The drink that comforteth the brain and heart and helpeth digestion. ~ Sir Francis Bacon

TMH’s Bacon Bits (DL) GOP Base: Engaged or Enraged? — “The GOP leadership (gosh, that sounds so oxymoronic these days) has to decide whether its conservative base, that it has betrayed, is merely demoralized and apathetic, or angry as hell and energized to do the GOP real damage. Right now the RNC mindset is like that of the husband who forgot his anniversary and is trying to decide whether he can get by with carnations or if he has to dig deeper and spring for the long stem roses.”

Iowa Voice (Brian) Beginning Of The End For Al Qaeda In Iraq? — “Of course, only if we have leaders willing to stand up in defense of our national security and interests. If we pull out too soon, we could see the same thing as we saw after Vietnam: reluctance to defend our interests anywhere for any reason.”

PoliBlog (Dr. Steven Taylor) Delays on the Immigration Bill? — “Odd, I was unaware anyone who wasn’t under the influence had any “[h]opes of a quick compromise” on this issue. As such, this isn’t all that noteworthy. Indeed, I remain quite skeptical that there is going to be a compromise bill.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed “No Hospital Stay Will Slow Me Down” Morrissey) Zarqawi’s Thumb Drive Fingers Associates — “Coalition forces picked up quite a bit of intelligence after other captures, and we saw the effects in rapid raids and domino-style takedowns of small parts of the AQI network. When we hit the leader, it allowed the Iraqis and the US to get solid information on the entire network. We saw the effects of this when Coalition forces doubled their initial raid targets in the aftermath of Zarqawi’s demise, hitting 39 sites instead of the initial 17.”