The Note over at Mickey Mouse Dot Com has really gotten quite good of late, as Rick Klein has started to slip more comfortably into the sort of snarky early morning prose that so distinguished that sheet under Mark Halperin’s reign. He has been having a blast with the Wide Stance of (soon to be former) Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), as shown here:

Collecting the reasons that Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, didn’t do it:
1. “Wide stance.”
2. “He said/he said.”
3. Roaming toilet paper.
4. He’s a commuter.(?)
5. “Witch hunt.”
6. “Jiminy!”
7. “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”
8. “I am not gay. I love my wife.”
Craig also, apparently, loves political reporters. (Imagine what the next 36 hours will bring. And is he holding out the possibility of becoming gay in the future?) From the moment he thanked reporters for “coming out today” to his press conference, his surreal public appearance in Boise yesterday afternoon displayed all you need to know about why Craig has approximately zero friends left in political circles — and why the GOP is praying that he steps down, or at the very least steps aside before facing reelection next year.

Interestingly, this is the third (by my count) prominent Mitt Romney campaign co-chair, sponsor, or organizer who has had to leave the campaign due to personal peccadilloes. Hmmm:

Campaigns love the upside of endorsements, but they’re seldom prepared when bad news comes. Craig’s arrest “is one more reminder of the potential downsides for candidates: guilt by association, questions about judgment in the friends they pick, and several news cycles of bad publicity,” writes The Boston Globe’s Brian Mooney. “To avoid lasting damage, campaigns try to move quickly to limit the fallout” — which is why, of course, Romney isn’t waiting for this to play out any further.

I think Mr. Klein got it wrong with this next prediction, however. He should have known that on the second anniversary of the hurricane, all of the networks (his own included) already had at least one 5 minute Katrina package ready for the evening news (ABC ran two):

If there’s a benefit for the GOP, the “cloud over Idaho” Craig talked about yesterday is overshadowing the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush visit the Gulf Coast today, after the parade of Democrats who blasted the Bush administration’s response to the disaster have cleared out of town.
THE NOTE: Craig Awaits Judgment

We knew it had to happen, and now it has.  In about ten minutes, Alberto Gonzales will announce his resignation.  Former Sen. John Edwards summed it up best:

Former senator John Edwards, D-N.C., was first out of the box: “Better late than never.” (Karl Rove only got three words from Edwards — “Goodbye, good riddance” — in case you’re keeping score.)
THE NOTE: Gonzales Exits, Dems Attack

Fresh from the Independent’s Los Angeles bureau:

The Bush administration has consistently thwarted efforts by the World Bank to include global warming in its calculations when considering whether to approve major investments in industry and infrastructure, according to documents made public through a watchdog yesterday.
On one occasion, the White House’s pointman at the bank, the now disgraced Paul Wolfowitz, personally intervened to remove the words “climate change” from the title of a bank progress report and ordered changes to the text of the report to shift the focus away from global warming.
Wolfowitz ‘tried to censor World Bank on climate change’ – Independent Online Edition > Americas

Color us jaded, color us cynical, but this just doesn’t surprise us anymore.

This story ebbed and flowed across the wires all night, last night, as Pawn drifted in and out of sleep to the dulcet tones of the BBC news readers. The New York Times however, came up with the most disarming of headlines, “Musharraf Decides Against Emergency”:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday decided against declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan and will press ahead with plans to hold free and fair elections, a government minister said.
Pakistani media have been reporting that the military leader would impose a state of emergency to deal with rising violence and political instability — a move that a senior government official confirmed was under consideration.
Musharraf Decides Against Emergency – New York Times

PS – If you like the photo above, or are simply intrigued by it, check out the whole Vogue Italia photo-spread, “State Of Emergency” by Steve Meisel at Foto Decadent.

“A Bloody Failure” is how The Independent subtitles this brilliant piece of reportage from Patrick Cockburn, direct from Baghdad:

The surge is now joining a host of discredited formulae for success and fake turning-points that the US (with the UK tripping along behind) has promoted in Iraq over the past 52 months. In December 2003, there was the capture of Saddam Hussein. Six months later, in June 2004, there was the return of sovereignty to Iraq. “Let freedom reign,” said Bush in a highly publicised response. And yet the present Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, claims he cannot move a company of soldiers without American permission.

In 2005, there were two elections that were both won handsomely by Shia and Kurdish parties. “Despite endless threats from the killers in their midst,” exulted Bush, “nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity that we should never forget.”

In fact, he himself forgot this almost immediately. A year later, the US forced out the first democratically elected Shia prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, with the then US Ambassador in Baghdad, Zilmay Khalilzad, saying that Bush “doesn’t want, doesn’t support, and doesn’t accept that Jaafari should form the next government”.
The surge: a special report by Patrick Cockburn – Independent Online Edition > Middle East

This from The Independent online edition:

500 drawings by children who escaped the violence are to be submitted to the International Criminal Court as proof of war crimes by Sudanese forces
Dramatic new evidence of the attacks on the people of Darfur by Sudanese government troops has emerged in 500 drawings by children who escaped the violence by fleeing across the border to Chad. In a ground-breaking move, the remarkable collection of images will now be submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has started proceedings against a Sudanese government minister and a militia commander accused of committing war crimes in Darfur.
Darfur: The evidence of war crimes – Independent Online Edition > Africa

There is more to be found on this at Human Rights Watch

Mahmoud, Age 13
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: These men in green are taking the women and the girls.
Human Rights Watch: What are they doing?
Mahmoud: They are forcing them to be wife.
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: The houses are on fire.
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: This is an Antonov. This is a helicopter. These here, at the bottom of the page, these are dead people.
Human Rights Watch – Darfur Drawn: The Conflict in Darfur Through Children’s Eyes

Making an incredibly sane point for a man mostly known for his inchoate rants against immigration, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) had this to say:

Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo says the U.S. isn’t waging a “war on terror.” We’re involved in a clash of civilizations, according to Tancredo. “Terrorism is a tactic. It is not the thing with which we are at war,” Tancredo told an audience in Grinnell today. “Characterizing it or mischaracterizing it that way is something that we should not do. We should understand exactly who it is that we are fighting.”
Radio Iowa: Tancredo disputes label “war on terror”

Sounds an awful lot like the point that actual sane people were making a few years ago, reported here:
Some Food for Thought | Fortune’s Pawn