Monday, January 08, 2007
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Compiled by Stephen Bach CNN Washington Bureau Making news today... Over the next few days, the president is to review and rework the speech for its Wednesday prime-time delivery. As of Friday, the plan was being dubbed "A New Way Forward." "Among these 'benchmarks' are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government's policy toward former Baath Party members." "The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them. But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it. And this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions." RUSSERT: Are you running for president? BIDEN: I am running for president. RUSSERT: Are you filing exploratory committee? BIDEN: I am. I'm filing exploratory committee before the month is out. President's Schedule: At 1:20 pm ET, Bush meets with Bicameral and Bipartisan Members of Congress to mark the Fifth Anniversary of No Child Left Behind. ================================================================= Political Hot Topics (Today's top political stories from news organizations across the country) WH READIES FOR WEDNESDAY PRIME-TIME ADDRESS: As President Bush's new Iraq plan nears completion, sources familiar with the deliberations say White House speechwriters worked "around the clock" over the weekend to prepare the address for the plan's critical midweek unveiling. Over the next few days, the president is to review and rework the speech for its Wednesday prime-time delivery. As of Friday, the plan was being dubbed "A New Way Forward." While the plan is not final, three sources familiar with the deliberations said there are aspects of it that have been widely agreed upon. Sources said the plan will call for sending at least 20,000 U.S. troops to Baghdad and perhaps other areas in the region. CNN: Bush moves to finish Iraq plan "SERIES OF GOALS" FOR IRAQI GOVERNMENT: President Bush's new Iraq policy will establish a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday. Among these "benchmarks" are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government's policy toward former Baath Party members, the officials said. New York Times: Plan Sets Series of Goals for Iraq Leaders PELOSI THREATENS TO USE POWER OF THE PURSE ON IRAQ: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said newly empowered Democrats will not give President Bush a blank check to wage war in Iraq, hinting they could deny funding if he seeks additional troops. "If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request, we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now," she said in an exclusive interview on Face the Nation. "The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them. But if the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it and this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions," said Pelosi, D-Calif. CBS News: Pelosi: No Blank Check For Bush In Iraq McCAIN PUTTING HIS "MILITARY BONA FIDES ON THE LINE": As a onetime prisoner of war during Vietnam and decorated Navy officer, Sen. John McCain has based much of his political persona on his staunch support for the military and his consummate credibility on national security. But as the Arizona Republican prepares to mount a White House campaign, he is putting those military bona fides on the line - aggressively backing an unpopular plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq at a time that other presidential hopefuls are steering clear of the war or calling for troop reductions. President Bush is expected this week to announce a plan to send at least 20,000 additional troops to try to halt sectarian violence and bring security to Baghdad - a move widely perceived as an all-but-final push to avert failure in Iraq. Besides Bush, no politician has more to lose than McCain, the presumed GOP front-runner in 2008 and the plan's biggest backer in Congress. Los Angeles Times: Troop surge in Iraq would have McCain in tow MIGHT TAKE ANOTHER "TWO OR THREE YEARS" TO GAIN UPPER HAND IN IRAQ: The new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that even with the additional American troops likely to be deployed in Baghdad under President Bush's new war strategy it might take another "two or three years" for American and Iraqi forces to gain the upper hand in the war. The commander, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, assumed day-to-day control of war operations last month in the first step of a makeover of the American military hierarchy here. In his first lengthy meeting with reporters, General Odierno, 52, struck a cautious note about American prospects, saying much will depend on whether commanders can show enough progress to stem eroding support in the United States for the war. New York Times: War Could Last Years, Commander Says NEARLY 23,000 IRAQIS KILLED IN '06: More than 17,000 Iraqi civilians and police officers died violently in the latter half of 2006, according to Iraqi Health Ministry statistics, a sharp increase that coincided with rising sectarian strife since the February bombing of a landmark Shiite shrine. In the first six months of last year, 5,640 Iraqi civilians and police officers were killed, but that number more than tripled to 17,310 in the latter half of the year, according to data provided by a Health Ministry official with direct knowledge of the statistics. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said those numbers remained incomplete, suggesting the final tally of violent deaths could be higher. Washington Post: War's Toll on Iraqis Put at 22,950 in '06 NCLB TURNS 5: A cornerstone of Bush's domestic agenda and one of his few truly bipartisan successes, it took what was once a fairly low-key funding vehicle (it was known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act before Bush borrowed the catchy name from the Children's Defense Fund) and turned it into a vast - and contentious - book of federal mandates. At its simplest, the law aims to improve the basic skills of the nation's public school children, particularly poor and minority students... The law turns 5 years old today. It faces a tough future as Congress prepares to reauthorize it - a group of 100 education, religion and civil rights leaders today announces an effort calling for "major changes." USA Today: How Bush education law has changed our schools DELUSIONAL DHS "STILL STIFFS" NYC, SAYS SCHUMER: Sen. Charles Schumer yesterday blasted the latest formula for allocating anti-terror funds to high-risk cities, and told the Department of Homeland Security that if it doesn't revise the process, the new Senate and House will. "DHS has a history of delusion," said Schumer (D-N.Y.). "Once again, [they are] shortchanging our city, the nation's No. 1 terrorist target." After being criticized for giving money to popcorn factories and petting zoos instead of high-profile sites like the Brooklyn Bridge, Homeland Security changed its formula for allocating funding. Yet, Schumer said, it still stiffs New Yorkers. New York Post: CHUCK 'TERROR' THREAT: MORE FUNDS - OR ELSE FAA, CRITICS SAY WORDING IN NEW ETHICS BILL MAY GO FURTHER THAN AUTHORS INTENDED: A dust-up over a key plank of the new Democratic House ethics package erupted late last week after Members lodged concerns that proposed corporate jet travel curbs go much further than their authors intended - even barring lawmakers from using their own personal airplanes. And while Democrats have defended the language, the Federal Aviation Administration agrees with the measure's critics that the wording may even go so far as to prohibit Member travel on all private and commercial aircraft. "As the rules are written," said FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette, "it seems that no Member can fly on any non-government airplane." Roll Call: Jet Travel Ban Launches Fight AFTER THREE DECADES, RANGEL GETS WAYS AND MEANS GAVEL: It is the committee that produced the Social Security and Medicare laws, that created the modern welfare state and reinvented it in the 1990s, that raised taxes and slashed them, again and again and again. No committee, arguably, has more power or attracts more lobbyists than the Committee on Ways and Means. House members sometimes wait for years for a seat on it, then for decades to rise in seniority. Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, joined the committee in 1975, and now, at the age of 76, has finally arrived at the very top. He takes the chairmanship of the 41-member panel, with a new majority of 24 Democrats, at a moment fraught with risk and possibility. New York Times: After Many Years, It's Rangel's Turn at the Helm PELOSI WEIGHS RAISING TAXES FOR RICHEST AMERICANS: Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. She spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending. "As we review what we get from... collecting our taxes and reducing waste, fraud and abuse, investing in education and in initiatives which will bring money into the Treasury, it may be that (repealing) tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be more important to the American people than ignoring the educational and health needs of America's children," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview aired Sunday. AP via Yahoo! News: Dems look at tax cuts for middle class CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS APPEAL FOR "GRAND COMPROMISE" ON IMMIGRATION: A number of leading Christian conservative groups have formed a coalition on immigration and illegal aliens that will push religiously grounded positions that both sides of the current immigration debate will both love and hate. In letters sent today and obtained by The Washington Times, Families First on Immigration urges President Bush and leaders of the new Democratic Congress to adopt a grand compromise on the divisive issue that includes strong border security, an amnesty for illegals already here who are relatives of citizens and an end to birthright citizenship. Former Republican presidential hopeful Gary Bauer, Deal Hudson of the Morley Institute for Church & Culture and David Keene of the American Conservative Union are among those who have joined forces to chart a new path on immigration reform, an issue that conservative Christians have generally avoided. Washington Times: Immigration debate gets religious CVC CONSTRUCTION NEARLY COMPLETE; GRAND OPENING EXPECTED IN '08: About 50 feet below the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, scores of workmen install polished marble, mahogany veneer and other finishing touches on what may qualify as one of America's most beautiful, and controversial, cellars. Two years after its scheduled opening date, and more than double its original price tag, the Capitol Visitor Center inches its way toward completion. "We'll essentially be done with construction in March," Architect of the Capitol Alan Hantman says. It will take at least six additional months to test more than 5,000 security alarms, sprinklers and other safety devices before the public can enter. USA Today: Capitol center nears completion BIDEN WILL FORM EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE: With his party in the majority and hearings in the works that could help make him a household name, Sen. Joe Biden reiterated to a national television audience Sunday that he will run for president. "I'll be Joe Biden and try to be the best Biden I can be," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press," responding to a question from host Tim Russert. "If I can, I've got a shot. If I can't, I lose."... Biden has already said in interviews that he intends to run for president. Sunday, however, was the first time he announced he was filing papers to form an exploratory committee, which would set the campaign in motion. Wilmington News Journal: Biden to take next step in '08 campaign |
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• Brownback to seek GOP presidential nomination• Biden will file presidential papers at the 'end of... • Problems in New York, Denver leave Dems scrambling... • Brownback to tour Middle East, Africa, Asia • Rice to testify on Iraq before Senate committee Th... • Gates shakes up U.S. command in Iraq • Obama concerned about troop increase without 'clar... • McCain weighs in on Brando, Monroe • Prominent abortion rights activist backs Edwards '... • McCain: Iraq troop surge must be 'significant and ... SUBSCRIBE
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