For those of us on the train for Senate reform, Elizabeth Drew's Politico piece is worth reading, as she offers a very strong -- and very convincing -- defense of the chamber's status quo. The short of her argument is that reformers are vastly overstating the extent to which the body is paralyzed or "dysfunctional"; by and large, Drew argues, this Senate has "essentially met all of the president's major goals," including one of the most significant public-policy "breakthroughs" in a generation. Yes, the Senate hasn't moved on climate change and immigration, but as Drew notes, those are issues where there is significant disagreement within the Democratic caucus.

Yesterday, Gen. David Petraeus condemned the planned book burning by right-wing Christians in Florida as harmful to American interests:

Gen. David H. Petraeus on Tuesday denounced plans by a Florida church to burn copies of the Koran this weekend, saying the demonstration could ‘endanger troops’ and damage the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan.

‘It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems,’ Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a statement. ‘Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.’