CZAR SEARCH. Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes up an appraisal of national security advisor Stephen Hadley that's also a report on Hadley's continuing, unsuccessful efforts to recruit somebody to be the Iraq war "czar." Yes, the White House is still pursuing this notion. Stolberg's piece -- just like David Sanger's Times article from Saturday about how the Bush administration is now acknowledging (on background) that, lo and behold, the supposedly temporary troop surge will likely not produce much in the way of progress this summer after all and that at any rate there won't be a comprehensive assessment done on its effects until September -- is the kind of offering that reminds me how tough it must be to be a straight-faced newspaper reporter covering the absurd farce that is the administration's Iraq policy this late in the game. How can one still cover this stuff straight, forbidden by standards and convention from conveying any sense of irony or absurdity? These poor reporters are forced to cover this new search as if real progress and change depend on who specifically ends up stepping up to assume the new Dude/Lady Who Will Fix Iraq post.
--Sam Rosenfeld
