January 2007 - Posts
Earlier this month, American forces in Iraq raided an Iranian facility in the Kurdish city of Irbil. Documents and computer files seized in that raid indicate that the facility was being used by members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an operation to provide money and weapons to various Shia militia groups in Iraq. The weapons include advanced improvised explosive devices, mortars, newer generation rocket propelled grenades and shoulder-fired surface to air missiles. The advanced IED’s have already killed American troops, and mortars allegedly traceable to Iran have been used in attacks on Sunni areas of Baghdad.
Is the IRGC operating in Kurdish northern Iraq? Of course they are - they’ve been there since at least 1991. Soon after the Iraqi defeat in Kuwait, IRGC officers conducted clandestine and covert operations in the southern Shia area and the northern Kurdish area, and have been active there ever since.
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UPDATED WITH VIDEO
While Ari Fleischer’s testimony about a July 7, 2003 lunch with Libby appears to be the most dramatic testimony against Libby so far, inside the courtroom this has also been the first time in the trial we’ve noticed every juror/alternate appearing to write down everything the witness is saying. Fleischer is answering his questions by looking at the jury as he responds, and as Fleischer testified about being told by Scooter Libby over lunch that “Ambassador Wilson was sent (to Niger) by his wife, she works at the CIA, and she works in the CIA’s Counter Proliferation Division,” all of the jurors/alternates were writing in their notebooks. A few minutes later, during another question, the jurors all looked down and wrote in their notebooks again when Fleischer said, “The information about Wilson’s was wife was news to me. It was the first time I had ever heard it.”
Watch Shuster's report from Hardball
Recent media reports indicate that the Bush administration has given new instructions to American forces across the Middle East on how to deal with Iranian operatives. No more catch and release – now the orders are to capture or kill them. It’s about time.
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Does what happen in Vegas really stay in Vegas?
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In the prosecution effort to prove that Scooter Libby knew about Valerie Wilson before he spoke with reporters... prosecutors today introduced their first document into evidence establishing that Libby knew the name “Valerie Wilson” in June 2003. This followed the testimony of two other government officials (another at the CIA and an undersecretary of state who testified they told Libby about Valerie Wilson in early June 2003.)
The document shows the handwritten notes of Scooter Libby’s morning CIA briefer Craig Schmall from June 14, 2003. Schmall testified that he wrote down notes on the table of contents for the daily brief that reflect either “reaction” from Libby to issues presented, questions the CIA needed to answer or “feedback.”
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By Jonathan Alter, Newsweek senior editor
Something unprecedented happened tonight, beyond the doorkeeper announcing, “Madame Speaker.” For the first time ever, the response to the State of the Union overshadowed the president’s big speech. Virginia Sen. James Webb, in office only three weeks, managed to convey a muscular liberalism-with personal touches-that left President Bush’s ordinary address in the dust. In the past, the Democratic response has been anemic—remember Washington State Governor Gary Locke? This time it pointed the way to a revival for national Democrats.
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By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., On Energy:
"He raised the bar even beyond what some folks like us thought was possible. The reality is that we have to end our dependence on foreign oil. It’s a security threat and the president recognizes that. This is very, very good news. Now we have to convert it to reality.”
Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., On Iraq:
"The president would have talked about many of the things he spoke about five years ago. The buildup to the war and the 20,000 troops he’s going to send was new. I know the public is strongly against that and a lot in the Hispanic community are against that notion. I think he needs to do a lot more rethinking and talk to all of us.”
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., On Sacrifice:
"The speech was flat. It didn’t have a sense of vision or where we’re going as a nation, as a people. He didn’t ask the American people to sacrifice, to give up anything. The only people giving up something are the young men and young women serving in Iraq.”z
Was President Bush sincere in his call for bipartisanship? Sen. Hillary Clinton told Chris Matthews “the jury is still out.” Clinton was more decisive on the president’s plan for Iraq. “I don’t think it’s going to sell,” she said.
You can read the full transcript after the fold....
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By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., On Iraq:
”Either we get out of Iraq or we do what people have been asking for a long time. New leadership and a new strategy. We have new leadership, we have a new strategy. The last thing I think we want is for Congress to micromanage the war. We have one commander in chief.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. On Economy & Immigration:
"I appreciated that the president talked about the economy first—that he brought attention to the issue of spending. This is an administration that has spent too much. I’m concerned that he wants comprehensive immigration reform because I don’t agree with him on that. I think you secure the borders first, then you address your visa issues and your employer issues, but you do it one step at a time.”
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., On Being ‘Underwhelmed:’
"I’m underwhelmed. He didn’t really say anything new. We want some answers. I’m not convinced that he has his arms around [the war]. I left kind of disappointed that we didn’t really hear a president who could convince us that he really was in charge of this war.”
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
The view from Statuary Hall, where members of Congress file out after the State of the Union speech, can best be described as an intensely chaotic popularity contest. Television reporters fighting print reporters for a moment of a key lawmaker’s time. Spotlights glaring. Cameras rolling. Reporters can be seen straining mightily over the velvet rope separating the journalistic masses from waves of lawmakers. Tape recorders dangle from our fingertips as we get that perfect sound bite. For few minutes early in the rush, someone flipped the power off. TV folks were horrified but us print guys didn’t miss a beat. The lights and cameras came back on, and the buzz grew to a dull roar.
By Tucker Carlson
What’s Nancy Pelosi so mad about? You think she’d be in a pretty good mood, sitting in the speaker’s chair, listening as the president sucks up to her. But for much of the night, she’s looked grouchy, like she’d just informed a class full of kindergartners that, no, they may not be excused to use the bathroom. Maybe grumpiness is just her default emotion. Maybe that’s how she got to be speaker in the first place. Memo to the Democratic caucus: Find someone else to do PR.
By Chuck Todd
“If he does not, we will be showing him the way...”
That last line by Webb was one of the tougher Dem responses we’ve seen the last six years. It was confrontational; it’s not going to go over well with the folks in the West Wing.
Democrats and President Bush abandon the Republican Radicals - Can Triangulation be a good thing?
Democrats want to show this country they can lead and Chris Matthews just hit the nail right on the head. There ARE issues on which Democrats may agree with the president while members of his own party will remain staunchly opposed to action. Democrats should go for it. On Immigration, on Healthcare, on Education and on Energy.
Democrats have nothing to lose by trying to find common ground while keeping firm to their core values. The president has no ability to really LEAD on these issues. But he can help the process and sign the bills into law.
If Democrats want their base to be happy, they will stand firm and help bring an end to the war in Iraq while they work with the president on the issues he raised tonight and cannot possibly achieve on his own ...but neither can they achieve them without him.
By Chuck Todd
No one can say that Bush’s speech didn’t reflect the gravity of the situation the country is in re: Iraq. He was serious; he was almost smirkless; But it was simply language; he still needs to figure out some way to agree to something the Democrats want on Iraq so as to stop having the Iraq War being viewed as a “Republican War.” He still seems to be in the mode of wanting to prove (or is it plead?) that his way is still the right way in Iraq. Why he doesn’t call the Democrats’ bluff on Iraq is beyond me. This stubbornness on this issue, in political terms, is toxic for the Republican Party going into 2008.
This speech won’t go down in presidential history; but at least there wasn’t a “mission to Mars” challenge. All-in-all, I go back to my original suggestion: the White House should have punted the SOTU this year. Bush needs to consume the Iraq issue the way the war has consumed his presidency.
By Tucker Carlson
It’s repulsive to watch Democrats who hate Bush for a living beg for his autograph as he leaves the chamber. Get some self respect.
If U.S. forces leave Iraq, the flawed but fundamentally pro-American government will fall, and the country—possibly the region—will explode. That was the truest, most important thing Bush said tonight. Yes, he’s a flawed messenger. But it’s hard to argue with the message. Those who say we ought to withdraw troops immediately ought to explain why they believe otherwise.
By Joe Scarborough inside the chamber
Don’t know how it looks on TV but the President looks more in control and confident in person tonight than he has in any of the State of the Unions I have seen from this great chamber.
Not bad for a man with his back against the wall. Members applauding the president as he is leaving the hall agreed it was one of his best.
By Chuck Todd
Bush is giving one of his better speeches; Very few smirks; he’s forceful; on the body language front: it’s one of his better performances.
By Chuck Todd
Since the POTUS decided to insert an NBA break into his speech, I figured I’d update folks on what many of us Wizards fans thought would be a great game to attend. Bush’s SOTU in DC was up against the Wizards-Suns game. Well, the Suns whooped the Wizards, 127-105. Speaking of the NBA and Mutumbo, the Wizards could really use a shot blocker of Dikembe’s caliber.
By Tucker Carlson
“We advance our own interests by helping reformers and advocates for democracy”? That was Bush’s position on the Middle East immediately after 9-11 and, remarkably, it remains his position. He said it again tonight. But can he actually mean it? Would it really “advance our interests” to have a democratically-elected government in Saudi Arabia? In Egypt? In nuclear-armed Pakistan? In every case, democracy would all but guarantee the election of Islamic lunatics who hate us. Those countries and others (Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar) would likely become dangerous enemies overnight. Bush’s democracy doctrine—it sounds good if you don’t think about it very long. And apparently he hasn’t.
Imagine that you’re John McCain. You’re running for president for the second time, and this time you’re widely considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Knowing that, you’ve got to expect that whomever is directing the television coverage of tonight’s speech is going to point the camera your way. You’re going to be on primetime TV, no doubt. With that in mind, you’re going to want to stay awake. If you’re McCain, who will be over 70 by 2008, you’ll want to make doubly sure to demonstrate your alertness and vigor. You definitely won’t want to slump in your seat, out cold, when Bush starts talking about Iraq. And yet that’s exactly what McCain did tonight, napping on camera for ten agonizing seconds. Lack of self-control? An expression of contempt? Embarrassing in any case.
The president doesn’t get very far by suggesting that only some people in the Chamber understand what is at stake in Iraq. He actually said that?
Dick Cheney’s glasses are crooked on his face. Speaker Pelosi’s facial don’t really hide her true feelings very well. Should they? Nah.
By Mike Barnicle
The weight of the war is in the president's voice tonight. He has become, over time, another casualty of the choice he made to invade Iraq. His weariness is evident. He wears the toll on his face, his graying hair evidence of the stress and strain and heartache he lives with each day when he is presented with the toll of dead and maimed. Across the land tonight, the state of the union is questioning and troubled because of this mismanaged fight George Bush began in places like Baghdad and Fallujah where the noblest among us - those who wear the uniform of our country - are being used as pawns in a civil war that has its roots in dusty centuries of the past.
First, a tip of the hat. The President’s salute to Nancy Pelosi was clever and classy.
But he just has no credibility talking about domestic problems in this country. The President wants a balanced budget and no tax increases. He says he wants to offer health insurance tax deductions for people - though most people who need insurance don’t make enough money to take advantage of the tax credit. Presumably, he is doing it this way because he thinks direct reimbursement of providing health insurance would be too expensive. He wants to reauthorize the “No Child Left Behind Act’ for education though he doesn’t want to give the schools any more money. Presumably that’s too expensive. He wants energy independence but won’t increase the royalties paid by oil companies for extracting oil on federal land or suggest new federal subsidies for alternative fuels. Presumably that’s too expensive.
How expensive? For the cost of the war today in Iraq, we could fund a significant portion of the above and still have money left. We could give universal pre-school for every child in this country and cover their health care costs - and still have money left. We could double health research for Cancer, AIDS and heart disease and still have money left. We could add to that a tripling of funds we have given to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and still have money left. And what? You say what about national secuirty because of the terrrist threat? Oh yes, we could also fund port screening, and rail and ship carrier screenings and other first responder needs.
If our national domestic priorities were truly meaningful for the President, they wouldn’t be too expensive.
The Democratic response from Senator Webb needs to applaud the President for putting domestic issues back on the agenda and not let him get away with shortcutting a rational explanation about his goals and exit strategy for Iraq. And then Democrats need to show the country why we have sought their leadership in the Congress once again. And Jim Webb needs to pull out his best story telling face.
By Joe Scarborough inside the chamber
I just saw the wave sweep through the United States Congress.
As President Bush called for affordable health care, Democrats swept to their feet at once cheering wildly. Republicans sat frozen in their chairs, but only for a few seconds. Soon enough a GOP member figured that keeping health care costs low might not be such a bad idea. Row by row Republican congressmen and senators jumped to their feet as the wave swept from my left to right.
Democrats reacted similarly when the President called for balancing the budget without raising taxes. On that issue, GOP members shouted with joy while Democrats sat stubbornly in their seats. But soon enough, they lumbered to their feet figuring that being seen as the party of higher taxes might not be good for maintaining their majority status. Again, the wave swept across the hall but this time from right to left.
And then President Bush began explaining the details of his health care plan. Looking across the room, I saw just how contageous a yawn could be. It swept from the floor to the press galary. One young reporter looked as if he would slump over the railing and land on the Speaker’s podium if the President stayed on the subject a minute longer.
Fortunately for the young man and Mrs. Pelosi, Mr. Bush moved on.
By Chuck Todd
Was that just John McCain looking at his Blackberry instead of listening to Bush?
By Tucker Carlson
Bio diesel! Bush said it. And suddenly the Kucinich connection is clear. Kucinich was the only presidential candidate in the 2004 primaries whose campaign bus was powered by bio diesel. It was an old school bus, as I remember. I saw it putt by in Manchester during the New Hampshire primary one day. Its exhaust smelled like Dunkin’ Donuts. For that reason alone, I support bio diesel.
“Renewable fuels.” That’s a euphemism for ethanol, the corn-based gasoline so dear to the corporate farmers of the Midwest. When Bush announced that the federal government will encourage the use of (read: provide more subsidies for) ethanol, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa looked like he’d hit the lotto. Which he had.
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
I won’t be one of those bloggers who counts the rounds of applause tonight... but one of the first deafening clapfests came when President Bush said Congress should help the healthcare community by protecting “good doctors from junk lawsuits by passing medical liability reform.” Immigration reform also got a lengthy hand-slapping.
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
As President Bush kicked off his big speech tonight, he welcomed new members of the House and Senate and gave a noticeable little smirk when he congratulated the Democratic-led majority. He paused then continued: “Congress has changed, but our responsibilities have not. Each of us is guided by our own convictions—and to these we must stay faithful.”
By Chuck Todd
I wonder how many members of Congress realized, when combing their hair and touching up their face tonight, that more folks would be watching them in HDTV than ever before? Call me superficial, but there are some things that just weren’t meant for HDTV... the SOTU is one of them.
By Tucker Carlson
Of all the Members of Congress Bush greeted on his way into the chamber, none held on longer than Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democrat and vegan of Ohio. Bush kept smiling, but with his hands he seemed to be struggling to get away. Kucinich is obviously stronger than he looks, though, and Bush was forced to listen to whatever he said. I’m not much of a lip-reader, though I’d bet Kucinich, a veteran presidential candidate himself, was offering advice. I’d give a week’s salary to know what it was.
“Eliminate the federal deficit in the next five years”? “Restrain the appetite of the federal government”? “Balance the federal budget”? All worthy, conservative goals. Ironic that it’s taken the election of a Democratic Congress to get Bush to focus on them.
Bush is still making the case for school choice: “The right of children stuck in failing schools to choose someplace better.” Good for him. It’s a worthy idea, and a popular one with urban parents who can’t afford private school. What exactly is the argument against it? There much of one. It hasn’t passed on the federal level because the teachers’ unions, the only people in America who have a vested interest in the current monopoly, oppose it. And Democrats take many millions in campaign contributions from the teachers’ unions. Fifty years from now, it’ll be obvious Bush was right.
By Mike Barnicle
Someone just told me that someone named Tom Tancredo is running for president. He is a Republican congressman. His big issue is border security. The President is talking about his big issue and I am thinking of how many Americans would try to crash the border and escape to Canada is this Tancredo ever won.
By Chuck Todd
Poor Ron Wyden, he’s the senator who was just standing next to a very well-groomed and tanned John Kerry. Of course, Kerry may simply be ready for his live shot.
By Mike Barnicle
What’s the deal? What’s going on here? Do all these people get into to hear this speech after flashing a secret de-coder ring at the door? Bush just mentioned eliminating something called ‘earmarks’ - a legislative trick where members of congress act like pigs and get millions of tax dollars for useless projects back home - and the TV shots of the crowd showed Dick Cheney and several other pols winking and nodding as if they know the rest of us, the rubes back home, will never catch on to the fact they will do nothing to control their political greed.
By Chuck Todd
Any chance advisers to Nancy Pelosi had a conversation with her about facial expressions?
By Joe Scarborough
As the President entered the room an old friend sprinted for the exit.
“It sucks being in the minority. I’m going to the cloak room.”
He wasn’t alone. More than a few GOP members groused about the first female speaker that the President tipped his hat at the top of the speech.
Mr. Bush set the right tone off the top and actually looks better and more relaxed than he has in the four other state of the union speeches I have seen.
Maybe being in the minority will liberate him in a way it did Bill Clinton in 1996. Little comfort for the GOP House members seething in their seats.
By Joe Scarborough
Walking on the floor of Congress on the night of the President’s State of the Union is like nothing in American politics. Looking around now I see the top presidential contenders for 2008, the Chief Justice of the United States, the first woman Speaker in US history and scores of old friends.
It feels like a high school reunion with very powerful classmates that stuck around the campus for another five years or so.
Republicans are in a surly mood and for good reason. The president they will hear tonight has put them in the minority for the foreseeable future and that is bad news for House members. But one senator told me he liked his new status.
“The Senate rules are so screwed up that we have more power in the minority than when we were in power.”
And so it goes in Washington’s screwed up world.
By Chuck Todd
Wanna piss off an elected Democrat? Call them members of the “Democrat” Party and not Democratic as Bush just did. Keep track of how many times he says “Democrat” in lieu of “Democratic.”
By Mike Barnicle
Math has never been my strong suit. And I have difficulty balancing my check book. But you don't have to be Stephen Hawking to figure out that A. Nancy Pelosi's outfit cost more than the average American paid for their first home and B. there is a pretty high degree of difficulty involved in balancing the federal budget yet the leader of the free world just told us, "We can do so without raising taxes." And half the people in the hall - Bush's half -stood and cheered.
Huh?
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
Earmarks really irk President Bush. In his State of the Union speech, the president noted that special interest items are often stealthily slipped into bills “when not even C-SPAN is watching.” As if C-SPAN could keep track. In 2005, the number of earmarks grew to more than 13,000 worth an estimated $1.8 billion. Bush said over 90 percent of the pork never makes it to the House or Senate floor. The language is tucked into committee reports “that are not even part of the bill that arrives on my desk,” Bush bemoaned. “The time has come to end this practice.”
Lawmakers seem to be a step ahead of the president. One of the first orders of business in the new Congress was the House adoption of rules that put new restrictions on earmarks. Those pork plugs will be in effect for the duration of the 110th Congress. The Senate followed suit in amending its operations.
To underscore the problem, watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste identified 9,963 pork projects costing $29 billion in the 11 fiscal 2006 appropriations bills. They included $1 million for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C.
By Chuck Todd
Good for Bush. Say what you want about him, there’s still an active personal charm gene. That Pelosi intro was well done.
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
Maybe I’m still reeling from the Golden Globes, but I would be remiss if I didn’t engage in some “red carpet” musings as lawmakers and dignitaries file into the chamber. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a carefully coiffed hairdo, was decked out in a muted grayish pantsuit and seemed ready to turn on the charm.
Vice President Dick Cheney looked dapper in his navy blue suit with white shirt and purplish patterned tie. His wife donned a classic but boxy off-white number. Illinois Democrat Barack Obama, a presidential hopeful in 2008, flashed a bright smile and gave hearty handshakes as he arrived.
Laura Bush showed up wearing a classy magenta suit with gold buttons and her husband, the star of the show, entered wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt and light blue tie—a classic look for the commander in chief.
The nine Supreme Court justices filed in wearing slimming black robes. Now that’s predictable.
By NBC's Adam Verdugo
Members of opposite parties, casually they walked side by side- one, all but officially running for president, the other, on the verge of making his first major political speech. As I deboarded the underground subway beneath the Capitol building, excited about covering my first State of the Union, Senators John McCain and Jim Webb were walking together - by themselves, absent their respective staffers. They were conversing, collegially. Both had relaxed postures. At one point McCain patted Webb on the back, perhaps to wish him luck for the task that lay before him, or perhaps McCain was sending well wishes to his son.
Now, standing anxiously idle with my media cohorts (probably close to 200 of us), I see the entrance of the House chamber about 50 yards away. In just a few moments, for the first time in history, we will hear the words ‘madame (italics) speaker, the president of the united states.’
Not bad for my first.
By Chuck Todd
Stray thought... Considering the negative vibe the country can’t seem to shake when it comes to Bush right now, thanks mostly to Iraq, one wonders why the White House even bothered with a SOTU. In fact, here’s a thought: imagine if the president announced that he was scrapping the traditional SOTU and instead was asking for 15 min of prime time each week to update the country on the progress (or lack thereof) in Iraq.
By canceling the SOTU, it would have shaken the average citizen into thinking Bush now realizes Iraq has consumed his presidency. In fact, it may have sent the message that Bush knows Iraq is such an anchor, he’s going forego the window dressing of domestic legislation and instead consume himself with Iraq.
Bottom line: this SOTU has the potential for being the least impactful of Bush’s presidency, so why not use the country’s personal disinterest in listening to Bush right now and instead try for a grand gesture to buy some credibility on Iraq.
Curious what others think of this idea. It couldn’t have hurt, right?
By Mike Barnicle
Let's get right to it. Bush, the poor guy, is living in a state of delusion. He's acting and talking more and more like the nutty uncle who shows up at family holiday parties and has everyone taping their eyebrows open as he bores them to near-death with the same old, tired routine year after year after year.
Here he is again, a tragic and needless war being fought in Iraq, a war that has taken over 3000 of our best and many thousands more Iraqis, a war that has diverted our energy and resources from the larger war on global terror and the President of the United States stands on the floor of the House and actually says, "We can work through our differences."
This, after nearly seven years when the people around him have spent unusual amounts of energy trashing or ignoring anyone who disagreed or even sought to discuss the obvious differences that divide the nation.
By Colleen King, Hardball producer
Asecurity detail came through the hall and the camera flash bulbs started going off. All of a sudden Vice President Cheney walked quietly past all of the reporters (we are standing behind velvet ropes). He was wearing a dark suit and smiling. Dozens upon dozens of senators followed him in line, in pairings you might not expect: VT Sen. Patrick Leahy talking with Ohio Sen. George Voinovich. Senators Snowe and Landrieu side by side. Texas Republican John Cornyn chatting with John Kerry.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski walked in with Sen. Ben Cardin, and between them was Sen. John Warner. Mikulski said: The Democrats are protecting John Warner!”
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
An interesting array of guests will keep First Lady Laura Bush company tonight in her box at the State of the Union.
Guests include: Julie Aigner-Clark, founder of the Baby Einstein Company; Wesley Autrey, the construction worker who leapt onto the New York City subway tracks to save a man who had fallen after having a seizure; Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation; Suzanne Lewis, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park; Dikembe Mutombo, a center for the Houston Rockets professional basketball team; and Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
This might make for an intersting game of "six degrees of separation."
Wheew! Just got off air from Hardball and it is hard for me to admit but I could barely get a word in edgewise between Chris, John Harwood and Jonathan Alter - all smart and fast.
So what, Chris asked, is the story from the State of the Union tonight? Jonathan made a great point - usually a president goes to foreign affairs issues to unite a country because domestic affairs can be so divisive. Tonight, President Bush is going to try the opposite.
Will it work?
I don’t think so. Because the biggest takeaway from tonight’s speech to Congress just may be the line of Republicans waiting at the microphones in order to distance themselves from the president’s latest plans for Iraq. Yes, the Democrats have come out in united opposition to increasing the number of troops sent to Iraq. But the really interesting and I believe definitive problem is that thoughtful Republican leaders like Sen. John Warner, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee and Sen. Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee are drafting a resolution to try and stop the president’s plans.
In the green room, Andy Card (former Chief of Staff to President Bush) told me that this won’t bother the president as much as we might think. Because this president, Andy said, is perfectly comfortable being totally alone if he is convinced he is right. He will be lonely tonight, for sure.
Check back at 9 p.m. ET when Joe Scarborough, Tucker Carlson, Hilary Rosen, Mike Barnicle, Chuck Todd and other experts will live blog the State of the Union address right here on Hardblogger.
In the meantime, go to MSNBC.com's special section for full coverage on the president's speech, and comment to this post with your own thoughts about the current state of the nation.
By Andrew Noyes, National Journal's Beltway Blogroll
White House spokesman Tony Snow told bloggers with “a wonkish inclination” this afternoon that the first half of President Bush’s State of the Union speech would focus on domestic policy and the second half would address foreign issues.
The president tonight will not spend much time on “the way forward in Iraq,” which he spoke publicly about last week, Snow said on a conference call with about 25 Internet pundits. But he will emphasize that the Democratic-led Congress has a chance to work with the White House “to get stuff done.”
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