The Domesticated President

"With a San Diego naval base as a backdrop Tuesday, the president was to praise World War II veterans in a speech two weeks after the anniversary of the Aug. 14, 1945, surrender by Japan that ended World War II."

Here is the text of White House spokesman Scott McClellan's gaggle on Air Force One yesterday.

"I think that there will be some comparisons there between the murderous ideology that we were -- that we joined together to defeat back in World War II and the murderous ideology that we're working to defeat today," McClellan said.

Valerie Plame Watch

A Financial Times commentary proposes "a new angle" on the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame "circulating inside the Justice Department."

"The mainstream media has focused on Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political guru, as the source of the original story identifying Plame," the FT writes.

Instead, the FT slyly raises questions about Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter currently in an Alexandria jail for refusing to reveal her sources.

Miller "published controversial articles on Iraq's effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction. . . .

"Plame herself is a CIA operative who also specialised in weapons of mass destruction and bio-terrorism. So did Miller get to know Plame while she was writing her book or even use her as a source for other WMD stories?"

Where's Arnold?

It's not clear precisely who's avoiding who.

But as Beth Fouhy writes for the Associated Press about Bush's trip to California: "Conspicuously absent is a meeting with the state's most prominent Republican political figure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. . . .

"A statewide poll released last week by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California held bad news for both leaders. Only 38 percent of respondents said they approve of the job President Bush is doing in office. Schwarzenegger's job approval was just 34 percent."

A View on the Press Corps

Actress/novelist/playwright/essayist Cintra Wilson infiltrated the White House press corps last month.