Pinch-hitting for Josh Marshall (on a matrimonial leave), Jonathan Chait writes at Talking Point Memo that “The stench of death is everywhere around Social Security privatization.”

Not that the Bushies have conceded. Yesterday, Bush lackey Alan Greenspan warned the Senate Select Committee on Aging that they’d better be prepared to raise the retirement age or cut Social Security benefits. (Dutifully, Republican Senator Chuck Hegel introduced legislation that would raise the retirement age to 68 and index future benefits to life expectancy.) If not, Greenspan warned, the rate for Social Security taxes would have to be raised to about 18 percent from the current 12.4 percent, split equally between workers and employers, which really would be a burden to many workers.

(Of course, the dreaded, unthinkable solution to future insolvency is to leave the rate at 12.4 but raise the cap. Right now, only the first $90,000 of annual income is subject to Social Security tax. Raising that cap would make Social Security solvent and affect only a narrow slice of the American taxpaying public. And an economically comfortable slice, at that. Further, this is a fix that, polls indicate, Americans approve. But conservatives don’t like it because taxes are the boogeyman. And I suspect Dems are treading carefully because, as long as Bush is in office, increased revenue would no doubt be used to mask Bush’s deficits while nothing but IOUs would go into the trust fund. Fact is, probably the biggest block to Social Security reform is Bush himself.)

Remember the “Sixty Stops in Sixty Days” tour, otherwise known as the Bamboozlepalooza Road Show? It appeared to stall after ten days and maybe 16 to 20 stops, depending on how you count them. As of this writing the Road Show web site lists no upcoming scheduled events. However, Knight Ridder reports that “Bush will travel to Florida on Friday for Social Security events in Pensacola and Tampa, and he’ll be back on the road early next week with stops in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.”

Does Bush still think he can win? Apparently, he does. This is either the delusion of a man who’s been sheltered from defeat his whole privileged life, or he knows something we don’t.

Another intriguing development — this report says Bush has “all but ruled out creating private retirement investment accounts outside the Social Security system, an idea some Democrats have floated as a possible compromise.” Apparently, Bush has decided it’s carve-out accounts, or nothing. If true, this eliminates a trap some of us feared the Dems were bound to fall into.

Today the message coming at Dems is that obstructing Social Security reform will hurt their party. This message is coming from Bush himself –

The president said he was frustrated by the intense partisanship on the issue and suggested that Democrats’ unified opposition to creating private accounts may end up hurting their party.

“Once people figure out there’s a problem, I’d like to say to the politician who stands in the way of the solution: ‘Be careful,’” Bush said. “I believe there will be a political consequence for people who do not want to participate in coming up with a solution. The American people expect us to work together.”

Although no prominent Democrats have stepped forward to support his proposals, Bush said his aides have picked up “helpful feelers” from the other side of the aisle that Democrats eventually will come to the table.

“I haven’t spent that much time — yet — working [Capitol] Hill for a particular piece of legislation, because we’re not to that point yet,” he said. “We want to work with members of Congress to help write a bill that can pass the Senate and the House.”

– from the Usual Suspects in the punditocracy, and even from some not-usual suspects; see this op-ed from John Zogby, and my take on why Zogby is wrong.

I think it’s telling that Bush’s favorite ersatz Mommy, Karen Hughes, was called up from Texas but assigned to the Middle East. Hughes is famously effective on domestic issues but has no discernible foreign policy or Middle East expertise. (And see Fred Kaplan in Slate to find out why Hughes will fail.) I’m guessing that Bush did this because he really wants to focus on the Social Security fight. His two mommies — Hughes and Condi Rice — can make sure the Middle East stays tidy in the meantime.

Can Bush fight back and turn apparent defeat into a victory (think Grant at Shiloh) or is he marching into a crippling defeat (think Napoleon at Waterloo). Stay tuned …