Tomorrow night the Republican presidential candidates will debate in Dearborn, Michigan – the first debate of the full Fred-Thompson-included GOP field. With Thompson’s feeble performance on the campaign trail thus far, Rudy Giuliani’s fundamental obstacles in winning over the religious right wing of the party, and Mitt Romney’s, well, chronic Mitt Romneyism, we thought we’d check the enthusiasm temperature of the Republican party in today’s Sunday Show Roundup episode of TPMtv. Catch the GOP ’08 fever!!!

You’ve no doubt seen this morning’s article in the Post in which key Iraqi government leaders say that political reconciliation is not possible and, in fact, no longer even the goal. Writes the Post, “Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government.”

In other words, the strategic goal of the Surge — creating the breathing room for political reconcilation — is one the Iraqi government no longer appears to believe is either credible or realistic. So what we’ve signed on for is being the permanent armed mediator in the Iraqi domestic quarrel, or perhaps protracted divorce.

Fred Thompson promises to pick up where President Bush left off in dismantling Social Security .

Convicted Abramoff co-conspirator Neil Volz: “[I]t’s kind of like I took on this mind-set that there was a machine at work and I was just a cog in the machine. And, therefore, I need to get mine.”

CQ’s Jeff Stein actually reads the political memoirs that proliferate in Washington. At the end of a piece about the quiet that has settled over the CIA after years of turmoil, Stein drops this little bomblet about Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) (via War and Piece):

Tenet got back at Shelby in a little-noticed passage in his memoir.

He recounted how, in December 1996, shortly after President Bill Clinton nominated his national security advisor Anthony Lake to be CIA director, Shelby approached him after a committee briefing. (Tenet was then deputy director.)

“George, he drawled,” according to Tenet, “if you have any dirt on Tony Lake, I sure would like to have it.”

Tenet was taken aback, he wrote, because he and Lake were friends.

Tenet also wrote that, “National Security Agency officials told us that Shelby staffers had been asking whether there was derogatory information in their communications intercepts on Lake.”

But the NSA refused Shelby’s entreaties, two sources said, and there was no derogatory information in the FBI’s files.

Shelby also demanded, and got, the FBI’s raw files on Lake. The senator did not respond to three days of requests last week for comment.

But Lake did.

“The facts speak for themselves,” he said in a brief interview.

Shelby’s ability to obtain FBI files, which could be filled with uncorroborated allegations and rumors, he added, set a bad precedent.

“Using intelligence agencies to go after officials,” he said, “is not a good idea.”

Tenet’s memoir has been out for a while now. Have I just missed the follow-up reporting on this? Back in 2004, Shelby was investigated for leaking classified information to reporters, and although Shelby was not charged in that case, it was clear that he had in fact leaked. But this accusation from Tenet seems to be unrelated to that other case.

Former Petraeus adviser: The general’s congressional testimony on Iraqi civilian casualties was “potentially misleading.”

Liz Cheney is one of the three co-chairs of the Fred Thompson campaign, it was announced today. She joins former GOP Sens. Spencer Abraham and George Allen, who one presumes will do outreach to the anti-macaca vote.

It may be a first. Castration via live satellite hook up.

This morning, tough guy Joe Scarborough unloaded on “Iraqi losers” for complaining about Blackwater for blowing away so many Iraqi civilians.

Moments later, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) comes on the show and sends Scarborough scurrying for cover. Take a look. You’ll get a kick out of it …

In their controversial 2004 essay, “The Death of Environmentalism,” Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger shook up the environmentalist community by saying, as Nordhaus later put it, “there’s a dead body in the room, and it’s starting to stink.”

With their new book, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, they continue their focus on practical solutions to global warming–such as increased government investment in clean energy technologies–rather than on an apocalyptic future. They will be discussing the book this week at the TPMCafe Book Club.

Joining in the discussion will be William Chaloupka, Ross Gelbspan, Linda Hirshman, Carl Pope, David Roberts, and Joseph Romm.

This is an amusing image: Former New York Sen. Alfonse D’Amato is playing Rudy Giuliani in Fred Thompson’s practice sessions for tomorrow’s GOP debate.