous generals who were forced to retire by W and Rummy, or he doesn’t think W is a politician. Either way damns him.

Webb is calm, if slightly sarcastic, but settles into a good argument. Deployments are now longer than rest periods for the soldiers, and somebody needs to speak for the soldiers instead of defending this president. Huck interrupts (again) with some noise about re-enlistments and Webb jumps him. Tells him not to put his political views into the mouths of the soldiers. Tells Huck that he hasn’t been to Iraq, only to the dog and pony show they put on for Senators. A scuffle breaks out. It’s a smug-off with Webb using facts, Huck using feelings. And we’re in commercial. That was meaty!

Panel time:
Republican primary– USA Today poll has Giuliani, Thompson, McCain, followed by Romney in single digits! Looks like it’s time for another “loan” to his campaign. McCain’s campaign is over. Yawn. Mike Murphy – R strategist thinks it’s not over. Says low-budget campaign of courage suits McCain. Guess he hasn’t been following the news closely if he thinks McCain can claim courage.

Douchebag of Liberty thinks it’s a longshot, Al Hunt calls it sad and over soon. Bob Schrum takes some pleasure in calling McCain a surrogate for Bush with no chance. Murphy insists Mc is showing courage and he can win. O…..kaaaay. I’m over this topic.

Giuliani (pro-abortion rights, pro-gay rights, pro-gun control) is a target of a DVD from IAFF firefighters. Really strong stuff which should kill the “fearless leader of 9/11” BS. It’s a little shocking that NBC shows a clip. Giuliani fires back. Swift-boating is mentioned, but in a deceptive way. Giuliani didn’t call this a “Swift Boat attack”, he said this is deceptive, and NOT a SBA. There’s a difference, Timmeh. They think the Swifties were telling a truth which needed to be told. Through the looking glass and all…

Shrum says Rudy has a reverse-Midas touch with picking people, including Vitter. Heh.
DB of L points out that swift-boating is a very good thing to R’s. He then digs a little deeper saying a lot of R’s like McCarthy. Truly, truly a douchebag. Al Hunt still finds it hard to believe that R’s will nominate the pro-everything Rudy. He hasn’t seen the rest of the field, I guess. The Mormon? The lobbyist womanizer? The bat-shit-crazy Bush hugger? Just do you see them nominating?
Murphy points out that Rudy is a one-note candidate, and needs to get in the early primaries.

Dems – Clinton (42%!), Obama, Edwards. Bill’s on the campaign trail, and Hil’s looking unbeatable to a lot of people. Bill says people say they are yesterday’s news, but points out “Yesterday’s news was pretty good!”. Indeed. She’s not my first choice, but any one of these candidates would be a huge improvement over numb-nuts. Obama calls her part of the past and says it’s time to turn the page. Ouch. Either way works for me, really. But they beat this to death for a while.

DBL says it’s very dangerous to call this the third term of Clinton. Timmeh calls shenanigans, asks him who calls it that, and DBL admits that it’s HIM. D’OH! d-o-u-c-h-e spells Novak. DBL then goes for racism and sexism in the same phrase, speaking of the pessimism of the Republican party concerning their chances in the presidential race, saying “only the Democratic party, with everything in their favor, would say that, ok, this is the year either to have a woman or an African-American to break precedent, to do things the country’s never done before, and it gives Republicans hope.” Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn! That’s pretty naked stuff there.

They spend the rest of the show flogging DBL’s new book – eeeewwww. Despite that, it was one of their best shows in recent memory.

Fawkes News. Brit Hume hosting. I probably won’t actually watch much of this…

Opening line – “An Iraq report card with SOME passing grades, and a strong presidential resolve to keep up the fight.” Stephen Hadley to discuss. Ok, I definitely won’t watch much of this. Then they’ll ask Fred Kagan (who inspired the “surge”) how the “surge” is working. I just can’t take this kind of propaganda seriously. I’m skipping to the panel.

Panel

Wow. I just can’t make it through this BS storm. Strawmen are being absolutely destroyed. Juan Williams is brilliant cutting through it.

On to…

This Weak

Ugh. Warner, Lugar, Hadley, McCain. I’m warming up the fast-forward finger.

First up, Hadley. Whooooosh on the ff…
Now Warner and Lugar. Whooooosh…

Round Table

Rehash of the benchmarks – is September important or not, can anything make the preznit change course (nope – only 67 votes in the Senate can change course, along with 2/3 of the House. Doesn’t look good.)

Sam Donaldson points out that every soldier who dies in Iraq is dying for the inevitable establishment of a Shia theocracy. George Will calls out people who think we are winning in Iraq, says that they will blame liberals for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory if we leave. It still surprises me that Will doesn’t support this war, but I chalk it up to isolationism. He’s one of the finest minds of the 16th century.

Blah blah about McCain. Most amazing comment – McCain burned through all his money without running a single ad. Jeebuz. That couldn’t have been easy.

In Memoriam
Lady Bird Johnson – the last classy first lady from Texas.
Charles Lane – actor was 102
Doug Marlette – amazing cartoonist
23 service members – 17 in their 20’s, one still a teenager, 5 in their 40’s

Dave Matthews is pushing to get vets their rightful medical treatment. Guess he’s some kinda liberal.

Funnies
What’s up with showing unfunny clips from The ½ witted News Hour?

curtain