Third Way Dispatch

“I’m going to take a little risk here, and I’m going to tell you that, intuitively, I think we need more people. I mean, it’s just that simple.”

That was General Peter Schoomaker, Chief of Staff of the Army. But he wasn’t testifying at last week’s hearings on Iraq.

He made that remark about the size of the Army more than three years ago.

Rachel Swarns has an interesting piece in today’s New York Times on a subject that is near and dear to Third Way – immigration. As she correctly points out, some Democrats are out-righting the right on enforcement of immigration laws. While Third Way is credited in the story with advising progressives to emphasize the Bush Administration’s failure to enforce immigration laws, we would like, to paraphrase NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, to clarify a “point of emphasis.”

If you do not live either under a rock or in the White House, the need for the United States to change course in Iraq is becoming blindingly obvious to virtually everyone.

In recent weeks, the President has been touring the country claiming that Democrats talk tough on terror.

But George W. Bush is no slouch himself in the tough talk department. Indeed, the threat-slinging duo of George Bush and Dick Cheney, backed by the dulcet tones of their allies in Congress, are on the road again, and they are all singing that same old song.

In our new document, we’ve compiled a sample of their Greatest Hits, along with some of their lesser known—but equally swagger-filled—Deep Tracks. At the end, we provide a few samples where they changed their tune.

The most amazing thing about the agreement the Bush Administration reached yesterday with Senate Republicans John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins is not what’s in the actual agreement, but rather that this is such a unique occasion.

That’s right: Congress really is a separate branch of government. When the majority party in Congress fulfills its duties, as it did yesterday, we get better laws and policies. That’s worked more often than not in the last 230 years. Well, at least in the 225 before George W. Bush became President.

“Generals raise fears of civil war”—that’s the headline on the breaking news right now. Head of the US Central Command, General John Abizaid, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, just told the Senate Armed Services Committee that sectarian violence in Iraq is getting worse, with the very real danger of a civil war.