Top-shelf political reporter Jackie Calmes delivers a must-read front-page piece in today’s Wall Street Journal that must surely have operatives over at RHC RNC headquarters doubling the dosage of their ulcer meds. We already knew, of course, that President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress had alienated many fiscal conservatives …

Which set off a bigger bang today, Obama’s call for an end to nuclear weapons, or Hillary’s $27 million take?

I’ve been more focused on Obama’s speech, personally, so maybe my read of the mediasphere ignores some important chatter, but it’s sort of hard for me to see the Hillary numbers as a game-changing event or, really, news. …

From the report delivered to the House yesterday, about a drunk Blackwater employee who accidentally killed an Iraqi bodyguard:

The acting ambassador at the United States Embassy in Baghdad suggested that Blackwater apologize for the shooting and pay the dead Iraqi man’s family $250,000, lest the Iraqi government bar Blackwater from

…

We’ll be getting to politics shortly, but first, a message from the first black president:

“Washington is option 1, 2 and 3,” said Arenas, who first discussed opting out with Grunfeld shortly after the season ended. “It would take something crazy to happen for me not to stay. I’m the president of DC — you know, without the White

…

• “I believe President Bush is going to order airstrikes [on Iran] before he leaves office.” Ack. [TP]

• Newsweek’s not-very-helpful Iowa poll: “In other words, the odds of Obama “leading” on this poll are no better than a coin-flip, if we were to take repeated samplings of exactly the same design.” [Pollster.com]

• That schtick …

Joe Biden just held a conference call with reporters to “clarify a couple of things” about his Iraq plan, an endorsement of which was passed last week by the Senate as a non-binding resolution (the Biden-Brownback Iraq Federalism Amendment). It passed by a vote of 75-23, with substantial bi-partisan support. Senator Biden is angry at …

The WP’s series on IEDs is almost too much to take in — especially online, where you’re confronted by all kinds of great visual extras — but anyone who wants to follow the Iraq War as it’s being fought there (as opposed to here) should read it. Though, of course, the way we fight wars here has been a big part of the real problem:

The

…

After a fashion: they’ve created “fundraiser tracker” so that reporters and Florida voters can follow the Democratic candidate’s success at raising money in Florida — even though they’re not “campaigning” there. (To do so would violate the agreement between the major candidates and the DNC, who’s trying to punish Florida Dems for …

Our wall-to-wall coverage of HILLARY’S LAUGH is not complete without a link to Slate’s John Dickerson, who also chimed in on the subject over the weekend. (I must have missed a meeting.) He makes some similar points to others, but his thought here strikes me as especially perceptive, perhaps even precognitive (emphasis mine):

If

…

Newsweek’s story on Mitt Romney looks at his entire life through the prism of his religion. Other news organizations have shied away from such an explicit approach. (No one wants to be accused of being a bigot or a boor.) His campaign has (successfully) deflected most questions about Mormonism with bromides that either downplay its …

A few weeks back, as part of our cover package on candidates spouses, we asked Bill Clinton, what don’t we know about your spouse? His answer:

She has the world’s best laugh.

In today’s New York Times, it seems that laugh is being dissected everywhere I look. First, there’s Patrick Healy’s story, in which he calls it “the Clinton …