One of our favorite independent investigative and analytical reporters has been busy the past few days, covering topics like the mainstream media can’t seem to figure out.

Robert Parry has been writing about how Washington politicians are dealing with the debacle in Iraq and how disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is trying to spin his way back into the race for the White House.

“One mother sits on her son’s grave at Arlington Cemetery and reads from Corduroy, his favorite baby book. Another mom spent cold winter afternoons in a sleeping bag stretched across her son’s grave,” he writes. “Meanwhile, George W. Bush reportedly plots a new combat escalation in Iraq and some members of Congress look to give the President another blank check so they can head home for the Memorial Day recess and say they’re supporting the troops.”

Then, he writes about the Chatham House, a well-respected British think tank, which has thrown down a challenge to leaders in Washington and London to begin “accepting realities in Iraq.” The new report paints a grim picture of an Iraqi society coming apart and warns that George W. Bush’s military “surge” will fail to achieve any lasting security improvements.

“But the idea that Bush must accept reality goes against his longstanding confidence that he and his friends can shape how many Americans perceive reality,” he writes.

And, he says, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was known as a worldly and even hedonistic guy.

“But he appears to have spotted a political opening for his planned comeback, convincing right-wing Christians that they are being persecuted by ‘radical secularists.’

In what sounds like a year-round version of the “war on Christmas” complaint, Gingrich wants the fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican Party to view themselves as the victims and him as their defender.

How utterly ridiculous, right?

For the full story of the contrasting interests of grieving moms and Washington pols, the real story of how Bush’s cult-like followers reject reality in Iraq and for the full story of Gingrich’s up-is-down world, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

Tags: Iraq War

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