Not bad, but you need to use a lot more alliteration next time.

Suggestion: "The Fecklessly Fulsome Russ Feingold".

I know that Feingold isn't going to run for President, but can we get this man for VP.

He's from an important swing state, and I have a lot more faith in his record than I do in that of a certain freshman senator from a neighboring state.

Matt Stoller to the white courtesy phone. Could a Matt Stoller please pick up a white courtesy phone. The editor of a major publication would like to offer you a prominent job as an establishment pundit.

"Liars..."  ;-)

I concur, of course the Iraq Study Group was ever a meaningless exercise.  It consists largely of a group of geriatrics who have no sense of the immediacy of loss felt by generationally younger persons whose loved ones are ever precariously on the line.  

The Study Group was created and yet nurtured by the same Washington DC status quo that permitted by way of a coup d'etat the rise to the presidency of a semi-literate, spoiled Frat Brat.  After his Reign of Terror the United States will be decades in recovery, if it can recover at all.

Remember that James Baker was instrumental in GWB's transitional rise--there in 2000 to help countermand the decision of the majority of the electorate.  It was necessary to trammel the Constitution itself to place the entitlement scion at the helm of the Executive Branch.  Sir James and the fawning Washington punditocracy could at last thus restore one "to the manner born" onto the presidential throne.

While the satire is most approriate, I would also suggest to you that relatively few beyond the Beltway take either Sir James and company or the fawning punditocracy with any seriousness any longer.

After witnessing a meaningless witch hunt result in the impeachment of a twice popularly elected president; the subsequent coup d'etat whose perpetrators were not even thinly disguised; a mass hysteria fostered by the punditocracy in the wake of 9/11 (replete with fear-mongering false alarms); and even now, following a devastating midterm public indictment of The Boy King and his power elite, the ridiculous denial of that indictment by said punditocracy--well, the entrenched Washington based purveyors of the status quo have at last become irrelevant.

Sir James and company, and their would-be heirs (fellow geriatric political dinosaur John McCain and 9/11 myth purveyor extraordinaire Rudolph Giuliani) are truly now, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Haha.  Nice.  I'm sure we'll hear some of this over the weekend, if not before.

Ouch!  The truth is a sharp and painful tool.  Honestly, I do not know how anyone could realistically have expected anything else.  This whole ISG was just another example of Daddy's friends attempting to rescue Junior's bacon and leave him and the family with some shreds of dignity.  Unfortunately, it looks likely to fail.  Anyone who expected more, let alone any real solutions, is obviously delusional and undoubtedly "took the brown acid."

Feingold has a good point that it isn't going to change a lot of minds in the Bush Admin. Case in point, the Yahoo article that reported on it today. Read both parts and tell me what doesn't jive:

" President Bush's policy in Iraq "is not working," a
high-level commission said Wednesday in a blunt, bleak assessment that
called for an urgent diplomatic attempt to stabilize the country and
allow withdrawal of most U.S. combat troops by early 2008.......The
report said Bush should put aside misgivings and engage        Syria,
     Iran and the leaders of insurgent forces in negotiations on
Iraq's future, to begin by year's end. It urged him to revive efforts
at a broader Middle East peace. Barring a significant change, it
warned of a slide toward chaos."

"Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, who will take
over as House Republican leader next year, said he was pleased there
was no call for a firm deadline for a troop withdrawal. "We will not
accomplish victory by setting arbitrary deadlines or negotiating with
hostile governments," he said."

So I don't see where it has changed the mindset. Boehner is still parroting the party line from before, completely ignoring the panel's recommendation.

And of course, the ISG was aware that setting a timetable could cause their corpuses to be non-habeus-ed if they pissed off the petulant prima puppet or his daddy Cheney.

snarky snarky snarky...I call Russ K-Y jelly for the Eastern wonk in me.  (Those K-Y people are soon coming after me for suggesting their product may have a use as a political tool, so I will talk fast.)  The Bullshit meter is off the charts this morning, Russ.  I don't know who's snarkier, you or Matt Stoller.  Just kiss me first, please.

I'm sorry, I just don't understand why Mr.Bush's friends always dismiss the idea of dividing the country up.  For gosh sakes, the people of Iraq were divided into separate entities for thousands of years, before the borders of Iraq were dreamed up.

Can anyone explain why Mr. Baker and his high-powered buddies seem to believe a united Iraq is worth so much death and destruction?

that feingold. there he goes again. giving aid and comfort to the enemy by pretending the united states can ever do, did or is now doing anything wrong. it's treason to think the US is even capable of policy failures, much less is actively involved in one. and you. defending him with your snark shields. despicable.