White House Week
Senators Say Support Is for the Plan, Not for the Man
Senate Republican leadership aides say members are supporting the president's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq not out of a desire necessarily to support the president but more out of a conviction that it is the best way to help the Middle East. "When you look at Republican senators and congressmen who are supporting the surge and funding," says one leadership aide, "supporting this is not for him [the president] anymore. Maybe two years or a year ago it was." The aide said senators were supporting the plan because "we cannot afford to leave a failed state." He added, "It's not for Bush." It doesn't hurt the Republicans, however, that the Democrats' antiwar policy attempts remain in disarray. Their latest plans-being argued by activists and moderates-include setting troop flow and departure timelines, improving veterans' healthcare, and putting more resources into fighting al Qaeda.
What Could Be More Fun Than Piling On?
Buoyed by the conviction of vice presidential aide Lewis Libby, Democrats are huddling to come up with even more investigations into Bush administration policies and practices. "I think," said a top Democratic aide, "that this week showed what a difference it makes when you've got Democrats in the majority." Democratic officials noted other controversies they are probing, including the care of soldiers at Veterans Affairs hospitals, wasteful spending in Iraq, and claims by prosecutors that their recent firings were political. With those probes very publicly underway-an aide said, "we're up to 92 hearings on the Iraq war"-one official called the Libby verdict the "frosting on the cake."
OK, GOP Says, Now You Show Us Yours
With their fiscal 2008 budget under fire on several fronts, White House officials now say that they are eager to see just how different the Democratic counter-budget proposal will be and what it will include-and omit. The administration is especially excited to see how the Democrats handle war spending, taxes, and reform of the alternative minimum tax. "They'll be in a pickle about the war costs," said an administration official. "What will Democratic leaders show on the war? Will they show costs through 2012-which their political base will see as a policy statement of never leaving? Or fund it for one year, signaling they'll pull out in '08?" And on tax policy, the White House expects Democrats to end the Bush cuts, which the GOP will then pitch to voters as a tax hike. And if Democrats repeal the alternative minimum tax, the aide asks gleefully, "how will they pay for it?"
U.N. to Iran: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
A draft United Nations Security Council resolution increasing sanctions on Iran could be ready for formal consideration by the end of the week: A senior State Department official says the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany have "basically agreed on the elements in it." The sanctions would expand travel bans on key Iranians working on the nuclear programs; freeze more Iranian overseas assets, and further restrict arms sales to Iran. The U.S. official says the sanctions will move deeper into Iran's "military-industrial complex"-beyond the nuclear sanctions already ordered by the U.N. China, though, might weaken or delay the resolution to shelter its energy deals and arms sales with Iran.
Photo OP: 10:21 a.m., March 8, Sao Paulo, Brazil
U.S. presidents often take foreign trips to escape the heat at home, but President Bush ran into a plenitude of protesters in Brazil during his South American tour. Here, Greenpeace activists dress as Brazilian President Luiz InÃÂÃÂÃÂácio Lula da Silva and Bush; the rabbit and the leopard apparently represent animals endangered by climate change.
With Silla Brush, Paul Bedard and Thomas Omestad
This story appears in the March 19, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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