War Is Peace

" 'I think we have had a low-grade civil war going on in Iraq, certainly the last six months, maybe the last year. Our own generals have told me that privately.' "

Redefining Victory

Doyle McManus writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Three years ago, as they ordered more than 150,000 U.S. troops to race toward Baghdad, Bush administration officials confidently predicted that Iraq would quickly evolve into a prosperous, oil-fueled democracy. When those goals proved optimistic, they lowered their sights, focusing on a military campaign to defeat Sunni-led insurgents and elections to jump-start a new political order.

"As the conflict enters its fourth year today, the Bush administration faces a new challenge: the prospect of civil war. And, in response, officials again appear to be redefining success downward.

"If Iraq can avoid all-out civil war, they say, if Baghdad's new security forces can hold together, if Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds all participate in a new unity government, that may be enough progress to allow the administration to begin reducing the number of U.S. troops in the country by the second half of this year."

Poll Watch: Special Censure Edition

Christopher Dickey writes in Newsweek about the first major poll about Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold's proposal to censure Bush for his warrantless wiretapping program.

"Four in 10 (42 percent) of the adults in the general public say they would support Congressional censure of the president, while half (50 percent) say they would not. Censure wins majority support from Democrats (60 percent) and one in five Republicans (20 percent) say they'd support it."

Newsweek also asked about impeachment: "In today's strongly polarized political climate, roughly one in four American adults (26 percent) say they think Congress should actually impeach President Bush and consider removing him from office. There is in fact no effort to do this on the Hill, and the public mood appears to be more a reflection of the passionate sentiment against Bush in some quarters rather than considered support for actual legislative action."

The Newsweek poll found Bush's overall job-approval rating at 36 percent, matching his all-time low in that poll. "[O]nly 29 percent of the people questioned approved Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq. Fully 65 percent disapprove."

White House Impersonators

Lies within lies?

The White House this weekend confirmed that two employees impersonated journalists with Fox News while scouting for locations for a presidential photo-op in Mississippi.

Spokesman Ken Lisaius told Christopher Lee of The Washington Post that the two will be verbally reprimanded for doing so.

But it appears the two may have pretended to be Secret Service agents, as well -- which would be illegal. Will they face any discipline for that?