Diplomat: U.S. arrogant, stupid in Iraq … (CNN) — A senior U.S. State Department diplomat told Arab satellite network Al Jazeera that there is a strong possibility history will show the United States displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in its handling of the Iraq war.

Clothes Aren't the Issue  —  MORGANTOWN, W.Va. When dealing with a "disobedient wife," a Muslim man has a number of options.  First, he should remind her of "the importance of following the instructions of the husband in Islam."  If that doesn't work, he can "leave the wife's bed."

Can 'Magazines' of The Times Subsidize News Coverage?  —  A PERFUME critic?  Yes, The Times now has one.  Chandler Burr's Scent Strip column appears in the high-gloss T: The New York Times Style Magazine, where the often-fluffy lifestyle coverage is a world apart from the kind of journalism in the daily sections of the paper.

Has the Right Gone Wrong?  —  HarperCollins.  294 pp.  $25.95  —  I don't spend much time in Washington; maybe it's different down there.  But let me tell you, out here in the wilds of the New Jersey suburbs, it is pure hell being a Republican these days, or a conservative, which used to be the same thing.

Ford Jr. shows up at Corker event uninvited  —  Harold Ford Jr. showed up uninvited at a campaign event for rival Republican Bob Corker at a private charter airstrip in Memphis this morning.  Corker had scheduled the media event earlier this week.  —  News reporters were surprised …

If we had known then...  WAS IT a mistake to go to war in Iraq?  The latest voice to say so is that of conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online's shrewd editor-at-large and, until last week, a supporter of the war.  —  Goldberg hasn't become a John Murtha clone …

Bush: 'We've Never Been Stay The Course'  —  During an interview today on ABC's This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years.  George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker's plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is …

Democrats Strengthen Chances For Senate  —  Democrats in the past two weeks have significantly improved their chances of taking control of the Senate, according to polls and independent analysts, with the battle now focused intensely on three states in the Midwest and upper South: Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.

Blog of war now camouflaged  —  When something good is happening in the military, you can rely on someone high up and behind the lines to try to kill it.  Slowly.  Bureaucratically.  Bleed the life out of it.  —  That is what is happening to milblogging, the Internet phenomenon …

Bush's family profits from 'No Child' act  —  A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Rank Would Guide Pelosi As She Chose Chairmen  —  If Democrats win control in November, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has decided to award committee chairmanships based almost entirely on seniority, ensuring that the House would feature far more minority faces, and some liberal firebrands, in key posts.

Wilder advises Webb to make stance clear  —  RICHMOND — Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, a former governor and one of the state's leading Democrats, has some advice for his party's U.S. Senate nominee James H. Webb Jr. — let voters know what you stand for.  —  "The question is …

Survivor!  —  The GOP Victory  —  JUBILANT DEMOCRATS SHOULD RECONSIDER their order for confetti and noisemakers.  The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years — and perhaps the Senate, as well.