Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi did a shrewd thing this past week, but few people noticed it in the midst of the media storm surrounding the Baker-Hamilton ISG report. She effectively linked congressional pay raises to raising the minimum wage, as she had promised to do before the election. This shines the spotlight of hypocrisy on members of Congress who are quite content to raise their own wages (a whopping raise of almost one-third the amount of a yearly minimum-wage salary this year alone), without also helping out the millions who depend on that minimum wage to survive.

But I have to say, as brilliant a political move as this is for Pelosi, it just doesn't go far enough. There are better ways these issues could be linked, with more far-reaching consequences -- for both minimum-wage earners, and Congress as a whole -- that have not been addressed.

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[This is the third and final installment of my series of articles on Iraq. Part 1 appeared on Wednesday, and Part 2 ran yesterday. I apologize for the massive length of this series, but it's a complicated subject, so I hope you'll forgive my excess.]

In the previous two articles in this series, I addressed the political situation, diplomatic possibilities, and the situation within Iraq itself.

This final installment deals with what options America has militarily at this point. There is some overlap with the previous articles, but from a slightly different perspective.

The good news on the military front for America is, of course, the fact that Donald Rumsfeld is no longer in charge. So what can the incoming Secretary of Defense do now about the situation?

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[This is the second in a series of three articles. Part 1, which addressed "Politics And Diplomacy," ran yesterday. Part 3 will be posted tomorrow.]

After seeing the White House's reaction to the Iraq Study Group's report yesterday, it seems there's a danger of President Bush trying to repackage his "stay the course" strategy as: "We'll leave when milestones are met, but we'll set impossible milestones, so expect a whole lot more of the same for the next one or two years." This may postpone the aftermath within Iraq for a while, but postponed or not, it will still hang over Bush's head like a modern-day sword of Damocles.

The aftermath may not take any of the forms I have outlined, but it will be waiting nonetheless for our eventual withdrawal.

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Obviously, it's Baker-Hamilton report day. But while everyone else is deconstructing the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) report, I'd like to address a different subject: the Iraqi endgame.

In addition to the ISG report, a virtual blizzard of leaks, memos, blue-commission reports, military reviews, political reviews, media reports, guesses, rumors and sheer speculation about Iraq currently consumes Washington.

Almost without exception, the focus is on "what should we do about Iraq?" But in this frenzy of opinionating, the aftermath is being largely overlooked. This needs to change.

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While reading the text of the leaked Stephen Hadley memo, I couldn't help feeling the mainstream media has once again ignored the real story. All of the television news I saw, and most (but not all) of the print reporting focused on the perceived slur of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. The offending phrase (repeated ad nauseum) was:

"... the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action."

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At the risk of appearing slightly delusional, allow me to predict the 2008 election. No, not the main Hillary / McCain / Obama / Giuliani fracas, as that field is pretty crowded with wild predictions already. Pundits everywhere are focused on the presidential horserace, but there's going to be a bigger battle fought in 2008 for the Hill.

So I'd much rather attempt to predict the outcome of the Senate.

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I'm here in Washington on assignment, my editor having provided me with a ticket to what he swears is the best Thanksgiving party inside the Beltway.

I walk into the entrance lobby, and am immediately confronted by two doors -- one which obviously leads to the main hall, and one prominently marked "The Closet." I shrug off my winter coat, walk over to the closet door, and pull it open.

"Close the door!" yells Mark Foley from deep within. Pastor Ted Haggard steps from the shadows to the doorway and berates me: "Oh, look, it's the Vast Left Wing Media Conspiracy here to shine light into our closet! Don't you have anything better to do?" He slams the door shut in my face.

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Sonoma State University have released their annual list of under-reported news stories, somewhat deceptively titled "Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007." This is misleading (since 2007 hasn't even started yet) so either they have learned to see into the future at Sonoma State, or they meant to say "2006." The use of the term "Censored" is also misleading, since none of the stories has gone through the dictionary definition of "censorship," but then the group that puts out this annual list is called "Project Censored," so I guess they get some leeway on that account.

If you're sick of politics and post-election news, check out the Project Censored website. It's a fascinating place to browse around, chock full of stories to either chill your bones or light the fires of rage within. Or you can go straight to their Top 25 page to see this year's crop of stories.

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Everyone ready to sing along? All together now...

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

[Click here for a tinkly piano soundtrack to sing along with, ironically enough delivered by your federal tax dollars at work.]

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

Oh, and check out this Tom Toles cartoon -- it's priceless.

But after all the confetti's been swept up and all the victory balloons have shriveled, Democrats need to carefully decide what to do with their newly-won power. The good news is that Nancy Pelosi -- who has lived and breathed politics her entire life -- appears shrewd enough to know what to do, and (more importantly) what not to do.

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I have been disappointed by the many pundits who are not willing to put their election predictions up for public display. While there have been exceptions, most commentators are busily hedging bets and couching their predictions in vague and plausibly deniable language, and otherwise running away from the challenge of predicting the outcome of tomorrow's election.

So I am bravely offering my predictions (at the end of this column), and asking you to chime in with your own take on where we will stand, come the morning of November 8th. "Put up or shut up" is the gauntlet I throw down to all and sundry -- rabid lefties, rightwing trolls, and undecided voters (UDVs?) -- all are welcome to predict the makeup of the 110th Congress.

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