To tell the full story of the Spring 2003 dance that Iran, the U.S., and Europe briefly engaged in regarding a set of proposals — allegedly from both sides that would have led to normalizing US-Iran relations — one has to set the parameters of both stage and performers in this drama.

USA Today founder Al Neuharth once chastised Senator Hillary Clinton for stating that George W. Bush’s presidency was one of American history’s worst. Neuharth promptly made his own list of worse presidents. Now, he has recanted and offered a mea culpa: I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid….

John McCain, today, has announced his new presidential campaign website, and I like it. I’m a sucker for “gray” colors — and this site has a lot of shades of gray in it, in real terms and metaphorically.

I had an interesting lunch meeting yesterday with German Bundestag Member Steffen Kampeter who chairs the Bundestag’s CDU/CSU Parliamentary Budget Committee — and among the many topics we discussed was the impact of blogs and blogging on American politics. Our discussion included the still nascent emergence of German blogs and bloggers.

American Prospect editor-at-large Michael Tomasky has written a brave critique on The Guardian‘s “Comment is Free” Blog of Hillary Clinton’s reasons for not saying “sorry” after her supportive votes of President Bush’s Middle East military adventure.

This post will no doubt stir the wrath of many friends in New Mexico, where I visit frequently. I have never been a fan of eating chili peppers — though I seemed to have to when I worked for Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.

(Jim Gibbons welcoming Vice President Cheney to Elko, Nevada) Former House of Representatives Member and incumbent Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons is now under investigation for receiving illegal gifts from an executive at a defense contractor, eTreppid Technologies from Reno.

Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) upped the stakes last night in threatening to object to any motion to adjourn for a recess this next week after Presidents’ Day.

I have been digging deeper and deeper into various aspects of the alleged Spring 2003 Iran proposal.

This afternoon at Brookings in a session moderated by former Ambassador and Brookings foreign policy division chief Carlos Pascual, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman and presidential contender Joseph Biden gave an impressive speech focused on U.S. options toward Iraq. Here is the video link for the Biden speech, and here is the audio link.