Cold Feet, Hot Story

"Democrats have been twisted into this position by their reflexive opposition to President Bush's latest Social Security proposal. It would make the system more progressive by continuing to allow benefits for lower-income workers to grow generously, while gradually restraining the growth in benefits (by roughly one percent a year beginning around 2016) for higher-income people. This move would solve most of the shortfall in the popular program's long-term financing.

"Shouldn't a liberal welcome a proposal demanding sacrifice from the wealthy? Yes, but the two sides in the Social Security debate have different priorities. Bush wants to save (and improve) Social Security. Democrats want to save Social Security's dishonesty."

The Nation's John Nichols says the U.K. is having the kind of election debate we should have had last year:

"George W. Bush's closest ally, Prime Minister Tony Blair, is taking a battering on the issue that should have been central to last year's U.S. presidential election: the lies that led to the war in Iraq.

"Blair's Labour party is unlikely to be voted out of office in Thursday's voting, in part because the main opposition party -- the Conservatives -- also supported the war, and in part because a third of the Labour Party's members of parliament opposed Blair's efforts to sign Britain on for Bush's war.

"But, while his party remains viable, the prime minister's personal approval ratings have tanked. A number of recent polls show that a majority of British voters believe Blair lied to the British people -- and his own Cabinet -- in order to get Britain on board for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And when Britain's MORI polling agency asked voters whether they approve of how Blair is handling the current situation with Iraq, 63 percent of those surveyed indicated that their disapproved while only 28 percent supported the approach of the man who is derisively referred to as 'Bush's poodle.'

"And as elction day draws near, the headlines in the British press, which unlike U.S. media does not take its cues from the spin machines of the various campaigns, has kept the focus firmly on Iraq.

"The headline in Tuesday morning's Independent newspaper dismissed Blair's attempts to dismiss the war as a primary issue: '48 hours to go: Iraq, the issue that won't go away.' Other headlines read: 'Widow of soldier says Prime Minister to blame for his death.' 'Mother plans court action over Blair's 'war crimes.' 'Iraq war "will haunt Blair's legacy like Suez."' 'Revealed: documents show Blair's secret plans for war.'"

Excuse me, but wasn't Iraq a pretty big issue in Bush vs. Kerry (at least when the press wasn't obsessing on Vietnam)? And to the extent it was muted, wasn't that because Kerry had voted to authorize the war and spent much of the campaign trying to explain that away? (Blair's Conservative opponent, Michael Howard, also backed the war.)

Talk about blowing big bucks: "Michael Jackson had a deteriorating financial condition for years that left him with just $38,000 in cash when he had to cope with an avalanche of bad publicity, jurors at the star's molestation trial heard Tuesday," says the Los Angeles Times . "John Duross O'Bryan, a forensic accountant testifying as an expert witness for the prosecution, painted a grim picture of Jackson's finances, estimating that from 1999 to early 2003 the pop singer spent $20 million to $30 million a year more than was coming in." Kind of the same model that the federal government uses.

Finally, the Wilkes Barre Times Leader wants some answers from a Pennsylvania congressman about a back rub:

"The constituents of U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood deserve to know what's going on.

"On Saturday, the Times Leader reported that last fall, Washington D.C. police were called to Sherwood's apartment in response to a 911 call from a woman who was visiting there. Cynthia Ore, 29, told the police Sherwood choked her.

"Defenders of the representative say there's much that diffuses this story. The incident happened seven months ago and only came to the attention of the media through one of Sherwood's past opponents. The woman who called 911 backed off of her claims when police arrived and no charges were filed. Sherwood says the accusations are false and that it's a political smear.

"But it's not that simple. In the police report, Sherwood says he was giving the woman a back rub. Sherwood has been married for 33 years, according to his own congressional Web site.

"When Sherwood spoke to Times Leader reporters, he called the woman an acquaintance. He said he didn't invite her. But then, why let her into his apartment?"

He's 64. She's 29.