Now, it’s official. It’s OK to talk about the war in Iraq and even to have some criticisms, but we have to do it the president’s way, we’ve been warned.

From today’s New York Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 – President Bush issued an unusually stark warning to Democrats today about how to conduct the debate on Iraq as midterm elections approach, declaring that Americans know the difference “between honest critics” and those “who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, or because of Israel, or because we misled the American people.”

Wonder what he thinks about us debating the bribery and corruption scandal wracking his party? Here’s the latest to go under with Jack Abramoff’s little cash for vote deal with Tom DeLay:

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and James V. Grimaldi
of The Washington Post
Updated: 11:16 p.m. ET Jan. 9, 2006
One of Washington’s top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.

Alexander Strategy Group, which had thrived since its founding in 1998 thanks largely to its close connections to DeLay (R-Tex.), will cease to operate except for a relatively small business-development division, Edwin A. Buckham, the former top DeLay aide who owns the company, said yesterday.

I liked what Dahlia Lithwick wrote for Slate Magazine about the start of the Alito hearings: “He told the committee that he grew up too poor to afford a judicial philosophy.”