MORE NEWS ON THE "WHY NOW?" FRONT

Here's an AP story on Bush's reaction to the Bali hotel bombing, strongly suggesting that Al Qaeda was involved (which may turn out to be the case). Naturally, the topic gently steers itself towards Iraq:

Bush said the Indonesia bombing, attacks on U.S. troops in Kuwait and the bombing of a French oil tanker in Yemen point to al-Qaida and the need for a global coalition to fight the terrorist group.

"We just learned a lesson this week. It's going to take a while to succeed," he said.

Still, he said, the battle against al-Qaida will not distract him from his confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, even as world leaders question whether America is spreading its troops too thin. (emphases mine)

As S.R. Hadden says in "Contact", buried within the message is the key to decoding it. Here we get a window to objective reality, on two levels:
1) The potential war against Saddam is separate from the "war on terrah"
2) Iraq is Dubya's personal war, for: A) oil B) polls C)poppy's honor D) all of the above

But inevitably, as he has tried for months without any real results, Bush again strives to squish Saddam and Osama together until they are the same thing:

"We will fight, if need be, the war on terrorism on two fronts," Bush said in a hurriedly organized question-and-answer session with reporters.

To those who'd like to see this rush to war grind to a complete halt (myself included), these are all signs that our hopes are not yet dashed. And to those who see fit to gloat over the Senate vote, I would warn you that this isn't over yet. Another Senate vote from the past springs to mind: The confirmation of Clarence Thomas in 1991. The wingnuts got their man confirmed, but their fight wasn't over at that point. To continue to legitimize their man, they continued to smear Anita Hill, culminating in David Brock's The Real Anita Hill (of course, a pre-epiphany Brock). In terms of Iraq, right now we're at that same "post-confirmation" stage, and this is when public opinion might turn out to be very important.

The Democratic sellout in congress last week could have the effect of mobilizing the Democratic anti-preemptive-war base. Oh and by the way, Al Gore seems to have the high-ground over his Democratic friends in the Senate with his strong and defiant stance on Iraq. It is no coincidence that as of this week, Zogby's head-to-head poll shows Gore gaining serious ground on Bush.