April 30, 2007
News Roundup: Iraq Death Toll, Turkey, U.K. Terror Plot
Iraq. More than 100 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, making April the deadliest month for Americans serving there this year. Meanwhile, new details in the case against a "porn-collecting" Army commander accused of aiding the enemy were revealed, and the British military confirmed that Prince Harry will serve in Iraq.
World. Turkey's military hints it may intervene in a dispute between Islamists and secularists over the country's next president.
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Posted at 6:56 PM
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Gonzales Gave Aides Broad Hiring/Firing Authority
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed a highly confidential order in March 2006 delegating to two of his top aides -- who have since resigned because of their central roles in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys -- extraordinary authority over the hiring and firing of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. A copy of the order and other Justice Department records related to the conception and implementation of the order were provided to National Journal.
In the order, Gonzales delegated to his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, and his White House liaison "the authority, with the approval of the Attorney General, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay, separation, and general administration" of virtually all non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department, including all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Monica Goodling became White House liaison in April 2006, the month after Gonzales signed the order.
The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level. Department records show that the personnel authority was delegated to the two aides at about the same time they were working with the White House in planning the firings of a dozen U.S. attorneys, eight of whom were, in fact, later dismissed.
Click here for Murray Waas' full report.
Posted at 4:49 PM
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Alberto Gonzales
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SCOTUS Sides With Police On Car Chase
The U.S. Supreme Court has a message for fleeing suspects everywhere: If you run from the cops, don't come crying if you get hurt.
In an 8-to-1 decision [PDF], the justices reversed a lower court ruling that found Georgia sheriff Timothy Scott used excessive force when he bumped Victor Harris off the road during a high-speed car chase. Scott tried to pull Harris over for speeding, but the then-19-year-old driver took off, prompting a chase in which the vehicles reached speeds of more than 85 miles per hour.
Scott decided to hit Harris from behind in order to drive him off the road and end the dangerous, six-minute-long chase. But instead of coming to a stop, Harris' car went over an embankment and crashed. As a result, Harris became a quadriplegic. He filed suit against Scott, and the case made its way up to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in Harris' favor.
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Posted at 4:35 PM
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Crime, Supreme Court
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Stork In The House
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., became the first member of Congress in more than a decade to give birth when her son was born over the weekend -- a month early, CongressDailyPM (subscription) reports.
Cole McMorris Rodgers was born at 3:14 a.m. Sunday at Bethesda Naval Hospital, her office said today. The baby weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces and was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to address minor complications, said her spokeswoman. The lawmaker, 37, married Brian Rodgers last year; this is her first child. She plans to take at least a month off, her spokeswoman said.
McMorris Rodgers is just the fifth woman to give birth while serving in Congress, according to research by her aides. All have been members of the House.
Posted at 3:42 PM
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Congress
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Corzine Apologizes For Setting 'Poor Example'
Sitting in the wheelchair he'll have to rely on for weeks, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) apologized for setting "a poor example" in his first press conference since the combination of an out-of-control vehicle and no seat belt landed him in the hospital on April 12.
"I understand I'm setting a very poor example for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general," the former U.S. senator said, wearing a bright red sweatshirt bearing Cooper University hospital's logo and choking back tears. "I certainly hope the state will forgive me."
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Posted at 3:26 PM
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Governors, Jon Corzine
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SCOTUS Sides With Microsoft
In a ruling that could save Microsoft billions of dollars, the Supreme Court today found that the Redmond, Wash.-based software goliath is not liable in a patent dispute with AT&T.
The two companies were battling over computers running Windows software, with AT&T alleging that Microsoft infringed on speech-coding technology. Implications of the case extended to all copies of Windows manufactured abroad; AT&T had staked a claim on all foreign computers using the digital speech system.
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Posted at 2:54 PM
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Supreme Court
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An Emotional Return For Snow
In his first "gaggle" with reporters after a month-long hiatus, White House press secretary Tony Snow held back tears as he thanked the press corps for their show of support after doctors found his cancer had returned nearly one month ago.
"I'll try not to choke up," Snow declared, pausing several times before smiling and giving a thumbs-up to the crowded room of journalists. "Everyone who does not believe that thoughts and prayers make a difference is just wrong.... You guys have been so wonderful."
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Posted at 10:30 AM
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Tony Snow
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Earlybird Roundup
In today's Earlybird (subscription):
War funding standoff. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hit the Sunday shows circuit and said President Bush wouldn't sign a bill "that punishes the Iraqi government for failing to meet benchmarks for progress." Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to work on a new bill ahead of an expected veto and failed override vote, CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports.
Washington. Rice also disputed claims about the run-up to the Iraq war in former CIA Director George Tenet's new memoir, while six former CIA officers came out to describe Tenet as "the Alberto Gonzales of the intelligence community."
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Posted at 9:01 AM
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April 27, 2007
News Roundup
Terrorism. Saudi police broke up a major terror plot today, arresting 172 Islamic militants and seizing large quantities of weapons, explosives and more than $32.4 million. The Saudi Interior Ministry issued a statement saying the detainees were plotting to carry out suicide attacks against "public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones." The group the militants allegedly belonged to has not yet been released.
North Korea. President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meeting at Camp David this morning, reiterated that North Korea must abandon its nuclear weapons program, threatening new sanctions if Pyongyang doesn't comply.
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Posted at 11:36 AM
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Embattled Bush, Abe Present United Front
It's a little odd that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe waited eight months after assuming office to pay a visit to the United States, Japan's staunchest ally and military guardian. But this week's meeting between Abe and George W. Bush underscores a truth that might be easy to forget, particularly after last night: Bush hasn't left office yet.
Speaking to reporters today after a series of meetings, the two leaders, both deeply unpopular at home, reaffirmed their commitment to working out the North Korean nuclear crisis and seeing Iraq through to stability.
"We feel proud as an ally of the United States," Abe said, speaking in Japanese.
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Posted at 11:10 AM
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Asia, Japan, North Korea, President Bush
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Earlybird Roundup
In today's Earlybird (subscription):
Iraq war debate. Army Gen. David Petraeus promised a full assessment of the Baghdad security plan by September, as the Senate passed a funding bill that included a nonbinding deadline for troop withdrawal. The bill didn't get enough votes to survive a promised veto from President Bush.
WH 2008. Iraq was the No. 1 topic at last night's Democratic debate, the first such meeting of the presidential candidates this election cycle.
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Posted at 9:11 AM
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April 26, 2007
Liveblogging The First Democratic Debate
End note. The candidates are expanding on the points they wanted to make, live on MSNBC. The network's Web site has reaction from Chuck Todd, formerly of our sister publication, the Hotline. WashingtonPost.com's The Fix, NYTimes.com's The Caucus and CNN.com's Political Ticker have more assessments of the candidates' performance.
8:30. It's all over but the crying. Despite the organizers' efforts to give each candidate equal time, just a few seized the opportunity to really assert themselves tonight: Obama, Clinton and Gravel. Gravel was a stronger voice for the disenchanted left than Kucinich -- probably, in fairness, due to his booming voice. Somewhat surprisingly, Dodd, Edwards and Richardson didn't have much of a presence. But does it really matter? Probably not as much as the commentators think. Everyone gets multiple opportunities for do-overs in this very loaded debate season, so long as they have the political support -- and money -- to hang in the race.
Just six (at last count) more of these to go.
8:25. Clinton is caught in the middle, by virtue of her placement on the stage, of a spat between Obama and Kucinich that illustrates why the Ohio representative, who advocates a Department of Peace, is unlikely to catch fire with voters: the very real threat of violent Islamic radicals and WMD proliferation. It's also Obama's chance to try and prove he has the backbone to be president, explaining to Kucinich in a back-and-forth why all options must be on the table when it comes to Iran and nuclear weapons.
8:22. And the winner of the personality contest is... Mike Gravel. The audience seems tickled by him.
8:14. The candidates have been asked how they would respond if the nation was hit with another major terrorist attack, and some, Obama in particular, seem visibly nervous as they answer. Security remains the Achilles' heel of the party, and the result is most of the answers conform with how the Bush administration responded to 9/11, save one important exemption, the war in Iraq.
Continue reading "Liveblogging The First Democratic Debate"
Posted at 6:37 PM
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Democrats, WH 2008
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Dem Debate Smells Like School Spirit
Is this a race for president or homecoming queen?
No other election year has seen such a hot contest among the TV networks for proprietary claim on the debates, and MSNBC, which is hosting the first big talk-off among the Democratic contenders, is letting everyone know it. As if the daylong speculation on what the candidates might or might not say tonight weren't enough -- and arguably at the expense of other news (hello, Iraq funding bill) -- "Hardball" is broadcasting outdoors on the South Carolina State University's campus, complete with the school's marching band making the commercial segues and a hooting and hollering crowd of excited co-eds.
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Posted at 5:05 PM
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Democrats, WH 2008
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Senate OKs Iraq Timeline Bill
A controversial war spending supplemental bill made it through the Senate this afternoon, but without enough votes to survive a promised veto from President Bush.
Bush himself urged the Senate to quickly pass the bill, in order to shorten the time it would take for him to veto it and for Congress to pass new, desperately needed funding for the military without the timeline or pullout strings attached.
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Posted at 4:25 PM
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Congress, Iraq
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Lights... Camera... Debate!
In an image sure to vex camera crews, a total of eight Democratic candidates vying for their party's presidential nomination will take to the stage in Orangeburg, S.C., tonight for the first of many debates in the 2008 race for the White House.
The candidates will square off at South Carolina State University's MLK Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. EDT. The debate, moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, will air live on MSNBC, and The Gate will be liveblogging the proceedings.
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Posted at 4:05 PM
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Democrats
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Petraeus: Al-Qaida Probably 'Public Enemy No. 1' In Iraq
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, noted some areas of progress resulting from stepped-up security efforts in Baghdad and Anbar Province, but also warned that al-Qaida in Iraq remains a "formidable foe" contributing to the "exceedingly challenging" situation there.
Iraq is the "central front in al-Qaida's global campaign," Petraeus said today in a press conference on the heels of yesterday's briefings for the House and Senate. But despite the rise in "sensational attacks" carried out by al-Qaida fighters, he noted that there has been a decrease in the number of sectarian murders in Baghdad since the beginning of the year.
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Posted at 11:32 AM
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Iraq
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Earlybird Roundup
In today's Earlybird (subscription):
War supplemental. The House narrowly passed a $124 billion war spending bill that calls for U.S. troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1. President Bush is still expected to veto the measure, which the Senate will take up today.
Administration. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has indicated that she will not testify before members of Congress in an investigation into the Bush administration's pre-war claims. White House press secretary Tony Snow told CNN that he would return to work next week, one month after doctors detected cancer in his liver.
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Posted at 9:36 AM
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April 25, 2007
News Roundup: Campaign Ads, Death Sentences, Iraq Casualties
Supreme Court I. Restrictions on campaign ads could be loosened after the Supreme Court expressed willingness to open up rules governing interest groups' spending. Also, the justices today tossed out death sentences in three separate Texas cases, in which the Court ruled jurors had not been given proper instruction.
Virginia Tech shootings. More details emerged at a press conference today, although police still say they're unsure of Seung-Hui Cho's motives for killing 32 students and himself last Monday.
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Posted at 4:35 PM
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Bush Wants Accountability In Tillman Case
Tuesday's emotional testimony before Congress from Pat Tillman's family cast a long shadow on the actions of the military around the time of the former football player's friendly fire death in Afghanistan three years ago. Tillman's mother and brother both accused the government of "deliberate and calculated lies" in covering up the nature of the Army Ranger's death.
Toward the end of a press briefing today, a reporter asked White House spokeswoman Dana Perino whether the president had reviewed the testimony.
Perino said that Bush had not, and that he hadn't known about the military's actions at the time of the incident: "There's no indication that the President got any word that there was questions surrounding his death, other than what had been reported in the paper.... I never asked him if he felt personally deceived, but obviously he's glad that the Department of Defense is trying to find out what happened, and to hold people accountable for it."
Posted at 3:48 PM
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Military
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Subpoenas Gone Wild!
In a busy day for congressional oversight, a House committee voted 21-10 to summon Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the panel to explain the Bush administration's false claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium from Africa in the run-up to the war.
"The American public was misled about the threat posed by Iraq, and this committee is going to do its part to find out why," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said of the vote.
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Posted at 2:30 PM
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Alberto Gonzales, Condoleezza Rice
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House Closes In On Iraq Bill
Congress heeded its own timetable today, with a House vote set this afternoon on the controversial war spending bill. This version of the legislation, which specifies a pullout beginning Oct. 1, has already been passed by the Senate and could be ready for the White House as early as next Thursday, CNN.com reports.
News stories are featuring phrases like "lurched toward a veto showdown" in describing the bill's progress, because its fate remains clear: Assuming the House passes the current version of the bill, it will die on President Bush's desk.
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Posted at 1:27 PM
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Iraq
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McCain Makes It Official
Speaking from the first-in-the-nation primary state that gave him the greatest support in his failed 2000 bid, John McCain announced his formal entry into the 2008 race for the GOP presidential nomination. "We face formidable challenges, but I’m not afraid of them. I’m prepared for them, " the Arizona senator said from Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H. "I’m not the youngest candidate. But I am the most experienced."
McCain did not directly address his military experience, but the site and tenor of his speech invoked his well-known service in Vietnam, where he spent five years as a prisoner of war. Clad in a casual white shirt and navy blue sweater, McCain took to the stage to the tune of Navy theme "Anchors Aweigh," with Maine's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard behind him across the Piscataqua River.
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Posted at 1:02 PM
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John McCain
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Earlybird Roundup
In today's Earlybird (subscription):
Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus heads to Capitol Hill today as the House is poised to vote on a war funding bill that sets a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr lashed out against the wall being built around a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, while Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the multinational corps in Baghdad, defended its construction in a Los Angeles Times op-ed.
Administration. The Office of Special Counsel is "expanding an investigation" into whether the Bush administration has illegally used government agencies for political operations. Meanwhile, three congressional committees are set to consider today whether to issue subpoenas for half a dozen officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.
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Posted at 8:25 AM
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April 24, 2007
Execs To Wolfowitz: Thanks, But No Thanks
The World Bank's executive directors have rebuffed President Paul Wolfowitz's request for a chance to explain his role in the promotion of a woman with whom he is romantically involved. CNN presented the report from "a source close to the probe" to Wolfowitz's attorney, Robert Bennett, who expressed disappointment in the apparent "rush to judgment."
Bennett also reaffirmed his client's decision not to step down from his position at the bank over the investigation into Shaha Riza's upward move to the State Department. While he intends to remain as president, Wolfowitz pledged in a message to World Bank staff today to enact "major changes" in his office's operations.
Posted at 4:49 PM
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World Bank
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Kaine May Target Loophole In Va. Gun Laws
In an interview with Washington-area radio station WTOP, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) said he may use an executive order to close a loophole in state gun laws that allowed Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho to purchase the weapons he used in last week's campus shooting. The interview is available as a podcast on WTOP's Web site.
Under current reporting requirements, a 2005 court-ordered psychiatric assessment that declared Cho a danger to himself was not put on record because Cho was never commited. As a result, Cho's history of mental illness did not show up on his background check when he purchased the guns he used to gun down 32 students and faculty.
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Posted at 2:12 PM
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Tillmans, Lynch Testify Before House Panel
Testifying before Congress today, Kevin Tillman, the brother Pat Tillman, and Mary Tillman, their mother, accused the U.S. government of engaging in "deliberate and calculated lies" in covering up what they called the intentional killing of the late Army Ranger by his fellow soldiers.
Pat Tillman, a former player for the Arizona Cardinals, famously gave up a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to sign up with the Army after the 9/11 attacks. After he was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, he was hailed by the government and media as the epitome of the all-American hero. Later, it was revealed that Tillman's fellow soldiers and superiors knew he had actually been killled in a friendly-fire incident but allowed the hero "narrative," as his brother put it, to come out in the media. Moreover, Tillman's family wasn't told the truth for weeks.
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Posted at 11:56 AM
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Afghanistan, Asia, Iraq
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Earlybird Roundup
In today's Earlybird (subscription):
Breaking. "At least 74 workers have been killed in an attack on a Chinese-run oil field in eastern Ethiopia," according to an official of the Chinese company, AP reports.
White House. President Bush affirmed his support for Alberto Gonzales amid criticism of the attorney general's testimony before the Senate last week. Meanwhile, the Office of Special Counsel is launching an investigation into "key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove."
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Posted at 8:18 AM
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April 23, 2007
News Roundup: Iraq Spat, Yeltsin's Legacy
Iraq: The ongoing spat between President Bush and congressional Democrats continues, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accusing Bush of being in a "state of denial" about the situation in Iraq, and Bush repeating his assertion that a timetable would embolden insurgents. Meanwhile, U.S. officials appeared to drop plans to build walls separating Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad admid protests from Iraq.
Boris Yeltsin: Newspapers and magazines are assessing the former Russian president's tumultuous life and legacy -- here, here, here and here.
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Posted at 5:53 PM
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Soldier Compares Mourning Of War Dead & Va. Tech Victims
Acknowledging that the Virginia Tech massacre last week was "a tragedy," a U.S. Army sergeant bristled at the lack of a comparable public outpouring after the near-daily deaths of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. servicemember," wrote Sgt. Jim Wilt in an opinion article not meant for the civilian public.
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Posted at 5:00 PM
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Crime, Iraq
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Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker stands out from the nine other freshman senators sworn into the 110th Congress in January. The former mayor of Chattanooga who succeeded former Majority Leader Bill Frist was the only new Republican elected to the Senate in last fall's midterm elections.