Iraq: The Carousel Spins Ever Faster

If you think of Iraq as an old-fashioned amusement park carousel with the horses and rest of the menagerie rising and falling in organ-music syncopation as it rotates, the events of the last several days have sent it spinning so fast that it seems to have become a blur.

Here’s what a leading liberal and a leading conservative voice are saying:

Democrats, and a growing number of Republicans, are determined not to wait until September for the president to report on whether the surge is working. The American people have had enough. They want out.

-- THOMAS FREIDMAN

Bush faces a stark choice: If he doesn’t begin pulling out, his party will lose the White House, lose Congress by stunning and likely filibuster-proof margins, and his tax cut and education reforms will be repealed. His footsteps will be obliterated from history. It will be as if he never served.

-- DICK MORRIS

I have tried to not write about the war as much. Honest. But that carousel is also acting as a sort of blogospheric supernova, and it’s sucking me in, man.

All that noted, Kiko’s House today is all Iraq All the Time. You're welcome to hop on board the carousel, but hang on tight.

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A problem with sticking to one topic is that it's almost inevitable that something else will happen to knock you off that game. In this case, it's the death of Lady Bird Johnson.

My blogger friend Robert Stein has written a lovely tribute to the former first lady, whom he knew.