The Associated Press is reporting that Republican R.I. Senator Lincoln Chafee, who just lost in the midterm elections, is considering options:

On Thursday, he was asked whether he would stick with the Republican Party or become an independent or Democrat.

"I haven't made any decisions. I just haven't even thought about where my place is," Chafee said at a news conference. When pressed on whether his comments indicated he might leave the GOP, he replied: "That's fair."

This could be quite an interesting development. Stay tuned.

Just out - Vanity Fair has a story with named sources saying, "the Niger documents were part of a covert operation to deliberately mislead the American public."

The article's lead paragraph:

The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger. As much of Washington knew, and the world soon learned, the charge was false. Worse, it appears to have been the cornerstone of a highly successful "black propaganda" campaign with links to the White House

The damning part:

..at least nine of these officials believe that the Niger documents were part of a covert operation to deliberately mislead the American public.

The sources are listed explicity... (more on the flip)

Tonight at the joint press conference with Tony Blair and George W. Bush, there was a rare moment of regret when a reporter asked both folks what mistakes they regretted making. Perhaps Bush learned something from the last "deer in the headlights" moment when he was last asked what mistakes he made.

Bush actually said he regretted using the tough talk of "Bring it on" and "Wanted dead or alive" saying "In certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted."

Well he almost got it. A few brownie points for realizing the obvious - that naive, crass and undiplomatic cowboy talk was going to egg on those disenchanted with the US. Perhaps in about 10 years, he can finally admit invading Iraq was the wrong thing to do, but it's likely the US will still have troops there, and the Middle East will still be a basket case.

ABC World News Tonight Sunday had a long feature on Hackett in Ohio, and was quite a good treatment of him. Only at the end did they mention how heavily Republican the district was, and Jean Schmidt only had a sliver of screen time.

No story on ABCnews.com yet. Coincidentally or not, the count on Hackett's ActBlue doncations site surged a bit to over $391,000, which was kind of stuck at around $370,000 for much of Sunday. Looks like $400,000 is right around the corner.

From watching the first three minutes of the original "Stolen Honor" documentary, it's clear this is nothing close to news, as anyone understands it. (These comments based on the Bittorrent found here.)

Right at the start, Carlton Sherwood presents himself at the center of the storytelling and makes it a personal op-ed piece.  The first thing the viewer notices: in the first 33 seconds when he is narrating directly into the camera (0:18 to 0:51 seconds on the timecode), he only blinks twice. His eyes are like coins - he's is transfixed and preparing for assault.

The "liberal media" label has never been more bogus. Case in point - the Wednesday, October 20, broadcast of ABC World News Tonight, where the newscast was blatantly unfair to Democrats.

First up in the report was Kerry, showing him on the stump. Nothing too spectacular. In the following Bush segment, they had an interview with a supporter with an unusually long sound bite, allowing her to say she thought that Kerry was "arrogant."

But the real closer was the report on Black voters in Ohio. The story talked about how Kerry was not as popular as Clinton, and anecdotally how some Black voters felt they were being taken for granted. In it, there was an interview with an undecided black voter in Ohio, saying she still didn't know who she'd vote for.

Immediately I found this incredible. One, you will probably never find another president as popular as Clinton among American Blacks. Clinton is probably more popular than Jesse Jackson. Second, how could you think an undecided Black voter in Ohio is representative? Black voters are overwhelmingly Democratic, and I couldn't imagine very many voting for Bush. So I looked up the numbers to see if I was right.

From the Dayton Daily News article on the latest polls:

"In the latest Ohio Poll... Kerry had an overwhelming lead among black voters, 95-3 percent."

This is incredible! 95% of Black voters are for Kerry, and ABCnews's "take" on this story is that Kerry is not as popular as Clinton, Kerry takes black voters for granted and airs an interview with a Black voter who is undecided?

Mass media outlets are becoming ever so rotten. Mark Halperin (ABC News political chief), you need to bash your folks over the head. ABCnews is now only marginally better than FOX News. At least with FOX News, you start out with the assumption they are ridiculous. People expect better from ABCnews, which is what makes its "slant" so disturbing.

This is a fascinating quote in an MSNBC story how Iran views the re-election of Bush as "in Tehran's best interests." You know why? Because they think the Dems are tougher on them.

"Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body."

Contrast this with Bush/Cheney's new attacks - that electing Kerry would put US in more danger. Iran is admitting that Kerry/Dems would be tougher on them than Bush.

After John Stewart's showing up of Begala and Carlson on "Crossfire," Tucker has been in a state of denial about who got who. I got to thinking, "Who exactly is this Tucker fellow?" His cackling laughter on the show was an unsuccessful attempt to hide his insecurity and unease with the whole situation.