Can we get Juan Cole or Vali Nasr or someone to chime in on the news we’re getting out of Iraq about this attempted attack on the city of Najaf?

I’m inherently suspicious of stories we’re hearing out of Iraq, especially if they include big body counts from fire fights (see Vietnam, subhed, egregious mumbojumbo). But the information coming out about this attempt attack seems very odd to me. The latest I’m hearing on the cable is that the plan was to disrupt the Ashura commemorations and perhaps assassinate Ayatollah Sistani. Now we hear that the attack was the work of a Messianic cult — one with “links to Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign fighters [and] hoping the violence it planned would force the return of the “hidden imam,” a 9th-century Shiite saint who Shiites believe will come again to bring peace and justice to the world.”

‘Foreign fighters’ in this context usually refers to Sunni extremists, with al Qaida sympathies. Saddam loyalists, if secular, are almost all Sunni as well. So these guys were mounting an attack on Najaf in order to realize the central eschatological hope of the Shia? I’m sorry but that makes no sense. Other reports say alternatively that the attack was Sunni-backed or Shia-backed.

Now, I’m no expert on sectarian divisions in Iraq or Islam more generally. But certain things make no sense on their face. Perhaps this is just the fog of war. But something seems fishy to me. Who can add more facts?

Late Update: Juan Cole analyzes what happened here. The upshot, three or four largely or entirely contradictory accounts of what happened.

Later Update: Other reports suggest a ‘cult’ with a mix of Sunni and Shi’a elements (odd but anything’s possible). But Cole makes the point that it seems a bit odd that an obscure or unknown cult could mount enough firepower and organization to mount this kind of attack. Remember, this wasn’t a case of a group barricaded in a building. From what I understand this was a firefight on open ground.

TPM Reader AWC on the anti-constitutionalists and how to fight them …

This post reminded me of a long running complaint I have with Democratic strategists: we (Democrats) lack good branding and fail to hone in on marketing themes as Republicans do – undoubtedly because the Democratic spectrum is populated by people who appreciate nuance over black and white. I completely agree that we need to “preserve a powerful executive while instituting a renewed respect for the limits to presidential power.” This makes sense to us, but it is difficult to employ as a brand. Our hesitancy to embrace President Bush’s power grab as a talking point – because of our awareness of presidential power’s critical import for civil rights and other issues – leaves us with a message that doesn’t fully tap into Americans’ deep suspicions of kingly power. Our response to “commander-and-chief” labeling should be “King George.” We can worry about the balance of presidential power after we’ve stripped King George of his.

This is very true. And it’s a key point. But devotion to the constitution is written into the fabric of American culture. So it should be possible to frame a vocabulary and political agenda in its favor that resonates across the political spectrum. Two key points are that Bush anti-constitutionalism is way outside the American tradition. Its intellectual roots are with foreigners. They are alien ideas. Touchy phrases, I grant you, but accurate too. Second, small-‘r’ republican government is courageous government. Secrecy, despotism and prerogative power are rooted in cowardice.

Over at TPMmuckraker, we’re trying to shine some light into one of the darkest corners of the Bush administration: the Vice President’s office.

Here’s another account of that firefight near Najaf. The cult was made up of “a diverse cadre of Sunni, Shiite, Afghan and other foreign gunmen.”

The current and eddies contained in a great religious system like Islam (or Christianity or Judaism, for that matter) operate by logics that are elusive and sometimes close to impossible for outsiders to understand. But I still get the sense we’re being sold a bill of goods about what happened here.

Late Update: This story in the Times gives what seems like a more plausible explanation. This was a ‘Shi’a’ group in the broad sense of the word but a dissident one and one which the dominant Shi’a authorities and clerics did not view as genuinely Shi’a. According to the Times the governor of the province described the group as “‘exterior,’ but not in its ‘core.'”

Success! 41 staffers from Vice President Cheney’s office uncovered.

Jack Cafferty goes after the US Attorney purge and toady-fest.

TPM Reader PC on Bush’s anti-constitutionalism and the rule of law …

With all of Bush’s pretensions and usurpation of power, the overall the theme is a disregard for the rule of law. “Disregard for the Constitution,” “Militarism” and “The Imperial Presidency” all describe some aspects of it, but the foundation of our republic — arching even over the Constitution — is that we have a government of laws, not of men. Bush has used fear, militarism and secrecy to increase his power, and it has all been aimed at increasing his discretion and allowing him to disregard legal forms and procedures — even when he could accomplish the same thing by following them.

This leads me, however, to a story that shows just how powerful the U.S. democratic culture really is. I recently attended a speech by a former president of the American Bar Association, at which he excoriated Bush for ignoring the rule of law. The remarkable thing about this speech was the setting — it was given at a meeting of our town’s civic club — The Wellesley Club. Although somewhat progressive (we are Massachusetts, after all) this is a club whose members are the upper crust of an affluent Boston suburb. And the speaker received a standing ovation! The American Bar Association and the Wellsley Club are not advocates of a progressive agenda. But they are part of a civic fabric that will fiercely guard our democratic institutions. And they will be around long after little men like Bush and Cheney disappear from the scene.

I have a copy of his speech, if you are interested.

I think it would be fair to say that upper crust or not, it’s still Massachusetts, a very liberal state. But I think the larger point is right: the rule of law is a potent American value, one people believe in deeply and one they understand viscerally that the president has violated again and again.

Bill O’Reilly to blow gasket? Al Franken is leaving Air America to explore a run against Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman.

And that muckraking light shines on. Behold, the Office of the Vice President’s phone directory.

In which an unnamed associate hands former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer the shiv he stuck in Scooter Libby’s belly …

Late Update: Then there’s the discrepancy which some have noticed between Ari’s testimony and that of John Dickerson, which Booman discusses.

Later Update: Here’s Dickerson’s side of the story.