Surging support
White House counselor Ed Gillespie said the success of the military’s surge in Iraq is shoring up support among Republican lawmakers and even some Democrats in advance of a progress report from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad.
“I think that we hear from members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who have been over to Iraq during this August break who have come back and have seen this progress and have told their constituents about it,” Mr. Gillespie said during an appearance yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.”
According to Eric Pfeiffer of The Washington Times, Mr. Gillespie also disagreed with Democrats who say the military push has not translated into political reconciliation among Iraq’s ethnic and religious sects. The former RNC chairman said the surge’s military success is now “translating into the goal of allowing for progress to be made on the political front in Iraq as well.”
More scandal
Congressional Republicans quickly moved against Sen. Larry E. Craig of Idaho, reports Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard, because “after suffering crushing losses in last year’s midterm election — spurred in part by highly publicized GOP corruption in Congress — Republicans are not in a mood to tolerate another nasty scandal.”
Some other senators may be skating on thin ice, Mr. Barnes reports. “While Republicans quickly moved against Craig, they have held back from taking action against Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska,” he writes.
“Stevens is renowned for splurging on earmarks. And it’s because of them that his home was raided by a joint IRS and FBI team on July 30. Many friends and ex-aides appear to have benefited from his earmarks, either directly or indirectly. But unlike Craig, Stevens hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing or pleaded guilty. Republican officials say this explains the hands-off approach.
“Stevens is running for his eighth term next year, and he’s a strong favorite to win. But he’s no longer unassailable in Alaska. A poll last month found his positive rating had dipped to 44 percent. And in a hypothetical Senate primary, he trailed popular governor Sarah Palin by 23 points.”
More cartoons
Denmark may have competition for the title of Muslims’ least-favorite Scandinavian country after a Swedish newspaper early last month published one drawing out of a series of the prophet Muhammad portraying him as a dog.
The London Telegraph reported last week that Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish charge d’affaires to condemn “in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet.” According to Pakistani officials, the Swedish diplomat said his government “shared the views of the Muslim community and termed the publication as unfortunate.”
Iran already had protested to Swedish diplomats in Tehran.
According to the Telegraph, the drawings by artist Lars Viks “show the head of a turbaned man attached to the body of a dog, in front of various settings including a [soccer] goal.”
“The publication, in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, came after several galleries had refused to display the drawings, apparently for fear of violent retaliation from offended Muslims.”
Bench moralizing
“Let’s hear it for the philosopher kings!” says conservative blogger Jeff Goldstein sarcastically about last week’s decision, later stayed, in which an Iowa county judge struck down his state’s law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
At the Protein Wisdom site (www.proteinwisdom.com), Mr. Goldstein dismisses as “ridiculous” the claim by Judge Robert Hanson that “the state can’t choose who people can or cannot marry” because the state does uncontroversially refuse “to grant marriage licenses to grade-school sweethearts, or a man and his three paramours.”
Then Mr. Goldstein warms to his point.
“On many occasions I’ve said that I’d be happy to abide any state legislation voted on by the electorate that sanctified same-sex couplings as ‘marriage.’ This is, I believe, the proper way to bring about such changes. …
“This is not an application of the law we’re witnessing. Instead, it is a form of moralizing from the bench — and it emboldens social engineers of all stripes to look at court precedents analogously to find in their pet projects legal ground for overturning traditions that they cannot convince the electorate to overturn through the legislative process,” he writes.
I’m the man
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee yesterday warned Republicans not to underestimate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the Democratic presidential front-runner, and said they could only win the White House with someone who offers a strong contrast and excites the party base.
Someone like Mike Huckabee, coincidentally.
“Quite frankly, Americans are going to look at a contest where there’s contrast. That’s what I bring to the race, someone who can contrast in terms of philosophy and record, but also who’s going to be able to challenge her on key fundamental issues like education and health care,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Hillary is a strong, strong candidate, much stronger than a lot of Republicans want to accept,” Mr. Huckabee said. “But the reality is that if we put someone up whose views on some of the issues that rally our base don’t rally our base, then we’re going to be in big trouble.”
Money woes
“Can a man who couldn’t raise money for a presidential campaign now raise money for a Senate race?” asks Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times.
“That’s the question that will face Republicans in Virginia as they ponder whether former Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Rep. Tom Davis or someone else is their man to run for the seat Sen. John W. Warner said he will vacate at the end of his term,” he writes at his Times blog “Dinan on the Republicans.”
“Mr. Gilmore briefly flirted with a run for president this year, dropping out after several months because of pitiful fundraising. Even worse, his July campaign report showed he was still $60,000 in debt — not the way to begin another federal campaign.
“But he received a show of support [Friday] afternoon from the state’s two Republican National Committee members, who sent out a letter this afternoon asking Republicans to support him.”
Victor Morton can be reached at 202/636-3211 or vmorton@washingtontimes .com.
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