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:

The Ugly Side of the G.O.P.  —  I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week.  But what I'd really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington.

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 …

Blogger files complaint over Giuliani ad  —  A liberal blogger has jumped into the New York Times-MoveOn.org-Rudy Giuliani fracas, filing a complaint against the former New York City mayor's presidential campaign.  —  Lane Hudson, who in recent weeks has sought to carve out a niche as something …

GOP Senator Says Bush Should Put Health Bill Before Policy Goal  —  A senior Senate Republican accused President Bush yesterday of holding a bipartisan expansion of the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program hostage to his broader policy goals of using tax deductions to help people afford private health insurance coverage.

Teaching Moment  —  President Bollinger ended his remarks to President Ahmadinejad at Morningside Heights yesterday with these words: "I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilized world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for.

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.

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.

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."

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 …

Actor Kevin Spacey meets with Chavez  —  CARACAS, Venezuela - Actor Kevin Spacey met privately Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most outspoken critics in Latin America.  —  Neither Spacey — who has won Academy Awards for roles in "The Usual Suspects" and …

Paul officials deny involvement in Giuliani Mackinac ferry taunting  —  Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul does not believe that 9/11 was an "inside job" and his campaign distanced itself from a raucous pro-Paul demonstration on a Mackinac Island ferry Friday night, a Paul spokesman said Monday.

LIVE BY THE GOTCHA, DIE BY THE GOTCHA  —  You don't have to get into the appropriateness of the MoveOn ad or the intricacies of the NYT's ad rate schedule to conclude the obvious: The GOP is engaged in another round of cynical, exploitative caterwauling to change the subject from their party's Iraq debacle.

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

GOP expects to lose more House seats  —  Top Republicans are privately bracing for the possibility that they could lose additional House seats in next year's elections as a result of untimely retirements, ongoing scandals and unexpectedly gloomy fundraising forecasts, according to several members and aides.

White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website  —  Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports.