Democracy promoters, on the Left and Right, are forgetting something.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Steven Cook argues this week at TPMCafe’s Book Club, much of the Middle East is and will remain quite stable. The overlooked factor? Powerful military institutions and traditions that bolster authoritarian regimes in countries like Turkey, Egypt and Algeria.

Joining him in the Book Club to debate this thesis will be Jason Brownlee, Yasemin Congar, Michele Dunne, Mona Yacoubian and Jon Alterman.

Get this: The Dem Presidential candidates are outraising their GOP counterparts in, of all places, the GOP stronghold of the south.

What happens when Congress, the irresistible force, meets the White House, the immovable object?

As the subpoenas mount and the administration continues to signal that it will stonewall, a number of readers have asked us this question. So we went to an expert for the answer.

Here’s what happens when Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) just can’t keep up with his own party’s reforms.

The Democratic Party’s fundraising edge over the GOP for the 2008 House races continues to grow.

Update: The rising Dem advantage on the Senate side is also striking.

There are many policy debates I understand well enough to navigate on my own. But immigration policy isn’t one of them. I have clear-cut general views. But I’m not familiar enough with the details to navigate the debate or the particulars of specific pieces of legislation. But one thing that does seem clear to me is that a temporary worker program is bad policy on almost every count. It gives you all the downsides of unrestricted immigration — downward pressure on wages, weakening of unions, etc. — with none of the upsides. You have a cheap, readily exploitable labor pool with no prospect of the people who make up said labor pool of gaining any political power to provide some counterweight to the tendency to exploit them. I would even say that having a large body of resident aliens with no prospect of actual buy-in into the country is inherently dangerous — in economic and civic terms. The fact that birth in the US still guarantees US citizenship, I guess, prevents the nightmare of intergenerational non-citizenship like they have in Germany and other countries. But I’m not sure it’s much better.

I know none of this is particularly original. All these points have been made more acutely and articulately. But whether you want tight limits on immigration or expansive ones, untying the connection between work and citizenship seems bad for America.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts. And I’m interested to hear from others who understand the ins and outs of this bill what else can be said in its favor or against it.

Okay, it’s a tad obvious. And a TPM Reader suggested just the same analogy just last night. But this made me chuckle. And it’s pretty well put together. Click the video, you’ll get a kick out of it …

House Judiciary Committee writes White House to make “one last appeal” for cooperation in the U.S. attorney firings investigation. Then come the subpoenas.

Has the Dem Congressional leadership decided to give Bush his war spending bill with no withdrawal timetables?

Late Update: The leadership isn’t confirming the story.

Edwards forced to address haircut “controversy” yet again. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.