Abizaid out.

One of the most telling moments from this morning’s presidential press conference — Bush’s dodge on whether he’ll overrule the Joint Chiefs of Staff if they oppose his plan to “surge” the troop levels in Iraq.

Yesterday, I posted a question: are congressional Republicans going to support President Bush in his plan to send a ‘surge’ of US troops into Baghdad?

Well, let’s find out.

We’re calling the Minority Leaders and Minority Whips in both houses of Congress. We’ll call the Dems too. But help us. Give your member of the House and Senate a call and see what they have to say. Are they pro-surge or no? Be polite and straightforward and all that but don’t settle for any mumbojumbo. Do they support adding troops to the current number in Iraq or no. If they have no position or won’t tell you what it is, that’s fine. That’s means they have no position. Let us know what you find out and we’ll report back the answers we’re getting.

Another gem from the president’s press conference this morning: Bush spins last week’s “identity theft” immigration raids.

Kids? What kids?

Rudy’s brand-new Presidential exploratory committee web site bio deep-sixes his two kids from a previous marriage.

Rudy willing to go any way the wind blows?

After we posted a link to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential exploratory committee website last night, a number of TPM Readers wrote in to point out what appears to be a subliminal openness to flipflopping message built in to his ‘I’m a natural-born leader’ website.

If you look at this clipped section here from the top of Rudy’s sites, half the flags seem to be blowing in wind to the right, and the other half in wind to the left.

Rudy: Proven (***Available for Blowing with the Prevailing Wind***) Leadership.

Another dodge from this morning’s press conference, this one a more protracted performance.

Bush doesn’t know or just can’t remember if there’s an investigation of the leak of Stephen Hadley’s memo to the New York Times late last month. And really, what’s the point of investigating?

Rep. Goode (R-VA) channels Paul Revere: The Muslims are coming, the Muslims are coming!!!

Never want to be a member of a group that would have me as a member?

Roll Call (sub.req.) this morning brings us the borderline parodic story of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s defection from the Senate Centrist Coalition in favor of former a new bipartisan group with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) …

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) has relinquished his position as co-chairman of the Senate Centrist Coalition, halting talks with co-chairwoman Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) over the future of the organization in favor of creating his own bipartisan group with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Snowe, meanwhile, has begun working with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to refashion the Centrist Coalition into a group that includes more than just ideological centrists and which they hope will appeal to Senators from all over the political spectrum.

As recently as early December, Snowe and Lieberman had said that they and their staffs were in talks over how to refashion the Centrist Coalition into a broader alliance of Republicans and Democrats who would work to end the vitriolic partisanship that has characterized Capitol Hill the past few years.

More recently, Lieberman suggested to Snowe that she work instead with Landrieu, Snowe spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier confirmed.

Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittmann disputed the notion that Lieberman had cut off talks with Snowe about the Centrist Coalition.

“You can continue working with one group while [creating] another,” he said. However, he did confirm that Lieberman would no longer co-chair the centrist group or its new incarnation.

Lurking in the background appears to be a question of whether some senators may be put off by the word ‘centrist’ thus creating an inhospitable environment for conservatives. No mention of liberals, but presumably they wouldn’t be comfortable either.

As for the Lieberman-Alexander group …

While still in the preliminary stages of development, the goal for Lieberman and Alexander is to create a group of Republicans and Democrats that primarily get together to socialize. However, Wittmann said legislative issues would likely be discussed as well. They plan to call it the Bipartisan Members Group.

Wittmann said the “important difference” between the two groups is that people attending the Lieberman-Alexander gathering “would not necessarily come into the group to come to agreement on issues.”

Okay then.

2008 only two years away.

Sen. Coleman is anti-surge …

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said today after a two-day trip to Iraq that he would not support an increase in the number of soldiers in Baghdad.

He said he would “stand against” any effort to send a surge of more troops to Baghdad unless there’s a clear vision that it will help end sectarian violence in the city.

“I think it would create more targets. I think we would put more life at risk,” he said in a phone call with reporters from Bahrain. Coleman visited Baghdad, Fallujah, Taqaddum and Talil.

A number of TPM Readers had called Coleman’s office this morning, looking to find out where he stood. And they were told a statement would be forthcoming shortly.

Call your rep. or senator too.