But no... the righties didn't all fall into line

Turns out that Bush is a lamer duck than I would have guessed. He didn't pull the entire right-wing in behind the port contract. He had a sporadic mix of support from across the spectrum-- Rush Limbaugh and Jimmy Carter -- but Republicans from Sue (HELL NO) Myrick to Frist and Hastert all put the brakes on. Result--Bush blinks. Rove signals we don't need to rush into this. What's delicious about all this is that Bush has fallen into a trap that's very much of his own making. By reducing all debate to a visceral, pavlovian set of signals in connecting Saddam to Al Qaeda through no chain of logic or evidence, but merely through relentlessly repeated association of the two names in close proximity, Bush prepared the country to salivate whenever the bell is rung. "Arab" what? "Terror" whoops. Dave Winer says, "It's the Swift Boat logic turned back at the master. It's as if Karl Rove was working for the Dems. I love it because it's funny and it's justice"