I know what former President Bush would say if he had to comment on the results of AIPAC's conference this week. He would turn to Howard Kohr, its long time director, and say "heckuva job, Howie."

AIPAC supposedly exists to promote US-Israel relations or, more precisely, to promote them to the point where Israeli policies are never challenged by the United States. Most important to AIPAC is that the $3 billion aid package sails to Israel unimpeded, no matter what budgets cuts are inflicted here at home and no matter what the current president thinks.

AIPAC wants to put on a nice Washington show of power but without egregious poking of American eyes. For instance, the 7,800 delegates were warned in advance not to boo or hiss Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she discussed achieving peace with the Palestinians -- and they didn't. They allowed their feelings to show only when they stood and applauded her requisite criticisms of Palestinians while giving scattered applause to her calls for Israeli concessions.

But then came the most massive miscalculation in AIPAC's history.

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Few presidents get a second honeymoon of their own making. (George W. got one when terrorists attacked the United States.) Barack Obama's victory on health care reform has breathed new life into his administration, recharged the Democratic base, and given the rest of America a sense of someone who fights for average working people.

The question now is: What does he do with his second honeymoon?

Some say it should be used to enact financial reform. Most Americans despise Wall Street and want to be assured there's no repeat of the grotesque sequence of river-boat gambling with the economy followed by a taxpayer bailout followed by seven-and eight-figure bonuses. Democratic strategists would love to let Republicans hoist themselves on their own petard by defending Wall Street.

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1. The more the Roman Catholic hierarchy resembles a Congregation for the Propagation of Coercive Fondling, the less credibly it clothes what the late Father Richard John Neuhaus called "the naked public square." The next time some politically presumptuous bishop announces that he won't give communion to a pro-choicer (like John Kerry in 2004), someone will ask him publicly if he's stopped letting child molesters give communion to anyone else. Unless you're avoiding the news stories, you know that that is actually an issue.

2. The longer that Israel is held hostage by the Bible-thumping, "full Israel" zealots in Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition, the more the slogan "Never again!" will remind everyone that, in peace-making with Palestinians, today's Israelis never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

So much for religion in politics, eh? Well, not quite. These are tragedies, not occasions for the tongue-clucking and schadenfreude that some of us secular liberals are quietly indulging. Here's why it's too easy to survey the would-be theocrats in Rome, Jerusalem, Gaza, Tehran, and Kabul and say, "So much for religion."

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The American Enterprise Institute is where the Conservative Counter-revolution was born. It is still the Politburo of Right Wing Republican politics with it's huge budget financed by corporate America. And they don't like dissidents within their halls. And so when David Frum went public with his opinion that the Republican's had blown it on health care and now were working for Fox News (instead of the other way around), it was only a matter of time before he got purged.

This afternoon he was shown the door. Here is his resignation letter.

Dear Arthur,

This will memorialize our conversation at lunch today. Effective immediately, my position as a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute is terminated. I appreciate the consideration that delays my emptying of my office until after my return from travel next week. Premises will be vacated no later than April 9.

I have had many fruitful years at the American Enterprise Institute, and I do regret this abrupt and unexpected conclusion of our relationship.

Very truly yours,

David Frum

I had lunch with my friend Didi Remez a week ago Wednesday in Tel Aviv. We had been working on a document, remotely and fitfully--and given that it is a kind of democratic manifesto, a little hubristically--and figured we were due for a little face time.

When we parted, Didi told me, among other things, he would be going to the West Bank towns of Bili'in and Nabi Saleh on Friday, where protests had been mounted for months: Bili'in over the route of the security fence, and Nabi Saleh over the appropriation by Jewish settlers of a local spring needed for farming. The army was trying to curtail the demonstrations by declaring the towns a closed military zone. "I'm going to go and dare them to arrest me," Didi said.

I hadn't heard from him since the weekend, and he owed me a draft, so I decided to call him this morning. "I'm sorry I've been late with the document," Didi said, a little sheepishly, "but I've been convalescing. Actually, I was shot last Friday. Plastic bullets in the groin and the back of my leg." He had had his arms raised, he explained, but was shot anyway. "There seems to be a new policy."

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Spurred on by Fox News' Repeal Health Care blather, a bunch of Republican Attorneys General are going to sue the Federal Government, arguing that the government can never compel you to buy a product like insurance? But I can't drive a car in California legally unless I have insurance. The Republican arguments are really getting embarrassing having misjudged the Health Care Fight. As you can see by the new Gallup Poll, Americans already support the bill 49-40.And for the first time in 8 months the generic Congressional Ballot is moving into the Democratic column.

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Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a "self-hating Jew." Of course, by AIPAC's standards the assimilated Theodor Herzl, who founded Zionism, was another SHJ. But, I'm not going to focus on the implications of being a SHJ, one who has been involved with supporting Israel for 40 years.

I want to look at these 8000 AIPAC activists who were in town this week. These people make me pray that my neighbors aren't watching C-SPAN. Or, at least, that they know that AIPAC represents American Jews the way Pat Robertson represents American Christians.

Who are these people?

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After a year of fast-paced growth and increasing influence, the Tea Partiers suffered their first ever political defeat on Sunday when the House of Representatives passed health care reform. Remember, it was the Tea Partiers' protests at town hall meetings last August that slowed the legislative drive toward reform and effectively took the single-payer option out of the Democratic Party's playbook. Tea Partiers started to push "independents" away from the Democrats, and they pushed the Republican establishment into becoming the party of no-compromise opposition. Now a simple up or down vote has thrown the first roadblock in front of the Tea Partiers, and the question emerges: how will they respond over the next five months?

Already there are some clues. Tea Party Patriots has announced a "Repeal the Bill" petition on its website and has gathered about 20,000 signatures at the time this article was written. They claim they want 100,000 names. Once they amass those names and email addresses, however, they will be faced once again with the question of what to do. Some Tea Partiers gathered at the capitol in Atlanta, hoping Georgia state legislators would pass a constitutional amendment allowing them to opt out of federal healthcare mandates. And across the country a similar scenario can be expected to unfold as states rights' advocates enlist Tea Party activists in a common attempt to annul the effect of federal statutes.

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The drumbeat is building on Social Security again. The Wall Street crew that wrecked the economy and already destroyed much of the home equity and savings of those near retirement is building up for another attack on Social Security. The newspapers are again filled with news stories warning that if we don't fix Social Security it will face a shortfall in just 34 years according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Actually, the stories usually don't point out the length of time (8 and a half presidential terms) until Social Security is first projected to face a shortfall. Rather they use ominous terms like "looming bankruptcy" or "insolvency."

The promulgators of the scare campaign often refer to the "IOUs" held by the Social Security trust fund when referring to the Treasury bonds held by the fund. Of course all bonds can be called "IOUs," but they almost never are. This term is clearly meant to disparage the trust fund and imply there is something improper in its accounting.

That sort of language is fine, albeit still childish, if it appears on the opinion page. It has no place in a straight news story. The use of the term IOU in reference to the bonds held by the trust fund is an effort to undermine confidence in Social Security, not report the news.

The envelopes have been opened but the winners' names have yet to be read.

The big political stories are evident: Barack Obama corrected course. (Ceci Connolly in the WP today has interesting details.) Nancy Pelosi pulled out the stops. The Republicans, voting en bloc, were unable to arrest the onward march of socialism. So the House lunged toward a health care reform that--

Well, beyond the bullet-point items (no exclusion for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime caps), what exactly does it do? The press has been busy with the intricate, lurid, cliffhanging politics. Now attentive, curious, educated people are Googling like mad to find out what's in the bill.

The papers and other news sites that are first to publish a well-designed digest of the bill will drive a lot of traffic.

I confess feeling a twinge of pathos when I heard on Reshet Bet radio this morning how Benjamin Netanyahu told his AIPAC audience in Washington that the Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3000 years ago, would continue doing so today, and then hearing the crowd roar its delight.

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Here are a bunch of Republican Congressmen yesterday egging on their Teabagger supporters from the House Balcony. These guys have as much class as a convention of Used Car salesmen.

The day's debate on the House floor was in its early moments when two men, one smelling strongly of alcohol, stood up in the public gallery and interrupted the debate with shouts of "Kill the bill!" and "The people said no!" As the Capitol Police led the demonstrators from the chamber, Republicans cheered -- for the hecklers.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who for the second day in a row had homophobic epithets hurled at him by demonstrators, called his Republican colleagues "clowns" for this display. But the circus was just beginning.

As lawmakers debated their way to a vote on the legislation, dozens of GOP lawmakers walked from the chamber, crossed the Speaker's Lobby, stepped out onto the members-only House balcony -- and proceeded to incite an unruly crowd.

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At the AIPAC confab today, both Secretary of State Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu deplored a Palestinian memorial to a vicious terrorist who killed 38 innocent Israelis in 1978. A lovely park was named after the killer. And who would argue with their condemnation? One has to be sick to commemorate the killer of innocent civilians.

Of course,the Israeli government allows settlers (Netanyahu's favorite Israelis) to commemorate Dr. Baruch Goldstein. He is the a mass murderer who, in 1994, killed 29 Palestinians while at prayer at one of Islam's (and Judaism's) holiest sites: the mosque where Abraham is buried. Goldstein's grave is a shrine just like the memorial square to the monster who killed innocent Israelis. One would think the government would tear down the shrine. It doesn't. And, even if it did, the settlers and their ilk would celebrate the great killer.

What's the difference? None.

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Here's the history of how the FCC selected wireless as the common medium of conversation -- instead of fixed line telephony- in 1994, and how that has made a lot of difference.

* John Boehner looks like a naughty frat boy showing off in front of "bro's" when he shouts "Hell's no"
* Less than ten votes btwn civilization & Nazi Communist Black Panther Muslim Socialist government takeover!
* "No You Can't" should be GOP slogan
* "It is the responsibility of this house 2 defend these [unborn] children" til they r actually born, @ which point they're on their own/ freeloaders
* Stupak is like a boyfriend who starts saying all the right stuff after you've decided to break up with him.
* Stupak acknowledges that democrats are better on life from birth-death. I'm fine letting anti-choice people think they're better for a few months.
* The Republicans "born babies-senior citizens-killers." But it doesn't have the same ring as "Baby-Killer."
* OMG! The person who yelled "baby killer" @ Stupak had a southern accent. i CAN'T believe it.
* OK. The person who called Stupak "baby killer" was me. I couldn't help it!
* The President is on TV! do we still call him president? Or is it officially the fuhrer? Or Comrade in Chief?
* Getting onto subway. I REALLY hope people aren't waiting in bread lines &/or speaking Russian when i get out.
* A great metaphor for the difference btwn MSNBC & FOX: MSNBC still covering healthcare and FOX has moved onto TMZ.
* In all fairness 2 GOP & their sour grapes, rich white men advocating 4 rich white men r not used 2 losing. But they did 2nite!