memeorandum: BUT IT'S NOT A CIVIL WAR: … All of this, shockingly … (Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit.com)

Republicans Plan to Block Iraq Debate — Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said Friday that his party would unite to block Senate debate next week on a bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq unless the Democrats allowed votes on at least two Republican alternatives.

Discussion: TalkLeft, QandO, Alternate Brain, Prairie Weather, Don Surber, Redstate and Booman Tribune

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:

Warner Opposing His Own Resolution? — John Warner has declared that he will filibuster his own non-binding resolution on the surge to protest the conduct of Harry Reid in limiting votes on alternatives, such as John McCain's proposed language that supports the President's new stratey for Baghdad and Anbar.

Discussion: PoliPundit.com and The Right Angle

Kate Phillips / The Caucus:
Republicans Rebuff Reid on Iraq Resolution

Discussion: Blogs for Bush

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
A Terrible Ignominy — How many Republicans will desert the troops?

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, First Draft and TPMmuckraker

Maura Reynolds / Los Angeles Times:

U.S. can't prove Iran link to Iraq strife — Despite pledges to show evidence, officials have repeatedly put off presenting their case. — WASHINGTON — Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims …

Discussion: Informed Comment, Jules Crittenden, PoliBlog (TM), QandO, Macsmind, Gateway Pundit and BrothersJudd Blog

Real Cities:

Justifications for attacking Iran on shaky ground — WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is escalating its confrontation with Iran, sending an additional aircraft carrier and minesweepers into the Persian Gulf as it accuses the Islamic regime in Tehran of arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq for attacks on American troops.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Sister Toldjah and The Heretik

William Branigin / Washington Post:

U.S. Not Planning for War With Iran, Gates Says — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied today that the United States is planning for war with Iran, saying that U.S. military efforts are focused on countering alleged Iranian activities against American troops in Iraq.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, Outside The Beltway, The RBC and Once Upon a Time

Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:
Gates: We're "Not Planning" To Attack Iran

Discussion: New York Sun and Obsidian Wings

joinrudy2008.com:

Rudy and the Republican Nomination — To: — Team Rudy — Brent Seaborn, Strategy Director — Re: — Rudy and the Republican Nomination — Over the last month or two there has been a good deal of public opinion polling on the 2008 Republican primary race.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Power Line, GOPProgress.com, Redstate, The Political Pit Bull and TIME: Swampland

John Distaso / New Hampshire Union Leader:

Hillary widens lead; McCain holds an edge — MANCHESTER - Democrat Hillary Clinton begins her presidential campaign with a large lead in the first-in-the-nation primary state, while Republican John McCain holds a smaller lead over his two top rivals, according to a new poll.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, MyDD and Taegan Goddard's …

Jason / COUNTERCOLUMN:

Spitting on Veterans — Slate's Jack Schaefer is joining Media Matters in desperately trying to establish the meme that spitting incidents involving war veterans is myth, an urban legend. After all, that reprehensible behavior on the part of VietNam era leftists has hung like an albatross around liberals' necks for years, now.

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, The Jawa Report and shotinthedark.info/wp …

Ariana Eunjung Cha / Washington Post:

China Gets Cold Feet For Foreign Investment — New Regulations Spawn Fears of Economic Nationalism — SHANGHAI — "I know you don't know that you don't know." — Those insulting words, thrown out by a Chinese man to a Westerner, are the punchline of an Internet commercial that ends …

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, ParaPundit and Daniel W. Drezner

Joseph Kahn / New York Times:
Chinese Official Publishes Rebuke of Bush

Discussion: FP Passport and The Peking Duck

Laurie Kellman / Associated Press:

House Democrats to hear from Bush today — WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Talk about a tough crowd. President Bush accepted an invitation to speak Saturday to about 200 House Democrats — the same bunch that in November wrestled control of the chamber away from Republicans for the first time in a dozen years.

New York Post:

A FAN OBAMA DOESN'T NEED — SEN. Barack Obama might want to tell George Soros to shut up, now that the Hungarian-born billionaire has equated the George W. Bush administration with the Third Reich. Soros, who spent $26 million trying to beat Bush two years ago, is a key supporter …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:

NIE: It's A Civil War — The intelligence community released its National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq yesterday, a nine-page document that the Washington Post correctly characterizes as "bleak". It adopts the term "civil war" for the ongoing conflict in Iraq, and at the same time notes …

Discussion: TPMCafe blogs and Blue Crab Boulevard

James Taranto / Opinion Journal:

Best of the Web — Best of the Tube This Weekend: A twofer! James Taranto joins the panel on "The Journal Editorial Report," discussing the Scooter Libby trial and the economy with Paul Gigot, Dorothy Rabinowitz and Brian Carney. Fox News Channel, Saturday 11 p.m. EST and Sunday 6 a.m. EST.

Discussion: Oval Office 2008 and New York Times

New York Times:

Slower Job Growth, at Least for Now — Job growth slowed in January, the government reported yesterday, offering a tentative sign that the economy may be shifting down a notch from its unexpectedly robust pace of growth at the end of last year. — According to the Department of Labor's report …

Discussion: Beat the Press