The Chicago Tribune's Mark Silva digs up an old column of Tony Snow's that, to put it mildly, makes Snow look a little silly now.

(Thanks to every blogger in the world.)

The House Democratic leadership picked up a couple of big Iraq votes yesterday (Jan Schakowsky and John Tanner), but they remain on shaky ground: Maxine Waters is still a no, Lynn Woolsey is still a no, and John Lewis... well, as he put it:

As a nation, can we hear the words of Gandhi, so simple, so true -- that it's either nonviolence or nonexistence? Can we hear the words of Martin Luther King Jr., saying that we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish as fools? Tonight, I must make it plain and clear, that as a human being, as a citizen of the world, as a citizen of America, as a member of Congress, and as an individual committed to a world at peace with itself, I will not and cannot vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war.

In other words, the next twenty-four hours are going to be an uphill battle.

I have to say, though: considering that this vote is largely symbolic (at best, it'll pass both chambers and be firmly and immediately vetoed; at worst, it won't even get a vote in the House), it's frustrating that the best the Democrats are able to do is commit to a withdrawal date sixteen months from now. As I'm sure someone famous once said: if you're going to lose, you may as well lose on something worth losing. The Democrats get beaten on some crazy, left-wing, latte-drinking, out-of-Iraq-tomorrow plan? Fine; they fought the good fight. But they get beaten on a relatively milquetoast, meet-you-halfway compromise measure*? That seems strategically unwise.

Incidentally, that Post article seems to suggest that the outcome of this vote will bear heavily on perceptions of Clyburn's effectiveness as whip ("the failings of his organization are resurrecting fears that the courtly Southern gentleman is simply too nice for a job known for head-banging, punishment and retribution"). I don't think that's actually the case, but if it is, it's startlingly unfair. That Clyburn bears some responsibility as a member of the leadership is unquestionable; but for the rest of the leadership to slough off blame for their collective miscalculation on some imagined failure of Clyburn's to deliver votes that they could otherwise have gotten would be ludicrous. Read that John Lewis excerpt again, and tell me honestly if you think there's anyone short of Lyndon Johnson who could have delivered Lewis's vote, or the vote of anyone who agrees with him. At the end of the day, on an issue as important and volatile as this one, Members are going to vote their consciences. It'd be foolish to take that out on James Clyburn.

* - If this was a price negotiation, here's where it would stand:

Democrats: We'll give you $2.
Republicans: We'll take nothing less than $100.
Democrats: Okay, fine, we'll give you $10.
Republicans: Sorry. Nothing less than $100.
Democrats: Alright, $35.
Republicans: $100.
Democrats: $60?
Republicans: $100.
Democrats: Alright, fine. $85. But that's our final offer.

The D.C. chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War staged an interesting protest on Monday, running a mock patrol through downtown Washington carrying "imaginary assault rifles" and "taking imaginary sniper fire and casualties on the grounds of the Capitol and the Washington Monument." The video attached to the story is worth a watch.

This is amusing: TrueMajority, a lefty non-profit founded by Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen, launched an Alberto Gonzales resignation pool this morning. If you can accurately predict the date and time of Gonzales's resignation, you win a year's supply of ice cream.

(And with the Politico reporting that a resignation could come any day, you might want to make your guess in a hurry.)

"Mean-spirited. Fundamentally inaccurate. Coulter." (Thanks to AMERICAblog for the link.)

(Shrewd readers will note that this is my first embedded video. How high-tech!)

If you haven't seen this yet (it's about a week old), I'd highly encourage you to check out this fantastic Wonkette post, Jesus-Loving Americans Totally Ignorant of Jesus, Religion. (It's like an Onion article, only real!)

[T]he way people go on about Jesus and how the Terrorist Muslims are coming to take away our precious freedoms guaranteed by Jesus to each American, you’d think they at least knew some goddamned simple bible stories. No. They actually don’t know anything about anything.

The sixteen-point list that is the crux of the post is almost guaranteed to make you chuckle. Here are two of my favorites:

• 98% of Americans profess belief in a monotheistic God, with 81% claiming to be "Christian." And...
• Only one in three Americans can name the four Gospels, while less than half can even name one of them.

In other words, at least 40% of the people who self-identify as Christian can't name any of the Gospels. 40%! I love the Christian right.

(Cautionary note: a few of the sources cited in the Wonkette piece are less than ideal; I recognize that, and I wouldn't recommend citing them in an academic article on religious hypocrisy. But I've seen enough polling data on religion to know that the numbers Wonkette's quoting are, at the very worst, not far off base. Should you rely on them as scientifically accurate? No, probably not. But can you rely on them as anecdotally accurate? Absolutely. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world.)

I've been a terrible blogger lately. I have plenty of excuses, sure: I was in and out of town; I had a catastrophic motherboard failure; I felt obligated to watch about six hundred NCAA basketball games. But none of that makes me feel any less guilty about failing you, my loyal readers (ha!). I've been keeping up with the news, mind you; I just haven't actually be posting any of it. So here's a lengthy rundown* of the notable news articles and blog posts that I've read in the past week and a half, organized roughly by topic. And now that I'm back in town full-time; now that I've constructed an acceptable workaround until my new motherboard arrives; now that the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament are over... I'll try to spend some time here more regularly.

• Richardson
  • 3.8. Destined for grabbiness problems?
• Walter Reed
  • 3.8. AMERICAblog on the CQ article indicating that senior Republicans knew about the situation at Walter Reed long before they let on.
• Environment
  • 3.8. There was a lot of talk amongst the big lefty bloggers about this article, which reports on government scientists who were told not to discuss climate change (or polar bears).
• Libby
  • 3.8. One of Kos's contributing editors makes a good point regarding the feasibility of a Scooter Libby pardon: you usually have to wait five years.
• Edwards
  • 3.8. Ezra Klein at TAPPED points out that while Edwards's coming out against the FNC Nevada debate was a "good thing," it probably wasn't a smart move for Edwards personally, since it's likely to set him up as a pretty severe Fox punching bag if he makes it far enough that it becomes worthwhile for them to start punching him. (I think this is probably slightly less true now that the debate has collapsed so spectacularly. But they have long memories, those elephants.)
• U.S. Attorneys
  • 3.8. Arlen Specter becomes the first Republican to rake the Attorney General across the coals.
  • 3.12. Chuck Schumer wants Karl Rove to testify.
  • 3.13. Dan Bartlett: "The White House did not play a role in the list of the seven U.S. Attorneys."
  • 3.16. TPM has put together a great timeline of the whole U.S. Attorney thing. (They also ask what Rove knew when.)
• Military
  • 3.9. The American Prospect writes about military reservists and the Montgomery GI Bill.
  • 3.13. The fact that Gen. Peter Pace thinks homosexuality is immoral did not surprise me. The fact that Sen. John Warner thinks it's not, did.
• Coulter
  • 3.9. A great editorial on Coulter from a small paper in DeKalb, Illinois. One of the things that annoyed me most about the initial responses from the major political campaigns (on both sides of the aisle) is that they were all framed in terms of "that kind of language has no place in political discourse." That's undeniably true, but it seems like we ought to go further than that; as the editorial above notes, "What she said was wrong and hurtful and stepped way beyond the line of human decency, much less political commentary."
• Abortion
  • 3.12. A good post from TAPPED on a major logic problem for the pro-life right: "But as John Paul Stevens has pointed out, this position is completely nonsensical; it's absurd to argue that a woman has a fundamental right in choosing to become pregnant before the fact but only a trivial interest in choosing whether to become pregnant after the fact. The state's interest is greater after the fact, but the way abortion laws are written and enforced makes it almost impossible to argue that this interest could trump a fundamental right, which is why most opponents of Roe deny that a woman's right to choose an abortion is a fundamental right at all."
• Hagel
  • 3.9. Interesting fact: Chuck Hagel promised during his 1996 Senate campaign to term-limit himself to 12 years.
  • 3.12. Chuck Hagel announces... nothing. Pundits agree: that was quite a waste of time.
• Plame
  • 3.16. Valerie Plame testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. I didn't get to watch it, but everything I read seems to indicate that she was quite damning. (AMERICAblog has an assortment of clips.)

* - Color-coded expression of the danger that The Purple State is becoming more of a disjointed series of links than a blog: Orange (Elevated).

David Gergen refers to the Bush administration as "mostly free of scandal." Wonkette responds incredulously ("David Gergen is mentally retarded"), and makes a list:

Mostly free of scandal? Jesus Christ, it’s the most corrupt, incompetent kleptocracy in American History. The election itself was an international scandal. How about Cheney’s secret "Energy task force," Jack Abramoff, Halliburton’s no-bid contracts, Chalabi, Cheney hunting humans, Cheney’s unmarried pregnant lesbian daughter, the invasion of Iraq, Mission Accomplished, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, Katrina, FEMA, Nigerian uranium, Armstrong Williams, Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, Jeff Gannon, Dubai Ports, blocking the 9/11 Commission, anthrax, WMDs... nope, no scandals there.

(A Kos diarist has a list of his own.)

Sen. Pete Domenici has hired a lawyer. Specifically, Duke Cunningham's lawyer, K. Lee Blalack. Kos points out the obvious ("Blalack may well be a good lawyer, but is it in Domenici's best interest that every time this story is covered, he is linked to Duke Cunningham?").

Everyone in the world thinks Chuck Hagel's going to announce on Monday.

And TAPPED thinks Newt Gingrich is laying the groundwork for an announcement of his own. [TAPPED also points out that Newt's website, Newt.org (naturally), hosts a group of podcasts called "iNewts," which is amusing.]

I think the Newt speculation is dead-on, but I'm not buying the Hagel thing. 2:1 says he announces on Monday that he's running for reelection in 2008.

Loyal readers! This past weekend's travels made it difficult to get anything done 'round these parts. After twenty-four hours of extensive news consumption, I think I'm finally caught up with the world, but it's left me with a blog backlog (backblog?) several stories deep; and rather than wait until I have time to write about each of them individually, I figured I'd just lump the whole mess of 'em them into one link-heavy post that you can browse at your leisure. (Notice my folksy patois. I think that means that I need to go to bed.) Here goes:

• Coulter
  • TPM Cafe notes that the Lancaster (PA) New Era has dropped Ann Coulter's column, writing in explanation that Coulter "no longer provides" the "intelligent discussion" the paper's readers deserve.
  • And Kos provides a lengthy list of advertisers that have pulled their ads from Coulter's site since the the CPAC incident. Highlights include Verizon, AT&T, Washington Mutual, Sallie Mae, and the perpetually annoying Classmates.com.
• U.S. Attorneys
  • An anonymous AUSA emails TPM to thank the site for its work on the U.S. Attorney story.
  • Fired USA David Iglesias confirms that he received uncomfortable, "pressuring" phone calls from Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson.
  • Domenici says his complaints about Iglesias arose out of Iglesias's "inability to move quickly," but a bit of research indicates that Iglesias has actually moved significantly faster, on average, than his predecessor.
  • One of the fired U.S. Attorneys emails the other five regarding a very questionable call he received a couple of weeks ago from Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.
  • And Mike Battle, the Justice official who did the actual firing of the various fired U.S. Attorneys, resigns. (Kos figures he just wanted to spend more time with his family.)
• FNC
  • A Fox News anchor behaves tolerantly.
  • And in unrelated news (...), John Edwards becomes the first candidate to announce that he'll skip the FNC-hosted Nevada Democratic debate.
• Op-Eds
  • Tom DeLay demonstrates that he is still a dick.
  • And Walter Mondale warns against a runaway vice presidency, noting "the dangers of the Cheney precedent."

Whew!

Don Spagnolo, editor of Mondesi's House, previews the Pirates' upcoming season with a list of 79 reasons why it's hard to be a Pirate fan. A bit of a departure from my normal subject matter, I know, but worth a read all the same.