The Dish

The Texas GOP – one of the most Christianist in the country – is targeting an opponent in a judicial race as an … atheist. Religion is now being deployed by the GOP as a litmus test for public office.

A reader counters another:

I can’t believe a Republican would try to downplay the nominee for the United States Senate for one of the most populated and politically significant states in the Union as if that nominee is not indicative of the state of their party!  Remember, Harris blew out her competition in the primary. The fact that Harris is going to be blown out in the general – and that this and other conservatives won’t vote for her – is proof that America is leaving the GOP.  What does our emailer have to say about Santorum – another Christianist (this time an incumbent) who is headed for a huge loss?  Another strawman?

If any Republican still doesn’t see that his or her party has been hijacked by the Christianist ultra-right, then that person is simply part of the problem. And that is why plenty of conservatives take you very seriously.  Including the one that bothered to take time out of his or her day to email you and pretend that he/she doesn’t take you seriously.

I go back a long way with Fareed Zakaria and respect him enormously. He’s a center-right realist, and he thinks the war is essentially over in Iraq and we have lost. I’m not there yet and willing to give the military one last try, if Rumsfeld is fired and a serious new plan for regaining control is unveiled. But if Fareed is giving in, you know it’s beyond serious.

An inspiring call to arms from Florida, where the Christianist right is purging the party of true conservatives and turning it into a sectarian machine.

Now to weightier matters. A reader writes:

My question doesn’t concern politics, torture, Iraq or the pope. We’ve adopted a beagle from the shelter in June and she just isn’t getting the housebreaking thing. I was wondering if you have experienced anything similar with your beagles or are we alone in our urine scented dilemma?

For some reason, beagles seem to be among the hardest dogs to house-train. Even when you have house-broken them, they can regularly pee or poop on the floor when they feel like it. Think Snoopy. My office became one of our beagle’s latrines for a while, and I had to install a gate. Even now, it’s hard not to smell the residue – and of course, the smell itself provokes further peeing. All I can say is that you should crate them when you leave, walk them three times a day if you can, reward them when they pee or poop outside, and scold them verbally if you catch them in the act. It’s also important to scrub the floor or carpet with a product that can remove the scent. Beagles are really noses on four legs and they respond more swiftly to smells than many other breeds – so getting rid of the scent trigger is vital. After years of this, you’ll make progress, but still wake up some mornings to a pool of urine or a freshly minted turd. I’ve lived with it for years. And I guess it says something about how adorable they are that we don’t throw them out or love them any the less.

If anyone else has any bright ideas, by all means let me know and I’ll share. Maybe Cesar Millan reads this. I doubt it, but you never know.

A reader writes from the Middle East:

When I was in Kuwait last week, I caught some of a local documentary on the war. The narration was all in Arabic, but when they talked to US soldiers, you could understand, of course. The documentary was basically following some Americans around on a mission. Some pretty sad stuff. One scene I caught was an American group raiding a local house, for the sole purpose of commandeering the house as a place to spy on a local mosque. You realize that stuff like this has to be done – but, it was sad nonetheless to see how scared this innocent family was when a bunch of guys came pounding in with guns drawn. The family was shaken and the kids terrified, but they had no choice in the matter. You could see how this really doesn’t play well on Arabic TV.

They basically told the family that they could only stay in a certain part of the house for the next few days and weren’t allowed to leave. The Americans barricaded the external gate to be sure they weren’t ratted out. Again, you can see why they do this, but it all seemed rather gruffly done. No apologies, no sympathy. 

Then, the documentary interviewed one of the Marines stationed as a look-out on the roof. He said when he first got to Iraq, it was about mission and patriotism. Now, the guy said all he wanted was to go home. But, he said that the only way most folks went home from Iraq was on a stretcher (wounded) or in a body bag. So, all he cared about now (screw the mission) was protecting himself and his buddies. So, if he had to kill a bunch of bad guys to survive to that point, he was just fine with that. To him, killing had become a routine part of surviving – he felt nothing when he shot someone. He’d be more than happy to kill all sorts of folks, as long as he and his buddies survived. Again, you can completely see how someone gets to this point. But, it’s also clear to see how there is no more mission in Iraq – none of the soldiers see any point, nor do they have any goal (other than to survive). You can also see how poorly this type of stuff plays for us on local TV.

I’ll be battling a blog critic, James Taranto, on CNBC’s Kudlow and Company on my new book, "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How To Get It Back," out tomorrow. The show airs live at 5.35 pm.

"There’s a real sense that the clock is ticking, that Bush is desperate for a change, but no one in the White House can bring themselves to say so with this election coming," – an anonymous member of the Iraq study group, headed by James Baker.

So once again, the president is not being candid with the American people about the challenges of this war and the changes he may be about to make. Why? Because we have an election, and heaven knows we mustn’t address Bush’s failure as a war-leader before people vote, must we?

Just think about that for a second. We are entering an election which will have a huge impact on the war in Iraq. And yet the president doesn’t want possible changes in policy debated or floated beforehand – because it might suggest his current policy has failed and that the admission might cost him support among the faithful for whom he must appear to be as inerrant as the Bible. So he places his own political exigencies over the interests of the country as a whole at a time of war. Again.

NATO’s top commander in the country gives a stark warning.

"Lots of folks think this nuke thing is good news for the GOP because it puts national security in play and diminishes the Foley stuff. As political analysis, I think that’s probably right. But let’s keep in mind that North Korea’s nuke testing constitutes a failure of US policy. We can debate the details and the extenuating circumstances, but President Bush denounced the Axis of Evil five years ago and promised that he would do everything to keep its members from getting nukes.  Well, North Korea just detonated one. Iran is well on its way to getting one. And Iraq, well, that’s not quite the bright spot we hoped it would be," – Jonah Goldberg conceding simple reality, on NRO.