India’s security agencies are worried. Initial investigations have revealed that the modus operandi employed by the person who attacked Israeli embassy staff in New Delhi – by fixing bomb to a car – “mirrored the method used by Mossad earlier to assassinate Iranian scientists.”

(Meanwhile, the Israeli diplomat’s wife who was in the car when the explosion took place in New Delhi on Monday is still critical. Tal Yehoshua-Koren, 40, was on her way to pick up her children from the American School when the blast happened. Three other people, including the driver of the car, received minor injuries. Ms Yehoshua was operated upon to remove shrapnel from her spine on Monday night. Her left leg is paralysed for now. She also has injuries in her lung and liver.)

Security experts in India are of the view that the copy-cat attack may be a way of telling Israel that Iran has the capability to carry out similar attacks in distant locales. In New Delhi, India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai were in constant touch with the Israeli authorities, who have shared crucial information on the possible suspects, reports the Economic Times.

“Most Iranian scientists engaged in Iran’s nuclear programme were killed in car bomb blasts triggered by similar magnetic devices (as used in New Delhi attack). Iranians suspect these attacks were carried out by Israel or the US. The emergence of magnet bombs is seen as a worrying trend by Indian agencies, who fear that local terrorist modules may draft them to attack VIPs and high-value targets here.

Meanwhile top Indian minister’s reference to a “well-trained” bomber is seen as confirming the intelligence agencies’ fears that a commando may have been used to carry out the “surgical” strike in New Delhi. The bomber was familiar with all the approach roads and the quickest exit route, which agencies suspect was not possible without the help of local contacts.

“The dry runs helped him not only to choose the traffic signal where he would attach the bomb to the car’s rear, but also facilitate his quick escape to safety before the bomb could go off. The sticky bomb was used for the first time in India. The device did not have a battery or a circuit, indicating an in-built, quick timer mechanism similar to a grenade.

“The police believe that the bomber was trailing the diplomat’s car for the last few days. Incidentally, sources told ET that a motorcycle had brushed the diplomat’s car days before the blast.” More here…

Are we seeing a shifting of theatre of the Israeli-Iran brinkmanship from familiar stages like Gaza, Damascus and Beirut to neutral grounds like Delhi? asks Dr Trita Parsi, president, National Iranian American Council, and adjunct professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University.

His acclaimed first work, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States, seeks to debunk prevalent myths about Iran-US-Israel relationship while the latest – A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran – focuses on US President Barack Obama’s failure to put diplomacy before sanctions in engaging Iran.

“Well, I’d say, we need to be cautious. We haven’t had any credible evidence yet (to trace it back to Tehran). The assassinations of those associated with the Iranian nuclear programme have been traced back to a certain extent to Israel, since it has been at least confirmed by the US government.

“A recent NBC programme traced the killings to collusion between Israel and the banned Iranian Mujahideen groups. It won’t be entirely surprising if Iran hits back. It won’t be surprising if there are counter assassinations.

“What would be surprising is that why would they do it in a country like India, one of the last major countries that’s still resisting the US diktat on isolating Iran. New Delhi is one of Tehran’s largest trading partners, India is an emerging power and carries a lot of weight internationally.” More here…

Amid continued controversy surrounding an Obama administration policy mandating that women working at religiously-affiliated institutions be provided with free access to contraceptive health care, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows that most Americans – including Catholics – appear to support the rule.

According to a survey, conducted between Feb. 8-13, 61 percent of Americans support federally-mandated contraception coverage for religiously-affiliated employers; 31 percent oppose such coverage.

The number is similar among self-professed Catholics surveyed: 61 percent said they support the Obama administration’s rule, while 32 percent oppose it.

Majorities of both men and women said they are in favor of the rule, though support among women is especially pronounced, with 66 percent supporting and 26 percent opposing it. Among men, 55 percent of men are in favor; 38 percent object.

The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

In other words: this could wind up being a wedge issue — for the Democrats.

UPDATE: Gallup found this:

Catholics’ views of President Obama were little changed during a week in which the administration battled publicly with Catholic leaders over whether church-affiliated employers should have to pay for contraception as part of their employees’ health plans. An average of 46% of Catholics approved of the job Obama was doing as president last week, compared with 49% the prior week, a change within the margin of sampling error.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thats amoré – Dean Martin

Amor is a venerable word for the kind of love that we celebrate today. Even if we don’t particularly “get” it and the more you look into it the more confusing it gets….

Cupid stringing his bow

It’s a doubly special day to me, born a “Hart” to my father, himself born a “Hart” on Valentine’s Day, 1928. (Happy Birthday, Dad!)

With its roots in the 5th Century, C.E., what we celebrate is not explicitly erotic love, but, rather, ROMANTIC love, which encompasses some eroticism, but which is not encompassed BY eros.

You still see the mythic, pre-Christian symbolism of Cupid, whose “arrows of desire” point out one of the most dangerous (and, therefore, not much discussed) truths of our existence, which Western Thought is notoriously cranky, angry, scared and all harumphy about:

As the arrow of desire strikes us, we become the slave of our desires, and, as any soap opera viewer knows, this completely screws up our lives.

One falls in love with a woman who tells us that she is actually getting a divorce, even though one’s friends keep whispering “she’s married.” One fathers a child, struggles through a series of homes and jobs, loses one’s career, and then — as mysteriously as she appeared, she vanishes with the child — not to be seen again for decades.

That’s the modern version of the story of Melusine, whom you can see stylized in the Starbucks Coffee logo.

A logo which is derived from a cousin of THIS old woodcut:

Melusine (Or Melusina)

Sir Walter Scott tells a Melusine tale:

The fairy Melusina … married Guy de Lusignan, Count of Poitou, under condition that he should never attempt to intrude upon her privacy… She bore the count many children, and erected for him a magnificent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was uninterrupted until the prying husband broke the conditions of their union, by concealing himself to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath. Hardly had Melusina discovered the indiscreet intruder, than, transforming herself into a dragon, she departed with a loud yell of lamentation, and was never again visible to mortal eyes ; although, even in the days of Brantome, she was supposed to be the protectress of her descendants, and was heard wailing as she sailed upon the blast round the turrets of the castle of Lusignan the night before it was demolished.

We of the West, so jealous of our self-asserted “Free Will” have never been able to reconcile the arrows of Cupid with our “self-control,” as the clucking of faux-moralists in the media invariably taps out in the morse code of moralizing: “How could HE/SHE have been so stupid!?!??”

Cupid rhymes with stupid, coincidentally.

That’s Amor.

I had a beautiful long-haired calico cat that I named “Melusina” (who we called “Sina”) and, like her mythic progenitor, one day, she simply vanished never to be seen again. Like I said, I once knew a guy who named his dog “Cujo.” I won’t make that mistake again.

It is the mystery of romance, of being “moonstruck,” pie-eyed, head over heels in love.

We now know, of course, that pheromones trigger hormones and the complex chemical interaction explains all.

And yet …

The one and his wife seem happy, and his best friend is happy for them. He is around a lot, and Cupid is feeling particularly nasty, and so …

Lancelot and Guinevere fall in love and a kingdom is sent to ruin.

Guinevere Knights Lancelot

Tristan and Iseult, Romeo and Juliet, Heloise and Abelard (ouch!).

Draper’s Tristan and Isolde

Which brings us to the Grail King, or the Fisher King.

This is NOT a holiday for children, nor is it truly a holiday for lovers. We celebrate the intoxication of romance, of Amor! – which was the battle cry of Anfortas, the Grail King, as he set out on his pied horse, and was pierced through the thighs with “the wound that would not heal” until either Parsifal, Percival or Galahad, or Gawain or Bors asks the question that frees the Grail King and relinquishes the crown to the questing (quest-ion-ing) “Perfect” Knight.

It is a sexual wound.

The problem lies in the Greek conception of three kinds of love, Philos, (brotherly, friendship love, as in Philadelphia), Eros (romantic and sexual love), and Agape, which is say, religious devotion, or love for all mankind, higher, abstract love. (OK, AND Storge, familial affection, etc.)

The problem, as I said, lies in the Greek conception of FOUR kinds of love …

I’ll come in again.

Ritual kiss (bad stuff)

Naturally, we English-speaking prudes got it all backwards when we decided to euphemize disgusting (a relative term) and/or criminal sexual behavior behind a veil of “clever” legal Latinisms and Bible speak. The “Sin of Onan” has nothing to do with masturbation, but is called (increasingly archaically) “Onanism.” Or “zoophilia,” which, technically means the love of animals a la “National Velvet,” and not having sex with them, which would zooroticism, I suppose.

When I was a kid, I had the toughest time figuring out what “sodomy” was, because the dictionaries all went into recursive cycles of euphemisms until you came to “see ‘SODOMY’ — at which point I gave up.  The only thing I knew about Sodom had to do with a stack of sodium-chloride and Lot’s wife pulling an Orpheus moment.

And aliens dropping an atomic bomb, of course.

Amor comes to us from the Latin, and runs rampant in Europe …

Inflected form of amo (“I love”). [Language] Descendants: Aragonese: amor Catalan: amor Corsican: amore Dalmatian: amaur French: amour Galician: amor Icelandic: amor (borrowed) Italian: amore Old Provençal: amor Piedmontese: amor Portuguese: amor Romanian: amor Romansch: amur Sicilian: amuri Spanish: amor Venetian: amor

The arrows of Cupid fall where they may and we are powerless to stop it. “Why must we love where we must, and not where we will?” Theodore Sturgeon asked, and it seems one of the most essential mysteries of the human condition.

Cupid by Caravaggio, 1601

A mystery that we celebrate today, and, alas, all those underage children and diamond companies and florists celebrate in their own, clueless or exploitative way, who are celebrating it with us.

But Cupid’s arrows sometimes lead to the Hieros Gamos, which lies at the center of that Mystery:

Hieros gamos or Hierogamy (Greek ”holy marriage”) refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites. The notion of hieros gamos does not presuppose actual performance in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic or mythological context, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology.

The metaphor of sexual union and spiritual union is seen around the globe, as noted further on in the Wikipedia article, which you are invited to read. It’s short, but suite. (sic):

Tantric Buddhism In Tantric Buddhism of India, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet, yab-yum is a ritual of the male deity in union with his female consort. The symbolism is associated with Anuttarayoga tantra where the male figure is usually linked to compassion (karu?a) and skillful means (upaya-kausalya), and the female partner to ‘insight’ (prajña).^[10][11] Yab-yum is generally understood to represent the primordial (or mystical) union of wisdom and compassion.^[12] Maithuna is a Sanskrit term used in Tantra most often translated as sexual union in a ritual context. It is the most important of the five makara and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra variously known as Panchamakara, Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra. The symbolism of union and polarity is a central teaching in Tantric Buddhism, especially in Tibet. The union is realized by the practitioner as a mystical experience within one’s own body.

A Renaissance version of the Hieros Gamos

There is also this:

Neopaganism

Further information: Sex magic

In Wicca, the Great Rite is a ritual based on the Hieros Gamos. It is generally enacted symbolically by a dagger being placed point first into a chalice, the action symbolizing the union of the male and female divine in the Hieros gamos. In British Traditional Wicca, the Great Rite is sometimes carried out in actuality by the High Priest and High Priestess.

The Hieros Gamos motif in a modern King Crimson Album Cover

I am not saying that these are the answers to that eternal riddle of Eros/Amor. I’m just pointing out that different peoples have come to the same place in equating sexual union with cosmic union, much as the fertility of the king and queen created a fertile kingdom (a mythological motif seen everywhere), where the infertility of the crown creates the wasteland, as in the legends of the Fisher King.

The Hieros Gamos brought up to date

It isn’t a new mystery, but it remains a mystery. Which is why I’m going to cop out and say “Happy Valentine’s Day!” And happy birthday, as I said, to my Father, a heart born on Valentine’s Day, from a state that celebrates its 153rd Statehood Day this Valentine’s Day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Immortal Peggy Lee

I wish you love, romance … and

Courage.

=================

A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.

ANNUAL VALENTINE’S STORY: The Underlying Meaning of Valentine’s Day…………..

Valentine’s Day Alert, Anywhere USA: A woman punches another woman to seize the last red-flocked candy box at the drug store. Children fear going to school for they might not get as many valentine cards as some other kids. What used to be honorable behavior during an onslaught of the citadel, has become ‘aggression normale’ in Buy-Me-Land. What used to be a place of learning for the kidlettes, has in some places, become a daily injection of the poison called, ‘If I don’t have proof from all others by daily acclamation, I am a nobody.’

Commerce can be admired for advertising many artifacts which help people to better live; those remedios and medicines that are thereby shown within reach of some and the many. But, how can we understand the kind of commerce that $ee$ only it$elf and nothing more… and by so doing, steals the bedrock of our culture by covering over the real stories that sustain us.

Few artists and creators I’ve known have ever brought forth work of depth by strategizing money first, and meaning second. Quite the contrary. Thus I put the ‘Holiday Advertising Behemoth’ on the couch with its Presenting Symptom: Cardboard everything. I listen to its pressured speech, it’s lack of cohesive underlayment, it’s concern with image, and I write in my casebook: Diagnosis: Malignant narcissism. Outcome: Loss of meaning.

Narcissism is not falling in love with oneself; it is falling for ‘the false self”… the one which has no real heart, a cardboard self that can only mimic tenderness and toughness, but has no winged soul.

Thus a culture diagnosed with narcissism is not in love with itself, as suggested by the reductive epithet, ‘me-ism.’ A narcissistic culture is in love with a false self, one that is not real, one this is perceived to have no real issues, no reliable gifts, no real harms and thereby, no real solutions.

But, there is ever hope. Prognosis for an ill culture? It depends…. mostly on cultura cura, how smaller healthier cultures within the ill culture will expand outward to heal the larger society. One of the first ways to destroy a culture and a people, is to destroy their true stories. One of the first ways a culture that has become ill can be restored is by adding back the stories that are sustaining to its people, stories that are real.

Thus, let us speak about other stories underlying Valentine’s Day besides ‘death-by-sugar,‘ and aside from poor St. Valentine hoisted into position over the pre-Christian deity but later unceremoniously demoted to ‘may not have been a real person” and “may never have actually lived.”

And isn’t that the core concern of living in an ill culture that was supposed to nourish us… to not be forced into squandering a life, living as though one had never lived, as though one had not been a real person, as though one had missed what a true heart really meant.

All the more reason to have good news… yes, there is a story about Valentine’s that is a rich one, a story that is neither cutesy nor bitter… and thereby quick and evaporative. Rather, it is a real story that has the red blood of real life in it.

THE STORY OF TRUE LOVE: THE CRIPPLED ONE
In my old country immigrant family, Valentine– also known as True Love, also known as Eros– is the story of a crippled child; one whom no matter how rejected he has been, no matter how spurned, the Immaculate Love inside him simply would not die.

This child Eros, made of True Love, shows up in many forms in our lives, and there have been times when I have been graced to have touched and cared for him several times in my own.

Just this morning I thought I met him again. I was standing on the porch facing the small lake I live on here in the Rockies. Every morning I try to live the Angelus, an ancient prayer said three times a day… literally meaning, ‘The Call to the Angels.’ It is a prayer during which I raise up my loved ones, the loved ones of others, and unknown souls as well, over the lake… so all the great powers of heaven and earth can see them.

Amongst other things, I ask that each person be given what is most needed, whatever will most nourish, most negate fear, most repair, most grant flashes of inspiration.

Often, birds fly right by at eye level as I pray: I could reach out and practically pet them as they go by; black, white and gray Canadian geese so aerobically fit that they sing while they flap, five beats to the bar; the blue herons with their spindly feet straight out behind like chicken-legged outriggers; and the white Mexican pelicans who float through the air with their huge chests puffed out looking like majestic flying fortresses.

Thus, while I was praying this morning, I saw at the water’s edge, a fine young mallard.

But then, I saw that one of his bright orange legs was bent sideways… No matter how long you live in any wilds, no matter how many animals you have had to put down in your lifetime, the wounded innocent still catches your heart.

The mallard’s injury was old. His leg had healed crookedly. But there he was nevertheless, wearing his fine white necklace and his dark green hood. My heart rose to see that he was strutting about on the rocky shore like he was Master of the Universe, even so. Like he had every right. Like he, in some essential ‘mallard heart,’ was ever whole.

Then I thought of the story of ‘the crippled child’ and Valentine’s Day. In ancient Greece, this child called Eros, was a young male who represented what in our family was called, ‘Limitless Love and Unending Courage.’ The Romans called him Cupid.

Eros and Cupid are often portrayed as clean, plump cherubs, sweet as Mazola oil, holding red hearts that have no aortas for supplying blood nor superior vena cavas for carrying it.

But the commercial magnates seem not to remember that Eros, although indeed a child, was not a rosy cherub.

Eros was like the crippled mallard…. and like most of us are in some way or other: he had been hard beset. He had been battered by life.

We’ve seen Eros portrayed in modernist paintings as a little prince in a blue silk suit with blue eyes and pale blue skin that has never seen daylight. However, in our deeply ethnic family, as with the ancients, Eros is understood as a street urchin.

He was likely a dark-skinned child, scruffy, dirty-faced with grimy hands and matted black hair. There’s little doubt that he was often engaged in street scuffles over a bread crust, a dot of rice, a kernel of maize.

Some in our family say that he carried a wistful sense from having been turned away from so many doors… because so many people would not allow Limitless Love and Unending Courage into their hearts. Instead, they were waiting for the shiny clean version of ‘love’ to show up, the sick cultural version of love, one that might look polished on the outside, but is without true heart on the inside.

Thus, we understood that Eros often went hungry, that he was bewildered by those who turned him away, that because he was not given shelter, that Limitless Love was homeless.

It was said that some were unreasonably harsh with Eros and lifted him by the arm or threw him away from their doorposts, and thus injured him so that he limped. I remember my grandmother saying we would recognize true love had come to us, as much by Love’s imperfections, as by Love’s perfect depth.

But, the most miraculous thing about hard-scrabble Eros… was that not only did he endure: the miracle is, that despite the hardships, torments and injuries to his spirit, his eyes remained clear and not hooded … that he allowed his heart to be mended up over and over again… and that Eros continued to love with everything in him… all and everything that he could.

The miracle is that Eros kept knocking at every door, every single door, no matter if the door belonged to a hovel, or to a castle.

‘Here I am,’ he would cry, ‘Limitless Love! Unending Courage! Please, let me in?’

Limitless Love! Unending Courage! Indeed, a cultural cure… the exact words to chisel on every cultural edifice, on the lintel of every publishing house, every theatre, school, temple, every meeting place, every congress, web portal, every home, shelter, over every heart.

The word erotic comes to us from Eros’s name. The words eros and erotic, though they include sensual love, are rooted in a far greater idea– that the instinct to love and to be loved remains alive in souls no matter what else. No matter what doors have opened and shut, no matter which persons have turned away or been turned away. No matter how tiny its refuge now. The heart of Love continues onward with eyes that are clear and far-seeing.

Some people wish each other love on Valentine’s. Some wish prosperity, health and wealth. I would wish all those onto all persons, but one more, the most critical. I would wish remembering.

Remembering that Love is not fancy, to take care to adorn Love carefully, so as to not occlude its humble street origins… that Love does not stay alive by asking ‘how much’ but by ‘how well and how deeply, how kindly, how sweetly, how boldly, how bravely?’

Like the street urchin Eros, the mallard and I, and you too, and our cultures we love: It is true, we have all been thrown down hard somewhere in life, and often more than once in this lifetime.

But, also we are, I think, somehow ever being knitted back up in mysterious ways, often by others, sometimes by strangers, certainly by your cultura cura, those tiny groups that carry the healing herbs and ideas and give them out freely, albeit imperfectly often enough.

We ourselves and our cultures are all left with a scar or a limp that shows we have mangled or managed our way through a great something. And, we are still here. Crookedy here and there. But in some greater self, whole, and with Love.

Thus in the spirit of a real and sustaining story that underlies Valentine’s Day…

I lift you up over the lake to ask that you be brought comfort
and encouragement if and as you need it. I mean to ‘remember’ to you
that despite whichever challenges you may have, you were born
with Unending Courage and Limitless Love to use as brightly as you wish
– as deeply as you dare–
during your one precious and wild lifetime on this earth.

So, Blessed Valentine’s Day, from Eros,
from the mallard,
and from me
y un mas… and one more….
puede tu madre ser bendecida para traerle a la tierra…
may your mother be blessed also, for bringing you to earth–
for even despite all struggles to learn this world,
how to tend to it, how to mend it …and ourselves,
…. you and your brand of Love are so needed in our world.

A-Dios.
——————————-

© Dr.CP. Estés, all rights reserved; and creative commons; may be shared… keep intact, cite author, link back to this site. Thanks. Dr.e

_________
CODA
–On the image: I hope you like seeing this rather wondrous ‘nature’ set of stories on arms and torso that are called ‘tattoos.’ I like the ancient heart with its swords, but too the tiny wings at the top of the shoulders. I think often about what it means to be an ‘illustrated man,’ and ‘illustrated woman’ in our cultures today, especially when the tattoos have so many layers of stories behind each one, both archetypal/ semiotic, and personal stories.

‘Romantic’ UPDATE:

I didn’t need to know this, but since it is “out there” and it kind of fits with the desperate “struggling” Newt Gingrich, here it is.

The New York Daily News, under “Newt Gingrich reveals sexy Valentine’s Day plans for wife Callista...”

Newt Gingrich wants America to know he’s a lover, not a fighter.

The struggling Republican presidential candidate coyly dished on his Valentine’s Day plans for third wife Callista, promising she would not be disappointed.

[::]

“All I can promise is that I believe she will be quite happy,” the ex-House Speaker said to hoots and whistles from the audience.

“I think for the first time in a while we’ll have a private dinner and just hopefully exchange gifts and, you know reconnect a little bit,” he said with a smile.

As I said, I didn’t need to know that, but these “intimate remarks” may “rev up” Callista’s public presence on the campaign trail.

See how Gingrich is doing in the polls.

====
Seeing Newt Gingrich slip — plummet is a better word — in polls, opinion surveys and straw polls, caucuses and primaries, I thought that “Newt Who?” would be a catching and appropriate title for a quick post on the rise and mostly falls of this once bombastic, now meek, Republican front-runner.

But lo-and-behold, when I Googled “Newt Who?” to make sure that I would not be stealing anyone’s brilliant idea, I came upon “About 79,400 results [in] 0.26 seconds.” Wow, that was a rude awakening for me, but can one imagine what kind of even “ruder” awakening this must be for the once grandiose Newt?

Some of the “Newt Who?” pieces have comments such as this one discussing the recent CPAC:

The other presidential candidates saw fit to ignore Newt — even Santorum, who took several unsubtle shots at Romney. After drawing blanks in Tuesday’s election contests, Newt needs to [blah, blah, blah]….But instead of being a tiger, Newt was a pussycat. It makes you wonder how serious he is at this point.”

And this one:

It is hard to believe that as recently as this Monday, Newt Gingrich was still considered to be the alternative to Mitt Romney. But judging by yesterday’s speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Gingrich has become something of an afterthought, at best.

[::]

But not only did [Herman Cain nor Rick Perry] make a case for Newt, both former candidates didn’t even mention his name. Not even once. It’s like Newt never existed. … As he continues to tank in every state and national poll, one wonders how long Gingrich will stay in the race.

Or the American Spectator in “Time for Newt to Do the Honorable Thing,” after reviewing Newt’s abysmal recent polls:

All of which suggests that Newt should consider his own analysis of the conservative split as expressed to ABC. It’s increasingly obvious that he isn’t going to win the GOP nomination.

Even if Gingrich somehow manages to rise from the dead yet again and emerge victorious in Tampa, his record is so messy that the President and his reelection team would certainly beat him like a dirty rug in the general election. Thus, if he cares about the country as much as he claims, and truly wants to prevent the man he calls a “Massachusetts liberal” from winning the GOP nomination, his most honorable course of action will be to fall on his own sword.

Newt’s voluntary departure from the nomination race, combined with an enthusiastic endorsement of Santorum, would give the latter a real shot at beating Romney.

Bottom line: Since there are more or less 79,400 stories on “Newt Who?” there is no need for me to write story #79,401 — it would be just a tad redundant and not original at all.

CODA:

Of course, in the 79,400 “Newt Who?” results there are many duplicates, many “Newt, who [has so much baggage,],” “Newt who [should step aside,]” and other variations. But this is not a scientific article — just satire — and who is counting.

Finally, talking about satire, it is still possible that “Newt Who?” could arise from the dead a third or fourth time and become “Newt who [fooled everyone]”, but then it wouldn’t be satire funny anymore.

WASHINGTON – Clint Eastwood called it.

The Good Guys have won a couple.

I like it.

By Good Guys I mean the American people, which includes determined stiffs like Attorney General Beau Biden, then there is A.G. Eric Schneiderman and A.G. Koster of Missouri.

Attorney General Chris Koster recently announced a 136-count indictment against DOCX, which a Boone, Cty. grand jury delivered in the town where I was born.

A grand jury in Columbia, Missouri, handed down the 136- count indictment against Docx and founder Lorraine Brown alleging that a person whose name appears on 68 notarized deeds of release didn’t actually sign the paperwork, Chris Koster, the state’s attorney general, said in a statement yesterday.

This is one of the topics Chris Hayes talked about this past weekend. Genius guest booking and general wonderfulness all ’round.

Then there’s David Boies back dispensing wisdom, this time on Pres. Obama’s free contraceptive coverage decision, without fanfare or ego. Conversations and email exchanges on the subject with attorney friends, discussion richness.

Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are backing Pres. Obama on the contraception mandate.

While Sen. Scott Brown gave Elizabeth Warren a big gift. He joined Sen. Roy Blunt’s anti-women brigade that wants to deny women what Pres. Obama’s mandate provides.

“Arguing for Obama, Justice Scalia” (h/t wb), by Jay Bookman takes it from there.

I’ve been reading Justice Antonin Scalia’s decision in “Employment Division v. Smith,” a 1990 case in which the Supreme Court pretty much settled the question of whether the federal government can require or outlaw actions that might bump up against religious beliefs. The decision makes it clear that the Catholic bishops have no legal or constitutional basis for their complaint.

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed marriage equality in to law.

Occupy is still percolating out there.

Prop. 8, funded by the Mormon Church, was overturned, and marriage equality is alive.

Women won a big one, but also businesses and the greater bottom line. Ordinary workers, the individual, got some power back, because the First Amendment swings both ways.

This came after Susan G. Komen let Karen Handel near the piggy bank, and Planned Parenthood and women who can’t afford what Karen Handel or Susan G. Komen can, demanded justice.

The whip cream for me was the announcement that the money pit Baghdad embassy was going to be filleted, with the staff being cut by half. That’s on top of Iraq involvement being cut down to bare necessities. That leaves one-half of a money pit.

It just feels like one of those moments when something has shifted.

No one should get comfortable, because whatever we’re living through remains in motion, as Pres. Obama says in his note.

Somehow Whitney Houston is woven into this passage, too.

But it’s that Super Bowl car ad.

American car companies and manufacturing are part of the American soul and psyche, as far as I’m concerned. The combination of the moment, with Clint Eastwood narrating, it all seems so iconic.

Things just feel a little better right now.

It’s happier days, Keynes is back in the conversation and the culture war is back.

Taylor Marsh is the author of the new book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, which is now available in print on Amazon. Marsh is a veteran political analyst and commentator. She has been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.

“[I]solate the few remaining specimens of moderate Republicans, mate them in captivity, and then safely release these rare and precious creatures back into the electorate. Within our safe, enclosed habitats, these middle-of-the-road Republican Party members can freely support increased funding for public education and even gay rights without being threatened by the far-right subgenus.”

More here on this promising endeavor.

A Face Dancer is a type of human in Frank Herbert‘s science fiction Dune universe. A servant caste of the Bene Tleilax, Face Dancers are shapeshifters, and their name is derived from their ability to change their physical appearance at will.

Of course in Romney’s case it’s an ability to change his ideological appearance at will.  As David Frum reports this is how Grover Norquist sees Romney.

Norquist: Romney Will Do As Told

The most quoted speech at CPAC this year was Mitt Romney’s, but my vote for the most significant goes to Grover Norquist’s. In his charmingly blunt way, Norquist articulated out loud a case for Mitt Romney that you hear only whispered by other major conservative leaders.

They have reconciled themselves to a Romney candidacy because they see Romney as essentially a weak and passive president who will concede leadership to congressional conservatives:

All we have to do is replace Obama. … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.

 

The requirement for president?

 

Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.

 

From mistermix at Balloon Juice:

Mitt Romney’s new anti-Detroit-bailout Op Ed in the Detroit News includes bonus union bashing to prove the severity of his conservatism. Since 62% of Republicans in Michigan oppose the bailout, versus 36% of the overall population, Romney has to double down on bailout bashing in a desperate effort to erase Santorum’s 15 point lead in that state.

We all know that Santorum is toxic as a national candidate, but the problem for Romney is the only way to beat Santorum is to adopt the same anti-gay, anti-woman and anti-progress positions in the primaries and bet that he can somehow reverse course this Fall. The longer the contest draws out, the more Romney has to pander, and the more he turns himself into the Goldwater-like candidate that the Republican establishment is desperate to avoid.

Romney is an ideological Face Dancer who will assume whatever face his masters require.  The problem is Romney is going to have to dance to the extreme right to beat Santorum.  The longer the primary fight continues the more difficult it will be for Romney to dance to the center.

Cross posted at Newshoggers.

The attack on Israeli embassy staff in New Delhi on Monday has brought into sharp focus India’s growing dilemma. While India has strong ties with Israel, it has robust trade ties with Iran owing to its growing energy needs, and is one of Iran’s largest crude oil customers

New Delhi also has burgeoning ties with Israel to tend to, reports The Wall Street Journal. “India’s defense purchases from Israel — part of a high-priority modernization of the country’s armed forces after decades of neglect — include surface-to-air missiles and surveillance and missile defense technology. The countries also share the experience of being frequent targets of terrorist attacks.

“If Indian investigators ultimately determine Iran was involved in the attack, there would be enormous domestic and international pressure on India to back away from supporting Iran and perhaps even curb its oil purchases, analysts say.

“Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said Monday’s attack ‘further complicates India’s policy dilemmas” regarding its relationship with Iran.

” ‘The fact is that it won’t be easy for India to just snap its ties with Iran, but whatever happened yesterday adds to the pressure,’ Mr. Chellaney said. He said India could become a ‘proxy battleground’ amid geopolitical tensions between the West and Iran.”

More here…

In spite of sanctions by the US and the European Union and Israel linking Tehran to the attack on an Israeli embassy car here, India is set to step up its energy and business ties with Iran, with a commerce ministry team going there shortly to explore new opportunities. The team is expected to go to Tehran later this month to discuss steps to expand India’s trade with Iran, part of a larger strategy to pay for Iranian oil, highly-placed sources told IANS.

“Despite the Western sanctions on Iran, India recently sealed a payment mechanism under which Indian companies will pay for 45 percent of their crude oil imports from Iran in rupees.

“Not just oil, India is also stepping up the refurbishing of the Chabahar Port in Iran and a strategic railway link that will offer it direct access to Afghanistan and the energy-rich Central Asia.” More here…

Meanwhile Israeli diplomats in India admit the terror attacks’ mild consequences are a very fortunate, and could have ended much worse, especially if Yehoshua-Koren’s children happened to have been in the car at the time of the explosion.

“We were always warned, and even more so recently, that we’re a target,” an Israeli diplomat in the Israeli embassy in India said. “But you don’t really understand it until it happens. We will continue working and doing what needs to be done, but one must admit given that we have families, children – it is scary.” More here…

Our political Quote of the Day is for the first time a Quote of the Day from another site. From Political Wire. Read the quote and then the explanation. Which I’ve boldfaced:

Quote of the Day
“This week, President Obama will release a budget that won’t take any meaningful steps toward solving our entitlement crisis. The president has failed to offer a single serious idea to save Social Security and is the only president in modern history to cut Medicare benefits for seniors.”

– Mitt Romney, quoted by the Boston Globe, blaming President Obama for failing to curb the growth of entitlement spending while at the same time criticizing him for cutting Medicare benefits.

So which is it?

Increasingly, many voters of both parties and conservatives (who don’t trust him since he used to be considered a moderate) and moderates (who don’t trust him because the way he has now run away from having been a moderate) are likely to conclude that he fits this song from “Chicago.”

But not because you don’t know he’s there.

But because in political terms everyone can see right through him:

This pearl of wisdom comes from Grover Norquist, one of the key players in the marginalization of the GOP as a national force. Speaking last weekend at the annual CPAC sitdown in Washington, D.C., the head of the Americans for Tax Reform advocacy group all but called Mitt Romney, the presumptive nominee even after on-again, off-again thrashings by Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, a weak and passive mediocrity.

“All we have to do is replace Obama,” Norquist said. “We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. . . . We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.”

Wait, it gets worse.

“Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States.,” Norquist continued. “This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”

How sad. How very sad.

Meanwhile, approval ratings for the man who occupies the Oval Office — no mediocrity he — are back in positive territory while congressional Republicans double down on the dumb.

The Talking Points Memo Poll Average has Barack Obama at slightly over 50 percent while recent approval polls for Congress and Republicans in particular hover around 10 percent. Obama’s bump is a result of two months of decent economic numbers as well as a completed Iraq troop withdrawal and accelerated Afghanistan troop withdrawal.

Even with Mitt Romney’s ill-advised remarks that Detroit automakers should be allowed to fail, he was once a prohibitive favorite to win the Michigan primary on February 28 because he is, after all, a native of the state and his father was an extremely popular governor, but one poll now shows Rick Santorum leading him by a 15 percentage point margin.

More amazingly, Santorum leads Romney by a 40-21 percentage point margin among Democrats and independents who say they plan to vote in the state’s open primary.

Slate‘s Dave Weigel finds this jaw dropping:

“What a difference a Republican primary makes! Now, Santorum is the de facto blue collar candidate (please pay no attention to his policies) running against a guy who gets the vapors when he fires people, an entertainingly pretentious figure from the 1990s Republican era, and Ron Paul. So of course he’s the guy who appeals to moderates.”

Nationally, a New York Times/CBS News poll released this morning shows Rick Santorum surging among Republican primary voters nationwide in large part because of support for him among conservatives, evangelical Christians and Tea Party supporters.

Some 30 percent of Republican primary voters say they support Santorum compared with 27 percent for Mitt Romney, and while Santorum’s lead is essentially a tie with Romney because it is within the margin of sampling error, it reflects a significant jump for him from earlier polls.

The two other major candidates are trailing badly with Ron Paul at 12 percent and Newt Gingrich at 10 percent.

Meanwhile, a Pew poll released Monday shows that those all-important independents are abandoning Romney and some are flocking to Barack Obama.

A month ago, 40 percent of independents said they would back Obama over Romney, while 51 percent now say they would support Obama with Romney slipping from 50 percent to 42 percent.

Politico has identified the five most vulnerable House incumbents, and it should be no surprise that four of the five are Republicans. Yes, 15 months after the GOP recaptured the House, it is scrambling to retain these seats and others as well.

The four most vulnerable Republicans aare: Spencer Bachus of Alabama, Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, and Paul Gosar of Arizona. The most vulnerable Democrat is Edolphus Towns of New York.

Candidates have been distancing themselves from what they might have once said or written since forever, and Rick Santorum is no exception.

Santorum wrote in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family, that “radical feminists” are to be disparaged for giving women the idea that they might find greater fulfillment outside the home, but when confronted on that snippet on the ABC News show “This Week,” he replied, “That’s a new quote to me.”

Which prompted New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni to opine:

“To understand voters’ bottomless cynicism, look no farther than politicians’ boundless revisionism. Republicans have no monopoly on it, but they occupy center stage at the moment, shedding culpability for past deeds even as they ask us — as leaders do and should — to take responsibility for our own.”

Rick Santorum has pulled slightly ahead of Mitt Romney in Republican primary voters’ preference for the presidential nomination, a national CBS News/New York Times Poll shows.

Ron Paul is now in third, followed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

More than ever, Gingrich will be pressured to pull out of the race. The key is if he runs out of money and his wealthy casino owner donor Sheldon Adelson decides to stop writing checks. But support? Gingrich’s campaign seems to be over and it’s hard to image that he’ll have another debate moment that elevates him to where he was before.

Just three points over Romney, Santorum’s lead in the national survey is within the poll’s margin of error, but after wins last week in three states, 30 percent of Republican primary voters now say they support Santorum for the nomination.

The socially conservative former Pennsylvania senator received the backing of just 16 percent of Republican primary voters in a similarly worded question last month, leaving him in third place behind Gingrich.?

Romney, who won the Maine caucuses on Saturday, has held fairly steady since January, while Gingrich’s support has fallen by 11 points.

Romney’s problem is that he is not steadily expanding his constituency within the GOP. He is severely stuck.

Santorum receives strong backing from conservatives, tea party supporters and white evangelicals.

Self-identified conservatives divided their support among the candidates in January, but in this poll they appear to be coalescing solidly behind Santorum. He receives far more support from this group than Romney does, and conservative support for Santorum has increased since last month.

Support for Gingrich among conservatives is now half of what it was in January, just before his victory in the South Carolina primary.

Look for the clamor to grow for Gingrich to drop out and for the Romney camp to begin pulling out all stops against Santorum.

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

Is Santorum the Jeremy Lin of Politics?
by Jan Ting

Rick Santorum, the defeated former senator from Pennsylvania, was given no chance when he announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Rejected by the Republican establishment supporting Mitt Romney, he waged a lonely and underfunded grassroots effort that ultimately gave him the edge in the Iowa caucuses. This past Tuesday he won all three primaries in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, and now finds himself tied with frontrunner Mitt Romney according to the latest Fox News poll.

In clear contrast to the flip-flopping frontrunner Romney, no one who has heard Rick Santorum speak doubts that this guy knows what he believes and doesn’t shape his opinions according to polling results. On Saturday, Santorum delivered an electrifying speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, which contrasted sharply with Romney’s weak effort to anoint himself as “severely conservative”.

As the Fox News poll suggests, momentum is shifting to Santorum. He will receive new infusions of volunteers and contributions as he faces multiple opportunities to topple Romney from his frontrunner pedestal, starting with the February 28 primary in Romney’s home state of Michigan. Ten states hold primaries on March 6, “Super Tuesday”, including Ohio. And on April 24, Republicans in Pennsylvania vote.

A Santorum victory in any of those states would give his campaign another boost of energy, volunteers and cash. And he could win them all.

Romney still has the most money, and has collected the most endorsements from people who thought him the probable nominee. He deployed that money effectively for negative advertising that overwhelmed Newt Gingrich in Florida. But Romney has been unable to offer a positive reason why he should be the Republican nominee. And as Santorum observed, “Why should undecided voters support a candidate whose own party is unenthusiastic about him?”

All Romney can do now is unleash a new round of negative advertising on Santorum, but if he does he will risk labeling himself as a rich, one-note negative campaigner.

Many Democrats are enjoying the prospect of a protracted Republican primary campaign. They worry about Romney’s ability to raise money from wealthy donors and his own vast personal resources not fully revealed in his one-year tax return. Most Democrats would prefer to see Santorum the nominee because of his lesser financial resources and more extreme and clear positions on social issues.

But they should be careful what they wish for. Don’t forget that Democrats in 1980 thought Ronald Reagan was the weakest of the Republican candidates for president.

Santorum said in his CPAC speech that he views the campaign as not just about jobs and the economy, but also about “foundational principles”. His political rise has coincided with new headline controversies over birth control, Planned Parenthood, and same-sex marriage.

Like Ron Paul, Rick Santorum is a candidate with an ideology, and it’s very difficult to force an ideological candidate out of a race. Win or lose, they have something they want to say and prove. I’d be surprised if either Paul or Santorum dropped out before the Republican National Convention in August.

But unlike Paul, Santorum is not a mere role player. He has proven to be a contender, with the potential to be a star. His big week coincided with the meteoric rise of NBA phenomenon Jeremy Lin. If you don’t know Jeremy Lin, check him out, and compare to Rick Santorum.

© Copyright 2011 Jan Ting, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Jan Ting is a Professor of Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and a former Assistant Commissioner for Refugees, Asylum and Parole, Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Department of Justice. Jan can be reached at janting@temple.edu. His column is licensed to run on TMV in full.

Brian Fairrington, Cagle Cartoons

This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

(Photo courtesy AP)

A 5-member Israeli team, including 2 MOSSAD members, has arrived in New Delhi to help in the investigations following a deadly attack near the Israeli embassy in which Ms Tal Yehoshua-Koren, a staffer of the Israeli embassy’s accounts department, was seriously injured. She was on her way from office to the American Embassy School to pick up her children.

Tal Yehoshua’s condition is stable after having undergone two surgeries at a hospital in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave, Chanakyapuri. She has been partially paralysed due to injury to her spine but is expected to recover following the removal of the shrapnel causing the compression of the spine. In an operation that lasted 2.5 hours, shrapnel were also removed from her liver.

More here…

Update: Ms Tal Yehoshua-Koren, hurt badly in a car bomb blast on Monday, is likely to be flown back to her country once her condition stabilizes. More here…

Israeli Ambassador to India Alon Ushpiz told NDTV, “Iran has been openly calling for the destruction of Israel. This was planned in Tehran.”

Iran has firmly denied the allegations. Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said, “We categorically reject the accusations made by the Zionist regime. They are part of a propaganda war… Iran condemns all acts of terrorism.”

India, which will have to walk the diplomatic tightrope, has assured Israel of a serious and thorough investigation. More here…

After an Israeli diplomat’s car exploded in New Delhi, just a few feet from Prime Minister of India’s residence, Israel has blamed Iran for what it describes as a terror attack. Israel has given list of suspects to India.

Here are 10 big developments in the case: Investigators believe the bomb was planted on the car by a man on a motorcycle when the SUV paused at a traffic signal.

More here…

Sources who are familiar with India’s investigation into the blast said the explosive device that was attached to the Israeli vehicle was manufactured on the lines of “Limpet Mines” and that these types of bombs were initially used to by naval forces in World War Two. See here…

Afghanistan is no exception.

According to the UN mission in Afghanistan’s (UNAMA) annual report, a total of 3,021 civilian died in 2011 in Afghanistan — an eight percent increase in the number of civilians (2,790) who died in 2010.

According to the same grim report — “Afghanistan Annual Report 2011: Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict” — a total of 11,864 civilian lives have been claimed by the Afghanistan “conflict” since 2007 when the U.N. started keeping detailed records of civilian casualties, and last year was the deadliest on record.

Abhorrent as those numbers are, it is even sadder that these figures include a significant number of the most vulnerable and innocent — the children.

The Report states that in 2011, “women and children again increasingly bore the brunt of the armed conflict…UNAMA documented the deaths of 166 women and 306 children, representing 30 percent of all civilian deaths between July and December 2011. Compared with the same span in 2010 … the number of children killed [grew] by 51 percent in the last half of 2011.”

And it is not only improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mines, suicide attacks, aerial attacks or bullets that kill these children.

Ten days ago, somber headlines — including here at TMV – announced the inexcusable deaths of dozens of children, frozen to death in the squalor of so-called refugee camps located in the nation’s capital, Kabul.

The New York Times wrote extensively about this tragedy, first including the details of how four of at least 22 children froze to death in those refugee camps near Kabul. Of the four, the youngest reached the “age” of 30 days, the “oldest” a mere 1 ½ years old.

Late last week, again the Times reported: — Dateline KABUL, Afghanistan — “The war refugee Sayid Mohammad lost his last son on Wednesday, 3-month-old Khan, who became the 24th child to die of exposure in camps here in the past month.”

The Times adds:

Even by the standards of destitution in these camps, Mr. Mohammad’s story is a hard-luck one; Khan was the eighth of his nine children to die. Back home in the Gereshk district of Helmand Province, six died of disease, he said. Three years ago they fled the fighting in that area for the Nasaji Bagrami Camp here, where a 3-year-old son froze to death last winter, he said. Like most of Kabul’s 35,000 internal refugees, he fled the country’s war zones only to find a life of squalor sometimes as deadly, even in the capital of a country that has received more than $60 billion in nonmilitary aid over 10 years.

In all, The New York Times has confirmed the deaths of 28 children in the camps since mid-January.

Solidarités International, a French group that has had a limited program of emergency food aid and sanitation in the camps, surveyed mortality rates in recent months and came to the harrowing conclusion that, among children under 5, the camps’ death rate is 144 per 1,000 children.

As if these tragedies were not sufficient, Afghan President Hamid Karzai last Thursday claimed that an “international coalition” airstrike killed eight children in eastern Afghanistan.

“The coalition confirmed only that there was a ‘situation in Najrab district’ that was being assessed by a team to determine what had happened. More information would be released when the assessment is completed, the coalition said in a statement” according to the Army Times.

Afghan officials have expressed skepticism that all the children could have died of cold, but at the same time are blaming international organizations for not providing sufficient and timely aid and are pleading them to provide emergency aid.

Perhaps the publicity surrounding this tragedy is resulting in some good.

This past Saturday, American troops delivered 1,000 blankets for the 6,000 refugees in the Kabul Charahi Qambar camp — the same camp where several children have already died from the cold — and the day before, an Afghan aid group, Aschiana, also delivered blankets, “and was planning to come back on Sunday with clothing — at least the third such donation in a few days, the others coming from businessmen,” according to the Times.

On Sunday, “two Afghan aid groups financed by the German government brought about $187,000 worth of charcoal, milk and hot water bottles … while the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees planned to give each family three more blankets on Thursday.”

The Times:

** Relief agencies that had previously not been involved rushed out winter emergency programs, including the United States….

** Charitable groups working in the camps confirmed a major increase in donations…

** The Afghan aid group Aschiana, which has the largest full-time presence in the camps, reported raising more than $17,000 in a few days from small donors in the United States through its American branch.

** Individual Afghans pitched in as well. Ramazan Bashardost, a member of Parliament and well-known gadfly, visited the Nasaji Bagrami Camp, where 16 children died of cold, and handed out 1,000 Afghanis (about $20) to each of the 250 families there…

There is, however, one discordant note.

According to the Times, S. Ken Yamashita, the agency’s director in Afghanistan, “confirmed that the aid was not being identified as coming from the United States, in case it might pose some risk or discomfort to the recipients.”

While a little miffed myself, I join those Americans who I am sure will say that saving one child from dying of cold makes up for a million manifestations of ingratitude.

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

Two new polls suggest former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney now has big problem. In the “Wizard of Oz” Dorothy thinks if she an say “There’s no place like home” she can return home. At this weekend’s big conservative CPAC powwow in Washington Romney seemed to believe that if he used the word “conservative” more than two dozen times and said he was a “severely conservative” governor it would convince his party’s conservative base.

The polls suggest Romney has lots of work to do — and not just among GOPers but also from independent voters as they abandon him the more he tries to woo his party’s conservative base.

Gallup:

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are now statistically tied for the lead in Republican registered voters’ preferences for the 2012 GOP nomination — 32% to 30%, respectively. Newt Gingrich, who led the field as recently as late January, is now third, favored by 16%, while Ron Paul’s support has dwindled to 8%, the lowest level yet seen for him in 2012.

These results are based on Gallup Daily tracking from Feb. 8-12 — the first Gallup tracking period conducted wholly after Santorum’s sweep of the Feb. 7 state nominating contests.

Santorum’s 14-point surge in support since just before Feb. 7, from 16% to 30%, appears to have come at the expense of all of his major opponents. Support for Romney and Gingrich has declined by five and six percentage points, respectively, over the same period, and support for Paul, by three points. The percentage unsure has increased slightly, from 11% to 13%.

Santorum’s surge coming off of his wins in Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota is not unusual, given the volatility already seen in national Republican preferences. However, the magnitude of his 14-point gain over the five-day periods bracketing the Feb. 7 contests is the largest post-primary/caucus bounce Gallup has recorded since the primary season began.

This suggests that unlike the former anti-Romney frontrunners Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich, Santorum may be more than just a political flavor of the month.

By contrast, Romney’s support grew by six points in the first five days after his apparent win in the Iowa caucuses — with state election officials revising the results and declaring Santorum the winner a few weeks later. Santorum’s support also swelled, by 12 points — from 6% to 18% — within the first week after he purportedly placed second in Iowa.

Romney then enjoyed a seven-point gain after winning the New Hampshire primary. Gingrich gained nine points after winning the South Carolina primary, building on a 10-point gain he made in the period between New Hampshire and South Carolina. Romney then recovered by 10 points after his decisive victory in Florida.
Pew Research:

Rick Santorum’s support among Tea Party Republicans and white evangelicals is surging, and he now has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. In polling conducted Feb. 8-12, 30% of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters favor Santorum while 28% favor Romney. As recently as a month ago, Romney held a 31% to 14% advantage over Santorum among all GOP voters.

Santorum is now the clear favorite of Republican and GOP-leaning voters who agree with the Tea Party, as well as white evangelical Republicans. Currently, 42% of Tea Party Republican voters favor Santorum, compared with just 23% who back Romney. Santorum holds an almost identical advantage among white evangelical Republican voters (41% to 23%)…..
Obama leads Santorum by 10 points among all registered voters (53% to 43%) and his lead over Romney is nearly as large (52% to 44%). Romney ran about even with Obama in November and mid-January. Obama has a larger advantage over Newt Gingrich than over Santorum or Romney: Obama leads the former House speaker by 18 points (57% to 39%). Obama has made gains among independent voters. Today, 51% of independents favor Obama in a matchup against Romney, up from 40% a month ago.
So the more Romney has to repeat the word conservative, or have it tattooed on his forehead, the more the extended GOP campaign will will be severely helpful to Obama.

And it could get worse for Romney: Santorum is planning an “aggressive strategy” against him.

John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune

This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I get a strong feeling of deja-vu every time this sort of thing comes up. Are these people really so naive? Independent candidates sound sooooooo attractive, until you have to take a close look at one. Then the luster tends to fade pretty fast.

First let’s get this out of the way: I am by most definitions a centrist. I have issues where I agree with the Democrats, issues where I agree with the Republicans, and issues where I disagree with both. Since my first election in 1984, I have voted for Democrats and Republicans in almost equal numbers, and third party candidates on occasion. In 2008 I voted for John McCain (R) but will in all likelihood vote for Barack Obama (D) in 2012. I am the very definition of a “swing voter.” So you would think with all that, I would love this “Americans Elect” idea.

But I don’t. Not only do I think it’s unlikely to elect a President, but I think it’s unlikely to produce a good one even if they do succeed.

It is all well and good for someone to say “the two parties don’t represent me.” The “Americans Elect” folks point out that 80% of Americans would vote for a third-party candidate if it was the right candidate. But there’s the rub: finding that “right” candidate. There’s where it breaks down, because while most people consider themselves independent to some extent, agreement starts to break down once you start looking at things issue-by-issue.

For example, I know plenty of people who don’t like the Republicans because they feel that Republicans are much too conservative–and people who don’t like Republicans because they feel Republicans are nowhere near conservative enough. I know people who don’t like Democrats because they find them too liberal, but others who don’t like them because they consider Democrats nowhere near liberal enough. I know Republicans who think their party is too conservative on social issues, and Democrats who think their party is too liberal on social issues. Get any of these people in the same room together, and none of these people will likely agree much with each other.

This is because “left” and “right” and “liberal” and “conservative” are much too broad to describe anything concrete. When you start answering specific questions you get in trouble:

What if you are in favor of gay marriage, think schools should make birth control available to students, think abortion is immoral and should be more restricted than it is now, support the war in Afghanistan, think the US should make it more difficult for foreign goods and services to be imported here, think the US should take a more active military role in opposing dictatorships abroad, think taxes should be raised on the wealthy and on large corporations, think the environment is important but we have the wrong priorities on environmental protection, think global warming and CO2 should be the least of our environmental concerns, favor decriminalizing drugs, think gun ownership is admirable and should be encouraged, think everyone should be required to carry health insurance, think government should pay for everyone’s education all the way through college, and think prayer and the teaching of Creationism in the public schools should be left up to local school districts and not a national issue? Let me tell you, it is possible to hold all those ideas in your head at once, and be a person of principle. And I guess that would make you a “centrist” or “independent.”

But guess what? If another person feels exactly the opposite of you on all those issues, they are “centrists” or “independents” too–but they will not agree with you on much of anything. Neither one of you will necessarily be unprincipled or unintelligent or uninformed, although there will be ideologues who accuse you both of it. But one thing is highly unlikely: that there can be any candidate who can make both of you happy. And if either of you gets a candidate you’re completely happy with, odds are good that a majority of people won’t be happy.

This is because there is no “center” in politics except a certain sweet spot–or let’s call it the “sour spot”–where the majority of people are not particularly happy but are, most of the time, not terribly unhappy.

The system as we have it works because it pretty much forces everybody to compromise. And in truth, entirely aside from ideology, both political parties are very good at finding ways to be popular enough on some issues, and not-unpopular on enough other issues, to get elected. When voting, most people almost invariably vote for whatever or whoever makes them least-unhappy at the moment. So as nice as it sounds to say “I’m not tied to any political party and I want a candidate who feels the same way!” you’ll likely stop feeling that way the minute you get that candidate who, exactly like you, doesn’t think of herself as tied to any party either, but who turns out not be anything like what you thought you wanted.

There is no definable “center.” It doesn’t exist. To paraphrase a great aphorism: you can make all of the people happy some of the time, some of the people happy all of the time, but you cannot make all of the people happy all of the time. But I don’t think even that fits: it’s more like, “You can make about half the people happy about half the time, if you’re lucky. If you do you get elected, and if you don’t, you don’t.” That’s the way politics really works.

(This item cross-posted to Dean’s World.)

This new poll suggesting Romney could lose in Michigan suggests he could seriously lose control of his planned narrative of himself as the front-runner, inevitable nominee and conservative:

Rick Santorum’s taken a large lead in Michigan’s upcoming Republican primary. He’s at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich.

Santorum’s rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity (a stellar 67/23 favorability) and GOP voters increasingly souring on Gingrich. Santorum’s becoming something closer and closer to a consensus conservative candidate as Gingrich bleeds support.

Santorum’s winning an outright majority of the Tea Party vote with 53% to 22% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich. He comes close to one with Evangelicals as well at 48% to 20% for Romney and 12% for Gingrich. And he cracks the 50% line with voters identifying as ‘very conservative’ at 51% to 20% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich.

But it will be seen — bottom line — as yet another rejection of Romney a)as nominee and b)as someone conservative enough to be nominee.

Santorum’s benefiting from the open nature of Michigan’s primary as well. He’s only up by 12 points with actual Republican voters, but he has a 40-21 advantage with the Democrats and independents planning to vote that pushes his overall lead up to 15 points. Santorum is winning by a healthy margin in every region of the state except for Oakland County, where Romney has a 40-26 advantage, and the area around Lansing where Paul actually has an advantage at 30% to 27% for both Romney and Santorum.

Republican voters aren’t just declining to vote for Gingrich at this point- they don’t even like him anymore. Just 38% have a favorable opinion of him to 47% with a negative one. His numbers are inching back closer to what they were before his surge in the polls began in November. His continued presence in the race is a boost to Romney though. 54% of his supporters would go to Santorum if he dropped out, compared to only 21% for Romney and 14% for Paul. Santorum’s lead in a Newt-less field would expand to 21 points with him at 48% to 27% for Romney and 13% for Paul. So every day Gingrich stays in is a saving grace for Romney’s hopes.

Romney will have to pull out all stops to ensure he wins in Michigan (where his father was Governor and it’s like his second home state). If he doesn’t, no matter how he or his surrogates spin it, it’ll make the GOP Presidential race go on a lot longer and embolden those who want to see anybody but Romney at the head of the ticket.