ROVE SCRAMBLIN' FOR AN OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER SURPRISE

Is anyone surprised that Musharrif was pressured into letting the Bush Regime fire a predator missile into a religionist school on the hopes they'd kill Zawahiri? If you answered yes, you haven't read Ron Suskind's essential One Percent Doctrine. Anyway, the early reports from ABC News don't seem to indicate that this potential October surprise has quite done the trick; we'll have to wait and see. Bush once thought he had Zawahiri's severed head in an icebox for a couple of months. We'll probably have to wait less time for Man-on-Dog Santorum to get his mug on TV to say that Bob Casey had invested in the madrassa. Of course, that's no surprise... just desperation.

I think it's too late for these kinds of desperate measure, especially in suburban districts like the one the New York Times profiled today. Jodi Kantor was pointing to the race in WA-08 between reactionary rubber stamper Dave Reichert and progressive Darcy Burner, but it could have been any of the well-educated suburban districts that gave governorships to Tim Kaine in Virginia or John Corzine in New Jersey last year-- or the Philly suburban districts getting ready to turn out rubber stamp incumbents Curt Weldon, Michael Fitzpatrick and Foley's pal Gerlach.

"Bellevue has been growing more Democratic for several years, thanks to an influx of liberal voters and a professional class that is changing teams. This year, Bellevue may send its first Democrat to Congress. Darcy Burner, who even supporters admit is inexperienced, may unseat Representative Dave Reichert, a well-liked, longtime public servant, simply because constituents want Democratic control of the House of Representatives." And that will be the story of the 2006 midterms no matter how many Predator missiles Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld shoot into Pakistani schools.