Is Bush Losing Congress?

"The presidential message has not changed for months. Bush has delivered it on national television and gave it again Wednesday as he stood just outside the Oval Office."

The New Number Two?

Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball write for Newsweek.com: "U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terrorist--described by President Bush today as the 'second-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraq'--was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming.

"In a brief Rose Garden appearance Wednesday morning, Bush seized on the killing of Abu Azzam by joint U.S-Iraqi forces in a shootout last Sunday as fresh evidence that the United States is turning the tide against the Iraqi insurgency. . . .

"But veteran counterterrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said today there are ample reasons to question whether Abu Azzam was really the No. 2 figure in the Iraqi insurgency. He noted that U.S. officials have made similar claims about a string of purportedly high-ranking terrorist operatives who had been captured or killed in the past, even though these alleged successes made no discernible dent in the intensity of the insurgency.

" 'If I had a nickel for every No. 2 and No. 3 they've arrested or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'd be a millionaire,' says Kohlmann, a New York-based analyst who tracks the Iraq insurgency and who first expressed skepticism about the Azzam claims in a posting on The Counterterrorism Blog."

The General's New Tune

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "The top U.S. commander in Iraq backed away on Wednesday from his prediction that a substantial pullout of U.S. troops could begin by next spring, as the White House undertakes a new campaign to win public support for the war effort.

"Gen. George Casey's latest assessment came as President Bush -- down in the polls and criticized for his hurricane response -- starts to turn his focus back to the fight against terrorism and to Iraq, the issues that helped him win re-election last year."

As part of the blitz, "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney plan speeches on Iraq in the next few days, followed by a presidential address in Washington on Oct. 6. . . .

"Cheney's speech is planned for Monday from Camp Lejeune, a Marine base in North Carolina. Rice plans to address some of the administration's political opponents Friday at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs."

The Medicaid Rebellion

Jonathan Weisman writes in The Washington Post: "Pressed hard by Gulf state governors, senators from both political parties warned the White House yesterday to drop its opposition to a proposed expansion of Medicaid for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and devastated states -- or face a potentially embarrassing political rout."

Mary Curtius writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt outlined the administration's opposition to [Republican Sen. Charles E.] Grassley's healthcare proposal in a letter to Senate leaders Tuesday, calling it 'inadvisable' and a duplication of administration efforts.

"Leavitt's criticism triggered an unusual outburst and a rare threat from the normally taciturn Iowa senator at Wednesday's hearing.