Queen Hillary, Empress of Mesopotamia  —  My friend, David Brooks, does his best to reinforce the Hillary-Is-Inevitable consensus in Washington right now.  He may regret this, though: … Then we hear this from a right-wing reporter with access to Bush:

Ahmadinejad Gets Laughed At  —  Watch Ahmadinejad's face here.  —  He's not being feared.  He's being laughed at.  Imagine how the Iranian people feel seeing these clips (and they're seeing them).  Imagine how the rest of the Iranian government feels being made to look so foolish …

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl's Hawkish Iran Amendment Is 'Cheney's Fondest Pipe Dream'  —  On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be "withdrawn" because the "proposal is Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream."

Iraqi Prime Minister Says That Civil War Has Been Prevented  —  Maliki Also Plays Down Iran's Influence  —  Civil war has been averted in Iraq and Iranian intervention there has "ceased to exist," Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday.  —  "I can't say there is a picture …

Front-Runner No-Shows at GOP Minority Debates Assailed  —  Former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts Calls Decision Not to Attend 'Stupid'  —  A former member of the House Republican congressional leadership — and the last African-American to serve as a member of the GOP in Congress …

Iranian President Ahmadinejad Delivers Remarks at U.N. General Assembly Meeting  —  SPEAKER: IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD  —  AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In the name of God, the compassionate and the merciful, oh, God, hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi and grant him good health …

Bush's UN Speech Full of Fone-eh-tick Pronunciations for World Leaders  —  ABC News' Ann Compton and Jennifer Duck report: Never before has the White House released a draft version of the President's speech to the annual United Nations General Assembly.  —  But this year, a glimpse …

Democratic Party Maintains Solid Image Advantage Over GOP  —  Public Prefers Democratic Party to Republican for handling terrorism, military security  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months.

House Panel Approves a Trade Pact With Peru  —  A trade pact between the United States and Peru won bipartisan support in a crucial Congressional committee Tuesday, signaling that some Democrats will be receptive to new trade deals as long as they call on other nations to adhere to international labor and environmental standards.

Supreme Court to Consider Lethal Injection  —  The Supreme Court today added 17 new cases to its workload for this term, including a voter identification case that could have a dramatic impact on the 2008 elections and an examination of whether lethal injections constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Bed-wetter Nation  —  Here's a big question that I want to start addressing in upcoming posts: what is conservative rule doing to our nation's soul?  How is it rewiring our hearts and minds?  What kind of damage are they doing to the American character?  And can we ever recover?

Koppel on Rather Suit: Squeezing Out of Newsman was a 'Travesty'  —  Calling the ouster of Dan Rather from CBS News in 2006 a "travesty," newsman Ted Koppel said today that he hopes the $70 million suit filed by Mr. Rather against CBS and Viacom will bring Mr. Rather "relief from his [emotional] pain."

Europeans Want America to Stay in Iraq  —  The Atlantic Community Editorial Team asked European policy experts for their opinions on proposed ways forward in Iraq.  Respondents from ten different countries provided some surprising results.  —  Against Troop Withdrawal

House panel debates hip-hop lyrics  —  WASHINGTON - Two rappers, sitting side-by-side in an ornate House hearing room, went in different directions Monday on the need for hip hop artists to expunge their work of sexist and violent language.  —  One, Master P, apologized to women for past songs …

The Top Pundits In America  —  What exactly is a pundit?  According to the dictionary, it's "a person who makes comments or judgments, especially in an authoritative manner; critic or commentator."  —  There's certainly no shortage of that in the media these days.  —  Call the past decade the era of the talking head.