Al-Maliki's Rhetoric

"In domestic political terms, Bush should be downright grateful that the press coverage these days is being dominated by the Israel-Hezbollah fighting, which has pushed Iraq off page one. I would bet that relatively few Americans are aware that far more Iraqi civilians have been killed (roughly 1400) during the past two weeks in their increasingly sectarian war than in the hostilities further west.

"As veteran political analyst Larry Sabato emailed, 'The near black-out of news on Iraq can only help the White House. Were it not for the bombs falling on Beirut and the rockets raining down on Haifa, the nearly unprecedented carnage throughout the blood-soaked nation of Iraq would surely be leading the news. Bush owns Iraq, and GOP (congressional '06) candidates would surely suffer from the chaos, just as they have been doing for a year or more.'

"But over the long haul, the Iraq story will reassert itself. And it will be hard for the administration to mask the fact that Maliki -- ballyhooed by the Bush team as a symbol of the new democracy, and viewed by the team as perhaps our last, best hope -- has already failed in his initial mission to tame the rampant sectarian violence around Baghdad."

Michael Steele's ill-advised lunch encounter with nine reporters draws a scolding from Power Line's Paul Mirengoff :

"To note how tough it is to run as a Republican this year in Maryland is to express no more than a truism, and I have long expected Steele to distance himself from President Bush. But that doesn't mean he had to spill his guts to a group of liberal journalists, apparently including Dana Milbank -- Dana Milbank for goodness sake. And one can distance oneself from the president without attacking him as harshly (and in my view unfairly) as Steele did. Steele showed extremely poor judgment in trying to get his message of moderation out through liberal journalists who would like to see him lose, instead of speaking directly to the voters. Now, with some conservative voters alienated, it will be more difficult (or at least risky) for him to continue to distance himself from the president and the conservative wing of his party.

"There have always been, and always will be, Republican politicians who feel the need to assure liberal journalists that they don't really buy into the party's conservative message."

Excuse me, but does Mirengoff know all nine reporters who were at Charlie Palmer's steakhouse? And does he have the capacity to read their minds? How does he know they want Steele to lose? Or do all journalists in his view wear a scarlet L, not unlike the scarlet R that Steele says comes with being a Republican these days? The assembled scribes, by the way, were there at the candidate's invitation.

Regarding that Miami Herald report on many TV critics walking out on Roger Ailes at their convention, Peter Carlin of the Oregonian e-mails: "I can say for certain that there was no mass exodus from the ballroom . . . If Fox News Channel had a higher attrition rate than usual it could just as easily have been because they were entertainment reporters filing stories on Fox Broadcasting shows."

Rupert Murdoch, though, doesn't have to worry about turnout at a big corporate retreat he's holding this weekend, as the LAT reports:

"Speakers at the Pebble Beach event will include such political powers as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former President Clinton and Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton will opine on remaking complex organizations, former Vice President Al Gore will riff on climate change, and U2's Bono will deliver a keynote address titled 'The Power of One.'"

Oh, and John McCain and Newt Gingrich, too.

Ryan Lizza says in the New Republic that John Edwards's candidacy is looking up: