But I've always found claims that profiteering was the motive for the Iraq war - as opposed to a fringe benefit - as implausible as claims that the war was about fighting terrorism. There are deeper motives here. Wolfowitz's official rationale for the contract policy is astonishingly cynical: "Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in future efforts" - future efforts? - and "should encourage the continued cooperation of coalition members." Translation: We can bribe other nations to send troops.

But I doubt whether even Wolfowitz believes that.

The Likud is publicly grappling with a prospect long raised by Israel's left: that within a few years Arabs are likely be the majority in Israel and its occupied territories, and that they may switch from demanding their own state to demanding the right to vote in Israel, threatening its Jewish identity.

The result is a breathtaking inversion: Though the Likud's platform opposes a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River as a threat to Israel, some members of the party say they have concluded that only the creation of such a state can save Israel as a Jewish democracy.

The debate within Likud is the most surprising development in a fall that has brought a two-month lull in the violence here and, with it, a series of official and unofficial initiatives for peace.

Kagan and Kristol in the Weekly Standard: But instead of being smart, clever, or magnanimous, the Bush Administration has done a dumb thing. The announcement of a policy of discriminating against French, German, and Russian firms has made credible European charges of vindictive pettiness and general disregard for the opinion of even fellow liberal democracies. More important, it has made former Secretary of State James Baker's very important effort to get these countries, among others, to offer debt relief for the new government of Iraq almost impossible. This is to say nothing of other areas where we need to work with these governments. This decision is a blunder. We trust it will be reversed.

Some folks seem to be under the misimpression that there's some clever bargaining going on here. There's not.

Think about it. The whole pot is about $20 billion. Let's imagine the French and the Germans both got fabulously lucky and their companies managed to land contracts for a billion a piece. Does anyone think that Germany or France are going to write off billions of dollars in Iraqi loans or invite a backlash from their anti-Iraq war publics by sending in some troops all for the privilege of having the French or German versions of Halliburton or Bechtel make a few million dollars? Of course, not.

The heart of the matter here is that for some folks there's a certain failure to appreciate the situation we're in.

Think back to your grade school science class. We're like the Saber-toothed Tiger sinking into the tar pit. And over on dry land are a few giraffes munching away on some leaves. And we're taunting them with what terms we're going to give them to buy into the good thing we've got going on. Yes, an over-dramatic metaphor. But you get the idea.

Representative Dennis J. Kucinich ... may have met his Mrs. Right on Thursday morning: a 34-year-old New Jersey resident who won breakfast with him by entering an Internet contest entitled "Who Wants to Be a First Lady?"
...
"There is romance in some of these issues," Ms. Santore said before giving Mr. Kucinich a peck on the cheek goodbye.
...
As to whether the pair will meet again, that is an open question; Ms. Santore confessed to having a live-in boyfriend. But if she is not available, there are other finalists who may qualify. Among them is "Lucy," who is 48, a Unitarian Universalist clergywoman from Connecticut and a first cousin of a Kucinich campaign rival, Howard Dean.