Santorum headed to K Street.

Sort of like the journey of the Salmon returning to the ancestral stream, I guess. Maybe I’m watching too many Salmon docs.

Paul Kiel’s got more of our run-down here on the war-financing issues related to President Bush’s claim to be a king. But it occurs to me that this ‘debate’ is really only a debate if you see this not as wrestling over policy between the president and the Congress but as President Bush as an epochal figure, a man of destiny in a grand historical struggle who has powers to answer to grander than Congress or the constitution. I know that may seem like hyperbole saying that. But if you listen to this conversation, I really think that’s the subtext. Sure, Congress has the power of the purse, the thinking seems to go. But this is bigger than Congress. Bigger than the niceties of the constitution. This is his rendezvous with destiny in Iraq, the key battle in World War IV or IX (I don’t remember which we’re up to.)

At a certain level this isn’t that complicated. The president and the Congress have a set of intentionally countervailing powers. And it is within that framework that we, as a nation, hash out our direction on great matters of the day like this one. But what I’m hearing is that what President Bush is up to in Iraq is bigger than all that.

And that leaves us in the dangerous position of the constitution vs. the president’s grandiosity.

From the AP:

A first wave of additional U.S. troops will go into Iraq before the end of the month under President Bush’s new plan, a senior defense official said Tuesday.

Up to 20,000 troops will be put on alert and be prepared to deploy under the president’s plan, but the increase in forces on the ground will be gradual, said the official, who requested anonymity because the plans have not yet been announced.

The Man the Myth. John Solomon does his first ‘online chat’ at the Washington Post website tomorrow at 11 AM.

Today’s Must Read: The Washington Post on how Bush got the generals to follow his New Way Forward.

So where does Commander in Chief wannabe Rudy Giuliani stand on the “surge”?

He won’t say.

Former Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chair Ken Tomlinson — betting man and liberal bias hound — withdraws his nomination to chair the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

And yet another. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) heads to K Street.

Curious to see what “authentic conservative” Mitt Romney looked and sounded like in real time back when he was a liberal?

We’ve got some video of Romney in 1994, forcefully declaring his support for abortion rights and distancing himself from Ronald Reagan.

Sit back and view it here.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has called for a delay in the executions of Saddam’s two co-defendents.

The BBC is reporting that “as president, Mr Talabani has no power to annul or delay the executions.”

That’s not my understanding, though.

In the lead up to Saddam’s execution, Maliki had to come up with a workaround because Talabani, an opponent of capital punishment in general, wouldn’t authorize it. The two eventually compromised. And Talabani wrote Maliki a letter — of questionable constitutional significance — saying he had no objection to the execution proceeding, which of course it did.