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Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party (VVD), speaks to supporters during a campaign event in Wormerveer, Netherlands, on Saturday, Feb. 25.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Ruttes Liberals are making up ground onpopulist frontrunner Geert Wilders in the polls, suggesting that voter support is crystallizing in the final weeks of the campaign in favor of keeping Rutte in power.

Two polls released on Tuesday showed Wilderss anti-Islam Freedom Party with a one-seat advantage or even with the Liberals. Thats down from a lead of as many as 12 seats at the start of the year.

Two weeks to the day before the March 15 vote, the poll movement -- in so far as any polls can be taken seriously -- mirrors the last election in 2012, when major shifts only became apparent in the final stretch of the campaign. In the event, Rutte and Labor outperformed expectations and went on to form a coalition, while the Wilders challenge faded.

For a table of the latest Dutch polling intentions, including averages, click here

Another surge for the Liberals is really a possible scenario, Andre Krouwel, a professor of political science at Amsterdams VU University, said in a phone interview. Rutte managed to do this four years ago by mobilizing center-right voters that either considered voting for the Christian Democrats or the Freedom Party.

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The Netherlands is a bellwether for elections in Europe this year that will determine whether the populist surge that delivered the Brexit vote in the U.K. and helped Donald Trump into the White House will spread to the European Unions core. Wilders, like his fellow populist leader Marine Le Pen in France -- which votes in presidential elections in April and May -- is running on an anti-immigrant, anti-euro platform that blames the EU for taking away control from the nation state.

The Dutch election is being closely watched in neighboring Germany, which goes to the polls in September. Chancellor Angela Merkels chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, a Dutch speaker from the far west of Germany, welcomed recent poll trends that suggest waning support for populist parties across Europe, adding that hes not very impressed with Wilders.

Im happy to see -- as in France, as in Germany, in Austria as well as the Netherlands -- that the poll numbers for the PVV are going down, Altmaier said at an event in Berlin on Tuesday, referring to the Freedom Party by its Dutch acronym. I hope that a government can be formed very swiftly after the election without the PVV.

An EenVandaag poll published Tuesday put the Freedom Party and the Liberals on 22 seats apiece, the first time the parties have tied in about 20 months. A separate poll published by Kantar Public put the Freedom Party ahead with 28 seats, unchanged from a week ago, to 27 seats for the Liberals, up two.

Rutte predicted on Monday that his party would win 41 seats, matching its performance in 2012, while the Freedom Party would take 15 seats as it did the last time around.

I dont think the Liberal Party will lose, Rutte said at an event at Twente University. This is not what I hope but what I expect.

Ruttes confident tone two weeks before the elections reflects polls that suggest the gap with Wilders is closing, as well as the requirement for coalition partners.

No party ever wins a majority in the lower house of the Dutch Parliament, making coalitions inevitable. A coalition needs to have the support of parties totaling at least 76 seats to ensure it can get its legislation through. That further complicates Wilderss path to the premiership since he lacks the allies needed to form a government.

Almost all the established Dutch parties, including the Liberals and Labor, have ruled out governing with Wilders. That, however, hasnt stopped them from courting his followers. Immigration featured in a televised debate among party leaders on Sunday evening, with Labor and the opposition Christian Democrats both arguing for a halt to new arrivals.

Labor under Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher would take 12 seats according to the EenVandaag poll, down from 38 seats in 2012, while the Christian Democrats led by Sybrand van Haersma Buma were on 19 seats.

Even if Wilders narrowly beats Ruttes party, its the Liberals who would most likely form the government at the head of a five-party coalition, Jesse Groenewegen and Nic Vrieselaar of Rabobank wrote in a paper outlining election scenarios in early February.

Most parties have set up a cordon sanitaire around the Freedom Party, they said. Assuming Wilders wants to govern rather than head the opposition, any delegation he sends to sound out coalition options will quickly return empty-handed.

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Dutch Election Far From Over as Rutte's Liberals Reel in Wilders - Bloomberg

Some liberals have suddenly decided they like former President George W. Bush after histhinly veiled attacks against President Donald Trump.

During an interview with NBCs Matt Lauer on The TODAYShow Monday, Bush seemed to indirectly criticize President Trump by paying tribute to the importance of freedom of religion and a free press.

You know things are bad when George W. Bush starts sounding like a member of the Resistance.

I just saw George Bush give a shout out to atheists! Oh sh*t, Im turning into Trump, tweeting back to the tv, tweeted a clearly excited Bill Maher.

This is the same Bill Maher who built a career on eight years of hurling over-the-top insults at Bush.

President Bush is supporting Arnold [Schwarzenegger] but a lot of Republicans are not, because he is actually quite liberal. Karl Rove said if his father wasnt a Nazi, he wouldnt have any credibility with conservatives at all, Maher said in 2003.

Former Republican turned left-leaning punditMatthew Dowd also had words of praise for his former boss who he once eagerlybashed. I had a very public break with President Bush in 2007, but always maintained he was a good man. His speaking out in [the] last day shows just that, Dowd said.

When asked by LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham via Twitter if his speaking out might display a hypocrite with an agenda, Dowd asserted that Bush was moved to comment Because [he] supports the first amendment.

In addition to comments on television, the former-president also indirectly panned Trump toPeople Magazine. I dont like the racism and I dont like the name-calling and I dont like people feeling alienated, he told People on Monday. Nobody likes that.

The sudden warmingof liberal hearts when it comes to Bush hasnt gone unnoticed. George W. Bush: hero of the left. Strange times, tweeted University of California, Irvine political science professor Rick Hasen.

"You know things are bad when George W. Bush starts sounding like a member of the Resistance," echoed George Takei of Star Trek fame.

Bush appears to have fallen for same sort of apocalyptic demonizing about Trump that was once directed at him.

The only difference is that he is no longer in office, hence the mainstream media is no longer doing everything in theirpower to make the American people believe that Bush is Hitler those efforts are now reserved solely for Trump.

"Bush's decision to invade Iraq is now held up as his biggest blunder. Yet for being on the same page with Hillary Clinton, Bush was rewarded with the Bushitler [sic] meme," wroteKyle Smith in the New York Post. "It wasn't just random protesters who made the fascist comparisons: Keith Olbermann, Naomi Wolf and Chris Matthews all invoked Hitler and or/fascism in discussing Bush," Smith continued.

Read more:
Liberals Warm to Bush After Trump Digs - LifeZette

By Staff The Canadian Press

Construction workers are pictured at work in Montreal. A Senate committee says the Liberal government needs a clearer plan for new infrastructure spending.

OTTAWA The Senates national finance committee is challenging the federal Liberals to finally come up with a detailed strategy to invest billions in new infrastructure.

The committees report released this morning warns that without such a plan the money could miss its mark and impair the ability of the economy to grow in the coming years.

WATCH:Justin Trudeau opening up infrastructure investment

The governments goals of jobs and economic growth are worthy and commendable, said independent Sen. Anne Cools, who is deputy chair of the committee.

We want to track progress, and if we as parliamentarians are expected to do our work, we believe that they can do even better by creating a clear plan, with concrete targets and specific performance measures, that will help them to meet their objectives.

The report says the Liberals must not only invest the right amount in infrastructure, but also in the right places particularly in trade infrastructure.

The federal government is set to dole out $186 billion in infrastructure money over the coming decade, with almost half of that stemming from the Liberals new infrastructure plan.

The government is finalizing the details of the second phase of its infrastructure program, valued at around $80 billion.

READ MORE:Budget watchdog targets slow infrastructure spending

The Liberals say that money will be aimed at building large, transformational projects that will also help grow the economy.

The Senate committees report is recommending the government create a single window for funding, instead of being spread across multiple departments and agencies, and take into account the needs of municipalities when deciding how money will be spent.

-With files from Global News

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Senate committee slams Liberals on infrastructure plan - Globalnews.ca

Winnipeg Sun

Liberals urge Tories to sign health deal Winnipeg Sun The Manitoba Liberals are lobbying the province to give up their fight for more cash and sign a federal health agreement now. Manitoba must take action to avoid losing $40 million in targeted home care and mental health funds over the next decade Judy ... Pallister gambling with $40M in federal health funds, province's Liberals chargeWinnipeg Free Press all 4 news articles »

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Liberals urge Tories to sign health deal - Winnipeg Sun

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The very day the Trump Administration barred The New York Times from a press briefing and the president said reporters shouldnt be allowed to use unnamed sources (were going to do something about it), much of the Left couldnt be bothered to protest. They were too busy howling about a minor change to federal transgender bathroom policy. Once again, President Donald J. Trumps opponents have been pursuing something shiny and gossamer while barely noticing unprecedented threats to the Constitution.

Which is precisely what the president wants.

There are really three levels of opposition to this president, and they range from essential to important to trivial.

At their best, opponents of this Administration protest the ways Trump is undermining our system, as he chips away at the Constitution. Fridays attacks on media freedom were dangerous, as were the presidents steps toward undermining the separation of powers (the opinion of this so-called judge) and trust in our democracy (millions of people who voted illegally). Assaults on fundamental aspects of the American system by a president popular within his own party create their own momentum and are hard to reverse. Even those inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt must be vigilant so Americas freedoms and checks and balances stay intact.

Then there are the presidents policy steps that Americans who disagree can and should organize against. Conservatives like me who oppose protectionism on trade or an expensive but nugatory wall along the Mexican border should lodge our protests, as should liberals who oppose school choice or the Keystone Pipeline. Organizing around policy issues should take a backseat to opposing threats to the American system of government, but theyre still important.

Then there are the largely symbolic issues that have taken up too much liberal bandwidth in protesting this president. The latest reversing President Obamas nationalized transgender bathroom policy is a great example. Despite the hyperventilating distortions of Big Gay (a disaster, a blind and cruel attack on young children) its a tiny change. The policy under Trump will be the same as under Clinton, Bush, and even President Obama for the first 92 percent of his term. Where were the protesters then?

Trumps move will not affect the vast majority of transgender children only the ones who attend schools that will now bother to reverse their compliance with the mandatory Obama policy, which seems to have worked in most places. In those schools, in most cases trans students will be asked to change and use the facilities in separate quarters like nurses offices.

I question the idea that discreet use of private bathrooms will lead to bullying, since the biggest risk of bullying is when trans students are face to face with cis (non-transgender) students such as when they share a bathroom. In any event, within months the Supreme Court may very well moot the whole debate.

So why all the attention to such a small issue? LGBT activists want government imprimatur for their ideas about gender (most of which I share). Most protesters are liberals with what I call Phantom Selma Syndrome the sense of regret at not having been able to march with Martin Luther King, accompanied by a constant search to exaggerate the latest ersatz civil rights cause.

The brouhaha over Trumps refusal to denounce anti-Semitism is a similar non-story. The fact a low-level staffer didnt mention Jews in a press release commemorating the Holocaust, and the meandering way Trump answered media questions about attacks on Jews are merely symbolic. While in a normal presidency I could understand paying attention to every symbol, this is not a normal presidency.

Sometimes I wonder if the administration is deliberately dropping baubles down rabbit holes, confident the presidents opponents will chase them and not notice when he takes away things that matter. Example: before the inauguration, I received an E-mail suggesting I protest Trumps inauguration painting because, if studied closely, it suggests sympathy for slavery. (Really this was a thing.)

Then, with any of these non-issues, Trump can give in (as he did denouncing anti-Semitism) and opponents can feel like they won.

And Trump can continue his march to autocracy unabated, our checks and balances impotent to stop him. Under this president, only the united voice of the people can make sure America stays America. And I applaud those liberals and conservative dissenters who over the weekend began organizing to fight for press freedom.

Too bad the rest of them were busy scurrying down a shaft worrying about where a few thousand kids pee.

David Benkof is a columnist for The Daily Caller. Follow him on Twitter (@DavidBenkof) or E-mail him at [emailprotected].

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Liberals Play Petty Potty Politics And Trump Laughs - Daily Caller