- “We don’t want to have to answer for everything that’s stated in that church."
-“I did not anticipate my fairly conventional Christian faith being subject to such challenge and such scrutiny."
- Obama's quitting the church, but not denouncing it. “It’s not a church worthy of denouncing,” he said.  Obama said his critics “they’ve seen caricatures of the church and accept those caricatures despite my insistence that’s not what the church is about and there’s not much I can do about it."

HH: I want to thank Lawrence Wright for spending this much time with us again, the author of The Looming Tower has a brand new article in the June 2, 2008, New Yorker, which I very much recommend to you. It is called The Rebellion Within. I’ve linked it at Hughhewitt.com. Lawrence Wright, I want to finish by talking about Iraq. Obviously, there’s word out of Mosul this week that even though there are some suicide bombings, that al Qaeda has lost its very last stronghold after a series of devastating blows between the United States military and the Iraqi Security Forces, and they’ve put up on some of their websites basic hand-wringing over how did we lose Iraq, et cetera. How important is it to the destruction of radical jihadism that Iraq be stabilized, and become sort of that emblematic, if not a democracy, at least a non-repressive, I don’t know, alternative to either Mubarak or Syrian strong men, or Saudi Arabian absolutism and monarchists? How important is Iraq now? 

LW: Well, you know, there are two really important intellectual centers in the Arab world. One is Egypt, the other is Iraq. And the idea behind the invasion of Iraq, which I was opposed to, was to set up this model democracy that would then become a beacon for reform all over the region. It’s going to be really hard to achieve the goal that we had set out, although now, I am in the awkward political position of being opposed to withdrawing. I think we should stay there as long as we can to try to hold this entity together until they are able to remain stable, create a fairly reliable electoral process, police force, and that kind of thing, and take care of themselves. I don’t know if we can achieve that, but it’s hopeful to see that Iraq has been, you know, I don’t want to say that they’ve been put to death completely in Iraq, but they certainly are in retreat. And that’s critical, because if al Qaeda won in Iraq, who knows how far it would go. 

Somebody please send this to Senator Obama. 

Off to tape a C-SPAN interview with Andrew McCarthy on his new book, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad.  I am not sure when our conversation will air, but the book is a powerful account not only of the early stages of jihadist conspiracy in the U.S., but also of the limits of the prosecutorial model the U.S. used between the time of the first bombing of the World Trade Center and 9/11.  It is a fascinating must-read for anyone concerned with domestic security.

With Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign on the verge of defeat, Bill Clinton has been placing blame on enemies including a brazenly biased media that tried to suppress blue-collar votes, a powerful anti-war group that endorsed rival Barack Obama and weak-willed party leaders unable to stand up to either of these nefarious forces.

"Conservative icon Ollie North has joined the  Hager team sending an important letter endorsing John Hager.   Conservatives in Virginia know that Ollie North stands firm on his principles and won't allow his friends to be attacked and maligned without standing to defend them.

Ollie North joins a long and growing list of movement conservatives, such as Morton Blackwell, Paul Weyrich and David Keene, who are all supporting John Hager for Chairman."

... Of course, a Hager defeat will be portrayed by liberals as further proof that George W. Bush has lost is clout -- even among Republicans -- even in Virginia.

Frederick has a real shot at ousting Hager -- but it has nothing to do with Bush's popularity (or lack thereof).  If Frederick wins, it will be because he has out-performed Hager.  Because it is a convention, Frederick will need to "turn-out" folks who don't normally attend such events.  An energetic campaigner, Frederick just might have the juice to pull it off.

Rest assured, if Jenna Bush's father-in-law is ousted, it will be an embarrasment that makes the national news.  Stay tuned ...

"When I finished the book I came out not admiring Mr. McClellan or liking him but, in terms of the larger arguments, believing him."

"With Congress's approval rating at record lows, the time is ripe for a slam campaign. Barack Obama won't do it, since his Democratic colleagues are running the joint. But it's a huge opportunity for Mr. McCain, who could play Congress's failings off his promises for reform. Even as Republicans sagely warn their nominee to distance himself from the president, they're beginning to see that his more productive option might just be to throw them – and Congressional Democrats – under the Straight Talk bus.

Mr. McCain could take encouragement from history. Harry Truman managed a 1948 victory by trashing the "Do Nothing Congress." Upstart Barry Goldwater in 1952 told Arizonans that Majority Leader Ernest McFarland represented the mess in Washington, and snatched the Democrat's seat. Tom Daschle followed McFarland, after being pilloried for turning the Senate into a dead zone."