Rum Out.

Christmas in November continues for the reality-based community: Along with recent editorials in the Army Times, the Dem’s Election 2006 takeover claims another high-profile GOP victim in Donald Rumsfeld. He’ll be replaced by former CIA chief Robert Gates — an old papa Bush hand and current member of the Baker-Hamilton commission — for Dubya’s last two lame duck years. Dubya claimed in his press conference that Rumsfeld would’ve been gone regardless of the election returns…I’m not sure I buy that. Still, this is a very welcome move — one that should’ve happened years ago.

Course Correction.

As Medley pointed out yesterday, Dubya and the GOP are now “cutting and running from ‘stay the course.‘” Instead, Tony Snow tells us, “What you have is not ‘stay the course’ but in fact a study in constant motion.” And that motion, folks, is a full-out freefall. As even Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted yesterday, “We’re on the verge of chaos” And, frankly, that’s being charitable.

No Dubya Left Behind.

“But if the list is for real, it’s evidence of presidential dereliction of duty, and perhaps an outright threat to national security. Two books a week is an uphill battle for a graduate student whose responsibilities don’t even include showering. For a president, who lives at work, reading and comprehending two serious books a month takes a Herculean effort.” (Hey, I shower!…um, most days.) Slate‘s Bruce Reed discusses Dubya’s newfound love for books, suggesting that his recent reading contest with Karl Rove is part of the reason why things have gone so astray of late for this president. Well, call me old-fashioned, but — My Pet Goat notwithstanding — I’d usually rather see Dubya with his nose in a good book than see him make any more lousy world-threatening decisions. Besides. Dubya dug himself in this hole long before 2006…some healthy book learnin’ might’ve done him right earlier in his tenure. Hey, at the very least, he might’ve locked down that whole pesky Shia-Sunni thing.

Sauron, Saruman, Santorum.

“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else…It’s being drawn to Iraq and it’s not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don’t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.” Agh! File this one in the Tom DeLay loves NASA department: Right-wing freakshow and self-proclaimed Tolkien fan Rick Santorum invokes Lord of the Rings to justify Iraq. Sorry, Senator…you can’t Wormtongue your way out of this one.

655,000?

655,000 deaths in Iraq?! A new report by Johns Hopkins researchers puts the number of fatalities from Dubya’s Baghdad debacle at over twenty times what other sources such as Iraq Body Count have been reporting (making it roughly comparable to the fatality rate in Darfur.) Dear Lord, can that really be right? (Also noted at Ed Rants.) Update: The study’s author explains its methodology.

Cut the Crap.

“The cut-and-run phrase is an effective political weapon…It is also a very dumb phrase…As one Republican congressman put it recently: ‘Reality has been suspended for a moment. Republicans cannot speak out publicly on this issue right now.‘” With even Republicans making dour assessments of Baghdad these days, Slate‘s John Dickerson makes the obvious points against Dubya for the “cut-and-run” garbage he indulged in last week.

State of Denial?

“What’s maddening is the way Woodward reverses his point of view without acknowledging he ever had one — then or now. You could charge him with flattering politicians only when they’re up, and piling on when they’re down. But you might as well accuse a weathervane of changing its mind about which way the wind should blow.” Slate‘s Jacob Weisberg examines Bob Woodward’s treatment of Donald Rumsfeld through his three Dubya books (most recently State of Denial) and finds him a fickle beast at best.

Comma Chameleon?

331 billion dollars? 2965 dead troops? Approximately 45,000 dead Iraqis? Don’t worry, folks. According to Dubya (in what some think is a veiled message to the fundies), it’s all “just a comma” in the history books. Well, my, that’s reassuring. Shucks, when you put it that way, all of American history — or the history of our solar system, for that matter — doesn’t amount to much in the great scheme of things. Ok, you’ve sold me…bombs away!

Feral Lapdog?

“The disclosures so far have been devastating. The book paints the administration as clueless, dishonest, and dysfunctional.”” Slate‘s John Dickerson surveys the likely political impact of Bob Woodward’s State of Denial, which broke today (in the NYT, strangely enough) and which is apparently much more critical of the neocons than his last two puff pieces, Plan of Attack and Bush at War. Of course, we’ve all known that the Dubya White House is chock-full of scheming, untrustworthy, incompetent loons for years now, but apparently, when Bob Woodward finally figures it out, it’s suddenly newsworthy. Oh well, I’ll take it.

The Knights who say NIE.

“Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement: (1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness; (2) the Iraq ‘jihad;’ (3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and (4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims — all of which jihadists exploit.” In a sorry attempt at a document-dump diversion, the precis of the National Intelligence Estimate report cited over the weekend has been declassified by order of the Dubya administration, so as to help blur one of its central contentions in the public mind (point #2 above): The Iraq War has served to fuel the expansion of terrorism against the US and its allies. (Update: If you’re here from Daniel Drezner’s blog, welcome, and have a look around.)