CBS’s Kimberly Dozier reported this morning on the sacrifices being made by war widows at Fort Hood Army base in Texas. Fort Hood has lost more 400 soldiers — nearly 10 percent of the total military deaths since the war began — “leaving behind approximately 200 widows.” One widow told Dozier, “For those who are kind of in their own little world and forget that there’s other people out there making sacrifices, it’s kinda nice to just shake them up a little bit and go ‘hey, appreciate what you have.’” Watch it:

On Memorial Day in 2006, Dozier herself was nearly killed by a roadside bomb while reporting in Baghdad. Two of her colleagues — CBS soundman James Brolan and cameraman Paul Douglas — died in the blast.

Via Atrios, the Dallas Morning News reports that “even Texas Republicans such as Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions are distancing themselves from President Bush”:

The president, Mr. Sessions told a group of eighth-graders visiting the Capitol last week from Akiba Academy in Dallas, “is doing everything he thinks is correct,” and yet “the American people are fed up…. we’ve lost the House and Senate, and everybody hates George Bush.”

My friend Dave Weigel’s one of the best political reporters in the country in general. And when it comes to a story like the Libertarian Party convention with its seven ballots before Bob Barr prevailed, his account is the definitive one.

The McCain campaign has scaled back two fundraisers this week involving President Bush, claiming a policy of “closed press” for fundraising events:

The Arizona event, which was to be at the Phoenix Convention Center, was the first time Bush was to have appeared with McCain since their White House meeting in March.

A McCain aide said: “The McCain campaign has a policy that fundraising events are closed press. In keeping with that policy, the campaign requested the event be moved to a private home.”

Press concerns may have nothing to do with it. On Friday, the Phoenix Business Journal reported that the “event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.”