McCain seems confused about al Qaeda again, suggests it's a 'sect of Shi'ites.'  —  During today's hearing with Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) questioned Petraeus on what he called “the major threat” of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Surprising Political Endorsements By U.S. Troops  —  American Soldiers Speak Out About Their Presidential Endorsements  —  ABC's Martha Raddatz asked American soldiers in Iraq what issues are most important to them when looking at the presidential candidates.

Obama Catching Up With Clinton In Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; She's Losing Ground Even Among Women  —  Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is catching up with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary and now trails 50 - 44 percent among likely primary voters …

Shift at Top May Mean Shift in Tone for Clinton  —  WASHINGTON — “This isn't exactly what I was planning on when I woke up this morning,” Geoff Garin e-mailed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after a hasty weekend shake-up left him atop her campaign's strategy team.  —  Mrs. Clinton answered his dry humor in kind.

Iraq: Al-Mahdi army offers to lay down its arms  —  Iraq's largest and most dangerous militia will voluntarily disband if Shia scholars advise its leader to do so, officials said yesterday — a dramatic move that could quell much of the fighting in the war-torn country.

Rush & Molloy: Bio - McCain swore oath at wife  —  Sen. John McCain's defenders are blasting a new biography that claims the White House hopeful once hurled the most vile of epithets at his wife, Cindy.  —  Democratic strategist Cliff Schecter claims in “The Real McCain” …

The Sin of Speaking Truth  —  YET ANOTHER Democratic adviser is in trouble for having more common sense that his candidate — or at least, more than his candidate has the courage to admit having.  —  First there was Austan Goolsbee, Sen. Barack Obama's economic adviser …

Builders of Nations  —  “This is my hardest deployment,” Marine Sergeant Cooley said as he unfastened his helmet and tossed it onto his bed.  “We weren't trained for this kind of thing.”  He's been shot at with bullets and mortars, and he's endured IED attacks on his Humvee …

FBI Data Transfers Via Telecoms Questioned  —  When FBI investigators probing New York prostitution rings, Boston organized crime or potential terrorist plots anywhere want access to a suspect's telephone contacts, technicians at a telecommunications carrier served with a government order can …

The 10 Pieces of U.S. Infrastructure We Must Fix Now  —  No one can predict what bridge, levee or water main will fail next.  But some problems are widely known, and work is long overdue.  As PM's new special report makes blatantly clear, we need to begin rebuilding the nation's infrastructure somewhere.

Obama Is No King  —  TODAY, THE NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS PULPIT IS LARGELY OCCUPIED BY SECOND-RATE SHAKEDOWN ARTISTS.  —  When Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, I was 19 years old and fancifully considered myself to be far to the left of him.  Notwithstanding that, he felt …

Obama Vs. Rice  —  Given this speculation, an interesting dialogue on tyranny and terror and military action in the Senate in January 2005 between Condi and Barack.  Dug up by Jed Lewison.  I take Rice's points, and made some of them myself.  But there seems little doubt whose judgment looks sounder in retrospect.