Entries for April 23, 2007

Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Chitra Ragavan reports the latest on the attorney general and his relationship with Congress:

At last week's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys, one Republican senator had a piece of what he called "personal advice" for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

South Carolina's Lindsey Graham told Gonzales that he should make it a point to make it up with Graham's Democratic colleague, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who believes Gonzales lied to him about the Bush administration's commitment to replacing the fired Arkansas U.S. attorney with someone who met with Pryor's approval and could win Senate confirmation.

"You know, we all respect Senator Pryor," Graham told Gonzales, "and he said some pretty harsh things, which is out of character. So I would just advise you to sit down with him and walk through what happened, because I think he's a reasonable fellow, and you all straighten that out if you can."

Gonzales responded that he would take Graham's advice to heart. "Senator, I couldn't agree more," Gonzales said. "I have a great deal of admiration for Senator Pryor, and I think that's a good idea."

But Pryor's communications director Michael Teague said today that Gonzales has not yet reached out to the senator. After Thursday's hearings, Gonzales called numerous senators. But so far, Pryor has apparently not made it on his to-do list.

Gonzales today did attend a news conference announcing a new administration identity theft initiative and said that he planned to stay on as attorney general. And President Bush this morning said he has increased confidence in Gonzales after Thursday's hearing.

Associate Editor Bret Schulte reports:

The storm over global warming builds again in Washington. EPA administrator Stephen Johnson has been summoned before the Senate Environment Committee to explain the administration's failure to regulate greenhouse gases, a hearing that comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision that ruled the EPA does have the authority to take such action despite the White House's claims to the contrary.

Johnson faces an unpleasant task. Not only is committee chair Barbara Boxer a tough critic, he will be flanked by two of his predecessors--a Republican and Democrat--who believe the Bush administration is downright truculent in its opposition to a greenhouse gas regulatory scheme.

In a copy of opening statements leaked to environmental group Clean Air Watch, one of those administrators, William Reilly, who served under the first President Bush, makes this comment about the Supreme Court decision: "The law has now been settled and EPA does have the authority [to regulate greenhouse gases]. I might add that if I were EPA Administrator, I would welcome that authority."

In advance of the hearing, U.S. News interviews Boxer in this week's magazine about the complexities of moving a climate change bill through Congress.

A proposed 3-mile wall in Iraq that would have partitioned off a Sunni enclave in Baghdad from the surrounding Shiite neighborhoods has invited a storm of controversy from top Iraqi lawmakers, who see it as segregating the neighborhoods by religious sect. U.S. military officials who back the project say that reports have been exaggerated.

It remains unclear whether the 12-foot-high wall will be constructed. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said the U.S. military would "respect the wishes" of the Iraqi government, while a spokesman for the Iraqi military said construction would continue.

This item comes to us from Whispers Editor Paul Bedard:

An effort to get Secretary of State Condi Rice's name on key GOP primary ballots is picking up steam now that she has emerged as a top-three pick on several state and county straw polls. Crystal Dueker, spokeswoman for www.thinkcondi.net, said today that polls in key states, especially in the South, have Rice high.

"Her 90 percent name identification is worth $10 million in advertising, and she also has a 58 percent job approval. Whenever her name is included in national polls, she is at 10 percent or more," said Dueker. The group is already looking to the South and West to get Rice's name on the ballots. Dueker said that a "southern strategy" is obvious because Rice is from the South, a region that also supports the president's efforts in Iraq. She added that Rice appears popular in California.

"She is a rock star to the people of her home state," said Dueker. "Likewise, when her name was placed on the 2006 convention straw poll in San Jose, she was the top choice. It shows that California is in play with her on the 2008 ticket."

Associate Editor Bret Schulte brings us this item:

As the violence in Iraq continues despite greater troop presence, Democratic strategists see Republican candidates facing an increasingly daunting task of keeping the White House after 2008. Most vulnerable, insiders say, is John McCain, the staunchest supporter of the war among GOP candidates. Once seen as the inevitable GOP nominee, his campaign is faltering badly. While plenty believe he'll turn his luck around--his campaign staff is stocked with former Bush campaign people--others see it as nearly finished.

YouTube will probably always be ruled by amateurs, but that isn't preventing organized politics from getting in--finally--on the phenomenon of user-submitted video. Within 24 hours of each other, both the Democratic and Republican national committees released video potshots on the popular site.

The DNC's video, "Total Recall," is a three-minute compilation of C-SPAN clips of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales delivering variations on "I don't recall," presumably in response to his role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The RNC's video, "Reid's White Flag," intersperses quotes from prominent Republicans and military leaders defending the war in Iraq with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying, "This war is lost," a statement that won him considerable criticism last week.

But as we pointed out a few weeks ago, the Democrats still have a distinct upper hand when it comes to Internet activism. As of noon today, the DNC's video had been viewed over 15,000 times, while the RNC's video had been viewed fewer than 200 times.

--Chris Wilson

Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first elected president after the collapse of the Soviet Union, died today at age 76. Here's a look back at a few articles from the U.S.News & World Report archives about the Russian ruler:

• A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, April 16, 2000
• Kremlin Gilt -- or Is It Guilt?, September 12, 1999
• Boris Is Back (for a Few Hours), December 13, 1998