The Washington Post‘s idea of an “Islamic scholar” was Hitler’s pal and Muslim recruiting officer for the SS.

The issue going forward for Obama’s Israel policy is, as Elliott Abrams puts it, “Do you dig in, or do you try to dig out?”

For now, they are digging in: “Obama reportedly asked Netanyahu to put in writing assurances that Israel would make gestures to the Palestinians in order to coax them back to negotiations, and that Israel would be willing to discuss final-status issues such as Jerusalem and borders during the upcoming round of indirect talks.” More unilateral concessions and final-status issues with the U.S. as the “honest broker” — what’s not for Bibi to like? Everything.

Why it’s fun having Mickey Kaus in the California Democratic Senate primary: “I don’t for one minute believe that the bill’s new, highly subsidized system of insurance ‘exchanges’–allowing millions of less affluent citizens to gain access to ever-more-complicated medical technology–will  ‘bend the curve’ of health care costs downwards or help the nation’s deficit situation.”

A revealing video — the hyper-partisan, pro–individual health-care mandate candidate in the 2008 Democratic primary wasn’t Barack Obama. So when Obama says, “That’s what elections are for,” I suppose the end of that sentence is “so you can win and then do what you really wanted to all along but couldn’t tell the rubes without frightening them.”

Another video points out that you get a much warmer greeting from Obama if you are a despotic thug than if you are the Israeli prime minister.

Charles Krauthammer explains: “They meet for several hours — no press, no pictures, no joint appearances, as if the prime minister of Israel is toxic, as if somehow he represents a pariah state. It feeds into the perception around the world, particularly in the Arab world and in some elements in Europe, of Israel as a pariah state.”

A silver lining? Post-ObamaCare, Sen. Lindsey Graham postulates that “Democrats from conservative states will now be less likely to embrace the climate effort now that they’ve cast a tough vote on healthcare. … ‘Go talk to Blanche Lincoln. Hey, you want to do energy and climate? You want to do immigration? Go talk to [Jon] Tester, to Ben Nelson, give them a shout-out,’ he said. ‘I just think the idea of doing hard things has been tainted because the blowback they are getting on health care has made them risk averse.'”

Phil Gramm joins the “Repeal and Reform” brigade: “Republicans have a job to do. They must make it clear to the American people that this is only the beginning of the debate. There will be two congressional elections and a presidential election before the government takeover is implemented in 2014. I believe that Republicans should take the unequivocal position that if they are given a majority in Congress in November, they will stop the implementation of the government takeover. And if a Republican is elected president in 2012, they will do with Mr. Obama’s health-care bill what the American voters will have done to the Democrats: throw it out.”