Midday open thread

• Rep. Murtha speaks at the National Press Club.

  If you look back at what Napoleon learned in Spain, what the French learned in Indo-China and Algeria, what the Soviets learned in Afghanistan, and what the U.S. learned in Vietnam, the lessons of history are clear: there is a limitation to military power.  Economic, political and diplomatic challenges must be solved.  They can’t be solved by military means and they shouldn’t be distorted by rhetoric.

  Rhetoric, spin and slogans do not win wars.  Likewise, the war in Iraq will not be won with charts, projections or sound bytes saying, "we will return on success."

  The Administration claims we are witnessing another turning point in Iraq.  They claim progress is being made and now depending upon the "conditions on the ground," more troops will come home.

  But we have heard this before.  The same predictions were made with Saddam’s capture, the adoption of the constitution, with national elections, and with the capture and killing of several terrorists in Iraq.

  A week ago on a Sunday talk show, a reporter expounded on a personal moment with the President in the White House when she asked him, "Mr. President, how do you continue to press forward when the war is so unpopular and things seem to be going so wrong in Iraq?"  The President responded, "Because I am right."

  Right about what Mr. President?
  Right about weapons of mass destruction?
  Right about Saddam’s involvement in 9-11?
  Right about mission accomplished?
  Right about thinking he could fight this war on the cheap?
  Right at the ease at which Iraq could be transformed into a pillar of democracy?

• Frank Rich is a Very. Serious. Person.
• Chuck Todd, who I generally like, shows his "insider-itis" by attacking MoveOn:

  MoveOn is sort of like this old friend of the Democratic Party. It's as if it's, you know, your, your teen - your - a friend of yours from high school, and you don't mind hanging out with them back in high school, and then they keep showing up at your parties, and they get a little drunk and obnoxious, but you'll still - you're afraid to criticize them because they know too much about you or something.

  It's nothing we haven't heard from the "grownups" inside the Beltway. The only difference is that it's not us teenagers who bankrupted the family and burned down the house. It was the supposed grownups. And yet we're supposed to defer to their so-called "wisdom"? Pretty darn silly.

• CBS threatens online writer with lawsuit for exposing truth. This is hilarious, and will get more attention on this site in a later posting.
• What the??? Novak  reports:

  Campaign consultant Bob Shrum, who retired from U.S. politics after publication this summer of his candid memoir, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner, is now in Britain working for the Labor Party in the campaign of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

  Shrum was the strategist in the last two Democratic presidential campaigns for losing candidates Al Gore and John Kerry. But he has worked on the last three winning Labor efforts in Britain. Shrum has been a close friend of Brown for many years.

  If Brown crashes and burns, we'll know part of the reason why.

• Don't you hate an ambiguous medical diagnosis? I either have a pulled ab muscles, kidney stones, or very early appendicitis. I'll be getting blood work done tomorrow to see if they can pinpoint the source of the pain.
• Pretty pathetic -- Righty bloggers acting like fangirls in a meeting with Bush at the White House. These kinds of things are pretty silly, which is why I skipped the "blogger meeting" with Bill Clinton. I had better things to do with my time.

  Here's the first rule of politics I learned -- politicians never give up anything interesting. Staffers do. So I'll meet with staffers all day and have a blast. But with the politicians? They're generally worth little more than a photo op, and I don't care for photo ops.

• Participate in the online survey on science & blogging here! (DS)
• WEDNESDAY! Wednesday! wednesday! Former Secretary of Labor, author, and commentator Robert Reich will be here to discuss his new book, Supercapitalism.  The conversation starts at 1PM EST. (DT)