What do Usama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein Have in Common?

And now the most fascinating two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

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Administration Will Wait to Strike?
The deadlines the United States has proposed in its U.N. resolution on Iraq have led some to say the administration is ready to wait three months to act against Iraq. The proposed resolution appears to allow up to 45 days for inspections to start and then 60 more for the inspectors to report back. But administration officials say they intend only a total of 60 days for all of those steps. Meanwhile, military experts are saying that while the heat would make fighting more difficult, the growing effectiveness of air power has extended the window for a possible assault on Iraq well beyond winter, which was seen as the only season for attack at the time of the gulf war 11 years ago. One official told the Los Angeles Times, "We are capable of being an all-weather force...Would we hate it, sure."

A Look Into Their Minds
There's a new book coming out that attempts a psychological profile of Usama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The book, edited and partly written by well-known George Washington University psychologist Jerrold Post, traces Saddam's behavior in part to his early upbringing, during which it reports that his deeply depressed mother who passed him off to a relative until he was three. The book says, "These early experiences can be seen as profoundly wounding Saddam's emerging self-esteem." Post told the New Yorker Magazine that Saddam "may be a psychopath, but he's very sane."

Undercover Operation Finds...
An investigative team from WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee has gone undercover in a group home for the mentally retarded in Kenosha, Wisc. They found campaign workers for Jim Doyle, the Democratic candidate for governor, handing out small amounts of money and food to the residents, who were then taken upstairs to a room where they were given absentee ballots to cast their vote for governor. This comes just after the Democratic leader of the state Senate was charged with extorting political contributions from businesses and individuals, in a legislative scandal that has implicated members of both parties.

Not a Pressing Issue?
Down in Tennessee, meanwhile, a democratic political operative has decided not to press charges against Republican Senate candidate, and former governor Lamar Alexander. Paul Hunton, who carried a sign backing Democratic candidate Bob Clement at a GOP rally in the town of Dickson, says Alexander shook his hand and in doing so, squeezed and twisted it so hard that his finger was swollen and hurt for an hour. Alexander said it was merely an exchange of "firm handshakes."