Queen Hillary, Empress of Mesopotamia  —  My friend, David Brooks, does his best to reinforce the Hillary-Is-Inevitable consensus in Washington right now.  He may regret this, though: … Then we hear this from a right-wing reporter with access to Bush:

Ahmadinejad Gets Laughed At  —  Watch Ahmadinejad's face here.  —  He's not being feared.  He's being laughed at.  Imagine how the Iranian people feel seeing these clips (and they're seeing them).  Imagine how the rest of the Iranian government feels being made to look so foolish …

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl's Hawkish Iran Amendment Is 'Cheney's Fondest Pipe Dream'  —  On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be "withdrawn" because the "proposal is Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream."

Iraqi Prime Minister Says That Civil War Has Been Prevented  —  Maliki Also Plays Down Iran's Influence  —  Civil war has been averted in Iraq and Iranian intervention there has "ceased to exist," Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday.  —  "I can't say there is a picture …

Bush's UN Speech Full of Fone-eh-tick Pronunciations for World Leaders  —  ABC News' Ann Compton and Jennifer Duck report: Never before has the White House released a draft version of the President's speech to the annual United Nations General Assembly.  —  But this year, a glimpse …

Front-Runner No-Shows at GOP Minority Debates Assailed  —  Former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts Calls Decision Not to Attend 'Stupid'  —  A former member of the House Republican congressional leadership — and the last African-American to serve as a member of the GOP in Congress …

Democratic Party Maintains Solid Image Advantage Over GOP  —  Public Prefers Democratic Party to Republican for handling terrorism, military security  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad Delivers Remarks at U.N. General Assembly Meeting  —  SPEAKER: IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD  —  AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): In the name of God, the compassionate and the merciful, oh, God, hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi and grant him good health …

Bed-wetter Nation  —  Here's a big question that I want to start addressing in upcoming posts: what is conservative rule doing to our nation's soul?  How is it rewiring our hearts and minds?  What kind of damage are they doing to the American character?  And can we ever recover?

Europeans Want America to Stay in Iraq  —  The Atlantic Community Editorial Team asked European policy experts for their opinions on proposed ways forward in Iraq.  Respondents from ten different countries provided some surprising results.  —  Against Troop Withdrawal

Koppel on Rather Suit: Squeezing Out of Newsman was a 'Travesty'  —  Calling the ouster of Dan Rather from CBS News in 2006 a "travesty," newsman Ted Koppel said today that he hopes the $70 million suit filed by Mr. Rather against CBS and Viacom will bring Mr. Rather "relief from his [emotional] pain."

The Top Pundits In America  —  What exactly is a pundit?  According to the dictionary, it's "a person who makes comments or judgments, especially in an authoritative manner; critic or commentator."  —  There's certainly no shortage of that in the media these days.  —  Call the past decade the era of the talking head.

House panel debates hip-hop lyrics  —  WASHINGTON - Two rappers, sitting side-by-side in an ornate House hearing room, went in different directions Monday on the need for hip hop artists to expunge their work of sexist and violent language.  —  One, Master P, apologized to women for past songs …

Israel Lobby's Pull Pales Next to Evil Saudi Input  —  It's been a while since a book about American Jews has elicited as much controversy as "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," in which professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University argue …