Mark Steyn:

And to have convicted, sentenced and executed the dictator is a signal accomplishment for the new Iraq. When I was in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, shortly after the war, a young boy showed me his schoolbook. It was like my textbooks at his age - full of doodles and squiggles and amusing additions to the illustrations. With one exception: the many pages bearing pictures of Saddam were in pristine condition. Even a bored schoolboy doesn't get so careless that he forgets where not to draw the line. When the cowardly thug emerged from his hole, it was a rare moment: in the fetid stability of the Middle East, how often do you get to see a big-time dictator looking like some boxcar hobo and meekly submitting to a lice inspection by an American soldier?...

The reality is that, as long as he was alive, there was always the possibility that he would return. When a dictator has exercised the total control over his subjects that Saddam did, his hold on them can only end with his death.

Chicago Tribune:

WASHINGTON -- Former President Gerald Ford said in an newly disclosed interview that the Iraq war was not justified.

"I don't think I would have gone to war," he said in July 2004, a little more than a year after President Bush had launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously.

In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Dick Cheney--Ford's White House chief of staff--and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

This was from a Washington Post story today by Bob Woodward.

According to Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily News (Fox's Special Report today), however, Ford stated that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was a "legitimate use of U.S. power." DeFrank indicated that Ford seemed to concentrate his objections to the war on the WMD rationale for going to war, rather than the actual removal of Saddam Hussein.

George Will:

Ford was an "accidental president,'' but there are reasons why accidents happen as they do. Call it the cunning of history, or an irony of American life, but this underestimated graduate of the Yale Law School served a purpose Nixon did not have in mind when he nominated him to replace the disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew. Nixon probably hoped Ford's popularity in the House would enable him to rally House Republicans against impeachment. Instead, Ford's presence in the vice presidency probably made his former House colleagues less afraid of impeachment...

Henry Kissinger, who continued as secretary of state through the Ford years, wrote in 1999 a tribute to Ford, the "uncomplicated man'' who came to the presidency in perhaps the most complicated context since the Civil War -- in the aftermath of a disastrous war and as a result of a resignation. Kissinger understood that Ford, with his small-town, Midwestern aversion to histrionics, had perfect pitch for the needs of "a nation surfeited with upheavals.''

Kissinger noted a "curious paradox of contemporary democracy,'' that as political leaders become more abject in trying to conform to the public's preferences, respect for the political class plummets. Ford was different: He "was immune to the modern politician's chameleon-like search for ever-new identities, and to the emotional roller coaster this search creates.''

Surely subsequent presidential history has deepened the nation's appreciation of what it had for 29 months.

CNN:

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, former first lady Betty Ford said Tuesday. He was 93.

"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."

The statement did not say where or when Ford died or list a cause of death. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments - including an angioplasty - in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.

"I was deeply saddened this evening when I heard of Jerry Ford's death," former first lady Nancy Reagan said in a statement. "Ronnie and I always considered him a dear friend and close political ally.

"His accomplishments and devotion to our country are vast, and even long after he left the presidency he made it a point to speak out on issues important to us all," she said.

Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly controlled and conspiratorial.

Minutes after Nixon resigned in disgrace over the Watergate scandal and flew into exile, Ford took office and famously declared: "Our long national nightmare is over."

A thoroughly decent man, Ford will be remembered for bringing honor back to a White House that had very little of it when he ascended to the presidency. Ford's death is a great loss to the nation, but his life is an example to all those who would aspire to bring integrity and decency into the political arena.

John Podhoretz:

YESTERDAY, at a press conference that was unquestionably the most dispirited performance of his presidency, President Bush implicitly answered a question many close Bush watchers had asked after the thumpin' the Republican Party took in November.

The question was this: How would Bush, who himself had only suffered electoral success since seeking higher office in 1994, handle defeat? The answer: Not well.

"I encourage you all to go shopping more," he said - expressing a strange anxiety about the economy's retail sales after he had just trumpeted how strong those sales had been and how strong the economy has been in general.

...on Iraq, he said things were tough, and were going to continue to be tough; that he had said we were winning earlier in the fall but now recognized we weren't winning - and asked for patience as he consulted with his advisers and Democrats about a new way forward there.

So in a few months, the president has gone from taking the position that the public needed to hear him speak optimistically about Iraq to speaking in quite dour terms about Iraq without offering anything but a hope that in a few weeks, he'll come up with a new strategy.

It really would have been better had he not come forward to face the press at all - because he did nothing except underline and echo a powerful sense of uncertainty throughout his own government about how to achieve victory.

Indeed.

Charlie Cook:

This past week has been about Senate control, a House runoff and 2008 presidential politics. That is a lot for what is normally an extremely slow, pre-holiday time of year.

The hospitalization of Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., last week should serve as yet another reminder of the fragility of the Democratic Senate majority. It should also serve as a strong argument for why Senate Democrats should treat the GOP minority with delicacy and some degree of respect. The shoe could easily be on the other foot, and the Senate could switch control again -- just as we've seen in that chamber three times in the last five years.

Reuters:

U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, had an apparent stroke on Wednesday at his office in Washington and has been hospitalized, NBC News reported.

The condition of the 59-year-old Johnson was unknown, the network said.

When the 110th Congress convenes on January 4, there will be 49 Democrats in the Senate, 49 Republicans and two independents. But the two independents will align themselves with the Democrats, giving them majority control of the Senate.

South Dakota's governor, Michael Rounds, who would appoint any successor if there is a vacancy, is a Republican.

Because of one vocal complainer, Christmas trees have been removed from the Seattle airport:

There will be no more Christmas trees at Sea-Tac International Airport this season after the Port of Seattle received at least one complaint about them.

For more than 25 years the airport has celebrated the holidays with Christmas trees over its entrances. But overnight the Port of Seattle ordered all 15 trees removed.

"I think it's very unfortunate. Why lose the Christmas spirit? Christmas is for kids," said passenger Lisa Jones.

The Port allowed holiday decorations to remain but decided to take down all the Christmas trees after a Jewish religious leader complained they were offensive.

"It's a Christmas tree! It's not like they were displaying crucifixes or menorahs or anything religious, but Christmas trees that have been around here for years," said one employee, who asked not to be identified.

Angry airport employees have started a campaign urging people to call the Port of Seattle to complain.

The Christmas trees are now in storage or hidden in unused areas of the airport where they won't been seen.

Many passengers say it's overkill.

Overkill, indeed. Stupidity, undoubtably.

"About as bad as advertised," and "The emporer has no clothes," are a couple of the reactions I have seen so far to the Iraq Study Group report issued by James Baker and Lee Hamilton yesterday.

Things may be going pretty poorly in Iraq, but it seems absurd to me that the Baker/Hamilton group actually contemplates approaching some of our most steadfast enemies for help out of the mess in Iraq, with the inducement being a renewed effort at a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord.

This report is as lackluster as it was expected to be, with no profound conclusions, and nothing to add to what a great many Americans already know: The situation in Iraq currently is dire, but an immediate pullout of U.S. troops prior to 2008 is not advisable or recommended. Americans did not need the Baker/Hamilton report to tell them what a large number of them have already concluded.

It is a regrettable loss, as Bolton has displayed exceptional effectiveness and won unexpected praise from many of those who he has dealt with:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton announced on Monday he will give up his job in days after he was unable to satisfy Senate opponents concerned he would pursue a unilateral U.S. foreign policy.

Bolton's attempt to hang on to his diplomatic post, already tenuous, became even more problematic after Democrats who had blocked his nomination won control of the Senate in November elections. Bolton has held the job on a temporary basis.

Bolton had a history of angering diplomats and colleagues in his previous State Department job and could not gain sufficient support from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to stay on despite winning praise from some envoys at the United Nations.