The prospect of an Israeli attack on Iran has become more realistic in recent weeks. Israeli officials told the AP that they would not even inform the United States in the event of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. And there’s a sense that the window for an attack that would actually damage the nuclear program is short, perhaps just through this spring.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington next week for talks with the White House.

Once far from the intensity of the collective bargaining incident, it was thought Wisc. Gov. Scott Walker would have the upper hand in re-election. But the million-plus recall signatures delivered by grassroots organizers showed that the passion still burns. And a new poll from Public Policy Polling makes clear that Walker is entirely beatable.

One interesting side product of these campaign controversies is that they have enabled public awareness of a variety of issues in ways that the Administration’s messaging operation never seemed to master.

The Virginia abortion bill, which would mandate that the women seeking an abortion get a trans-vaginal ultrasound – a forcible assault at the very least – before having the procedure, has received entirely too much notoriety for the tastes of conservative lawmakers in the state. Today, as Laura Conaway reports, protesters held a silent demonstration outside the Virginia legislature, which was enough for them to delay the vote on the measure.

In their ongoing quest to make themselves look completely retrograde and ridiculous, House Republicans will hold a grandstanding hearing on the Administration’s birth control access rules tomorrow, featuring testimony from a leader of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and other opponents.

A new poll shows that the lack of forceful opposition to Administration counter-terrorism policies, especially from Congressional Democrats, has led to them becoming broadly popular. This is true even for controversial policies like the continued presence of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, or drone strikes abroad.

The full 30-minute attack ad called “When Mitt Romney Came to Town” is out, and it is really hardcore. Dolloped with a hint of xenophobia (Romney speaks French in the film twice), the film features the roadkill from the freight train of vulture capitalism, the workers who had the misfortune of getting caught up in a Bain Capital leveraged buyout. Romney is portrayed as such an unyielding greedhead that Gordon Gekko would blanch.

The latest polls show a three-way race between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Movement toward Santorum sprung from one poll, from CNN, which sampled only Republicans, despite the ease of same-day party registration in Iowa and the expectation of up to 20-25% of the caucus electorate being composed of Democrats and independents.

Thanks to Citizens United and a subsequent court decision, Super PACs can raise unlimited sums, and spend it all advocating directly for or against a candidate, as long as there’s no coordination between the Super PAC and the candidate’s campaign. But this prohibition against coordination doesn’t really have much significance in the real world.

A lousy approval rating doesn’t make re-election any easier, but it’s not everything.