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Salon.com has an article describing how Condoleezza Rice was instrumental in the formation of the Iraq Study Group.  This is an independent group that is now advising President Bush on Iraqi policy.

If this account is accurate, Condi had to outflank both Rumsfeld and Cheney, as well as the Pentagon.

Political observers say Rice’s role in establishing the group is telling, saying that it has the look of a deft strategic maneuver around core hard-liners in the administration who had kept a grip on Iraq policy. “If she is acting on her own it is a bureaucratic end run around the Pentagon, a mechanism to allow her to leverage a new policy,” noted Douglas Foyle, a political science professor at Wesleyan University.

“It might be the State Department had been shut out [by the Pentagon] for some time, and this was their way of getting back in,” noted Christopher Gelpi, a professor of political science at Duke University.

If this scenario plays out and our troops are withdrawn from Iraq, Condoleezza Rice’s rating in my book will go up several notches.  My previous view of her has been nothing more than the foreign policy mouthpiece for Bush.

Read it all here, Condi’s Iraq surprise.

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Nancy Pelosi lost her first battle since being chosen as the next Speaker of the House.  Steny Hoyer was in line to become the House Majority leader but Pelosi decided to back her friend, Jack Murtha.  No matter what your opinion of Murtha is, he is a controversial figure.

It never amazes me how some people can spin political events.  Murtha was creamed in the vote by 149-86 margin.  Despite that fact, Arianna Huffington still posits that Nancy Pelosi scored a victory.

And don’t shed any tears for Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi. Even though her guy lost, this was still a big win for her. A victory for taking a stand — and for her leadership. Because that’s what real leaders do, they take stands.

Arianna only got it half right and that is why she is wrong.  Real leaders also know when it’s time to take a stand and when it is time to keep quiet.  Neither Pelosi, nor Arianna, seem to recognize this trait.

As reported in today’s Buffalo News, this may be the largest gift ever given to a local high school.  Kudos to John S. “Jack” Cullen, founder and head of Multisorb Technologies, Inc. in West Seneca.

Cullen said his contribution reflects his view of St. Joe’s as the place where he developed discipline, a sense of belonging, a love of learning - especially in science - and a running start in his career.

“I got a good dose of study discipline, a good dose of what it means to be a team player,” he said. “The relationship between the facility and the students was something I hadn’t experienced before.”

If you haven’t lobbied your legislators for educational tax credits, or at least a voucher program, now is the time to start.  When have you heard comments like that about a public school, especially backed up by $2 million?  Sure, there are teachers in public schools who have earned that type of praise, but to hear it about the entire school is very, very rare.

Educational tax credits would give all students, regardless of income, the opportunity to attend St. Joseph’s or other private schools.  Tax credits promote freedom of choice and competition.  Competition results in improved schools.  It has been proven many times, unfortunately that choice is not yet common in the country that considers itself the freeest in the world.

Now is the time to embrace change for the betterment of education.  There is no logical argument to perpetuate the government controlled monopoly called public education.  What we need now is innovation, not stagnation.

Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself . . . Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom.

— Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom [1962]