The Financial Times reports Gen. David Petraeus "stressed" Thursday that the US military "was not declaring victory in Iraq despite the decline in bloodshed across most parts of the country." Before meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Baghdad, the US commander there said, "There's nobody in uniform who is doing victory dances in the end zone." Petraeus statement comes one day after Vice President Cheney, in an interview with The Politico, predicted that Iraqis will have become "self-governing" and "capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East" by January 2009.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports, "In striking contrast to the US military's previous wariness -- if not hostility -- toward" Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr," Petraeus said he "applauds" Sadr "for helping, through a cease-fire, to reduce violent attacks in Iraq by 60 percent since June." This was "unusual praise by a U.S. official for a relentless critic of the American role here." Still, "Petraeus and other commanders also warned of enduring threats to Iraq's security, saying the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is again carrying out suicide bombings and trying to gain control of towns in northern Iraq -- and the U.S. military must therefore carefully calibrate any future troop reductions."
Gates Says Progress In Iraq "Significant Yet Still Fragile." The New York Times reports Gates said Thursday that "security progress in Iraq was significant yet still fragile, an assessment echoed by the senior American commander in Baghdad, who strongly cautioned against a premature declaration of victory." Completing his sixth visit to Iraq as defense secretary, Gates said he left Iraq "encouraged" after meeting Wednesday and Thursday with commanders in Mosul and in Baghdad, as well as with senior Iraqi officials. "I came away from all of it feeling very good about the direction of things in the security arena, about what is going on at the local and provincial level in terms of people reaching out to each other, crossing tribal, sectarian and provincial boundaries to work together," Gates said.
The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, reports Gates' "decision to take a pass, at least for now, on a proposal to send marines to Afghanistan leaves the future security of that country an open question." Gates "appears to have rejected the proposal by Gen. James Conway, the Marine commandant, in part because Gates wants other nations to contribute more personnel to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. Many say security there has deteriorated in the past year."
Majority Of Military Families Now Say Iraq Invasion Not Worthwhile The Los Angeles Times reports that a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found "families with ties to the military, long a reliable source of support for wartime presidents, disapprove of President Bush and his handling of the war in Iraq, with a majority concluding the invasion was not worth it." The Times calls the poll "a sign that the strong military endorsement that the administration often pointed to has dwindled in the war's fifth year. Nearly six out of every 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does." Among families "with soldiers, sailors and Marines who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 60% say that the war in Iraq was not worth the cost."
The CIA's disclosure that it has destroyed two tapes that show the harsh interrogation of terror suspects, including the controversial practice of waterboarding, is receiving significant print coverage this morning. NBC Nightly News, the only network to broadcast the story, reported last night, "We learned today that the CIA videotaped the interrogation of at least one major al Qaeda leader to be captured after 9/11 including scenes of waterboarding. The agency later destroyed the videotapes. Officials are denying there is anything sinister at work here. They say the men visible in the videotape operate undercover and need their identities protected."
On its front page, the New York Times reports that CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said the decision to destroy the tapes was made "within the CIA" to "protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value." The revelation of the destroyed tapes "raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program." McClatchy says "the existence of the videotapes was first disclosed by McClatchy last month." They were believed "to have shown the aggressive interrogation of al Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah after his capture in Pakistan in 2002" and "could reignite a controversy over the agency's conduct and questioning methods." USA Today leads its report with the official explanation that Hayden said the CIA "destroyed videotapes of interrogations they performed in 2002 of two top terrorism suspects out of fear the tapes would be leaked and make public the identities of the interrogators." But the paper adds that Rep. Jane Harman "said she informed the CIA in writing at the time that she objected to the destruction of the tapes" and went on to call it "another self-policing operation gone awry."
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The AP reports the Bush Administration "offered hope to beleaguered homeowners Thursday with a five-year freeze in loan rates for those who qualify, even as the number of bad mortgages jumped to the highest level ever." The plan "represented the administration's biggest action yet to show it is dealing aggressively with the mortgage crisis. The escalating problem is becoming a political issue and threatening to push the country into a recession." NBC Nightly News showed Bush saying, "The government has a role to play as well. We should not bail out lenders, real estate speculators or those who made the reckless decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford."
While the plan was well-received by the financial markets, it also elicited criticism from lawmakers and media commentators on both sides of the aisle: some accused Bush of not doing enough and others derided the plan for interfering with free markets. The CBS Evening News, for example, calls the plan "an extraordinary step but with limited impact," and shows Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin saying, "Homeowners facing foreclosure are drowning 20 feet offshore and the administration just threw out a 10-foot rope." CBS added, "He's talking about the 2.5 million other homeowners who are late on their payments and ineligible for the program." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal notes House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank "said he is concerned that the plan sends the wrong message by not helping borrowers who have maintained good credit scores."
The Washington Post reports "several Democratic presidential candidates blasted Bush after his news conference for doing too little too late to help homeowners." Sen. Hillary Clinton "again touted her plan to freeze the rates on all subprime loans, regardless of the holder's income, and impose a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures." The New York Times reports, "At least one thing is clear about President Bush's plan to help people trapped by the mortgage meltdown: it is an industry-led plan, not a government bailout. Although Mr. Bush unveiled the plan at the White House on Thursday, its terms were set by the mortgage industry and Wall Street firms." The effort "is voluntary and it leaves plenty of wiggle room for lenders. Moreover, it would affect only a small number of subprime borrowers." The plan "was the target of criticism from consumer advocates who said its scope was too narrow, and from investment firms, who said it went too far." Others "warned that the plan, by letting some stretched homeowners off the hook, could encourage more reckless borrowing in the future."
The Politico says "industry players and GOP critics say the change could plunge the market into deeper turmoil, making mortgages more expensive for borrowers across the board." Kurt Pfotenhauer, senior vice president of government affairs for the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, said the White House plan "is going to end up removing a lot of potential support for the bankruptcy reform bill." USA Today reports Deborah Jones, president of the Detroit Alliance for Fair Banking, said "Bush's promise to freeze mortgage rates is a welcome first step," but "more needs to be done. 'These foreclosures are like some sort of evil that has come to steal, kill and destroy the American dream,' Jones says."
The AP reports the Senate voted 88-5 Thursday "to block a looming tax increase averaging $2,000 for millions of taxpayers after Senate Republicans succeeded in thwarting a Democratic plan to also raise taxes on investors." The bill provides a one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax "but without matching the cost of the tax relief with new tax revenues." The Washington Post reports the "House-passed AMT bill, to be paid for largely with tax increases on wealthy Wall Street titans, fell to a Republican filibuster" on a 48-46 vote, "14 short of the 60 needed." The Washington Times notes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "criticized Republicans for stalling the agenda after the defeat of the plan with tax increases. 'They are filibustering as if they are on steroids,' he said after the procedural vote lost."
The Wall Street Journal reports, "Senate Democrats said abandoning pay-go was necessary to attract Republican support for a bill widely viewed as urgent in order to limit tax-refund delays. But the move sets up a confrontation with the House, where Democrats frequently point to pay-go as evidence they are fiscally responsible." House Democrats "are planning to send another, modified AMT bill to the Senate, with pay-go offsets." The New York Times reports, "The Senate action does not necessarily resolve the dispute over the tax," and some House Democrats, including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer say they "will not support any resolution of the tax problem that conflicts with their 'pay-go' budget rules."
On its front page, the Washington Post reports, "The House yesterday brushed aside a new White House veto threat and handily approved a comprehensive energy bill that would raise automobile fuel-efficiency standards for the first time in 32 years and require increased use of renewable energy sources to generate electricity." In the Senate today, "Republicans hope to strip it of tax increases on the oil industry and the renewable-source requirement before a final version goes to President Bush. The White House objects to the bill on multiple fronts, including the prospect of tax boosts on oil companies, saying Bush would veto it."
The Wall Street Journal says the 235-181 vote "was stronger than Republicans had predicted, but the White House issued a veto warning, and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid conceded that he lacked the 60 votes to get cloture today and move ahead without changes." The "centerpiece" of the bill is a provision that "would raise mileage standards to 35 miles a gallon by 2020." Democrats "are determined to protect that higher standard but acknowledge it could require pruning part or all of two major provisions in the 1,000-page bill: a $21 billion tax package that includes incentives, and a federal mandate requiring utilities to generate 15% of their electricity from wind or solar power and other so-called renewable resources."
The New York Times says that "the complex and costly bill is all but certain to be radically rewritten when it reaches the Senate because of opposition there to two provisions: $21 billion in new taxes, mostly on the oil industry, and a mandate that electric utilities must generate 15 percent of their power from alternative sources, like wind or solar. ... Environmental groups, consumer advocates and alternative-energy companies hailed House passage of the bill, but a broad array of opponents, including cattlemen, coal producers and multinational oil companies, are lining up to block it."
The Los Angeles Times reports, "In a statement after the vote, the Bush administration chastised Democratic leaders for pushing a 'partisan bill' they knew had 'no chance of being signed into law.' The White House expressed hope the Senate would take a 'more cooperative approach.'" The Washington Times reports House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer "called the bill historic and 'nothing less than our generation's declaration of independence from foreign sources of petroleum.'" Republicans "have derided the measure as the 'no-energy bill' because it doesn't encourage development of domestic oil or natural gas."
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Mitt Romney's speech addressing his Mormon faith at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas received extremely heavy coverage, with many reports calling it long-awaited and "much-anticipated." However, there is no consensus in the coverage on the central question: did Romney help his presidential candidacy with the speech?
All three broadcast networks had extensive coverage of the speech, cable news channels covered it throughout the day, and the speech was the main topic on most of the evening cable punditry shows. ABC World News said it was "perhaps the most important speech" of Romney's campaign as he "sought today to assure evangelical Christian voters that he would not abandon his religious principles, but he would not allow those principles to interfere with decisions he might make as president." The CBS Evening News said in his "much-anticipated speech on religion," Romney "mentioned his religion only once." CBS (Whitaker) added, "Introduced but not endorsed by the first President Bush at his Texas library, Romney gave a speech heavy on America's history of religious tolerance but light on his Mormon beliefs." The "handpicked crowd praised him...but the target audience isn't here. It's in Iowa, where some 40% of Republican voters in that crucial caucus state are evangelical Christians, many of them skeptical of Mormonism and where ordained Baptist minister Mike Huckabee is topping Romney in the polls." Echoing the CBS report, NBC's Tim Russert said on NBC Nightly News, "That targeting of Iowa is important, to try to put people at ease. That's why Gov. Romney said that he believes that Christ is lord and savior." Also like CBS, NBC Nightly News said the "long-awaited speech...turned out to be more of a speech on religion than his own religion." NBC (Allen) also said Romney "used the word Mormon only once and never once said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, its official name. He spoke largely about America's history of religious freedom and tolerance and at times echoing John Kennedy, the nation's first Catholic president."
Many print reports focus less on the specifics of the speech itself than on analysis of whether or not Romney helped himself. McClatchy says that "after his much-anticipated speech there was no consensus on whether he'd halted his slide in key polls or erased doubts among Republican skeptics." The AP says after "declining for months to address the issue of his Mormonism directly, Romney switched course as polls showed widespread unease about his religion -- and showed him losing his once-sizable lead" in Iowa to Huckabee, "a Baptist minister." USA Today calls it a "much-anticipated speech" that "underscored the crucial role that religion now plays in politics, especially in the GOP."
The Washington Post (12/7, A1, Balz, 723K) reports on its front page that Romney, "seeking to allay suspicions about his Mormon faith, pledged Thursday to serve the common good rather than a single religion if elected president." Still, he "was equally emphatic in arguing that religion has a place in public life. Saying that the doctrine of separation of church and state has been carried too far, he said some people and institutions have pushed to remove 'any acknowledgment of God' from the public domain." Also on its front page, the New York Times notes that Romney "used the word 'Mormon' only once" in the 20-minute speech, saying the "passing mention of his Mormonism...underscored just how touchy the issue of Mr. Romney's faith has been since he began running for the Republican nomination." The Times says evangelical Christians "consider Mormonism to be heretical."
The Houston Chronicle headlines its coverage "Romney Tiptoes To Mixed Reviews," while the New York Post notes that Romney "said his dad, George Romney, the former governor of Michigan, marched with Martin Luther King Jr. for civil rights. He didn't mention that the Mormon church banned black pastors at the time." The Los Angeles Times says Romney "tackled questions about his Mormon faith head-on" in an "unusually frank speech." The Hill says the speech "won almost universally positive reactions, and advisors inside the campaign say they were more than happy with the outcome." The Salt Lake Tribune reports Mormons "almost universally applauded" the speech.
On the negative side, the Concord Monitor, in a story headlined, "Romney's Faith Speech Moves Few," reports, "Reaction in New Hampshire yesterday was mixed, most starkly in the state's small evangelical community. More than one person said they are so uncomfortable with Romney's Mormon faith that they couldn't vote for him in the primary. People were split on whether the speech helped."
The AP reports that Hillary Clinton's campaign added $1 million to its coffers at a holiday-themed fundraiser held at Union Station in Washington, emceed by author John Grisham, where Clinton "delivered crowd-pleasing lines for the partisans in attendance, including a vow to end the war in Iraq. ... Supporters drank hot chocolate and munched on cookies while children did crafts and made holiday cards, played with dreidels or had their pictures taken with either a snowman or reindeer character." In a blog posting on the website of the Chicago Sun-Times, Lynn Sweet writes about the holiday theme of the fundraiser, at which "the tiered price structure went from $250 to $2,300, the maximum federal contribution. Clinton came on at 9 p.m. -- some 90 minutes late -- and spoke for some 20 minutes, her stock stump speech minus any shots at Democratic rival Barack Obama."
In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters yesterday, in which he was asked if he will be sitting on cabinet meetings if his wife becomes President, Bill Clinton said, "Only if asked. And I think it would only be wise if it is on a specific issue. I think it is more important for me to give her my advice privately." Walters also asked the former president if his wife is smarter than he is. Clinton said, "About some things. We have different kinds of intelligence. She has a great organizational intelligence and we have always worked well together and I think that is one of the reasons we have been. I said the other day at our 32nd anniversary I rather spend the night talking to her than anyone I can think of."
The AP reports that a new poll out yesterday shows Hispanics "are returning to the Democratic Party after several years of drifting toward the Republicans, with many saying Bush administration policies have harmed their community." By a margin of 57 percent to 23 percent, "more Hispanic registered voters say they favor Democrats than Republicans, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center." That "34 percentage point Democratic edge -- which includes people who said they lean toward either party -- has grown since July 2006, when a Pew poll measured a 21-point difference. Then, 49 percent of registered Hispanic voters said they favored Democrats and 28 percent chose Republicans." The New York Times also reports that "gains made by Republicans among Hispanic voters in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 have been erased over the past year, with Hispanics returning to earlier levels of strong preference for the Democratic Party."
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A new poll out yesterday from Strategic Vision shows Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee pulling ahead in Iowa. Obama leads the Democratic field with 32%, followed by Hillary Clinton and John Edwards tied at 25% apiece. No other Democrat tops 5%. In a similar survey released a week ago, Clinton and Obama were tied at 29% apiece. On the GOP side, Huckabee leads with 27%, followed by Mitt Romney, 24%; Rudy Giuliani, 13%; Fred Thompson, 11%; and John McCain, 6%. In last week's survey, Romney led Huckabee 26%-24%. Strategic Vision polled 600 likely caucus-goers from each party from November 30-December 2.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Karl Rove, addressing the Associated Republicans of Texas, "warned the home-state GOP faithful Thursday that they were in for a tough 2008." Rove told the group that it "needed to reinvigorate its ground game for the upcoming election cycle. Without a Texan leading the national ticket, plenty of experienced foot soldiers should be available for Texas candidates up and down the ballot, Rove said." Rove "largely steered clear of 2008 presidential politics but did predict that Democrat Hillary Clinton would have a tough go. 'She won't get there,' Rove said to a burst of applause." The Houston Chronicle adds that Rove "decried Democrats in general and Hillary Clinton in particular as big spenders and said President Bush's spirits are high at an Associated Republicans of Texas fundraising dinner Thursday. 'I've been watching Hillary Clinton. That woman knows how to spend,' Rove told the group of about 120, contending her proposals would mean $778 billion in new spending her first four years if she were elected. 'Of course, if she did that, that would be the last four years she ever served in office. Well, she won't get there,' he said to applause."
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The late night shows continue to be in reruns due to the ongoing writers' strike.
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