Iraq = Lebanon + daily beheadings

Laura Rozen quotes the Spectator's Richard Beeston extensively. Reporting from Baghdad, Beeston describes nothing short of hell.

This is almost unspeakably grim. Bush has turned Iraq into Lebanon, and he's running his election on this masking-taped Potemkin village of a liberated Iraq heading joyfully for elections that's all coming apart at the edges. Even if he manages to win reelection, I think any second administration would be set to soon collapse under the weight of the lies once people do wake up and realize what a disaster we have on our hands. You should hear the total condemnation of Bush's national security team I am hearing from Republican foreign policy hands I am interviewing for a forthcoming piece.

I wish we could count on Republicans to police this administration, but other than a handful of "mavericks," like Hagel, Luger, and McCain -- all of whom are in the Senate, mind you -- I'm not expecting anything of the sort, even after the election. In all likelihood, the House will still be under the control of DeLay and Hastert, and their only goal is retaining power. Going after a Republican president won't aid them in that effort. The House Republicans have erased from their lexicon such words as "Constitution," "checks & balances," "governing," "civil rights," "responsibility." Need convincing of that?

In fact, there was talk in the Capitol that it might be just fine with the Republicans if they can't reach agreement with the Senate on a final bill before the election, after forcing House Democrats to vote on their bill. That way they could try to argue in the campaign that Democratic obstructionism stalled the popular Sept. 11 commission's ideas and make an issue of possible Democratic votes against the new law enforcement powers.

But before they can get that far, they and other backers of the commission's ideas will have to surmount opposition from the Pentagon and many in the foreign policy and national security establishment.

"Racing to implement reforms on an election timetable is precisely the wrong thing to do. Intelligence reform is too complex and too important to undertake at a campaign's breakneck speed," said a statement issued this week by a group that included Shultz and Kissinger as well as former Democratic Sens. Gary Hart and Bill Bradley.

Yep, House Republicans who play politics with the 911 Commission report seem an unlikely bunch to investigate the crimes and misdemeanors of the current president.