memeorandum: What Congress Needs To Ask Petraeus and Crocker (Fred Kaplan/Slate)

12:35 PM ET, September 7, 2007

Top Items:

Jurassicpork / Pottersville:

Paul Krugman: Time to Take a Stand — Here's what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he'll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq — as long as you don't count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites …

Discussion: CNSNews, The Moderate Voice, Left in the West, No More Mister Nice Blog, Rasmussen Reports and DownWithTyranny!

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Time to Take a Stand — Gen. David Petraeus has a history of making overoptimistic assessments of progress in Iraq that happen to be convenient for his political masters.

Discussion: FP Passport, Prairie Weather, Middle Earth Journal, Brian Beutler, SWJ Blog, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Peking Duck, Time, Bark Bark Woof Woof and The Atlantic Online

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

BURIED LEDE ALERT....Fred Kaplan has a good piece in Slate today about the upcoming Petraeus report and what Congress needs to ask about it. But I was more taken by an astonishing statement at the end of the piece from Stephen Biddle, a member of Petraeus's advisory panel.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Donklephant, Pacific Views, Corrente and Think Progress

Faiz / Think Progress:

New Twist In Saga Over 'Petraeus Report': There Will Be No Report — In the latest twist to the ongoing saga over the White House report, a senior military official tells the Washington Times today that there will actually be no report at all: … To recap, first the public was incorrectly led …

Fred Kaplan / Slate:

What Congress Needs To Ask Petraeus and Crocker — IF WE'RE STAYING IN IRAQ, WE NEED TO KNOW WHY. — The globe will resume spinning on its axis next week, as Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker deliver their long-awaited report on conditions in Iraq.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, The Impolitic, Comments From Left Field, Shakespeare's Sister and Washington Post

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:

'The Bush Report' — Via the Corner, this email from an unidentified reporter for the Hill: … The Dems are already in full retreat over the war in Iraq, having failed completely to peel off enough Republicans to pass a date-certain for withdrawal and having already voted to fund the war.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and MSNBC

New York Times:
Seeing Iraq Gains as Fragile, Petraeus Is Wary of Cuts

The Corner:
re: Dissing Petraeus

Discussion: Hot Air and Confederate Yankee

Brian Ross Reports / The Blotter:

New Videotape From Bin Laden; Al Qaeda's No. 1 Still Alive — Brian Ross Reports: — Intelligence sources tell ABC News they believe the expected video message from Osama bin Laden is authentic, recently produced and evidence the al Qaeda leader is still alive.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, National Review, On Deadline, Hot Air, CNN, The Daily Whim, QandO, TalkLeft, GINA COBB, Stop The ACLU, protein wisdom and michellemalkin.com

Lydia Saad / Gallup Poll:

Gallup Ranks the 2008 Candidates According to a Feeling Thermometer — Obama rated the most positively by Americans; Hillary enjoys broadest partisan support — PRINCETON, NJ — Using a "feeling thermometer" rating scale, Gallup recently tested the public images of several of the Republican …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Swamp, Blue Crab Boulevard, Pollster.com and The American Pundit

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Off to the Races — Surprisingly, the Republican presidential campaign comes into focus. — This week the Republican candidates for the presidency tried to make it new again. Summer's over, autumn's here, they're relaunching. I think they pretty much succeeded. Their debate Wednesday night had sparks and fire.

Discussion: Eunomia, The Atlantic Online and No More Mister Nice Blog

New York Times:
For Thompson, Goal Is to Don Reagan Mantle

Discussion: Boston Globe, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, The Right's Field and TIME

San Francisco Chronicle:

Fugitive fundraiser captured in Colorado tonight — (09-06) 20:52 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu, who skipped out on San Mateo County authorities this week rather than face sentencing in a fraud scheme, was apprehended tonight by federal and local lawmen in Grand Junction, Colo.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Detroit Times, Washington Post, Mercury News, Right Wing Nut House, Washington Times, TalkLeft, Blue Crab Boulevard, Gateway Pundit, Wizbang, The American Pundit and Take Our Country Back

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Breaking: Norman Hsu captured in Colorado; Update: Hospitalized …

Paul Elias / Associated Press:
Disgraced Dem Donor Arrested in Colorado

Discussion: Power Line, NewsBusters.org, TIME and bRight & Early

Andrew Norfolk / Times of London:

Hardline takeover of British mosques — Almost half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found.

Discussion: Power Line, Heading Right, Hot Air, Captain's Quarters, The Glittering Eye, Jihad Watch, Little Green Footballs, Theo Spark and Telegraph

Jim Moore / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Go 2 Guy: Seahawks duo blitzed by Bush backlash — KIRKLAND — Are you still fans of Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong after they visited President Bush last week in Bellevue? Or have their political leanings turned you against them? — The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave …

Discussion: Don Surber, Sister Toldjah, Gateway Pundit, QandO and Blue Crab Boulevard

Rob / Say Anything:

More On Ed Schultz's Bar Fight — Earlier this evening I wrote a post about North Dakota and national radio personality (and Democrat mouthpiece) Ed Schultz getting into an altercation with Kevin Nagle. Upon first hearing of the story, something just didn't seem right.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Riehl World View

The Big Trunk / Power Line:
HATE TALK FROM THE HEARTLAND

Discussion: IN-FORUM and Captain's Quarters

Andrew Roth / Club for Growth:

Fred Thompson's Record on Economic Issues … Fred Thompson's Generally Pro-Growth Record — Taxes — The Club for Growth is committed to lower taxes-especially lower tax rates- across the board. Lower taxes on work, savings, and investments lead to greater levels of these activities, thus encouraging greater economic growth.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Daily Pundit

Slate:

Giving Away the President's Power — This week and next, Slate is publishing three exclusive excerpts from The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration by Jack L. Goldsmith. Goldsmith served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel from October 2003 to July of 2004.

Discussion: The Next Hurrah and Balkinization