corrente

(And, yes, Clusterfuck is the precise technical word, the term of art.)

Frank Rich throws a thunderbolt. The whole thing is great. I focussed on this part:

The endgame for American involvement in Iraq will be of a piece with the rest of this sorry history. "It makes no sense for the commander in chief to put out a timetable" for withdrawal, Mr. Bush declared on the same day that 14 of those Ohio troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha. But even as he spoke, the war's actual commander, Gen. George Casey, had already publicly set a timetable for "some fairly substantial reductions" to start next spring. Officially this calendar is tied to the next round of Iraqi elections, but it's quite another election this administration has in mind. The priority now is less to save Jessica Lynch (or Iraqi democracy) than to save Rick Santorum and every other endangered Republican facing voters in November 2006.

Yep. Bush needs to be out of Iraq before the mid-terms—and Rove has already prepared his "stab in the back" strategery (back) to blame the Dems for Bush's debacle. (Surprise, Hillary, Evan, and the rest of you Beltway Dems slithering into position for 2008; Rove will hang that on you whether you voted for the war on not.)

NOTE Incidentally, Trudy Rubin called her shot over a year ago. "Tell it to the widows. Now that it comes time for Inerrant Boy to do exactly that with Cindy Sheehan, He can't.

NOTE And if you buy this, that Bush will have cut and run by the midterms, that has implications for the anti-war movement. Good to keep the pressure for withdrawal on, but it's no longer the main battle. We have to be where the hockey puck is going to go next, not where it is now.