EVENING UPDATE,  FEBRUARY 2,  2008

•   French President Nicholas Sarkozy has reportedly married his new girlfriend:

FRENCH President Nicholas Sarkozy has married his girlfriend Carla Bruni according to French radio reports.

Two radio stations said the pair tied the knot at a low-key ceremony conducted by the mayor of the Paris district that houses the grandiose Elysee estate.

“The bride was wearing white and was ravishing,” mayor Francois Lebel told Europe 1 radio.“The bridegroom wasn’t bad either,” he added, without naming the couple.

Only in France would a mayor comment on the bridegroom's looks.

•   In our own backyard.  A website used as an al-Qaida recruiting poster went online this week in Phoenix.  It is now offline.  The report:

A Web site used by al-Qaida to recruit car bombers, encourage war on the West and provide a forum for Islamic militants went online from Phoenix this week.

The site, a well-known and popular forum for Islamic terrorists and their sympathizers, was the first to report the death of senior al-Qaida leader Abu Laith al-Libi in Pakistan this week.

The north Phoenix company hosting the site took it down Wednesday, just hours after being contacted by The Arizona Republic.

The Web site, www.ek-is.org, facilitates discussions on weapons, explosives and propaganda and often serves as a question-and-answer center for terrorists, a review of the Web site shows.

Now remember, class, if you're going to a chic party tonight in one of the better parts of town, these are the things you must say if this story comes up:  1)  It's an isolated incident; 2) there are First Amendment issues; 3) it's all because of BUSH 4) if I were Muslim, with American imperialism all around me, I'd do the same thing; 5) it's the global economy, which was invented by BUSH.

That should do it.  Wear your Obama pin.

•   Some stories must be read twice to be believed.  Turkey is considering lifting a ban on Muslim headscarves at its universities.  Why?  Because European elites want it that way, that's why:

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey must lift a ban on headscarves at university as part of democratic reforms aimed at European Union accession, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Saturday.

Turkey's parliament is expected to approve a constitutional amendment next week sponsored by the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party aimed at easing the ban for university students.

The headscarf debate is central to Turkey's complex identity, as the young democracy struggles to meet the demands of both a pious Muslim population and also a secular, pro-Western elite that sees Islam as backwards.

The EU has pressed Turkey to boost freedom of expression and minority rights but has no position on the headscarf issue.

"Turkey is a country which has to make political reforms to achieve the strategic goal of full membership in the European Union, which it has chosen," Babacan told a news conference.

Don't you just love those European human-rights activists?  How long has the genocide in Darfur gone on?  But we all know what's important.

Come to think of it, better wear two Obama buttons.

•   Karl Rove writes that reports of the death of the GOP are exaggerated.  When Karl Rove writes, everyone interested in politics should read.  Whether you like him or not, the man is a master of the game.  He gives us a little history - something held in low regard in today's up-to-the-second journalism - and shows that the Republican picture is brighter than believed, and that both parties are having their troubles.  He concludes:

Maybe we are not seeing the crackup of the GOP. Rather, America is more likely to be at the start of an intense and exciting election. The contest will be hard fought, the actions of the candidates each day hugely significant. It's far too early to draw sweeping conclusions about the health of either party; the presidential race, after all, has barely begun. Lots of surprises lie ahead. 

Think back three months, and reflect on all that has changed.  Think ahead five months, and list the things that can happen in the world, from a terrorist attack to convulsions in the oil markets to a revolt within one or both parties.  Rove is right.

•   Bill Clinton will make a tour of black churches tomorrow.  Do we laugh or cry?  Bill Clinton reminds me of those "sophisticated" clowns of the sixties who became life members of the NAACP, joined a few local marches, but never knew if their maids and handymen had children, or even homes.  The former president apparently wants to make nice: 

In the run-up to Super Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton is planning a tour of African-American churches this Sunday in Los Angeles. A prominent elected official who will be joining him has described it as Clinton’s 'mea culpa tour' to the black community.

I can hear him say it:  "My office is in Harlem.  I feel I'm with my people.  It's the one place I feel at home."

Maybe the congregants will leave early to get ready for the Super Bowl. 

•   Hate to rub it in, but this column predicted Mike Huckabee's new move.  He's now saying that it's Romney who should get out of the race, not him.  Apparently, he feels he has some secret strength somewhere, although the wanting of Huck hasn't exactly gone national.  Huck says:

“John McCain hasn't suggested I step aside. So if Mitt Romney's going to engage me, which he has, then I feel like the engagement is on,” said the former Arkansas governor.

“…If I'm ahead of him in places like Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, then he needs to step aside and let me in fact be that conservative alternative that he says we need.”

Earth to Huck.  We count the votes.  We look at the results.  Even if Romney drops out after Tuesday, the networks won't be looking to two-man debates between you and McCain.  You could rush to the Alamo and pick up a musket, but it's been done.

•   Michael Barone is one of the best analysts we have.  Today he writes that the parties have, in effect, switched places, something Karl Rove (see above ) also has been saying.  The Dems had the wind to their back, now they have a blizzard in their face.  The GOP was ready for nuclear war, and, after Tuesday, may just see some mopping up actions.   The result:

McCain now seems a prohibitive favorite for the Republican nomination. He leads in just about all the polls in the big states that vote on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Giuliani has bowed out, and Huckabee's election night speech reiterated his respect for McCain. Romney alone has the potential to buy enough ads and possibly derail McCain this week. But big-time buys did not win for him in Iowa, New Hampshire or Florida.

In his victory speech, McCain was at pains to pay respect not only to his rivals, but to the concerns of his critics in conservative journals and talk radio. To his undisputed asset as the longtime and persistent advocate of the surge, which has produced such success in Iraq, he added a stern but seldom-before-voiced resolve to appoint judges who would interpret rather than make law. He was paying -- for once, and for the time being anyway -- heed to his critics at National Review and his boosters at The Weekly Standard. Memo to Rush Limbaugh: You have been heard.

And what were the Democrats up to when the Republicans were receiving the coordinates of a clear flight path? Heading straight toward each other. The Clinton campaign, defeated in Iowa and nearly in New Hampshire, scraping by in Nevada and expecting a clobbering in South Carolina, faced a choice between losing clean and winning ugly. What is amusing is that so many liberal commentators were surprised when the Clinton apparat, with the unhesitation of a shark, chose the latter option.

The juicy question:  If Hillary loses, what will she do to Obama?

The campaigns are now in the feverish last days before Super Tuesday, the closest thing we'll have in the primaries to a national election.  Combat ahead.

Be back tomorrow.  But sleep late.

Posted on February 2, 2008.