So appears to be the sentiment of some Clinton Machinists (in this case, deputy campaign manager Mike Henry) to the good caucusists of Iowa, if Henry’s leaked internal memo is to be taken at face value.

I tend to agree with J-Ger that this is much ado over nothing.  Obviously Hillary! isn’t going to skip Iowa.  She probably could if she wanted to, so inside is her track to the Dem nomination, but she needs, for appearance’s sake, to take the “swatting a fly with a Buick” approach.  The “inevitability strategy” worked to perfection for Mr. Bill in 1996, and wifey will certainly, with an eye on November 2008, seek to take the same avenue to victory.

It is a bit surprising to see in-fighting in Ms. Rodham’s campaign, just the same.  I wouldn’t use the term “stunning,” but the very fact of a leaked internal document guaranteed to generate the kind of buzz the former co-president doesn’t want does tend to bely her long-cultivated iron-fisted dictatrix image.

Which probably means that Mike Henry will shortly be realizing a desire to “spend more time with his family” that he never knew he had.

~  ~  ~

Oh, you probably thought that title was referring to Bob “0-for-8″ Shrum’s account of Opie Edward’s insipient homophobia.  Well, you know how…sheltered…life used to be down Mt. Pilot way.

Further this deponent sayeth not, other than to quote the line of the day from John Tabin:

Glenn Reynolds is surprised; he writes that “surely Edwards has been around plenty of gay people in his life.” Come on, Glenn, that’s just a stereotype - not all high-end hair stylists are gay.

Here’s a quote. You tell me who said it.

. . . said he would keep the country safe by going “after terrorists where they are.”

The answer and my thoughts at bRight & Early.

How did those weapons make it into the camp?

One if by land, two if by sea. It appears that Syria smuggled those arms in over many months using small boats. Here’s Anton Efendi of the excellent Lebanese/Syrian blog Across the Bay:.

I had traced a timeline leading to the clashes, which strongly suggests that this was a planned and timed attack. Yakan’s movement is part of that timeline.

Other reports are also emerging, and awaiting confirmation. The Kuwaiti al-Siyassah claims that the Syrians were giving logistical support to Fateh al-Islam. The first claim is uncertain, and holds that Syrian intelligence were trying to send ammunition and weaponry to the Nahr al-Bared camp by boat (which is how arms were smuggled in the past, either from Ain al-Hilweh or elsewhere) using camouflaged boats.

The other claim is that the Lebanese Army arrested 12 fighters trying to cross from Syria, and that their movement was facilitated by Syrian intelligence. This was the second group to be arrested in recent hours, as the Army had arrested five fighters trying to cross at the same location the day before yesterday.

Also, according to Naharnet, the Lebanese sank a couple of boats full of terrorists trying to flee:

In a related incident, a senior Lebanese military official on Thursday confirmed that troops sank two boats carrying Fatah al-Islam militants as they tried to flee Nahr al-Bared via the Mediterranean sea earlier this week.

The official told Naharnet that all fighters on the boats were killed. He did not give the exact number of dead militants in the attack which took place on Tuesday afternoon.(Naharnet-AP-AFP)

The case against Syrian involvement and instigation of this crisis is circumstantial but compelling. I wrote about it yesterday here.