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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
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In response to a front-page Washington Post article published Wednesday, The Politico reports the White House "made clear" Thursday that Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker "will testify publicly before Congress next month, easing a brewing spat between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the possibility of closed-door-only sessions." National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Petraeus and Crocker will testify to the Congress "in both open as well as closed sessions prior to the Sept. 15 report."
Fox News' Special Report notes White House officials say "they have always planned to have the General and the Ambassador testify in both open and closed Congressional sessions." MSNBC's Hardball said the White House Thursday "was backtracking and in full damage control mode." Despite Johndroe's assurances, Administration officials "confirm the Petraeus report will not actually be written by the general or his military staff but will instead be written by the White House." In similar reporting, The Hill says the White House "sought to alleviate concerns" that Petraeus and Crocker would not testify before Congress, calling stories indicating otherwise "inaccurate."
However, Congressional Quarterly reports aides to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin "said negotiations between congressional leaders and the administration to open the hearings were still ongoing." CNN's The Situation Room reported House Democratic Caucus chairman Rahm Emanuel said in a statement that he is "very skeptical about how all of this is going to go down."
AFP said "anti-war Democrats" accused President Bush "of plotting to lace a potentially pivotal report on his Iraq troop surge strategy with 'White House spin.'" The "attack" came as senior congressional aides were reported as saying the White House "wanted to block public testimony in Congress," but the White House "accused Democrats of playing political games with war strategy, and made clear the two men would appear in public."
Meanwhile, CNN's The Situation Room reported on a new CNN poll that asked if Petraeus "reports that the US is making progress in Iraq, would that have much impact on public opinion? Apparently not -- seventy-two percent of Americans say it would not affect their view of the war at all. Only 28 percent say it would make them more likely to support the war. And most of those already favor the war."
During a speech in New York, Fox News' Special Report reported, White House spokesman Tony Snow also "foreshadowed the case the Administration will make supporting the US troop surge. Snow pointed to what he called the dramatic turnaround in Ramadi, arguably the most dangerous city in Iraq a year ago, with an average of 40 attacks per day. Now Snow said that average is down to less than one per day. And Snow said the Ramadi story is now getting worldwide attention."
CNN's The Situation Room reported, "We heard from Press Secretary Tony Snow making a major speech today taking on both Democrats and Republicans, saying that this is really kind of a do-or-die moment, a moment of choosing here in which they have to back the President's war effort."
The conviction Thursday of alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla, along with two co-defendants, on charges that he supported terrorism is receiving heavy coverage this morning. Many sources are describing the verdict as having saved a troubled case that had come to symbolize the Bush administration's efforts against homegrown terrorism in the US.
NBC Nightly News called the conviction "a big legal victory for the Bush Administration." Though he was not found guilty of plotting to set off a dirty bomb in the US, as was accused of five years ago at the time of his arrest, Padilla "was the first American citizen since 9/11 to be arrested in the US and declared an enemy combatant." ABC World News ran a brief report on Padilla's conviction.
The Washington Post quotes Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales calling the conviction "a significant victory in our efforts to fight the threat posed by terrorists and their supporters." USA Today says the conviction "offered a boost to the administration's checkered record in terror-related prosecutions." The Financial Times reports, "The US won a legal victory in its 'war on terror' on Thursday when a court convicted Jose Padilla, an American originally accused of plotting to build a 'dirty bomb', on unrelated terrorism charges.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the "long legal battle...pitted the Bush administration against civil liberties' groups over how terror suspects are detained and should be prosecuted." However, Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, cautioned President Bush not to "'take today's ruling as permission to continue to hold Americans outside the law at his whim.'"
The New York Times says the conviction "salvaged a case that had severely tested" the Bush administration's approach to terrorism." The CBS Evening News reported that it took the "Miami jury just a day and a half to convict Padilla and two others of being part of a south Florida terror cell. Wiretapped phone calls, the government charged, revealed Padilla and colleagues mapped plans for jihad."
The Miami Herald reports that the jury reached their verdicts "despite a complex body of evidence that included hundreds of FBI phone wiretaps introduced during the three-month federal trial." In an article appearing on nearly 100 news websites, the AP offers an especially negative assessment of the verdict, saying that "it was hardly a complete victory for the government."
Verdict Expected To Fuel Wiretapping Debate Under the headline "Padilla Conviction Feeds Debate," the Wall Street Journal reports that the verdict "is likely to feed an already fevered debate about the use of wiretapping by the federal government." The prosecution's case was built "largely on wiretaps that began in the early 1990s, when federal agents obtained warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."
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The AP reports the number of US troops in Iraq "could jump to 171,000 this fall -- a record high for the war -- as military leaders expect stepped-up insurgent attacks timed to a progress report from American commanders in Baghdad."
Meanwhile, the AP reports the son of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden "is preparing for deployment to Iraq next year. Capt. Beau Biden, a Judge Advocate General in the Delaware National Guard and the state's attorney general, is part of the 261st Signal Brigade that has been told to prepare for duty in Iraq in 2008."
The AP reports, "The White House demanded in 2004 that the Justice Department approve a secret national security program without allowing the ailing attorney general, 'feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed,' to discuss the matter with top advisers," according the FBI Director Robert Mueller's personal notes. The "partially censored notes," dated March 12, 2004, "describe a distraught and feeble Attorney General John Ashcroft in his hospital room just moments after being visited by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card, the president's chief of staff at the time."
Mueller's description of Ashcroft as "feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed" is included in every news report on the notes. Under the headline "FBI Director's Notes Contradict Gonzales's Version Of Ashcroft Visit," the Washington Post adds in a front-page story, "Mueller's description of Ashcroft's physical condition that night contrasts with testimony last month from Gonzales, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Ashcroft was 'lucid' and 'did most of the talking' during the brief visit."
Under the headline "Notes Detail Pressure on Ashcroft Over Spying," the New York Times reports, "In providing corroboration for Mr. Comey's version of events, Mr. Mueller's typewritten entries served to rebut the suggestion of some Bush administration officials who have privately dismissed Mr. Comey's account of the hospital standoff as an overwrought and one-sided description."
The Politico says Mueller's notes "show a frantic series of meetings with top White House officials, including Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Gonzales, as well as former NSA Director Michael Hayden and former CIA Director George Tenet and White House and Justice Dept. lawyers during that early March time period over the NSA effort and how to keep it operating. Mueller met several times personally with Cheney, as well as at least once with Bush in the Oval Office."
The Hill reported on its Web site, "Mueller's account of the evening...compounds the political pressure on Gonzales - who has alienated lawmakers in both parties - but also raises the stakes for Democrats' coming efforts to limit administration eavesdropping." The Hill also reported on its Web site that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy "asked Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine Thursday to review whether testimony Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has provided 'was in any instances intentionally false, misleading, or inappropriate.'"
The volatility on Wall Street and news of the nation's slowing housing market continued to dominate headlines today. All three networks led their broadcasts Thursday with the latest from Wall Street. ABC World News reported the market "did something that it hasn't done in almost five years: a 10% drop in value. ... There has not been a drop that sharp since 2002. And it was one of the most volatile days ever on the market" after "mid-afternoon stocks were down 340 points," but rallied back.
The CBS Evening News said Thursday was "a day of palpitations" for investors as the Dow's performance "looked like the EKG of a patient in distress." NBC Nightly News reported, "In plain English, the wings fell off Wall Street earlier today." The New York Times notes that "what looked as if it would be one of the worst days since Wall Street began its midsummer swoon ended yesterday with a whimper, not a bang."
On its front page, the Washington Post reports one factor in the "topsy-turvy markets appears to be uncertainty about how the government is dealing with the near paralysis of many markets for home mortgages and corporate debt."
However, USA Today reports that "not everyone is convinced all the market's troubles are behind it. Fake-out rallies were common back in the last bear market. And the fallout from the submerging subprime mortgage market, for example, is unlikely to go away without more negative headlines, says Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Johnson Illington Advisors." The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, and AP, among other sources, also report the news.
On Fox News' Your World, deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto said President Bush "has been focused on ensuring that the underlying economic fundamentals in the economy are solid. And they have been. We're seeing strong economic growth and strong job growth and real wages increasing. You have to think about these things in the long term. You have to be careful about overreaction from government in situations line this, that -- where a policy mistake makes matters worse. We don't want to see reaction from -- from government that does things, for example, that further restrict credit." Asked if the President has been keeping "a close eye on the market today and in the past couple of weeks," Fratto said, "Yes, absolutely, he pays attention."
In an analysis, the AP reports that whether he is "talking about the war in Iraq or the economy at home, President Bush always projects a positive outlook and unflinching self-confidence in his own leadership. Never mind that he is down in the polls, the nation is fighting an intensely unpopular war and his administration is mired in investigations. Or that the US housing market is suffering its worst downturn in 16 years, causing financial distress worldwide and helping to drive down the Dow Jones industrial average over 1,100 points in one month."
News of first daughter Jenna Bush's engagement announcement received widespread media attention focusing on speculation of a White House wedding. All three network news broadcasts reported the news. The CBS Evening News noted that "there hasn't been a White House wedding since 1971 when Tricia Nixon married Edward Finch Cox." The First Lady's office, however, said the date and place for the wedding have not been set." NBC Nightly News and ABC World News profiled Jenna Bush's fiancé, Henry Hager, and noted the history of White House weddings.
The AP notes the two, who have been dating "for several years," were" engaged Wednesday in Maine." The New York Times reports President Bush, "who has been the sole male in his nuclear family with the exception, perhaps, of his dog Barney, will finally have a son-in-law."
In its "Reliable Source" column, the Washington Post reports there is "no word if we'll see a White House wedding before the president leaves office." USA Today, the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Politico, among other sources, also report the news.
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The AP reports that Rudy Giuliani said Thursday "that people should 'leave my family alone' when asked by a New Hampshire woman why the presidential candidate should expect loyalty from voters when he doesn't get it from his children. Giuliani has a daughter who has indicated support for Democrat Barack Obama and a son who said they didn't speak for some time." Fielding questions at a town-hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, Giuliani "was asked why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his children aren't backing him. 'I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America,' Giuliani said calmly and quietly. 'The best thing I can say is kind of, 'leave my family alone, just like I'll leave your family alone.' His comments were greeted with a smattering of applause from the audience of about 120 people."
Long Island Newsday reports that Giuliani "has downplayed the decision by his estranged son Andrew, a Duke University student, to not campaign for him, and the apparent support of his daughter Caroline, who is to attend Harvard, for Democrat Barack Obama." Questioner Katherine Prudhomme-O'Brien "is one of the few voters who have asked him about his children. Usually it's reporters' questions that he brushes off. 'If a person is running for president, I would assume their children would be behind them,' she said later. 'If they're not, you've got to wonder.' It's a question that will 'stay there for a lot of people.'"
The Boston Globe reports that Prudhomme-O'Brien, "a conservative activist who is not supporting any presidential candidate," said "she did not want to be offensive with her question, but found his answer 'troubling.'" The New Hampshire Union Leader notes Prudhomme-O'Brien "said she is not a novice to retail politics and has taken advantage of face-time with other candidates to ask similarly tough questions, including an exchange with Al Gore in 1999 about an alleged rape committed by Bill Clinton."
The Wall Street Journal reports in a front page story that as a presidential candidate, John Edwards "has regularly attacked subprime lenders, particularly those that have filed foreclosure suits against victims of Hurricane Katrina. But as an investor, Mr. Edwards has ties to lenders foreclosing on Katrina victims." The Wall Street Journal "has identified 34 New Orleans homes whose owners have faced foreclosure suits from subprime-lending units of Fortress Investment Group LLC." Edwards has "about $16 million invested in Fortress funds, according to a campaign aide who confirmed a more general Federal Election Commission report. Mr. Edwards worked for Fortress, a publicly held private-equity fund, from late 2005 through 2006." Asked "about the matter, Mr. Edwards yesterday pledged that he would personally provide financial assistance to New Orleanians who are facing foreclosure by Fortress-affiliated businesses or have lost their homes already." Edwards also "promised to cleanse his portfolio of any investments that may be profiting from their losses."
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The Boston Globe reports a Peter D. Hart Research Associates survey of 509 likely Democratic Iowa caucus-goers conducted Aug. 2-3 shows John Edwards leading the Democratic presidential field with 30%, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton with 22%, Sen. Barack Obama with 18% and Gov. Bill Richardson with 13%. The survey was conducted "for the ONE Campaign, a nonpartisan group that is pushing presidential candidates to address global poverty."
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports a Research 2000 survey of 400 likely Democratic Nevada caucus-goers conducted Aug. 14-16 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential field with 33%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama with 19%, John Edwards with 15%, Gov. Bill Richardson with 11% and Al Gore with 8%. On the GOP side, the survey of 400 likely Republican Nevada caucus-goers shows Mitt Romney leading with 28%, followed by Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani with 18% each and John McCain with 8%. In a separate report, the Reno Gazette-Journal notes "that both frontrunners face substantial unfavorable ratings if they make it to the general election." Of those polled, "the favorable-unfavorables were 44-43 for Clinton unfavorably and 45-40 for Romney. 'I have a hard time believing over a long period of time that you are going to find samples that say Mitt Romney is as polarizing as Hillary Clinton,' Ryan Erwin, a Nevada consultant for Romney, said. Hilarie Grey, Clinton's Nevada spokeswoman, said Clinton has proven her ability to win over voters despite initially high negatives. 'What she has proven through two Senate campaigns is the more people get to know her, the more they like her,' Grey said."
A new Strategic Vision poll of 1200 likely Florida voters taken August 10-12 shows Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton holding large leads in their respective primaries. On the Democratic side, Clinton leads with 40%, followed by Barack Obama, 20%; John Edwards, 16%; and Bill Richardson at 9%. The rest of the field is at 3% or less. Giuliani leads Republicans with 34%, followed by Fred Thompson, 18%; Mitt Romney, 10%; and John McCain, 8%. The rest of the candidates are backed by 3% or less.
The Sacramento Bee reports that a new California Field Poll of likely Democratic primary voters conducted Aug. 3-12 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential field with 49%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama with 19% and John Edwards with 10%. The Bee notes that the survey shows "Clinton leading -- and gaining support -- in every demographic category and California region measured." While there has been some speculation that the nation's largest state could be competitive in 2006, the poll suggests otherwise, at least if Clinton is the Democratic nominee. In hypothetical general election match-ups, Clinton leads Rudy Giuliani 52% to 37%, Mitt Romney 55% to 35% and Fred Thompson 55% to 35%. Obama leads Giuliani 48% to 38%, Romney 53% to 31% and Thompson 52% to 32%. And Edwards leads Giuliani 47% to 42%, Romney 52% to 33% and Thompson 55% to 30%.
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The late night talk shows were in syndication last night.
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