President Bush and congressional Democrats are jostling for position in their standoff over Federal spending. The Hill reports this morning that President Bush "rejected a plea this past weekend to open a dialogue" with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "to resolve the impasse." But the White House "declined their offer and demanded that Congress send Bush the appropriations bills 'one at a time -- as they promised the American people -- and within the reasonable spending limits recommended by the president,' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement Saturday."
The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, reports Democrats "are developing two options to get through the spending season: packaging a deal that Mr. Bush cannot refuse or leveraging the votes needed to override his veto." In addition, says the Wall Street Journal, House Democrats are "showing a little more finesse as they try to move their legislative agenda around the wall of veto threats thrown up by...Bush. Cute is out; conciliation is in." The Hill says Congressional Democratic leaders "enter the year-end push with a host of volatile battles looming and time running out on their ability to control the national agenda."
Perino Blasts Democrats On Vets' Funds CNN's The Situation Room reported that after unsuccessfully attempting to combine the Veterans Affairs funding bill with the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, Congressional Democrats "failed to get the veterans funding bill to the President's desk in time for Veterans Day. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino teed off on the Democrats for that." Perino said, "I...think that anyone who looks at how this process has been managed over the past year can only come to the conclusion that they don't know what they're doing, or they know all too well what they're doing and they're playing political games with our nation's veterans funding."
The Washington Post reports a new study by congressional Democrats says "the economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion." The Democrats' estimates of "the conflicts' 'hidden costs'" include "higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars." That is "nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008."
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats continue to try to tie a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq to war funding and seek additional information about the war plan. Roll Call reports that by giving President Bush a $460 billion Defense spending bill "that allows him to divert funding from regular Pentagon accounts to fund the war, Democrats believe they've insulated themselves from accusations that they are withholding money from soldiers 'in harm's way,' without having to explicitly vote for a 'blank check.'" The "votes this week on a $50 billion stopgap 'bridge' fund for the Iraq War tied to a Dec. 15, 2008, withdrawal date will end up being largely symbolic."
Roll Call reports, "Gen. David Petraeus has described the Joint Campaign Plan as the key military and diplomatic strategy to stabilize Iraq," yet "despite repeat efforts at the highest levels and Pentagon promises, Congress has been unable to get a current copy of the plan." The issue has "moved up the Congressional chain of command" to Speaker Pelosi, "who has asked President Bush for the document several months ago in a White House meeting," and has "since 'repeatedly' requested a copy, her aide said, but has not yet received one."
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The AP reports the US military has "started to reverse the 30,000-strong troop increase and commanders are hoping the drop in insurgent and sectarian violence in recent months -- achieved at the cost of hundreds of lives -- won't prove fleeting." The "current total of 20 combat brigades is shrinking to 19 as the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, operating in volatile Diyala province, leaves."
Roadside Attacks Down "Dramatically" USA Today reports, "The number of roadside bombs found in Iraq declined dramatically in August and September from earlier this year, and US officials say the discoveries of thousands of ammunition caches might explain the drop." In September, "coalition forces found 2,022 IEDs. That's down 38% from March, this year's peak."
The AP reports as Congress "debates new rules for government eavesdropping," Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr "says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy." Kerr says privacy "no longer can mean anonymity," but "should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information."
The AP reports US District Judge Henry Kennedy "ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against." Judge Kennedy "directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law."
The Washington Times reports, "The groups charged in separate but now combined legal complaints that preserving more than 5 million missing e-mails is vital to the historical record as they reveal the inner thinking of President Bush's top aides between 2002 and 2007." The Washington Post says the Bush Administration had "opposed such an order, arguing that it is unnecessary because the White House administrative office already is preserving backup tapes in its possession."
The Wall Street Journal reports former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto "headed for another showdown with the military-backed government of President Pervez Musharraf, as she vowed to defy a police ban and lead a protest march against emergency rule today." Bhutto made the announcement after being placed under house arrest, says USA Today /AP, precisely to "prevent her" from attending the march. The Washington Times runs the same AP story this morning.
Even as tensions between Bhutto and Musharraf appear to increase, reports suggest there's still hope for an eventual power-sharing agreement between the two. The Washington Post notes Bhutto has "warned that she would hold no talks with Musharraf as long as the constitution was suspended." But "analysts say that, despite those remarks, Bhutto is still open to a power-sharing deal with Musharraf."
Likewise, the Financial Times reports "Western diplomats in Islamabad said the seemingly harder line taken by Ms Bhutto was unlikely to mark a complete end to several months of behind-the-scenes discussions between negotiators representing her party and the Musharraf government."
Nonetheless, the US appears to be preparing for different eventualities. The New York Times reports "administration officials say that they continue to support...Musharraf," with "one official" saying, "Nobody is ready to cut him off at the knees yet." But another "official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said that many people within the administration were worried that General Musharraf's missteps would soon so erode his base at home that he could be forced to give up power." The Christian Science Monitor reports "some US officials and South Asia experts are doing what they say the US has failed to do: envision and prepare for a post-Musharraf Pakistan." The New York Times reports the Bush Administration is "dispatching a high-level envoy to Pakistan to tell the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, face to face that the United States will not be satisfied with his plan to hold elections unless he first lifts emergency law, administration officials said Monday."
The Los Angeles Times reports "one well-placed Western diplomat said he expected Musharraf to lift" the emergency declaration "within days, or at most a few weeks, because the Pakistani leader knows that elections held under such circumstances would not be credible in the eyes of the world."
Pakistani Army On The Defensive The Washington Post reports, "While Musharraf has justified emergency rule by arguing that he needs a free hand to battle groups including the Taliban and al-Qaeda, local officials, residents and analysts say that so far, at least, the government's troops remain on the defensive against extremist forces, which have been gaining territory for more than a year."
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Fred Thompson's flagging campaign is set to score a major endorsement this morning. The CBS Evening News reported Thompson "won the endorsement today of the National Right to Life committee, a prominent antiabortion rights group." Thompson "says he hopes Roe v Wade is eventually overturned." CNN The Situation Room calls the endorsement "a badly-needed boost as he tries to play up his conservative credentials." This "comes as the new Marist poll of New Hampshire Republicans shows Thompson now slipping into sixth place, behind not only Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, but also trailing Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee." CNN (King) added Thompson's campaign is "without a doubt struggling, and struggling deeply right now."
The AP reports an "upbeat" Thompson addressed the expected endorsement in remarks to reporters in Iowa. Said Thompson, "It speaks for itself. ... These are people who supported me in times past. I think it would be a perfectly natural thing to happen. I've had a 100 percent pro-life voting record in the United States Senate. And I think they know that, and that's the way I would govern if I was president." The Chicago Tribune notes Thompson also "said he was 'very optimistic' about his candidacy and maintained many GOP caucus-goers in Iowa had not selected a candidate. The former Tennessee senator and actor also recently began airing a TV ad in Iowa to tout his 'consistent conservative' credentials."
Romney Fails In Effort To Woo Group. The New York Times notes "James Bopp Jr., the general counsel for National Right to Life, is a Romney supporter, and Mr. Romney was recently endorsed by Dr. John Willke, a founder of the group. But Mr. Romney still failed to win over the group." Sen. John McCain "stood a slim chance of gaining the endorsement. While he has a record of opposing abortion, even going further than Mr. Thompson in supporting a limiting constitutional amendment, he supports stem cell research."
Pro-Life Activists Fragmented Over Thompson Endorsement However, many social conservatives are not pleased with the endorsement. The Los Angeles Times adds that "the endorsement is drawing ridicule and anger from others in the movement, underscoring deep divisions on the religious right." The Times adds that despite the endorsement, Thompson "is far from a consensus choice. During his Senate career, he consistently voted the antiabortion position. But he once worked briefly as a lobbyist for a liberal group that sought to relax restrictions on abortion. In an early political race, he indicated support for legal abortion throughout the first trimester. And most recently, he said he would not back a constitutional amendment criminalizing abortion -- a plank of the Republican platform for more than a quarter-century. Thompson said he would leave each state to make its own abortion laws."
The Democratic field addressed the Iowa Democrats' Jefferson-Jackson dinner on Saturday night, and Obama received rave reviews, which some are treating as a turning point in his campaign. ABC World News reported, "This weekend, at Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson dinner, Barack Obama made the case for himself by tacitly acknowledging" Sen. Clinton's "weaknesses." Obama: "Triangulating and poll-driven positions because we're worried about what Mitt or Rudy might say about us just won't do." Wright: "Barack Obama hit the trifecta this weekend. He went to Iowa; he gave a great speech at the JJ dinner, he had a really good interview on 'Meet the Press.' And his poll numbers in New Hampshire and Iowa seem to be picking up. The race in New Hampshire has tightened and Iowa is still virtually a three-way tie."
On MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews discussed "the Barack boom. Just a few years ago, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was an unknown name in politics. Today, let's face it, he's the headliner of the Democratic field. Saturday night, he wowed the crowd in Iowa for that J-J dinner. Sunday, Obama performed well, everybody says, in a tough interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press."
In his column in the Des Moines Register, David Yepsen calls Obama's Jefferson Jackson Dinner speech "the best of his campaign. The passion he showed should help him close the gap on Hillary Clinton by tipping some undecided caucusgoers his way. His oratory was moving, and he successfully contrasted himself with the others - especially Clinton - without being snide or nasty about it." Yepsen alludes to charges that Obama's campaign "packed the place with ringers from Illinois," but that "should he come from behind to win the Iowa caucuses, Saturday's dinner will be remembered as one of the turning points in his campaign here."
While Barack Obama had a strong weekend, Hillary Clinton was stung by a new mini-scandal. The New York Times reported, "At two campaign events in Iowa this year, aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged audience members to ask her specific questions, a tactic that drew criticism from an opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination and led her yesterday to promise that it would not happen again." Clinton, "speaking to reporters in Iowa, said she was unaware that her aides had ever planted questions. 'It was news to me,' said Mrs. Clinton." The Times adds, "Planting questions with audience members, while not unheard of in political campaigns, is generally avoided because of the embarrassing image it suggests when the tactic becomes public: that a candidate is uncomfortable facing tough questions or campaigning in unpredictable settings."
The flare up continues to generate media interest in the most recent news cycle. ABC World News reported, "A funny thing happened on the road to inevitability. Something that wasn't exactly as Hillary Clinton planned. She's now on the defensive over allegations that some of the questions from voters...were actually planted by her campaign." Senator Hillary Clinton: "It will certainly not be tolerated." Wright: "This, after Clinton recently waffled on the issue of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Her new campaign slogan is 'Turn up the heat.'"
CNN's The Situation Room reported, "The Clinton campaign has self-inflicted problems, with one being especially embarrassing. Some are even calling it plant-gate. Right now, her opponents say she's tried to duck some tough questions after it was revealed that her campaign planted some people in an audience to ask Clinton softball questions." CNN (Snow) added, "It's rare that a campaign admits to planting a question. But the Clinton camp is explaining two separate Iowa events." It was a "campaign event in Iowa that largely went unnoticed, until a Grinnell College student told her student paper that a Clinton campaign staffer prompted her to ask Senator Clinton a question about global warming." The Clinton campaign "admits a staffer encouraged the question, but insists Senator Clinton wasn't aware of it," and the candidate "told reporters -- quote 'It was news to me, and neither I, nor my campaign, approve of that, and it will certainly not be tolerated.'"
A poll out Sunday night from Marist College shows Barack Obama cutting Hillary Clinton's lead nearly in half in New Hampshire. Clinton leads the field with 36%, followed by Obama, 25%; John Edwards, 14%; and the rest of the field in the single digits. A month ago, Clinton led Obama by 21 points. On the GOP side, Mitt Romney continues to lead with 33%, followed by Rudy Giuliani, 22%, and John McCain, 13%, with the rest of the field in the single digits. The survey polled 658 likely Democratic primary voters and 553 likely GOP primary voters from November 2-6.
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The late night shows were in reruns last night due to the writers strike.
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