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| washingtonpost.com - Terry Neal - Talking Points
Read the latest political commentary from Chief Political Correspondent Terry Neal. Find columns on current affairs in American politics.
When I told my friends and associates three and a half years ago that I was going to take a job writing a political column for washingtonpost.com, I mostly got blank looks.
President Bush on Wednesday compared the task at hand in the Middle East to the lofty objectives the United States faced during World War II, saying that the attempt to build a stable democracy in Iraq is essential to the future security of America.
The television cameras have mostly left the Gulf Coast, but the region continues to reel from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Despite Rep. John Murtha's (D-Pa.) call to bring home the troops in Iraq, the consensus view in Washington is that the Democratic Party has no unified message on the war beyond criticizing the Bush administration's handling of it.
Even before former president Bill Clinton joined the torrent of criticism of the Iraq war on Wednesday, President Bush and others in his administration had launched a withering counterattack aimed at reversing negative public perceptions of the White House's handling of the war.
It would be an understatement to say the war in Iraq has done little to bolster the perception of the United States around the world. But the administration's opposition to a provision that would ban the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad risks sending the image of this country over another cliff -- as well as losing yet another opportunity to win the hearts and minds of people in the Middle East.
With key wins in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, some Democratic leaders are all but declaring the beginning of the end for Republicans.
After issuing a string of confusing comments about where he stood on his vote to authorize war in Iraq, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), has finally taken a stand -- albeit a year too late for his political aspirations.
Did administration officials willfully ignore and circumvent the established intelligence apparatus and embrace only what they wanted to hear to make the case for war in Iraq? And, if so, how far up the chain does responsibility go? And did those officials seek to punish--not just refute--those who challenged them, as Joe Wilson, the husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, has suggested?
A few immediate thoughts come to mind regarding the withdrawal of Harriet Miers's Supreme Court nomination:
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