The Note: Resignation and Defeatism

— -- WASHINGTON, Sep. 26

The political class -- the Gang of 500, plus the 33,000 people who aspire to be Gang members -- (stupidly) believes that two questions are currently shaping the contours of the midterm environment:

1. Is the leaking of the National Intelligence Estimate linking the Iraq war to failures in the war on terror a paradigm-shifting moment for the Daddy Party?

2. Is Bill Clinton's Wallace-Rorschach outburst a paradigm-shifting moment for the Mommy Party?

The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne says "yes" to (1). LINK

Slate's John Dickerson says "sorta yes" to (2). LINK

The planet earth's Dick Morris says "sorta no" to (2). LINK

The New York Post's John Podhoretz says "potentially yes" to (1) and sees great political danger for the President in the NIE and urges the Administration to declassify the document and begin a vigorous defense against it that includes a more robust argument than the NIE doesn't show the complete picture. LINK

The New York Post editorial page, while denouncing the leak, concurs with Podhoretz on (1) that a strong White House defense is needed. LINK

(The Note wonders if (2) has overshadowed (1) in a way that helps the President, and if Sen. Roberts of Kansas is going to push for a pre-election NIE release.)

Most masterfully, however, the New York Times' Jim Rutenberg says "dunno to (1) and (2), but isn't it all intriguing??!! And you would be smarter to focus on Question (3), which is how the Bush-Cheney Campaign will take (1) and (2) and put them in a stew with everything else and make this a Daddy Party election no matter what."

It is a must read. LINK

Taking some time physically off of the campaign trail (but still thinking about November every waking moment), President Bush signs the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 at 9:45 am ET.

At 10:20am ET, he meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the Oval Office followed by an 11:40am joint press availability in the East Room. At 1:30pm the President signs the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act.

At 6:05 pm, the campaign trail comes to Mr. Bush, when the President attends an Iowa, Arkansas and Wisconsin fundraiser at a private residence in Washington, DC.

Vice President Cheney headlines an NRSC fundraiser at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

First Lady Laura Bush campaigns for Ohio congressional candidate Joy Padgett, the Republican hoping to succeed Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), at 12:30 pm ET in Granville, OH.

The National Security Network formally launches at 10:00 am ET at the National Press Club.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) joins Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen. Susan Colins (R-ME) for an 11:00 am ET meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in S-219 of the US Capitol.

Sens. Lieberman and McCain will take questions from the press following the meeting.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) holds two photo opportunities with Talabani at 12:00 pm ET and 2:00 pm ET.

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) holds a pen and pad only news conference at 10:30 am ET in the US Capitol. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) discusses the "do-less-than-do-nothing" Republican Congress at 12:30 pm ET at the US Capitol.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) participates in a forum on the human, financial, and global standing cost of the war in Iraq at 2:00 pm ET in the US Capitol.

Earlier in the day, Sen. McCain joins Sen. Kennedy for a press conference on immigration reform at 10:15 am ET.

In an effort to turn his gubernatorial race into a referendum on the Iraq war, Schwarzenegger foe Phil Angelides is going to propose in a 3:30 pm ET speech in San Francisco and in a 9:00 pm ET speech in Burbank that on his first day in office he would call members of the California National Guard home from Iraq.

The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a closed briefing on Afghanistan at 4:30 pm ET in the Russell Senate Building in Washington, DC. Karzai and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez discuss the "Challenges and Opportunities for Economic Development" in Afghanistan at 3:30 pm ET in Jack Morton Auditorium in Washington, DC.

DNC Chairman Howard Dead attends the Grassroots Democracy Bond Event at 5:00 pm ET in Austin, TX.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) joins Democractic Senate candidate Jim Webb on the stump in Fredericksburg, VA before raising coin in Oakton, VA. Edwards' former running mate participates in a "virtual" classroom taking questions from college students from the C-SPAN studio in Washington, DC at 3:30 pm ET.

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura campaigns with independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman (I-TX) at Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, Brian McLauren, Dr. Susannah Heschel, and other religious leaders encourage Congress to pursue unconditional negotiations with Iran on a 10:00 am ET conference call with reporters. The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance calls for a Declaration of Peace in Iraq with a march to the Senate building at 10:30 a.m. ET in Washington, DC.

The Center for Public Integrity releases a report "Campaign Consultants: The Price of Democracy."

The Brookings Institution discusses "American Politics and the Religious Divide" at 2:00 pm ET in Washington, DC.

Politics of 9/11: Clinton v. Bush:
While discussing former President Clinton's Chris Wallace interview on Don Imus' program earlier today, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) stressed that although, "the President by his own admission said he failed," he was leading in a "different atmosphere" when "people were not taking Osama bin Laden seriously."

Sen. Kerry added, however, that the Bush Administration's foreign policy mistakes and diversion from Afghanistan, the war "we all agreed to go fight," "pales by comparison."

Glenn Thrush and Carol Eisenberg of Newsday have Sen. Clinton saying: "I just think that my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take this."LINK

"WRONG! Condi tells Post: Clinton terror story 'flatly false,'" blares the New York Post wood on the Bush Administration's pushing back on Bill Clinton's Fox News interview. LINK

"'The notion (sic) somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false -- and I think the 9/11 commission understood that,' Rice said during a wide-ranging meeting with Post editors and reporters."

"'What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,' Rice added."

Clinton effectively slept through it all -- and now he's trying to rewrite history," concludes the New York Post's ed board. LINK

The New York Daily News reports that a former Clinton adviser disputes some claims made by President Clinton in his Fox interview, specifically that a plan of attack to take out bin Laden was in place after the bombing of the USS Cole. LINK

Second-day coverage from the Boston Globe: LINK

Dick Polmon of the Philadelphia Inquirer discusses the political cost of former President Clinton's "meltdown" on Fox News. "Whenever President Bush and his top surrogates react with total hostility…Democrats generally cite that as further proof of the GOP's mendacity. Yet here was Clinton doing much of the same thing, trying to paint himself as a victim, and using that as a shield." LINK

The Way to Win:
On "Today," this morning, Howard Dean said that Bill Clinton knows "the way to win." That seems to us like blatant product placement by the Democratic Party chairman.

Speaking about the FPOTUS' recent Fox dust-up, Dean said, "I think it's a big morale booster --