On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled  —  Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing … Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters …

The new Nixon Law is introduced — that which the President does is legal  —  (updated below)  —  Michael DeWine yesterday introduced what he is calling The Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 (.pdf), co-sponsored by those independent maverick Republicans Olympia Snowe, Chuck Hagel and Lindsay Graham.

NPR Survey: Republicans Lose Ground on Foreign Policy, National Security; Opportunity for Democrats  —  Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Public Opinion Strategies  —  "...in this poll, when asked which party they trust more on issues such as the Iraq war, foreign ownership of U.S. ports …

New Documents from Saddam Hussein's Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs  —  U.S. Government Releases Papers From Saddam's Reign  —  March 16, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of four of the nine Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which were released by the U.S. government Wednesday.

Distinguishing gay marriage and polygamy.  —  Charles Krauthammer says legalizing gay marriage paves the way to legalizing polygamy: … If Krauthammer has been writing about this subject for 10 years, it boggles the mind that the obvious distinction has not yet dawned on him.

Teflon Europe  —  The prison at Guantanamo Bay was designed to interrogate terrorists and jihadists swept up from the battlefield: the idea was to keep them as prisoners of war in a war that was undeclared, and as enemy combatants without uniforms or officers.

Time for Facts, Not Resolutions  —  We understand the frustration that led Senator Russell Feingold to introduce a measure that would censure President Bush for authorizing warrantless spying on Americans.  It's galling to watch from the outside as the Republicans and most Democrats refuse …

Jessica Simpson, Smiling Up a Storm  —  Jessica Simpson is 30 minutes late; the scrum in Room 1539 of the Longworth House Office Building is getting vicious.  AP, People and "Inside Edition" are here, bumping up against Christian Broadcasting Network, ESPN, Modern Health Care — all snarling for a good angle.

What Democrats Want  —  JEROME ARMSTRONG AND MARKOS MOULITSAS are pioneers.  Armstrong founded MyDD.com, arguably the first political blog of real prominence.  As for Moulitsas, he's the founder and proprietor of Daily Kos, by far the most widely read of all political blogs.

Campaign Finance and Blogs: A Simple and Non-Legal Explanation  —  I updated this to include the media exemption, which I had forgotten.  —  Ok, so campaign finance regulations make my head hurt, so I'm going to try to explain the basic idea behind the differing bills instead of the legal ins-and-outs …

Harris advisers urged her to quit  —  Katherine Harris' chief political strategist said Thursday that he suggested she abandon her bid for the U.S. Senate because it would be a "tough row to hoe" given the numerous setbacks the campaign had suffered.  —  But Harris refused.

Flying Cow Leaves Two Police Cars in Flames  —  Watch this story...  Talk about a wild night near Seguin.  A cow came flying out of its trailer, sent DPS and police scrambling, and left two police cars going up in flames.  —  "It was almost hard to believe," said Detective Sergeant Maureen Watson.

Who were those guys?  —  Agents posed as journalists before visit  —  There was a whirlwind of activity in the days prior to President Bush's arrival at a home on the beach in Gautier last week, with government officials and Secret Service scouting a location and checking the neighborhood where Bush would stop.

Is it Clooney or is it Memorex?  —  A couple of reporters asked for reaction to l'affairianna Huffington, in which the Huffingtonpost pasted together George Clooney quotes and posted them as if he'd blogged it himself, reputedly with his flack's OK.  I'm embarrasased that I'm behind posting something here.