The Loyal Opposition

By Joe Scarborough
Huffington Post
January 20, 2009

What can a good Republican say about the week that has unfolded?

I’m not sure.

Barack Obama has captured the imagination not only of Washington and America, but also of the world.

He has delivered the most compelling inaugural speech in 48 years.

He has brought an era of good feelings to Washington that Pat Buchanan says he has never seen in his seven decades in Washington.

Barack Obama has also broken racial and generational barriers; has laid waste to a generation of ideological battles born in the streets of the 1960s.

And he’s brought a young, beautiful family to the White House.

There will be partisan battles. Jefferson, Madison and Washington would expect nothing less.

But for today, this all leads back to the question of “what is a Republican to think?”

I don’t know.

But speaking as an American, all I can say is that I’m damn proud to be a part of this great republic.

Joe Scarborough hosts MSNBC’s Morning Joe and is a former member of Congress (R-Fla.)

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Sunni Politician Escapes Bombing in Baghdad

Iraqi soldiers lift the wreckage of a car bomb in Baghdad on Wednesday. Jan. 21, 2009. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

Jan. 21, 2009

BAGHDAD — A top official of Iraq’s biggest Sunni party escaped assassination in a Baghdad car bombing that killed at least two other people Wednesday — 10 days ahead of an election that could reshape local power bases.

The U.S. military blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for the attack against Ziyad al-Ani, deputy secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party and dean of the Islamic University, a Sunni institution.

His party said the blast was a “dangerous indication” of the perilous security in Iraq, even as President Barack Obama prepares to shift America’s focus to Afghanistan.

The car blew up near al-Ani’s convoy as it traveled through the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad.

Al-Ani, who said he survived two other assassination attempts last year, was not injured. …

Previous roadside bombs struck convoys carrying an undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education on Tuesday and the minister himself last week. None of the officials was injured.

Al-Ani said he believed al-Qaida was to blame. Al-Qaida largely controlled Azamiyah for years before rival Sunni tribal leaders decided to join forces with the Americans. …

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Jan. 21, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

QAIYARA – Police said they arrested 13 suspected militants at a funeral wake for Hassan Zaidan al-Lihebi, deputy head of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, who was killed this week by a suicide bomber. The arrests took place in Qaiyara, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police said, and three of the suspects were caught wearing suicide vests.

BAGHDAD – A bomb attached to a vehicle in the convoy of a Baghdad University dean, Ziyad al-Ani, killed four people and wounded 10 others in north Baghdad’s Adhamiya district, police said. A university professor in the convoy was amongst the wounded, police sources said.

DOUR – A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed five policemen and wounded three in Dour, near the city of Tikrit, about 95 miles north of Baghdad, police Captain Anwar Mohammed said.

ZUBAIR – Police found the body of a national border guard in the town of Zubair, near Basra, 260 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.