CNN.com reports this morning that the administration is moving 3,500 more troops into Kuwait, evidently in preparation for a buildup in Iraq: “BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military is planning to move a brigade of troops into Kuwait in what could be the first step of a short-term surge of American forces into Iraq to stabilize the violence.

The 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division is expected in Kuwait shortly after the new year, a senior Defense Department official told The Associated Press on Friday. The official requested anonymity because the plans had not yet been announced.”

This buildup was first reported last night by CBS News. “A 3,500-man brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to Kuwait soon after the holidays, CBS News correspondent David Martin reports. The troops would be available immediately should President Bush order a surge into Iraq.

Pentagon officials expect incoming Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to approve the request after he takes over from Donald Rumsfeld on Monday, Martin reports.”

Now that item has the ring of plausibility.

But even with all the go-along-to-get-along types in Washington and New York backing the White House gorefest, this buildup still might not have been mooted if Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, had not suddenly had to go into the hospital for brain surgery. Even Bush and Cheney might not have had the effrontery to announce an action this vile, just before Christmas, without at least some wishful thinking that they may flip the Democratic majority in the Senate. In a related stupid move, Condoleezza Rice also rejected talks with Iran and Syria, among the better recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, on Friday.

“The 2nd Brigade, made up of roughly 3,500 troops, is based at Fort Bragg, N.C., and would be deployed in Iraq early next year if needed, a senior Defense Department official told the Associated Press. The move would be part of an effort to boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq for a short time, the official said.”

It was only too predictable that a goofy hazard shot like this – random, as the kids would say – would be announced on a Friday evening. Observers of the White House have noted throughout the Bush years that this team has made a practice of releasing unsavory items late on Fridays, when the blood sugar level of the weekly news cycle is at its lowest. Still, releasing news like this just when Christmas television blitzing is peaking, with “home for holidays” percolating and chiming through the airwaves seven days a week for the next ten days, has got to be risky business even with the flabby lack of political will typically demonstrated by the president’s party and the most prominent members of the loyal opposition. Led by the rest of the country, the White House and its professional Washington insiders in media may be compelled to disavow this little gambit as a trial balloon.

But it’s still dangerous thinking on their part.