I do think it's Katrina fallout,

Just watched Bush's intro, followed by the Leahy / Schumer response. Bush was smirking; he thinks he's got it in the bag. More significantly, perhaps, Leahy and Schumer looked pretty flat; they seemed to be going through the motions; I don't think they believe they can stop him. That could change of course, but it's certainly how it looks now.

It seems to me that it's a fairly narrow market that's going to pay for the privilege of reading columns by Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman and such,

Notable features - besides its overall clarity - are the naming of Iran and Syria, and his willingness to talk about a war against Islamic terror, not just generic 'terror.'

They’re acting like the target of a scandal,

After Katrina, when people started talking about it costing $250 billion for repair and reconstruction, it made people think about cutting some of the projects that are everywhere.