Right Urges Showdown With Democrats Over Judicial Nominees

On Friday, Snow offered White House scribes details on Operation Phantom Thunder, which is what the military is calling the recent troop increase in Iraq. "Coalition forces have found, cleared or dismantled nearly 600 weapons caches, more than 1,300 IEDs, more than 25 vehicle-borne IEDs and eight factories for building IEDs -- again, since June 15th," Snow assured reporters.

Snow's Pentagon-style briefings came as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker and other administration officials said it will take some time to measure the results of the troop increase, although many in Congress want results soon.

"What we're doing is mounting a campaign for people actually to find out what's going on, on the ground," Snow said. "Quite often, the only narrative they get are pictures of exploding VBIEDs."

Feaver Leaving NSC

After two years at the White House as a strategic adviser on national security, Peter D. Feaver is heading back to Duke University to teach international relations. Feaver was a key player at the National Security Council in the past two years on a variety of policies, including President Bush's latest National Security Strategy and the Iraq war review that led to this year's troop buildup.

Feaver, 45, is one of the few people who worked on the National Security Council staff under both Bush and President Bill Clinton. His work helped inform the White House's futile attempts to rally the majority of Americans behind the Iraq war. As he packed up his office on Friday, he told my colleague Peter Baker that he is leaving because his two-year leave from Duke is over.

But he hopes to remain part of the national discussion on Iraq.

"I'm engaged by the public debate that's going on about Iraq, which I think is very important and very fateful for the country," Feaver said. He added: "I have a feeling my academic colleagues will be studying this period for the rest of my life."

Moving On . . .

President Bush last week announced the impending departure of Liza Wright, the director of presidential personnel. The holder of that job helps hire (and occasionally fire) the nearly 4,000 political appointees working at the White House and various federal agencies. Wright is scheduled to leave by the end of next month.

Chubby Detainees at Guantanamo Bay?

Presidential adviser Karl Rove spent more than an hour on the griddle this month as Walter Isaacson, president and chief executive of the Aspen Institute, grilled him on a range of controversial topics during Aspen's Ideas Festival in Colorado.

Rove did not waver as he defended the war in Iraq, the president's energy policy and Bush's failed immigration proposal.

Rove said that while the president would like to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he called it "a necessary component of the war on terror." As for reports of prisoner abuse there, Rove was dismissive. "Our principal health problem down there is gain of weight, we feed them so well," he said, eliciting groans from the audience.