There are rumblings now that Republicans will desert Bush in September if the surge is not demonstrating signs of progress by then. Their argument will be that we gave it a chance but .... Anything they say will be accepted by a grateful public.

But the same logic stated by Democrats now is somehow treasonous.

Some historical perspective on the Federal prosecutor firings.

Remember Frederick Black? He was the acting Federal prosecutor in Gaum and the Marianas Islands (since 1991) and was demoted in 2002, ending a grand jury investigation into Jack Abramoff's dealings with the Superior Court of Guam.

It is interesting to see just how radioactive Bush is right now. Pombo is about as right wing as they get, but if you Google his House website and his re-election website for pages with Bush in them:

site:http://www.house.gov/pombo bush

you get 3 entries

site:http://www.richardpombo.com/ bush

and you get 2 entries.

I finally figured out what Joe Lieberman is up to. Lieberman is a Democrat in name only, and even Bill Kristol is touting Lieberman as a replacement for Rumsfeld.

So this is the plan. Lieberman wins re-election to his Senate seat. Then to better serve the nation, he resigns to take the Secretary of Defense job. Then Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell replaces Lieberman with a Republican.

The other end of the plan is to run McCain/Lieberman as a national unity (continue the brand) ticket in 2008.

Pretty cute. Don't let it happen.

I think the "TPM Approved Sites" link to Marshall Wittmann's Bull Moose blog should be removed, and these are my reasons.

Marshall Wittmann is not a Centrist of any kind. He has been:

• a communications director and advisor for John McCain

• congressional relations director for the Heritage Foundation

• director of legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition

• a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute

• in the first Bush Administration, he served as deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services after founding "Jews for George"

Those are not Centrist credentials. Those are NeoCon credentials.

I've read Wittmann off and on; he's not a bad writer. I've also noticed that he never gets upset with Conservatives. He is upset now; he is in a high dudgeon over the Lamont-Lieberman race. The Moose denounces the (non-existent) Swift-Boating of Joe by Progressives, Liberals and Centrists. But if you page back a couple of years, 2 years, 2004 to be precise, you won't find the Moose grousing about the actual Swift-Boating of John Kerry by Conservatives. It would have ruined his chill. In fact, I've never read Wittmann getting upset at anything, even being called Rovian, until now.

Marshall Wittmann is a NeoCon, straining to support an indefensible failed war, the defining NeoConservative war, and even wanting to expand it. (Calling the Iraq War a failure is a Centrist position.) Wittmann is like a David Brooks, except that David Brooks is honest about being a NeoCon.

So I am asking for a call to action. Dump Wittmann from TPM. This isn't about a diversity of opinion; TPM could add Ann Coulter and claim it was more diverse still. This is about truth in advertising. Wittmann is a NeoCon, and I don't like NeoCons putting on Moose skins or Donkey skins or any other kind of skin. The Moose is a stalking horse Conservative.