In what is being portrayed as the outset of a new clash between the White House and Congress over Iraq, President Bush on Monday submitted another war funding request. Bush challenged Congress to approve the new funds by Christmas, but as the Washington Post reports, Democrats "vowed not to rubber-stamp the request and indicated that they will disregard Bush's holiday deadline, holding off any action until next year as they debate a new strategy to counter his leadership on the war." That makes it likely that "the debate may play out just as the presidential nominating campaigns reach their climax."
Bush, notes the AP, "alluded to the nation's disenchantment with the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,830 members of the US military and more than 73,000 Iraqi civilians. 'Our men and women on the front lines should not be caught in the middle of partisan disagreements in Washington,' the president said." The Hill quotes Bush saying, "I often hear that war critics oppose my decisions but still support the troops. ... Well, I'll take them at their word -- and this is the chance to show it, that they support the troops." In fact, the Los Angeles Times says that "standing with a group of veterans in the Roosevelt Room of the White House," Bush "appeared to invite the new showdown."
The Washington Times reports Bush "made his request after meeting with leaders of veterans service organizations, a fallen Marine's family and military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan." The Financial Times notes the President "said the funds were crucial to consolidate recent security gains in Iraq, which have helped reduce US casualties to their lowest level for more than a year," and the Wall Street Journal says the war spending request "punctuates a year-end budget fight with Democrats in Congress over domestic spending."
The New York Times reports, "Democrats on Capitol Hill, having failed last week to override Mr. Bush's veto of an expansion of a children's health insurance program costing $35 billion, reacted with dismay and anger that reflected a broader frustration over the war in Iraq." USA Today briefly reports the story.
NBC and CBS briefly noted Bush's request last night. NBC Nightly News noted the supplemental spending request is "on top of previous requests for this fiscal year. It brings the total for the year to $196.4 billion. Stepped up military operations in Iraq are now costing about $10 billion a month." And the CBS Evening News noted, "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the President should not expect 'rubber stamp approval.'"
Bush Confronting Congress To Boost Polls? The Hill reports Bush "has taken a much more personal role in opposing Congress in disagreements over legislation this year than any other year of his presidency, a tactic that government experts say is necessary because of his weakened approval ratings." Several "congressional experts said that Bush has been forced into a defensive posture because of his low approval rating. They said that because he has very little political capital with which to broker deals on the Hill, he must settle for threatening to scuttle legislation to motivate Democratic leaders to negotiate with him."
With Congress' approval rating below President Bush's already low numbers, concerned Democratic leaders have rolled out an effort to improve their standing with the public. The Politico says the campaign, "ranging from traditional events to conference calls with groups outside of Washington, is designed to circumvent the national news media. Democratic operatives believe that Washington reporters are so fixated on the party's standoff with President Bush over Iraq that no other message is reaching the public." Top advisers "to the party's leadership called on every Democratic lawmaker to amplify domestic accomplishments, from raising the minimum wage to expanding college aid, in a series of events back home in their districts."
The Hill reports a poll "for National Public Radio conducted earlier this month by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies found that only 25 percent of voters approved of the job Congress is doing, while 38 percent approved of President Bush." But "Greenberg polled in competitive congressional districts in August and found that the public's disappointment is not directed at individual Democrats, who were leading Republican candidates by an average of 51 percent to 42."
Stark Gaffe A New Headache For Pelosi The Hill reports last week's "vote on overriding President Bush's children's health insurance veto should have been a brief respite from a pretty tough week for" Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But "when Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) fired off a comment about troops being sent to Iraq 'to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement,' Pelosi saw her message machine hop the rails. It's a situation that's played itself out with surprising regularity -- usually on YouTube -- since Democrats took over earlier this year."
GOP Cries Foul Over Pelosi Aide's Bill Roll Call reports House Republican conservatives are "crying foul over what they allege to be the undue influence" of Pelosi's chief of staff, John Lawrence, "in the passage of legislation Monday designating parts of his hometown of Paterson, N.J., as a national park. The designation could result in millions of federal dollars going to the impoverished area." The House passed the bill "under suspension of the rules, 252-122. Suspension bills require two-thirds support for passage."
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Turkish leaders, angered by the seeming impunity with which Kurdish PKK rebels have operated within northern Iraq, have mobilized troops and equipment for an offensive, a move which would potentially destabilize the war-torn country even further. But the Kurdish rebels' "deadly raids into Turkey" are not their only front, the New York Times reports in a front page story. Out of "the public eye, a chillingly similar battle has been under way on the Iraqi border with Iran. Kurdish guerrillas ambush and kill Iranian forces and retreat to their hide-outs in Iraq." That conflict, "like the Turkish one, has explosive potential."
US Resigned To Turkish Incursion Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports "a senior US official said the administration was growing increasingly resigned to the likelihood of at least a limited Turkish strike in northern Iraq. The official said the US believes that Turkey has so far acted with 'great restraint, all things considered' and faulted Iraqi Kurdish leaders for failing to prevent the PKK from carrying out new attacks on Turkish forces."
However, President Bush has fully waded into the diplomatic effort to head off a Turkish strike. The CBS Evening News reported "Bush called the presidents of both countries today to urge a peaceful resolution...but it may not be enough." McClatchy reports Secretary Rice, besides calling the Turkish prime minister on Sunday, "also called [Iraqi Prime Minister] Maliki and Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish regional government, and urged them to move on the PKK, U.S. officials said. Bush followed up Rice's call with a video teleconference Monday with Maliki." The New York Times, Washington Post, AFP,. AP and Financial Times also report the story.
Kurds Extremely Fond Of US, Bush. On its opinion page, the Wall Street Journal notes Michael J. Totten "writing in the magazine Azure," said "it is hard to overstate how pro-American the people of Kurdistan are. They are possibly more pro-American than Americans themselves. If Bill Clinton was America's first 'black' president, people in at least one part of the world say Bush is the first 'Muslim' one."
The AP reports Osama bin Laden "scolded his al-Qaida followers in Iraq and other insurgents Monday, saying they have 'been lax' for failing to overcome fanatical tribal loyalties and unite in the fight against US troops." Another AP story reports "bin Laden said insurgents should admit 'mistakes' and that he even advises himself not to be extreme in his leadership." The tape "appeared to be in response to moves by some Sunni Arab tribes in Iraq that have joined US troops in fighting al-Qaida members, as well as other Sunni insurgent groups that -- while still attacking Americans -- have formed coalitions opposed to al-Qaida." ABC World News reported that in the message, Bin laden "expresses impatience with insurgents in Iraq, saying, quote, 'some of you have been lax in one duty, which is to unite your ranks. Beware of division.'"
McCain: Tape A Sign Of US Success The AP reports John McCain "said Monday that a new message from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in which he scolds his followers in Iraq proves that U.S. efforts there are succeeding." Said McCain, "It's a clear sign that we are succeeding in Iraq because people got very tired of al-Qaida taking their young women, killing their young women, killing their people, and acting in the most brutal fashion that they are."
House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman has accused Blackwater USA of abusing the independent contractor employment rule in an effort to avoid taxes. The Financial Times reports Waxman "said that a newly discovered March 2007 ruling by the Internal Revenue Service, the tax authority, found that Blackwater's designation of one of its employees as an 'independent contractor' was 'without merit.'" The AP says that "under US law, companies must pay Social Security and other federal taxes on their employees." But "unlike other security companies operating in Iraq, Blackwater says the guards it trains, equips and deploys to Iraq and elsewhere are independent contractors hired directly by the federal government." McClatchy, Washington Post and Washington Times also report the story.
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The AP reports Republican Party leaders "on Monday recommended punishing five states for shifting their nomination contests earlier, moving to strip New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming of half their delegates." South Carolina and Iowa "would not be penalized because, technically, the caucuses are not binding on convention delegates. Nevada, which plans to hold its caucuses on Jan. 19, would not be penalized for the same reason." Under the RNC's "action Monday, Florida would lose 57 delegates, Michigan 30, South Carolina 23, Wyoming 14 and New Hampshire 12. However, some states are banking that whoever wins the GOP nomination will eventually restore the delegates."
The Politico reported on its politics blog, "Republicans have been far less aggressive about punishing states that are holding contests outside the window and" RNC chair Mike Duncan "sought to drive that point home, noting that they were only taking away half the delegates of the five states as opposed to the Democrats who are stripping Michigan and Florida of all their delegates." In addition, the RNC does not call on its candidates to avoid campaigning in the sanctioned states, as the Democrats did with Michigan and Florida. The "decision did, however, appear to have at least one measurable consequence. Multiple Florida Republicans gathered in Orlando for the GOP debate last night said that Sen. Mel Martinez resigned abruptly last Friday because he did not want to be party chair when the committee was punishing his home state."
Unlike the Democratic states penalized, local GOP officials are taking this in stride. The St. Petersburg Times reports that "in contrast to Democrats, who are publicly squabbling over the penalties leveled against Florida Democrats for the same Jan. 29 primary, Republican leaders took a low-key approach Monday, saying they didn't want intraparty contretemps to eclipse the main show." The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that state GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen on Monday "shrugged off a national GOP panel's decision to withhold half the state party's delegates to the Republican national convention next summer. ... 'If we're being asked to choose between protecting and preserving the first-in-the-nation primary or being a delegate to the national convention, we'll give up our delegates,' Cullen said." The Detroit News reported that Michigan state GOP officials "knew the penalty was likely, and state Republicans are nearly unanimous in their belief that, when the convention begins, all the state's delegates will be seated by the party's presidential nominee, making the penalties moot." The AP reports that a Wyoming GOP official "said Monday that the national party's move to penalize Wyoming comes as no surprise. And he said the state party has no intention of changing its plans."
The AP reports that only South Carolina is reacting adversely, "considering legal action" in an effort to keep its delegates.
The AP reports that Fred Thompson "sidestepped a question about the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case last month, saying he didn't remember the details. On Monday he said he's uncomfortable discussing it because of his own daughter's death." Thompson's daughter, Elizabeth 'Betsy' Thompson Panici, 38, "died in 2002 of an accidental drug overdose, according to the Nashville, Tenn., medical examiner's office. She had been diagnosed as suffering from a bipolar disorder."
The New York Times reports, "Toxicology tests ordered by the medical examiner showed that Ms. Panici had six times the lethal level of hydrocodone, a painkiller, in her blood when she arrived at the hospital, according the Tennessean report. Hospital personnel revived her, but she never regained consciousness. Six days after she was brought to the hospital, she was pronounced dead. Mr. Thompson did not say who ultimately made the decision to remove her from life support or even that she was on life support, although he clearly left the impression that she had been. 'I will assure you one thing,' he said. 'No matter which decision you make, you will never know whether or not you made exactly the right decision.' He said he would not talk about the Schiavo case any more, saying his position was clear." Thompson said, "It should be decided by the families -- the federal government and the state government too, except for the court system, ought to stay out of those matters as far as I am concerned."
USA Today adds that Thompson's "stand puts him at odds with social and religious conservatives, including Schiavo's parents, President Bush and many in Congress, who tried in 2005 to block removal of a feeding tube that was keeping the brain-dead Florida woman alive. Schiavo's husband had said she would not want to be kept alive in that state and Florida courts had ruled in his favor."
Investor's Business Daily runs a piece this morning examining Rudy Giuliani's efforts to woo social conservatives, including those at the Values Voters Summit over the weekend, and concludes that he has made some inroads. IBD writes, "Giuliani has faithfully attended events hosted by conservative groups, carefully honing his message. His message: I am one of you. 'You have to admire how well they are running things so far,' said David Keating, executive director of the free-market Club for Growth. 'He is reaching out to all parts of the Republican Party base. He's raising a good amount of money and he's performing well on the stump.'" In her column for Bloomberg, Margaret Carlson also notes Giuliani's apparent success, writing that "the attendees at last weekend's Values Voters Summit are more open to heresy than I would have thought." The "evangelical Christians were willing to give...Rudy Giuliani points just for showing up. It's not that he told them what they wanted to hear -- he didn't -- but that he wanted to be heard at all. ... Summit co-sponsor Gary Bauer said although Giuliani is the candidate with the furthest to go with activists, his greatest asset is the 'prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.'"
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