Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* The latest NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll<\/a> is worth reading, in large part because it’s amazing to see just how unpopular the GOP is right now. Voters’ approval of Congress has fallen to 16% — the lowest since NBC and the WSJ started doing polls together 17 years ago. By 52% to 37%, voters say they want Democrats to control Congress. It’s the biggest lead by either party has ever had in a Journal\/NBC poll and the first time voter preference for one party has exceeded 50%. Wow.<\/p>\n * Jonah Goldberg’s column<\/a> on how he was wrong about Iraq for the right reasons is unpersuasive to the point of comedy. Kevin Drum helps highlight some of the column’s more glaring flaws<\/a>.<\/p>\n * As I’ve said before, I’ll stop linking to Keith Olbermann’s extended commentaries just as soon as they stop being so powerful and poignant. They’re all worth watching, but last night’s monologue on habeas corpus<\/a> included some of the strongest word choices to date: “Your words are lies, Sir. They are lies that imperil us all.”<\/p>\n * James Wolcott’s blog has been picked up<\/a> by Vanity Fair. Good for him; Wolcott doesn’t post every day, but his writing is some of the best and most entertaining in the ‘sphere. (I’ve often thought having a magazine pick up a blog is the best way for a blogger to make real money. Note to editors: my door is always open…)<\/p>\n * I’m trying to think of the best word to describe the concern among far-right leaders that the GOP base is not going to turn out this year. “Panic<\/a>” is the only word that comes to mind.<\/p>\n * A former Army JAG officer has a must-read item<\/a> in the WaPo today on the lessons we didn’t<\/i> learn from Abu Ghraib. He argues, persuasively, that the policies that led to the abuses haven’t been corrected, and in fact will lead to new abuses. (thanks to B.P. for the tip) * I know he was kidding, but for McCain to suggest that he’d “commit suicide<\/a>” if Dems regained the Senate majority is a little over-the-top, isn’t it? I mean, if the right-wing smear on this guy is that he’s a little unbalanced, comments like these may not help him in the long run. (thanks to SKNM for the tip)<\/p>\n * Remember that patently false RNC ad in Ohio I mentioned<\/a> earlier? Stations in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Youngstown pulled the ads<\/a> from their airwaves today, and more stations expected to follow.<\/p>\n * Speaking of the RNC’s ads, the scare-America-first crowd unveiled a real doozy<\/a> today.<\/p>\n * Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state during Bush’s first term, today endorsed<\/a> a phased troop-withdrawal plan for Iraq. It’s a shame the Bush administration hired all of these cut-and-run defeatocrats, isn’t it?<\/p>\n
\n
\n* Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) is still<\/i> carrying on<\/a> about a vast left-wing conspiracy? Jeez, can’t that guy keep it together a little bit?<\/p>\n