Polling Results  —  October 20, 2006 - Lieberman Opens 17-Point Lead In Connecticut, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Dem Challenger Gains Slightly On Rell  —  Candidate debates this week did not help the two principal challengers in the Connecticut Senate race, as Sen. Joseph Lieberman now holds a 52 …

After Pat's Birthday  —  Editor's note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.  Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

During National Character Counts Week, Bush Stumps for Philanderer  —  So it has come to this: Nineteen days before the midterm elections, President Bush flew here to champion the reelection of a congressman who last year settled a $5.5 million lawsuit alleging that he beat his mistress during a five-year affair.

John McCain unveils his Grand Plan for Victory in Iraq  —  When pro-war advocates talk about Iraq these days, what they say is not only misguided and false, but almost always incoherent.  In explaining why we ought to stay, they are reduced to a form of babbling that sounds almost adolescent …

Why is the White House so Eerily Confident about the Coming Elections?  —  All week I've been reading in disparate sources from Drudge to US News and World Report about Bush, Rove and Cheney being overly confident about the midterm elections.  Even Republican strategists are increasingly concerned …

Shiite Militia Seizes Control of Iraqi City  —  A Shiite militia that has been accused of a wave of sectarian attacks on Iraq's Sunni minority has seized control of the city of Amara in southeastern Iraq, attacking police stations and erecting checkpoints, witnesses in the city said today.

BREAKING NEWS: U.S. SUPREME COURT REVERSES NINTH CIRCUIT ORDER BARRING ARIZONA VOTER ID LAW  —  The opinion is here.  The state asked for a stay from Justice Kennedy, but he referred it to the entire Court, which treated the motion as a petition for cert.  The Court unanimously reversed …

Iran says Europe may get hurt for backing Israel  —  TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday Europe was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and warned it "may get hurt" if anger in the region boiled over.

Bush is wrong: Iraq is not Vietnam  —  President Bush has for the first time conceded a similarity between events in Iraq and those in Vietnam 40 years ago.  Asked in a television interview on Wednesday if he now saw a similarity between the recent escalation of American losses in Iraq …

America's Next Top Pundit  —  What does it take to be a talking head?  —  Whenever news breaks — on the fall campaign trail, in North Korea, in the most trivial corners of Hollywood — thousands of pundits have something to say.  What most of them don't have is somewhere to say it.

Priest: I was nude with young Foley  —  But says naked massage didn't count as sex  —  ROME — A priest acknowledged Thursday that he was naked in saunas and went skinny-dipping with Mark Foley decades ago when the former congressman was a boy in Florida, but denied that the two had sex.

OK, let's get this over with  —  On Wednesday, The New Republic and I parted ways, ending my four-year association with the magazine.  The ostensible reason for my release concerns my relationship with Franklin Foer and the magazine's other editors.  However, the irreconcilable ideological …

Former delegate gets purported Diebold code … Diebold Election Systems Inc. expressed alarm and state election officials contacted the FBI yesterday after a former legislator received an anonymous package containing what appears to be the computer code that ran Maryland's polls in 2004.