How Civil Wars Become Regional Wars

The Guardian reports:

Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases...

Frustrated by the reluctance of the US and the government in Baghdad to crack down on the PKK bases inside Iraq, Turkish generals have hinted they are considering a large-scale military operation across the border. They are said to be sharing intelligence about Kurdish rebel movements with their Iranian counterparts.

"We would not hesitate to take every kind of measures when our security is at stake," Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, said last week.

It's over. Let's go home, please. (via Josh Marshall)

Stick A Fork In Joe

Looks like the Republicans are going to field a real candidate in the CT Senate Race [as opposed to the current candidate, a Republican not named Bill Bennett who has a gambling problem -- ed.]. That being the case, there is no way Lieberman could possibly win, as his only hope is to draw sufficiently many non-Dem votes to outstrip Lamont's Dems and independents. N.B.: Many of said independents, pace TNR staff, do not believe that tongue-wrestling with the dolt who created --- through his stubornness, ineptitude, messianic delusions, and regal pretensions --- one of the biggest military and foreign policy catastrophes in American history, is conduct befitting a United States senator.

A credible Republican candidate means there are simply not enough votes in play for Lieberman to win, i.e., Joe is shit out of luck. Should he stay in the race, two scenarios could follow: 1) Joe draws just enough Dem votes to tip the election to the Republican; 2) Joe draws virtually no Democratic votes, and hands the election to Lamont in a landslide. However, since Lamont is a lock against any Republican in a 2-way race (and since, given our first-past-the-poll system, margins of victory are irrelevant [can you say "mandate"? -- ed.]), it follows that the only way that a Lieberman independent bid could affect the outcome of the election is to give it to the Republican. We'll find out what the old windbag's true colors are soon enough. I'd bet on him to stay in the race.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, while I'd obviously prefer a Lamont victory, I wouldn't be totally displeased with a Republican victory in the senate race. Yes, yes, I know what it means vis-a-vis control of the Senate, but on balance, I think, Lieberman is such an rapidly metastasizing tumor on the body politic that the USA will be better off without him in the Senate, (almost) no matter who replaces him.

Bye Bye Joe, You Won't Be Missed

The senator from the medieval fiefdom of Connecticut loses, Lamont wins, and though not by the crushing margin I'd been hoping for, Schumer and the DSCC are behind him:

The Democratic voters of Connecticut have spoken and chosen Ned Lamont as their nominee. Both we and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fully support Mr. Lamont's candidacy. Congratulations to Ned on his victory and on a race well run.

And so dies the career of an egregious fraud who, confusing pomposity for moral rectitude, proceeded to spend twenty years rolling around in his own shit.

In other news, Marty Peretz is: a) lying to himself; b) lying to others; c) lying to himself and others (we report, you decide).