Sunday Night Extras

Yard's mowed and trimmed, the smoker did a great job with a turkey breast for supper, and I'm settled in, catching the end of 60 Minutes and waiting for the season premier of "The 4400".

And, of course, zipping through the blogs, looking for interesting comments.

Howard Dean caught a bunch of flak this weekend on the Talk Shows, with even Democrats sounding critical of his recent comments. Here's one blogger who has seen Dean up close and personal and thinks he's still the right man to lead the Democratic Party. Here are his closing words:

Again, Dean's not a perfect person (is anyone?), and he has a long path ahead of him in his new job. But all in all, he was a damn good choice for DNC Chairman. He seems to understand his limits and understand regional sensitivities both to his own image, and that of the national Democratic Party. Most importantly, he - more than anyone else - can re-open the party to its own grassroots, and help project a new image of conviction that Democrats desperately need. That can be nothing but good in the long run for a Democratic Party that has become all too dominated by insulated elites.

UPDATE: !This is a pretty darn good summary of the Democratic debate over Dean.

Are the Democrats out of touch with the middle class? The blogger reports on a new survey that seems to show that's the case. His summary:

The simple fact is that Democrats haven't been able to win a majority in either house of Congress for more than a decade. So clearly they've got to wring more voters from somewhere in order to become the majority party again. But this way of slicing and dicing the numbers seems inherently misleading.

Do we need to close Gitmo?

Senator Biden says we do.

"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world. And it is unnecessary to be in that position," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.

Interesting analysis on the Bush/Blair leaderships.

Are they truly lame ducks?

So are Bush and Blair ones for the history books or do they still have some fight left in 'em?

How good is


life in Iraq? Newsweek says it's not so hot.

Since April 2004 the liberation of Iraq has become a desperate exercise in damage control. The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib alienated a broad swath of the Iraqi public. On top of that, it didn't work. There is no evidence that all the mistreatment and humiliation saved a single American life or led to the capture of any major terrorist, despite claims by the military that the prison produced "actionable intelligence."

How's that for starters? Or for finishers? Enjoy your Sunday evening. Join us for the 5:30 Report tomorrow