a new president before the summer.

* btw - i think that i worked out Blinky's "30 times" that he authorised spying - the 'legislation' needs to be rolled over every 45 days - so i guess the legislation was enacted 30*45 days ago. thats yer oversight.

* did anyone see harry reid on chris wallace? i think i like harry - for some reason, i give him the benefit if doubt - i sure hope he deserves it. i cant tell if he's really smart or if he is an amateur... he seemed kinda unprepared on wallace's show, giggling at times as though he thinks the whole thing is a joke. let's hope he knows what he is doing.

* ive a question for the nyt: when did you tell the maladminstration that you were going ahead with the spying story? i'd love to know what actions the egadmin took to mitigate the problem. i didnt see any inoculation coming from the whitehouse - there was no pre-emptive leaking that i saw. in fact, they seemed to be flat-footed - blinky went from 'no comment' to 'bring it on' in 24 hours. i'd be surprised if the nyt didnt tell them that the story was going out, after collaborating with them for a year about it. from that i've gotta infer that the whitehouse knew that the story was coming out, but they were completely unprepared for the impact. i must say that i'm very surprised as well. my best guess, therefore, is that the egadmin assumed that this one would blow over, just like everything else - but it appears that they may just have run up against the limit of tolerance in america - either a hard limit on this particular issue, or more probably there was a cumulative limit - the camel's back breaking and all of that. if thats the case, and let's hope it is, then every outrage from today onwards will be met with the same response - which could very possibly mean a new president before the summer.