Think Insurgents in Iraq Aren't Aware of U.S. Political Seasons? Think Again

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Midterm Mayhem

If you had any doubt that insurgents in Iraq are aware of the political seasons here in the U.S., consider this: New data from the Defense Intelligence Agency shows that enemy initiated attacks during the entire course of the war peaked in October 2006 — the month leading up to the midterm elections. That month, the total number of insurgent led attacks was at more than 5,000.

The data shows that between November 2006 and May 2007, attacks remained at the highest levels of the 5 year conflict. However, the numbers indicate that since the surge was fully implemented last summer that attacks have dropped significantly — down about 70 percent since June 2007.

Author Assessments

Four President Bush biographers — not all of them favorable to him — were given a sneak-peek at the script of Oliver Stone's new movie about the president and the reviews were mixed at best.

While the quartet said specific scenes were based on fact, they said the screenplay contains what were called inaccurate and over-the-top caricatures of the president and his cabinet.

Liberal writer Jacob Weisberg, who wrote "The Bush Tragedy," says it portrays the president as a mere receiver of policy and pretends the White House was being run by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove.

Robert Draper, author of "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush" said it gives the impression the White House is like a fraternity house.

They also questioned the relationship between the president and vice president — which they said is portrayed as far too competitive. Peter Schweizer, author of "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty" said, "If Stone wants to portray this as an accurate accounting, he has some serious work to do."

Delegate Disorder

A Barack Obama delegate was cited for disorderly conduct over the weekend for calling her neighbors' children "monkeys."

Linda Ramirez Sliwinski, a Carpentersville, Illinois village trustee — which is like a town council — saw two African-American children playing in a tree and told them to stop playing like monkeys. The mother of one of the children took offense and called the cops.

Sliwinski admits to using the word, but says she calls her own grandchildren monkeys and that she was warning the kids against hurting themselves.

As for Obama, he displayed his post-racial outlook by saying he saw no racism and that the woman obviously meant no harm since she said the same of her own grandchildren. Just kidding. In fact, the Obama campaign persuaded Sliwinski to step aside as a delegate calling her remarks "divisive and unacceptable."

Sharpie Sniffer

A school district in Colorado is defending its decision to punish a third-grader for sniffing a marking pen. 8-year-old Eathan Harris was suspended from Harris Park Elementary for three days after he used a black Sharpie to color a small area on his sweatshirt and his teacher noticed him sniffing it.

The 8-year-old said, "It smelt good — they told me that's wrong." His father says the idea that he was inhaling marker fumes is "ridiculous" and a toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center even said that non-toxic markers like Sharpies — while pungent smelling — cannot be used to get high.

But Principal Chris Benish stands by his decision saying, "This is really, really seriously dangerous."

— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.