Red Alert! Where's the Captain?

The Fitness Angle

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "It was not the first time a crisis has focused uninvited attention on the Bush fitness routine. On a weekday morning in February 2001, when a gun-wielding man was shot outside the White House, it quickly emerged that Vice President Cheney was working in his office, while Bush was exercising in his residence."

Gallows Humor

From the briefing:

"MR. McCLELLAN: One more? One more, go ahead in the back.

"Q -- that the Secret Service has a pecking order of who they're going to save, the President, the First Lady and then the press would be -- (laughter) --

"Q Way down. (Laughter.)

"Q We might be below Barney and Ms. Beazley. (Laughter.)"

And:

"Q Was this the first time you had seen the interior of a secure location?

" MR. McCLELLAN: Again, I'm not going to go beyond just being moved to a secure location.

"Q Scott, is there a bathroom in the secure location?...

"MR. McCLELLAN: It's not the Greenbrier -- "

Bush Looks Back on Euopre

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush said Wednesday he was amazed to sit in Red Square this week and celebrate the end of World War II in Europe next to the leader of Russia, a nation that has become a friend of the United States."

Here's the transcript of the remarks he made before discussing the trip with members of Congress.

"Sitting in Red Square honoring the veterans of World War II was an amazing event. I remember as a kid watching the missiles parade through Red Square -- and here I sat as the President of the United States in Red Square, paying homage to people who died to defeat Nazism," he said.

"The lessons of World War II is to honor the sacrifice of those who helped us keep the peace, and to remember that the United States is always the beacon of freedom, and that when we find people living under tyranny we've got to work to free them in order to make the world more peaceful."

The Yalta Speech

Howard Fineman writes for MSNBC: "Bush (and Karl Rove) operate by escalating every policy debate into a matter of first principles and history. Bush thinks in black and white. His critique of Yalta, which critics regard as the product of simplistic ignorance, is no doubt his honestly-held view. But such sweeping pronouncements have a tactical purpose, too. They allow Bush and Rove to fight on their opponents' turf and avoid discussion of petty details of the present day. If you were Bush, which topic would you rather discuss: The Big Idea of global freedom or the messy, immediate facts on the ground in Iraq?"

The Wiggle Worth a Thousand Words

Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey write for Newsweek.com: "He came, he wiggled his hips, he conquered. For many people back home (and around the world), the pictures of George W. Bush trying to dance in Tbilisi, Georgia, looked ridiculous. But to many, many Georgians (and there were throngs of them welcoming Bush), they were an impossible dream come true: an American president, the most powerful man in the world, enjoying their hospitality and their history."

Here's video of the wiggle.

Wolffe and Bailey write: "Inside the White House, there is a heated debate about whether Bush should attend more cultural events on his foreign trips. . . .

"Opposing those aides -- and winning the debate for now -- are the Secret Service, local security and the president himself."

In a second item, Wolffe and Bailey write: "By narrowing the historical focus on the Baltics, the White House missed an enormous opportunity to revisit the war period."

Nancy Reagan

The former first lady was in town yesterday, staying at the White House and headlining a fundraising dinner for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Siobhan McDonough writes for the Associated Press: "Vice President Dick Cheney called her the 'very ideal of grace, loyalty and compassion,' and put a word in for her decorating tastes at the executive mansion. . . .

"Mrs. Reagan, 83, had a startling start to her day when a small plane strayed within three miles of the White House on Wednesday, leading to frantic evacuation of the executive mansion and the Capitol. She called the incident 'that little extra thing.' "

The Associated Press reports that in an earlier interview: "Mrs. Reagan acknowledged that she and President Bush still differ on stem cell research."

Jeremy Manier writes in the Chicago Tribune that a report on stem cell research to be released today by the President's Council on Bioethics is not likely to clear things up.

Social Security Watch

David Espo writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush's preferred approach for Social Security would mean smaller survivor benefits for middle and upper-income children and widows than they are now promised, a top administration official said Wednesday."

Or, as the New York Daily News headlines it: " Soc Sec plan cuts kids, widows."

Writes Espo: "Bush envisions no changes in the benefit system for the disabled, said Allan Hubbard, chairman of the National Economic Council and the administration's point man on Social Security. . . .

"At the same time, White House officials said during the day that about 15 percent of all retirees under Bush' plan would likely not be able to pass along a Social Security inheritance -- a figure that rises to 30 percent for those with lower lifetime wages. They would have to spend their entire personal account to make sure they remained out of poverty in their older years, according to tentative administration projections."

The Guest List

Judy Keen and Jim Drinkard write in USA Today: "About a third of the 152 adult guests who slept at the White House or Camp David last year were fundraisers or donors to President Bush's campaigns, but at least half of those also are family or old friends."

Here's the full list, from the Associated Press.

Today's Calendar

Bush meets with the presidents of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua in the Oval Office today, then makes a statement on the Central American and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement in the Rose Garden.

Edwin Chen writes in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush will pursue his top trade initiative today as he welcomes six Latin American leaders to the White House, but the trade agreement Bush seeks faces serious trouble in Congress and could be defeated by his fellow Republicans."

Memo Watch

John Daniszewski writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Reports in the British press this month based on documents indicating that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair had conditionally agreed by July 2002 to invade Iraq appear to have blown over quickly in Britain.

"But in the United States, where the reports at first received scant attention, there has been growing indignation among critics of the Bush White House, who say the documents help prove that the leaders made a secret decision to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein nearly a year before launching their attack, shaped intelligence to that aim and never seriously intended to avert the war through diplomacy."

Correspondents Watch

The New York Daily News reports: "Longtime NBC News reporter Kelly O'Donnell has been named White House correspondent for the network.

"She'll join NBC's chief White House correspondent, David Gregory, on the beat.

"O'Donnell replaces Norah O'Donnell, who will be the chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC and the 'Today' show."

Steve Kettmann interviews retiring New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent.

Kettmann: "The Times took a lot of heat about the 'White House Letter' articles by White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller. In one, she seemed to fawn over White House communications director Nicolle Devenish. In another, she wrote about Bush loving baseball. Why the uproar?"

Okrent: "What was interesting was, the criticism was from both sides. Bumiller could write a paragraph that would make the Bushies flip out. 'How could this person be so disrespectful of our president?' And in the same paragraph -- because it was not in the context of issues but of his personality or his hobbies -- the anti-Bushies would be screaming, 'How can you publish such tripe by someone who is so clearly in the Bush administration's pocket?' It was ridiculous. . . .

"[I]t's about the individual reader. If you really hate George Bush, you don't want to read about his hobbies or that he's nice to his friends or that he's good company at dinner."

Kettmann: "Or what he has on his iPod."

Okrent: "It just drives people who don't like him crazy. It would have been the same if there had been a 'White House Letter' about Clinton 10 years ago."

Darth Bush?

Ed Gonzalez writes in Slant Magazine: "I imagine that Revenge of the Sith is very much the film Lucas's fans want to see, but are some of them ready for an anti-Bush diatribe?"

Apparently: "Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) declares, 'Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes,' after Anakin says, 'If you're not with me, you're my enemy.' "

Darth Bush?

Ed Gonzalez writes in Slant Magazine: "I imagine that Revenge of the Sith is very much the film Lucas's fans want to see, but are some of them ready for an anti-Bush diatribe?"

Apparently: "Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) declares, 'Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes,' after Anakin says, 'If you're not with me, you're my enemy.' "