Four-Star Story

The Washington Post editorial page wants Rummy out -- as long as his departure is voluntary?

"In our view Mr. Rumsfeld's failures should have led to his departure long ago. But he should not be driven out by a revolt of generals, retired or not."

By the way, if you want the details on the Pulitzer awards -- including the four prizes won yesterday by The Post -- I've got the details here .

This is a story you won't be able to escape in the coming days:

"The new White House chief of staff put the West Wing and official Washington on notice on Monday about potentially substantial changes in the way the White House is staffed and operates," says the New York Times.

I guess Josh Bolten is now running the country.

"Senior White House officials had spent months playing down the need for any substantial overhaul of administration personnel. Mr. Bolten's message seemed to suggest that Mr. Bush had now come around to the idea that his presidency needed some fresh faces, if not a fresh start."

Scott McClellan was asked whether he's on his way out--and deflected the question.

Former Illinois governor George Ryan is guilty of a long list of corruption charges.

Meanwhile, talk about stories with legs! Our McCain Watch continues, with the New Republic's Peter Beinart all but yelling, "John, don't do it!"

"I think John McCain is making a big mistake. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a liberal. McCain -- as every political junkie knows--has been aggressively mending fences with the conservative establishment he once loathed. He's giving the commencement address at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University; he has endorsed South Dakota's anti-abortion law and the teaching of creationism in schools; he has lavishly praised President Bush; he has even lavishly praised President Bush's parents. . . .

"In his quest to become ideologically acceptable, McCain has several things going for him. For starters, as Byron York has noted in these pages, the issue that drove the right berserk in 2004 -- McCain's support for campaign finance reform--is old news now. Second, a huge new issue has emerged--the war on terrorism--on which McCain's hawkishness suits the Republican base. Third, with the deficit exploding, the right is moving away from its cut-taxes-and-the-deficit-be-damned stance of a few years ago and back toward the anti-deficit posture it assumed in the mid-'90s. . . . Since McCain is more a deficit hawk than a tax-cutter, he's more in tune with the conservative base today than he was in 2000--when all Republicans could think about was how to free multi-millionaires from the estate tax.