By Steve Clemons

My friend John Aravosis has just tipped me off to a disconcerting and irritating bit of news that AP has reported.

First of all, as Jeffrey Gedmin is frequently known to say, “I’m overstating for effect.” I am going to debate some points that Gedmin raises in an interesting op-ed in today’s Financial Times, and I — in no way — mean to assert that Gedmin is stupid.

Completely independently of my recent post acknowledging France’s diplomatic maneuvers in securing UN Resolution 1701 calling for an end to the violence between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, I have agreed to help organize a new U.S.-France group of public affairs and policy intellectuals called Le Cercle Lafayette.

Around the United States and the world, there are high school, community college, and university exercises called “Model United Nations”. Basically, students divide themselves into different national and regional clusters.

I just had a call from Jerusalem and have been informed by a senior source inside the Israeli government that Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will abide by the terms of the UN Resolution which has support of all the key members of the UN Security Council.

I was flipping through the channels briefly this evening and caught Sean Hannity saying that if the Connecticut primary race had been held next Tuesday rather than yesterday, Lieberman probably would have won.

This in from a “White House Pool Report” just sent to me by a friend: POOL REPORT KARL ROVE CAME BACK to pool and talked on record ON LIEBERMAN ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE SAYS HE CALLED LIEBERMAN..AND SAID HE’S A PERSONAL FRIEND Rove. Called lieberman TUESDAY AFTERNOON AT ABOUT 5 PM AND WISHED HIM Well…..

Vice President Cheney and his team are masters at exploiting the dynamics of fear to try and move American political sympathies. Already, Cheney and others in the White House are exploiting the foiled London terror plot to shake up U.S.

(Al Jazeera Washington DC Bureau news producer Mysa Khalaf) I have been in back-to-back meetings and doing quite a number of interviews, including on Air America’s “The Al Franken Show“. I am now at Al Jazeera‘s DC studios, with the renowned producer Mysa Khalaf, preparing for “Hassad” (The Harvest: The News Hour). At 7 p.m.

Yesterday, I returned to Washington, D.C. after helping to organize a thought-provoking session on Iran jointly sponsored by the New America Foundation, Aspen Strategy Group, and Aspen Institute. The meeting lasted three hours and was intense.