Posted by William Neikirk at 1:15 p.m. CDT

The story from the White House at first appeared to be dramatic. President Bush announced that he has changed his position on climate change. He called on industrial nations to set a "goal" of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2008 (or the virtual end of his presidency).

On closer examination, it's hard to see the real change in his policy. He's already announced plans (unlikely to be enacted in his presidency) to use renewable fuels and conservation measures that he says will reduce greenhouse gases way out there in the future.

Posted by Frank James at 9:18 am CDT

Sen. Hillary Clinton's official presidential campaign web site is asking YOU to help the campaign choose the tune that will be her official campaign song.

Yes, you're right. This would seem to be an example of a campaign gratuitously providing everyone an opening to ridicule its candidate.

But that clearly was a risk the campaign was willing to take in order to soften the candidate's hard-edged image, to show she has a deep well of inner mirth. They even have Clinton herself making the tongue-in-cheek, mock-serious pitch for a new tune.

Posted by Mark Silva at 7 am CDT

Al Gore, winner of the popular vote in the presidential election of 2000 and winner of an Oscar for the documentary about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, which was accompanied by a best-selling paperback, is taking his literary act to the next level.

Gore's new book – The Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Fear, Secrecy and Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-Making, Degrade our Democracy and Put our Country and World in Peril – is ready for release on May 22. And they already are selling tickets to Gore's reading from his new tome in Washington on May 29.

Gore, of course, has not made himself a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. But in poll after poll of potential Democratic voters, the former vice president and senator from Tennessee fares better than declared second-tier contenders in the contest – those trailing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, holding an early advantage, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Posted by William Neikirk at 12:15 p.m. CDT

Karl Rove was furious, or so it was reported. He called up to administer a tongue-lashing to Republican lawmakers who had dared leak out details of their hush-hush meeting with President Bush on Tuesday.

In that meeting, the GOP members bluntly told the president their support for the war was fading and could end if conditions in Iraq didn't improve by September.

Some analysts noted this incident sounded like another famous visit by members of Congress to an embattled president. A look at history is in order. On Aug. 7, 1974, with the Watergate scandal raging, three GOP members, veteran Sen. Barry Goldwater, Senate Majority Leader Hugh Scott, and House Majority Leader John Rhodes, went to see President Nixon and tell him like it was.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 12:15 PM

How's this for new math?

Caught up in a riff excoriating the Bush Administration for the toll that deployments of National Guard units to Iraq has taken on disaster preparedness, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Tuesday night dramatically overstated the losses from the Kansas tornadoes, claiming that 10,000 people had died.

Actually, 12 people died.

“Just in case you missed it, this week, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed,” the Illinois senator said at a campaign fundraiser in Richmond, Va.

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 11:40 am CDT

Commenter "Jim G." wrote:

To say Dems got ruthless is over-stating what happened. They were no-where ruthless enough. Katrina, Deficits, Iraq-- shed light on the fact that Repubs are all propaganda and no substance. Im sure Rahm Emanuel was tuff and all, but the Repubs did themselves in. Just like they did when they caused the great depression. I can't see this nation surviving too many more Repub majorities.

Bruce and Den (Jerry White & John D also)...gather up all your propaganda and take a hike.
May 8, 2007 10:27:46 AM

Another commenter, "Clarence Darrow," wrote:

A big wet, kiss for Rahm Emmanuel. One word why the Democrats got their edge in Congress, "Iraq".

Let's be honest. Rahm's balliwick is raising money. He is the money man. That's why he went into "investment banking" after the White House. He has the phone numbers, he pays the debts. He is everything wrong with the political system. He shovels the Democratic creed, and the naive press just laps it up, paying attention to all the window dressing, like how "tough" he is (LOL), how he cusses like a sailor, how he really gives it to the Republicans.
May 8, 2007 10:42:08 AM

There is no question that the main reason the Democrats won last November was the Iraq war, followed closely by the response to Hurricane Katrina, the Tom DeLay-Jack Abramoff corruption scandals, the Mark Foley sexual e-mail mess and so on. The Republicans imploded in a way rarely seen in American politics, given that in early 2005 some Republicans were talking confidently about being the ruling party for decades to come. I'm not sure anyone could dispute that the GOP was largely responsible for its own undoing, and it's a point I make clearly in the book.

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 11:32 am CDT

Commenter "not happy" wrote:

Ruthless, indeed. Just ask anyone who worked on Dan Seals' campaign for congress (Il 10th); Rahm and his merry men completely ignored Dan's bid to take the wealthiest (and certainly one of the most influential) districts in the state. Dan ended up losing by only a few more votes than Tammy Duckworth, who Rahm and the DCCC poured money and resources into.

May 8, 2007 8:39:28 AM

One of the challenges facing any national congressional campaign is deciding which candidates to back and which to ignore. It's one of the areas guaranteed to bring criticism, because the party will inevitably pour money into some candidates who lose--and some of those the party ignores will come painfully close to winning. That is certainly true of the 2006 election.

Many of those who criticize Emanuel say it's not just a matter of his making a few understandable mistakes; they feel his entire strategy was wrong. The country was ready to back bold populists, this argument goes, and instead Emanuel supported bland establishment candidates like Tammy Duckworth.

Posted by Frank James at 9:08 am CDT

Martin Frost, the former Democratic congressman from Texas who once headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has a column worth reading on the FoxNews website.

It's on Rep. Rahm Emanuel, his successor as head of the committee and occasioned by the new book, "The Thumpin' " by Naftali Bendavid, the Chicago Tribune's deputy Washington bureau chief.

In short, Frost says Rahm's success in regaining House control for the Democrats was based on being prepared so that when the political winds shifted, Democrats were in a position to take advantage. More proof of the old adage, "Fortune favors the prepared mind."

Posted by Jim Tankersley and Christi Parsons at 4:20 CDT

Sen. Barack Obama picked up a personal Secret Service detail today, after a committee made up of the top Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate determined that he was a "major candidate" in need of special protection.

The Secret Service confirms the appointment of the detail, the earliest ever assigned to a presidential candidate who didn't already merit protection because of another job, but did not say why Obama now needs it.

Privately, several congressional sources close to the senator said they believe there was no threat against Obama that raised specific concerns but that there had been a series of threats since he launched his campaign.

Two Secret Service agents stood out front of his Hyde Park home this afternoon.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) already has a detail because of her status as a former First Lady.

Posted by William Neikirk at 2:45 p.m. CDT

Illinois Republican John Shimkus rose on the House floor today to compare the Democrats' position on the war to an imaginary St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago Cubs baseball game in which "my beloved Cardinals"simply leave the field in the 15th inning to let "the much-despised Cubs" win.

You don't hear this line of thought very often on the House floor. One anti-war advocacy group immediately attacked Shimkus, a West Point graduate and White House ally, for using an inappropriate analogy. that is, comparing war with a baseball game.

"Congressman Shimkus, war is not a game," said Americans against Escalation in Iraq. "By comparing a war in Iraq to baseball, Rep. Shimkus has demonstrated he is just as out of touch with the reality of the situation in Iraq as President Bush."

The group added, "No one gets killed in a Cardinals vs. Cubs games."