The Three Tin-Ears

That would be the team of Reid, Schumer and Durbin, who today bet the party's pot on paranoia. They repeated the claim that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the Iraq war (The Joe Wilson syndrome), accused Dick Cheney for being behind every evil since the Fall of Adam (the Great Satan syndrome) and demanding that Bush promise not to pardon Scooter Libby (the MoveOn.org syndrome). This is the fundraising-letter level of madness.

"Being a high official in the White House should not entitle you to a get-out-of-jail-free card, plain and simple," said Sen. Charles Schumer

And all the dogs begin to howl, but don't expect anybody to call that singing.

Good luck bringing up pardons with only 5 years since Bill Clinton's last night in office. Do they really want to remind people of Marc Rich, et al.? Bush should promise to use a higher level of discretion than his predecessor, but he's probably too decent. I'd give Scott McClellan permission to use it though.

It seems that, by now, people would begin to realize that a lot of this Second Term Scandal stuff is being driven by the press, although the Monica Lewinsky story could not be ignored. (Republicans should have let that lay there in the sun and ripen, without touching it.) This Libby story is so full of holes it will end up blowing back on the people driving it, but I think Republicans need to make it an issue.