SHIFTING TARGETS  —  The Administration's plan for Iran. … In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran.

Religious right may blackball Giuliani  —  Christian conservative leaders privately consider supporting a third-party, antiabortion candidate should Rudy Giuliani win the GOP nomination.  —  Rudy Giuliani speaks to the Associated Press Sept. 25, 2007, in New York.

GOP Is Ready to Roll Out the Klieg Lights for Craig  —  Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho is a tough guy to run out of town.  —  Not that his Republican colleagues aren't trying.  Worried that the disgraced lawmaker intends to remain in the Senate indefinitely, they are threatening to notch …

What happened to our troops in Oakland  —  Two days ago, an e-mail about the rude treatment of Marines and soldiers returning from Iraq started making the rounds on the Internet.  The brother of one of the mistreated Marines who described the incident at Oakland Airport works on the Hill.

Bolton calls for bombing of Iran  —  John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, told Tory delegates today that efforts by the UK and the EU to negotiate with Iran had failed and that he saw no alternative to a pre-emptive strike on suspected nuclear facilities in the country.

Nation of Stupid  —  Tom Friedman: "9/11 has made us stupid."  —  Sure has made some people stupid, no question.  Friedman is writing against Giuliani as the "9/11″ candidate, saying we need a 9/12 candidate.  Which, as an attempt to be clever, is pretty stupid, too. 9/12, you'll recall, was the day after 9/11.

The Group Behind Smear Campaigns Against Limbaugh and O'Reilly  —  Last week, two of the leading conservatives in the media, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, were dishonestly and unprofessionally attacked by press outlets that cherry-picked out of context remarks from lengthy radio broadcasts …

Is Hillary Clinton the New Old Al Gore?  —  THE Democrats can't lose the White House in 2008, can they?  —  Some 13 months before Election Day, the race's dynamic seems immutable.  Americans can't wait to evict the unpopular president and end his disastrous war.

Suspected Georgetown gay-basher has Bush Administration ties  —  A Georgetown University sophomore, implicated in a gay-bashing by a fellow student, has ties to the Bush Administration, PageOneQ has learned.  —  19-year-old Philip Anderton Cooney, pictured here in the spring of 2005 …