Is it just me, or does anyone else on the McCain “No Surrender” tour keep expecting McCain to also invoke “Grabthar’s Hammer“? Reports from the Iowa leg of McCain’s pro-war pep rally are largely positive. The NYT’s Michael Cooper notes the simple fact that no one is asking the senator if he’s dropping out any [...]

Various foolish literalists have taken this clip from Hardball yesterday as an indication that I “knew something” about a phone call that General Petraeus received from the White House. Obviously, it was just speculation on my part–although the General did charge back from the recess intent on getting a correction into the record as soon [...]

If Bill Kristol can tout Vets for Freedom, I can tout Paul Reickhoff of Iraq-Afghanistan Veteranas of America, which has been doing splendid work on behalf of our returning troops. In this post, he suggests a fund where donations can be made to honor the memory of Omar Mora and Yance T. Gray.

I’d missed this. Bill Kristol is obviously peeved that I used the word “trashed” to describe the piece run by the Weekly Standard and written by Vets For Freedom, a conservative pro-Iraq group. Too bad. This article was run as a response to the seven enlisted men who courageously took on the official line about [...]

Ryan Crocker was pressed by Senator Carl Levin in the Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday as to whether he had ever said to me, “The fall of the Maliki government, when it happens, might not be a bad thing” for Iraq. After twice evading the question, Crocker said that “he did not recall” making that [...]

According to Daily Kos, two of the seven soldiers who wrote the courageous New York Times op-ed–mostly ignored in the ghastly Petraeus-Crocker hearings–that questioned the reliability of the Iraqi Army have been killed in action. Their unit, the 82nd Airborne, was within weeks of heading home. Their testimony will be their legacy, an enduring tribute [...]

+ Will Cindy Adams be the Judy Miller of the DC Madam case? If so, does that make David Vitter Scooter Libby? [Radar] + Craig’s defense: “Sen. Craig is not a lawyer and, like any other non-lawyer, should not be expected to understand the intricacies of constitutional law.” I, for one, believe him. Just look [...]

And so, on page A3 of the Washington Post, appears my favorite political story of the day – about the link between South Carolina’s feared and (in some quarters) revered GOP hitman, J. Warren Tompkins, and the creation of an anti-Fred Thompson website called PhoneyFred.org. Tompkins is serving as Mitt Romney’s top South Carolina adviser [...]

This just in from Time.com editor Josh Tyrangiel: Dear Swampland readers and commenters, We hear you. For 9 months we’ve let Swampland’s comments sections unspool with the libertarian fervor of a John Stuart Mill dream-sequence. But after noticing that in recent weeks our most loyal readers have grown frustrated with troll incursions ruining otherwise intelligent [...]