Today’s profile in courage:
When Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) saw reporters approaching him last week, he took off in a sprint, determined to say as little as possible about a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush’s troop escalation plan expected to come before the Senate today.
“You know where I stand,” the senator, who is considered politically vulnerable back home, said repeatedly as he fled down stairways at the Capitol. “I’m still looking.”
Pretty shabby for a senator from New Hampshire, where the state motto is “Live free or die.”
“I’m still looking” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Today’s Must Read(s): Gen. David Petraeus’ war gurus assemble as the new strategy has its first major failure in Iraq.
I wanted to take a moment to flag everyone’s attention to the James Fallows’ quote excerpted here by David Kurtz over the weekend. The ‘surge’ and the accompanying political jousting surrounding it is important. But it pales in importance compared to the possibility of drifting or getting gamed into a shooting war with Iran. This is what Congress really needs to get on top of right now. As Fallows put it, “War with Iran would be a catastrophe that would make us look back fondly on the minor inconvenience of being bogged down in Iraq.”
More video highlights from the presidential candidate speeches at the DNC winter meeting on Friday.
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) can’t say goodbye to Capitol Hill.
Joe Klein: McCain has been “entirely consistent” on Iraq war.
Here’s an aspect of the president’s new escalation strategy that hasn’t been discussed enough: it creates two chains of command, one of them under an Iraqi commander, the other under a U.S. commander — an arrangement against military doctrine and, some argue, common sense.
Spencer Ackerman gives you the rundown.
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