Election Tea Leaves

"One problem is that he's an out-of-towner. Another is his wealth and lifestyle, which have insulated him from the daily grind and fears most people experience. For that reason and perhaps by nature, he can often seem cold and mechanical."

On the terror front, not everyone in the administration favored the rough stuff against prisoners:

"A classified report issued last year by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general warned that interrogation procedures approved by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 attacks might violate some provisions of the international Convention Against Torture, current and former intelligence officials say," reports the New York Times .

"The previously undisclosed findings from the report, which was completed in the spring of 2004, reflected deep unease within the C.I.A. about the interrogation procedures, the officials said. A list of 10 techniques authorized early in 2002 for use against suspected terrorists included one known as waterboarding, and went well beyond those authorized by the military for use on prisoners of war."

The Washington Post has news of Denny Hastert and Bill Frist seeking an investigation . . . involving The Washington Post:

"Congress's top Republican leaders yesterday demanded an immediate joint House and Senate investigation into the disclosure of classified information to The Washington Post that detailed a web of secret prisons being used to house and interrogate terrorism suspects."

In Slate, former Clinton NSC aide Daniel Benjamin says the veep is a really big deal:

"It has become a clich to say that Dick Cheney is the most powerful vice president in American history. Nonetheless, here is a prediction: When the historians really get digging into the paper entrails of the Bush administration--or possibly when Scooter Libby goes on trial--those who have intoned that phrase will still be astonished at the extent to which the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney was the center of power inside the White House--and at the grip it had on foreign and defense policy. . . .

"Browbeating intelligence officials, disregard for the National Security Council's traditional leadership of the interagency process--this kind of behavior, plenty of Bush administration officials privately attest, was typical as the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis that took the country to war."

The Democrats are pushing for a no-pardon pledge, and they get the endorsement of Arianna :

"In his press conference, Harry Reid said, 'I think the president should come forward now and say he's not going to pardon anybody.'

"Not a moment too soon, because the conventional wisdom on Scooter Libby being pardoned is already starting to congeal. . . .