Over at MSNBC's First Read, Chuck "My Math Skills Excuse My 90s Goatee" Todd posts a letter from Hillary's backers in the House:

Dear Fellow Democrat,

We are writing to you because of our shared belief in our Party’s principles and our commitment to ensuring that we have the strongest possible nominee to lead our ticket against John McCain and the Republicans in November.

The decision about who to support to be our Party’s nominee is not one that any of us should take lightly. We haven’t. But, after giving this important decision a great deal of thought, we are convinced that Hillary Clinton has the vision, skills and commitment to make the changes our country needs. As Democrats who have run and won in competitive Congressional districts and battleground states, we believe that Hillary is best positioned to successfully lead the Democratic ticket in districts and states like ours around the country.

(continued over the flip)

As we take stock of Obama's standing following the Clinton's relentless two-month Pennsylvania campaign to portray him as an unelectable Black Radical, the Washington Post's Colbert King delivers a bit of bad news:

Among all of the top Democrats intimately involved in the Pennsylvania primary, which would you say has had the coziest relationship with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam?

By now you've probably seen the story up on the Huffington Post about Sen. Clinton's sorry little slam of the Democratic Party's "activist base".

At a small closed-door fundraiser after Super Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton blamed what she called the "activist base" of the Democratic Party -- and MoveOn.org in particular -- for many of her electoral defeats, saying activists had "flooded" state caucuses and "intimidated" her supporters, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by The Huffington Post.

So, the big PA debate is tomorrow night. I have a few questions I'd like to see the ABC folks ask Senator Clinton. Here goes:

Senator, Can you name a job that you've had that now either doesn't exist or is being done by someone overseas?

When was the last time your salary provided more income than your investments?

In today's strong endorsement of Barack Obama for president Bill Richardson told the story about a telling moment from one of the earlier Democratic debates. The story wasn't part of Richardson's prepared remarks so its not in the transcripts but the WaPo told the tale back in January:

Following the primaries on March 4 the Clinton campaign rushed to the national microphone with a shiny new Mark Penn talking point: Democratic voters had "buyer's remorse" about Barack Obama.

The idea, I suppose, was to suggest that Senator Obama was some kind of fad-- that people had gotten caught up in the excitement of the Obama campaign but felt burned once the got home and looked inside the box. How, exactly, voters casting ballots for the first time in Ohio were expressing the "remorse" of those who had voted previously in, say, Virgina, was never clear but, hey, why let reality stand in the way of a good talking point? It sounded kinda true, sort of, and that's all that matters.

Yep, I'm a dick.

See, back in 2004 I was sitting on the bed in a hotel room in Portland, OR, getting dressed and mentally preparing for a night of brazen debauchery. The Democratic convention was on the TV but I wasn't really watching it-- too excited about partying with a bunch of old friends I rarely see. The tube was just background noise.

Then this skinny black dude from some place like Illinois or Michigan or something was introduced and started to speak. I started listening, still focused on getting out the door and down to the bar, ASAP. Then he spoke a little more and I was transfixed. There it was. The searing, optimistic vision that, as a GenXer, I'd heard a million times in clips from MLK, JFK, and RFK's best speeches but had concluded that I'd never hear from a leader in my lifetime. And yet, there it was.

I've tried to stay out of the primary pie fights this year, I really have.

At first I remained neutral because I just couldn't pick. I loved Edwards' unapologetic economic populism, Obama's visionary leadership, Clinton's command of policy detail.  I may have leaned a bit towards Obama initially but I wouldn't have had to hold my nose to vote for any of them. It was an embarrassment of riches: three great candidates, all of whom I would be happy to pull the lever for in November.

Obviously, throwing a few bucks into his campaign chest would be a fine gesture but I'm thinking something more visible.

The latest NIE findings on Iran stuck a pin in the neoconservative's tumescent dreams of war with Tehran. In a sane world, the combined, vetted judgement of the the country's 16 spy agencies-- namely that Iran dropped its covert enrichment program more that four years ago-- would cause even the most bellicose necons to back off the crazy-talk, at least for a while.

Unfortunately, we don't live in a sane world.

AP is reporting that everyone's favorite band of taxpayer-funded mercs, Blackwater, seized Iraqi military aircraft in 2005:

Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them, according to a congressional committee investigating the private security contractor.

They seized two Iraqi military planes and refused to give then back? WTF???

This morning's WaPo is running an op-ed by 12 former US Army captains, titled The Real Iraq We Knew.

Honestly, though the letter is short, it covers a lot of ground and its difficult to pull one or two grafs that capture the essence. Do go read the whole thing.

The following is pure conjecture on my part. Please adjust your grain-of-salt index accordingly.

Avast and stand to, there, ye lily-livered swine!

Bein' a scurvy book-readin' liberal, ye likely know that today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Let me hear yer saltiest 'YAR!', ye slippery squids!

Arr, and sad it were, too.

Couldn't get a damn lick of work done, today. I tried watching the hearing but, despite the fact that I typically have a high tolerance for The Potomac Twostep, I literally couldn't watch it. I tried.

From the Wikipedia entry on the characters Yakko, Wakko, and Dot from the 90s cartoon series The Animaniacs:

Although their initial havoc is generally good-natured, sometimes affectionate, and often merely annoying, any person who yells at them, tries to hurt them, or generally acts like a jerk will be labeled their "Special Friend," at which point the Warners exercise even less restraint with their mayhem.

Steny Hoyer is my new Special Friend.

While its often fun (or at least diverting) to follow the minutiae of this or that daily political controversy, it sometimes helps to take a step back and judge things by first principles. With this in mind, let's have a look at two hot topics-- Bush's Surge™ in Iraq and Democrat's chances in '08-- under the simple light of basic political legitimacy.

The following began as a response to a comment in inclusiveheart's outstanding diary, DONE. Much like my waistline, it grew too big to be contained and spilled over into a larger space.