After Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein on Friday announced they would support the embattled nomination of Michael Mukasey to be attorney general, Sen. Arlen Specter also threw his support to the nominee. USA Today reports Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will "vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, joining two Democrats whose support assures that the committee will recommend the former federal judge Tuesday." The AP notes Mukasey's confirmation "had been in doubt as five of the panel's 10 Democrats, including Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, had lined up against Mukasey after he refused to state categorically that waterboarding is illegal."
Under the headline "Frustration Builds For Democrats," the Wall Street Journal reports that the way "in which Senate Democrats wavered and then consented to the confirmation of...Mukasey as attorney general reflects the party's broader struggle to make headway on its national-security agenda, despite President Bush's unpopularity."
The AP says Mukasey on Friday "drew closer to becoming attorney general" after the "two key Senate Democrats said they would vote for him despite his refusal" to define waterboarding. In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, Feinstein says Mukasey "has forged an independent path as a lawyer and federal judge" who "has extensive experience on national security cases."
ABC World News on Friday opened with two feature reports on the waterboarding technique that ran more than four minutes in all, and only then mentioned the Mukasey nomination, noting he "refused to say whether he felt water-boarding was torture. That angered many Democrats who promised to oppose his conformation." The CBS Evening News said "the battle tipped" in Mukasey's "favor." NBC Nightly News reported, "We may be looking at a reversal of fortune" for Mukasey, "when it appeared his nomination was dead in the water."
The Washington Post reports on its front page that the Mukasey "nomination fight...effectively came to an end" with the two senators' decisions. The New York Times called Mukasey's confirmation "all but certain," noting Schumer said he "had obtained Mr. Mukasey's promise to enforce laws that banned any of the harsh interrogation methods known to have been used on Qaeda terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."
The Wall Street Journal reports President Bush's "vaunted 'freedom agenda'...suffered one of its worst setbacks this weekend when Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan." Musharraf's crackdown "has dramatically underscored how much Mr. Bush's freedom march has slowed, and in a few cases gone into retreat."
The Los Angeles Times reports Musharraf's "declaration of emergency rule...suggests that President Bush has risked his stated goals and principles for an ally who couldn't deliver on a fundamental promise: to hold together his turbulent country while facing down militant Islamists."
The AP reports the President, "who has received steady updates on developments in Pakistan, is likely to make his first public comments Monday."
While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling in the Middle East, said yesterday that the US would review US aid to Pakistan, media reports suggest that any cuts are highly unlikely. USA Today notes "Washington has been reluctant to turn its back on a nuclear-armed government that is an ally in combating Islamist militants, and White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Sunday that 'we're obviously not going to do anything that will undermine the war on terror.'"
NBC Nightly News, the only network news broadcast Sunday night, said Secretary Rice "had personally pleaded with Musharraf last week not to cancel the constitution," but "now that he has ignored her appeal, she...was left with very few options, other than to ask him to reconsider."
The New York Times, meanwhile, reports on its front page that in "carefully calibrated public statements and blunter private acknowledgments about the limits of American leverage" over Musharraf, unidentified "officials" "argued that it would be counterproductive to let Pakistan's political turmoil interfere with their best hope of ousting Al Qaeda's central leadership and the Taliban from the country's mountainous tribal areas." The Christian Science Monitor cites a Pentagon source who says there will be no change in the US-Pakistan relationship, and reports that "is an acknowledgment of what many analysts suggest Musharraf already knew: He is perceived to be too important an ally to antagonize even with January's parliamentary elections hanging in the balance."
The Washington Post reports the Bush administration "seemed to still be reeling from Musharraf's announcement Saturday and waiting for the rapidly shifting events to settle before making any move beyond expressing strong disapproval." On its front page, the Washington Post also reports, "A close adviser to Musharraf said Sunday that the president's inner circle believed that before he issued the order, the United States and Britain had grudgingly accepted the idea of emergency rule, despite earlier objections." The Wall Street Journal calls Musharraf's move "a major setback for US foreign policy."
Pakistan Detains Hundreds In Crackdown NBC Nightly News reported, "A day after Pakistan's president, who is also head of the army, assumed emergency powers and suspended basic rights, his government has moved quickly to silence any and all opposition. That is not sitting well in Washington." On Sunday, "police arrested up to 500 opposition leaders, lawyers and vanloads of human rights activists."
Similarly, the AP reports critics say Musharraf "imposed emergency rule in a last-ditch attempt to cling to power" as his leadership has been "threatened by the Islamic militant movement that has spread from border regions to the capital, the reemergence of political rival and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, and an increasingly defiant Supreme Court, which was expected to rule soon on the validity of his recent presidential election win."
On its front page, the Washington Post reports in "an address to the nation that ended in the early minutes of Sunday, Musharraf justified his declaration on the grounds that he needed a free hand to battle rising militancy in Pakistan. But a top adviser conceded later Sunday that the final decision came only after a Supreme Court judge quietly informed the government last week that the court would rule against Musharraf's effort to stay on as president." The Los Angeles Times runs a similar report.
Elections Could Be Delayed For A Year The New York Times reports the Musharraf government "also appeared set to put off parliamentary elections that had been scheduled for January." The Financial Times also says the elections "could now be delayed for up to a year."
Militants Moving Outside Tribal Lands The Washington Times reports Islamist militants "are for the first time threatening the government outside their stronghold in the tribal areas along the Afghan border." Insofar "as the crisis was provoked by the growing strength of the extremists, it was their new offensive in the Swat Valley...that prodded Gen. Musharraf to drastic action."
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Roll Call reports that despite their "rhetoric about not wanting to hand President Bush another 'blank check' for the Iraq War, Democrats appear poised to give him exactly that -- enough cash to keep the war going full steam for as long as six months, no strings attached." Democratic leaders "continue to fear GOP attacks that cutting off or slowing funds would hurt the troops, despite anger among the Democratic base over the party's failure to use Congress' power of the purse to end the war."
U.S. News and World Report reports for the Pentagon, "the end of October brought a welcome sigh of relief with a range of statistics confirming that violence is indeed beginning to dip in Iraq. Some 39 U.S. soldiers died last month, the lowest monthly total since March 2006. The rate of serious bombings has dropped from a peak late last year. And even the number of incidents involving the most deadly form of roadside bombs, known as explosively formed penetrators, has declined for three straight months."
Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria writes, "The key is that [Gen. David] Petraeus has been willing to do what no American official has until now: accept Iraq for what it is and not what Washington wants it to be. Searching for a stable order, Petraeus has allied himself with whoever, within reason, could produce that order."
The Washington Post reports in a front page story the "campaign to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind education law has bogged down. Not only has it not passed, but no formal legislation has even been introduced. In an interview last week," Sen. Edward Kennedy "said it will not happen this year after all." This was "supposed to be the one area where the embattled White House and the assertive new Democratic Congress would find common ground."
U.S. News and World Report reports in its cover story that House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings "say they are committed to getting the bill renewed this year. And even without a reauthorized version, the original NCLB law and its mandate that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014 remain in effect."
U.S. News also reports that "many NCLB critics contend that faced with mounting pressure to meet federal performance targets, some states have watered down their standards."
The Washington Times reports House Democratic leaders "say they have cornered Republicans by tying relief from the alternative minimum tax to new taxes on business executives, forcing lawmakers to choose between saving middle-class families or Wall Street tycoons from higher taxes this year." However, Republicans "say the Democrat-led Congress will not score political points playing chicken with tax increases."
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U.S. News and World Report's Kenneth T. Walsh says, "Faced with potential gridlock almost across the board," President Bush "has ordered his staff to prepare a variety of executive orders and administrative actions that will let him end-run Congress for the remainder of his term. This has been done by presidents before, but Bush's plans seem more extensive. White House officials say that Bush is considering a lengthy series of unilateral actions on hot-button topics such as reducing reliance on fossil fuels by encouraging alternative energy sources, limiting the importation of dangerous toys from China, restricting illegal immigration but still allowing needed agricultural workers to enter the country, improving veterans' healthcare, and alleviating air-traffic congestion."
The Los Angeles Times reports President Bush "delivered his threatened veto of a $23-billion water bill Friday, but Congress is virtually certain to reverse it in the first override of a Bush veto." And "the defiant bipartisan response to the veto underscores the difficulty the president faces in his new zeal to hold down federal spending, especially when it affects highly visible construction projects cherished by lawmakers."
The Washington Post reports presidential aides "hope [the veto] will reinforce his standing as a fiscal conservative even as he risks the first veto override of his presidency."
The Politico says Bush "may have finally found something that unifies Congress against the veto pen." And in his syndicated column, Robert Novak says the "first override of Bush's presidency is certain on the water projects bill, a favorite source of pork for Congress that passed this year by the usual overwhelming margin."
The Christian Science Monitor reports that in a "surprise to most economists, the economy created 166,000 new jobs in October, about double the expectations, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.7 percent despite the continued trouble in the housing market."
But USA Today reports the "job gain, twice as large as analysts had predicted, looks a bit less rosy on closer inspection. The goods-producing sector of the economy is under stress. Manufacturers shed 21,000 jobs during the month, while the construction industry lost 5,000 positions."
On its front page, the Wall Street Journal reported that the "surprising surge in October payrolls suggested a U.S. economy running at two speeds -- with strength in the service sector offsetting weakness from a plummeting housing sector and gyrating credit markets."
The Washington Times says on its front page that Unicredit Markets economist Harm Bandholz said the "apparent strength masked a slowing trend that has been in place all year." On the front page of its Business section, the Washington Post said the report "was taken as evidence that while industries tied to housing continue to contract, a wide range of service businesses are expanding fast enough to more than make up for those losses."
The Washington Post reports Vice President Cheney "may have been his White House chief of staff in the 1970s, but by 2004, former president Gerald R. Ford harbored serious reservations about whether Vice President Cheney should be kept on the ticket for reelection." In his new book, Thomas M. DeFrank says senior Republican figures "approached Ford about getting President Bush to dump Cheney in 2004 and, while Ford rebuffed them, he seemed sympathetic to their cause."
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Fred Thompson, whose campaign has been looking more than a little lethargic in recent weeks, appeared on "Meet the Press" yesterday, where his performance is being praised. NBC Nightly News reported, "From the stump to the debates, Fred Thompson has battled a bit of a perception problem, late to the fight, lazy, lacking in political energy, just some of the criticisms leveled at him. But today on NBC's 'Meet The Press,'" Thompson "showed the short of directness and committed conservatism his backers say make him a strong contender for the Republican nomination."
On the web site of the Politico, Jonathan Martin writes, "Those expecting to see a train wreck" during Thompson's appearance "must have come away disappointed. Though Tim Russert was his usual aggressive self, Thompson held his own and committed no gaffes of the sort that have plagued his campaign for the past two months. Yet that Thompson's performance on 'Meet' -- much like his debate debut last month -- was one in which merely getting through without making any major errors is seen as tantamount to success says much about the diminished expectations for the candidate once seen as the cure to GOP woes."
Among the more controversial topics addressed by Thompson were abortion and gay marriage. The New York Sun reports, "Asked directly if he would run on the 2004 party platform, which supports a constitutional amendment, he replied, 'No.' Mr. Thompson said such a move would go even further than a reversal of Roe v. Wade and that 'I don't think would be the way to go.'" Thompson "said his federalist position extends to gay marriage, where he has called for a constitutional amendment targeting so-called judicial activism but said he would not stand in the way if individual state legislatures voted to legalize the practice."
John Edwards, who emerged as the top critic of Hillary Clinton during last week's debate, appears to be ratcheting up his attacks on the frontrunner as the first caucuses approach. The New York Times reports that in Iowa yesterday, Edwards "intensified his criticism" of Clinton yesterday, "saying she had not been forthcoming with voters who will open the nominating contest here in less than two months." Edwards said he "he would draw new distinctions with Mrs. Clinton in a speech" in Iowa City, Iowa, on Monday, "raising questions with other Democrats over Iraq and Iran." In excerpts of his speech, Edwards says, "Senator Clinton is voting like a hawk in Washington, while talking like a dove in Iowa and New Hampshire. We only need one mode from our president: tell-the-truth mode all the time."
The Des Moines Register reports Iowans "should question whether Hillary Clinton is too indebted to big donors to deliver on health care reform and other promises," Edwards said yesterday. Edwards said, "The presidential candidate who has raised the most money from Washington lobbyists is not a Republican, it's a Democrat." The Register adds Edwards "told about 210 voters in Waverly that the main thing blocking health care reform has been lobbyists from drug companies and health insurance companies who don't want the system to change. He said lobbyist donations have corrupted the system so extensively that many participants no longer notice."
The Washington Post adds that Edwards, interviewed on ABC's This Week yesterday, "equated the lobbyist contributions that Clinton is receiving with 'a bribe.' He said of lobbyists: 'Their job is to influence what happens in the Congress, to influence members of Congress. And they're giving and raising money for them.'"
Giuliani Lead Seen As Tenuous A new ABC News/Washington Post poll of 598 Democrats taken October 29-November 1 shows Hillary Clinton dominating the Democratic field with 49%, followed by Barack Obama, 26%; John Edwards, 12%; and the rest of the field at 3% or less. On the GOP side, a poll of 436 Republicans shows Rudy Giuliani leading with 33%, followed by John McCain, 19%; Fred Thompson, 16%; Mitt Romney, 11%; and Mike Huckabee, 9%. The rest of the field is at 3% or less.
In general election trial heats, Clinton leads Giuliani by a relatively narrow margin, 50%-46%. She leads the rest of the GOP field by significantly wider margins, with only John McCain within single digits (but barely he trails 52%-43%).
However, despite the size of his lead in the primary, a Washington Post on the poll this morning focuses on Giuliani's weaknesses. The Post writes that for the for the "first time in nearly 30 years, there is no breakaway front-runner for the Republican nomination as the first votes of Campaign 2008 loom, and a new Washington Post-ABC News poll underscores how open the GOP race remains." Rudy Giuliani "maintains a double-digit lead over his main rivals, but most of his supporters back his candidacy only 'somewhat' and he has yet to gain momentum among key primary voting groups or to distinguish himself as the best candidate for the party."
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Jay Leno: "Hey, don't forget, you turn your clock back an hour this weekend. You get an extra hour of sleep. Kind of like watching a Fred Thompson speech."
Jay Leno: "Karen Hughes, a former advisor to President Bush, is leaving the State Department after working the last two years trying to improve the rest of the world's opinion of America. Well, congratulations on a job well done."
Jay Leno: "Time to bring out that 'mission accomplished' sign again."
Jay Leno: "Today, President Bush said the Iraqis are taking back Iraq. Then Dick Cheney said, 'But not the oil, right?'"
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