memeorandum: LAMBORN LASHES OUT — As a rule, members of Congress try … (Steve Benen/Talking Points Memo)

2:00 PM ET, September 3, 2007

Top Items:

Bush makes surprise visit to Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — President Bush greeted his war commanders with salutes Monday during a surprise visit to a U.S. air base in Iraq's Anbar province. — Air Force One touched down at Al Asad Air Base at 3:43 p.m. (7:43 a.m. EDT) under a blazing sun.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Time, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Daily Kos, PoliBlog (TM), Wake up America, Main and Central, Macsmind, QandO, CALIFORNIA YANKEE and Neptunus Lex

Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:

Bush, Advisers Make Surprise Visit to Iraq — AL ASAD AIRBASE, Anbar Province, Iraq, Sept. 3 — On the eve of major administration decisions on U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top U.S. military leaders including …

Discussion: Hot Air, AMERICAblog, The Agonist, Hullabaloo, Brilliant at Breakfast, Corrente and WTF Is It Now?!?

Nancy A. Youssef / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Combat deaths in Iraq decline; reasons aren't clear — WASHINGTON — American combat deaths in Iraq have dropped by half in the three months since the buildup of 28,000 additional U.S. troops reached full strength, surprising analysts and dividing them as to why.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, QandO, Jules Crittenden, Back Talk, Burkean Reflections, Sister Toldjah, Wake up America, Connecting.the.Dots, Blue Girl, Red State and Show Me Progress

Jules Crittenden:

Bush in Iraq — NPR reporting he's landed, enroute to an econmic summit in Australia. Web reports now coming in. — AP: He's in Anbar, landed at Al-Asad. — CNN here, BBC here. More on-air from Beeb, currently reporting he's expected to meet with al-Maliki and Sunni tribal leaders who've joined …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Don Surber

David S. Cloud / New York Times:

Bush and Top Aides Visit Iraq Days Ahead of Assessment — President Bush and his top national security advisers made a surprise joint visit to Iraq today for talks with Gen. David H. Petraeus and top Iraqi officials a week before the American commander is scheduled to deliver a long-awaited assessment of the situation in Iraq.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, The Heretik, Hoffmania! and Norwegianity

Scarecrow / Firedoglake:

Bush/Cheney in Iraq: Winning By Failing — The chart at left (click on it to enlarge) was compiled by The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum in response to Juan Cole's assessment of claims the surge is a "success." I guess the President's sneak visit to Iraq this morning …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and New York Times

Libby Spencer / The Newshoggers:
Bush sneaks into Iraq

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:
Bush Makes Surprise Iraq Visit

Discussion: Associated Press, The Carpetbagger Report and The Heretik

Associated Press:
President Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

Discussion: Power Line

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Bush Drops By Iraq

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker and Flopping Aces

Ann Althouse / Althouse:

John Edwards: "you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years." — Edwards' universal health care proposal ignores individual autonomy: … So, the mental health check is mandatory too? Why does he not even realize how bad that sounds? He's so warmed up about the generous benefits he's promising …

Discussion: Hot Air

Amy Lorentzen / Associated Press:

Edwards backs mandatory preventive care — TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. — "It requires that everybody be covered.

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM), The Reaction, Central Sanity, Betsy's Page, Six Meat Buffet, Outside The Beltway, Redstate, protein wisdom, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Liberal Values, The American Pundit, The Strata-Sphere, The Democratic Daily, QandO and Upper Left

John Edwards for President:

Edwards Receives Support Of Steelworkers And Mine Workers Unions — Official endorsement at Pittsburgh Labor Day rally gives Edwards largest bloc of union support among presidential candidates so far — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - The United Steelworkers (USW) and the United Mine Workers of America …

Discussion: AFL-CIO Weblog

Daily Mail:

Soldiers evacuate babies from Israeli daycare centre as Islamic Jihad rockets fall — Soldiers scrambled to evacuate babies from a day care center in rocket-scarred Sderot today after a projectile fired by Palestinian militants thudded into the courtyard. — None of the 15 babies at the center was hurt.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Blue Crab Boulevard, Wake up America and Jihad Watch

Denver Post:

Doug Lamborn's voice messages to Jonathan and Anna Bartha — The following is a text of two voice messages that Rep. Doug Lamborn left on the home telephone of Jonathan and Anna Bartha. — FIRST MESSAGE: "Hello, this is Doug Lamborn calling for either Jonathan or Anna. Something very serious has happened.

Discussion: TPM Election Central, Blue Girl, Red State, SquareState.net, Associated Press and Firedoglake

Zappatero / Daily Kos:
CO-05: Republican Congressman threatens local couple

Discussion: protein wisdom, Riehl World View and Crooks and Liars

Steve Benen / Talking Points Memo:
LAMBORN LASHES OUT — As a rule, members of Congress try …

Discussion: The Impolitic and skippy the bush kangaroo

Washington Post:

When Controversy Follows Cash — Some Fundraisers With Legal Issues Slip Through Campaigns' Vetting — Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents …

Discussion: Sweetness & Light, NewsBusters.org, New York Post, New York Times and Macsmind

Jamiecnn / CNN Political Ticker: Huckabee: I can take on Clinton — LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) …

Chris Hawley / Arizona Republic:

Strong words for America, stern warnings for Mexico — MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president drew a standing ovation from legislators as he chided Americans for new border fences and their "humiliating treatment" of illegal immigrants during his State of the Union speech on Sunday.

Discussion: Wake up America

Manuel Roig-Franzia / Washington Post:
State of Mexico Addressed, by Invitation Only

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, Flopping Aces, Fausta's blog and Hot Air

Nick Gillespie / New York Times:

Democratic Vistas — With the possible exception of the Republicans, is there a major political party more stupefyingly brain-dead than the Democrats? That's the ultimate takeaway from "The Argument," Matt Bai's sharply written, exhaustively reported and thoroughly depressing account of …

Discussion: The Corner and Dr. Sanity

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Transformed By Her Bond With Bush — Rice's Loyalty Brings Power and Pitfalls — It was just two days after President Bush's reelection in 2004, and Condoleezza Rice was planning her move back home to California and to the tranquility of life at Stanford University. — But Bush had other plans.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Booman Tribune and The Atlantic Online

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Snow Job in the Desert — It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years.

Discussion: The Washington Note, TalkLeft, Prairie Weather and Middle Earth Journal