Former Insider Lashes Out

"Officials who know Mr. Libby say he was almost certainly trying to shield Mr. Cheney from Mr. Wilson's charges that the White House manipulated prewar intelligence on Iraq. What is unknown is whether Mr. Libby's conversations with reporters were done on impulse, or part of a larger, scripted White House effort to discredit and punish Mr. Wilson by disclosing that his wife, Valerie Plame, worked at the Central Intelligence Agency."

The Harder They Come, the Harder They Fall

Howard Fineman writes for Newsweek: "George W. Bush rose to power on the strength of a disciplined, aggressive, tightly-focused, leak-proof spin-machine -- one that took issue positions and stuck to them, divided the world (including the media) into friends and enemies, and steamrollered the opposition with ruthless skill while the candidate remained smilingly above the fray. Sure of his social skills but not of his speaking ability (let alone his ability to speak extemporaneously), Bush (and Karl Rove) learned to stick to their bullet-item talking points, to operate through surrogates, all the while steering the initial course they had set for themselves.

"But the machine they built may have run amok -- at least that seems to be what Fitzgerald is examining, as he looks at the leaking of Plame's identity and of other classified information.

"In essence, the Bush-Rove campaign machine was redeployed in the service of selling of the Iraq war and, later, in defense of that sale. Did they go over the line in doing so? We're about to find out.

"In the meantime (and in another twist on the poetic justice theme), the very discipline of the machine itself -- its short internal supply lines, the consistently-followed talking points, the focus on feeding friends and obliterating enemies -- could be helping Fitzgerald. Tightly-knit groups rise together, but they fall together. If the inner circle is small, it takes only one insider 'flip' to endanger the rest."

Cheney vs. CIA

Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten write in the Los Angeles Times: "For more than a decade, Dick Cheney has tussled with the CIA, first as secretary of Defense and later as vice president. Now that long and tortured history forms the backdrop of a federal probe into who named an undercover agency officer -- an inquiry that is centering in part on Cheney's office."

When Did the President Know?

Thomas M. DeFrank 's story in the New York Daily News yesterday -- reporting that Bush rebuked Rove two years ago for his role in the Plame affair -- caused quite a fuss.

Dana Bash reported on CNN: "Behind the scenes, senior Bush aides worked to squash the story. One called it total baloney, but a source familiar with internal White House political discussions tells CNN there's no question the president made clear to Rove he's disappointed in what became a bungled attempt to shape a press story about Iraq WMD."

Adam Entous writes for Reuters: "In a letter to Bush on Wednesday, Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, asked for details about the president's conversations with Rove after The New York Daily News reported that the president was initially furious with Rove when Rove conceded in 2003 that he had talked to the press about Wilson's wife.

"The Daily News account appeared to contradict assertions earlier this month by sources close to the case that Rove had kept his role from Bush, assuring him in a brief conversation in the fall of 2003 that he was not involved in any effort to punish Wilson by disclosing his wife's identity."

Filmmaker and blogger Michael Moore boiled down the reaction in the liberal blogosphere: "If George was angry, George knew. If George knew, George lied."

Bush and Bono

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "Before getting on stage before his fans in a Wednesday night concert, U2 frontman Bono bent President Bush's ear about the world's poor."

Bush in Cal-ee-forn-ya

After his Rose Garden appearance with the Palestinian president, Bush heads off to the troubled region of California.

George Skelton writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Don't expect to see happy photos of President Bush with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when the president visits Los Angeles tonight for a Republican fundraiser. The governor doesn't plan to go near the president. He's upset.

"Schwarzenegger is miffed because Bush is dipping into the California money pot less than three weeks before the governor's special election. Schwarzenegger still is tapping contributors for his own political needs, trying to salvage a 'reform' agenda crucial to his governorship and to him politically.

"Moreover, some within the Schwarzenegger camp complain, Bush's timing couldn't be worse politically. Democrats are trying to wrap the unpopular president around the governor's neck -- warning voters of a 'Bush-Schwarzenegger agenda' -- and in flies Air Force One, right into the state's largest media market."

Michael Finnegan writes for the Los Angeles Times: "Schwarzenegger . . . rejected Bush's invitation to join him Friday morning near Simi Valley to dedicate the new Air Force One exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Schwarzenegger said he could not attend because he and his staff were 'very busy in our campaigning up and down the state.' "

No Progress

Lois Romano writes in The Washington Post: "Reading scores among fourth- and eighth-graders showed little improvement over the past two years, and math gains were slower than in previous years, according to a study released yesterday. The disappointing results came despite a new educational testing law championed by the Bush administration as a way to improve the nation's schools. . . .

" 'No one can be satisfied with these results,' said Ross Wiener, policy director for the Education Trust, an advocacy organization that backed No Child."

Oh yeah?

"This is an encouraging report," Bush said in a hastily arranged media availability with President Bush and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. "It shows there's an achievement gap in America that is closing; that minority students, particularly in fourth grade math and fourth grade reading are beginning to catch up with their Anglo counterparts. And that's positive, and that's important."

Social Security Plan, RIP

Jackie Calmes writes the Wall Street Journal's obituary for Bush's Social Security initiative (subscription required) .

"How could it have gone so wrong?

"According to people on both sides of the battle over Social Security, Mr. Bush overestimated his postelection capital and underestimated his opposition."

Calmes identifies one key mistake: "Instead of privately wooing centrist Democrats whose support he badly needed, Mr. Bush appealed straight to their red-state constituents. That only stoked the enmity left by his 2002 and 2004 campaigning against moderate Democrats who had backed much of his first-term agenda.

"The White House did include North Dakota's Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad on Air Force One to Fargo, along with a couple of Republican lawmakers. For months, Bush aides would count Mr. Conrad as a potential backer. Yet it wasn't until April 20 -- with Mr. Bush's proposal plainly in peril, and allies clamoring for the president to get personally engaged -- that the senator was invited to meet with Mr. Bush privately. The two mostly talked baseball, says Mr. Conrad, who otherwise declines to describe the meeting. But he told others afterward, 'It was almost as if someone told him to do it, and he was just going through the motions.' . . .

"When Mr. Bush got to Omaha, Neb., waiting was Sen. Ben Nelson, perhaps his most reliable Democratic ally in the first term; the senator had been told of the event by a Nebraska Republican. Before 11,000 people, Mr. Bush called Mr. Nelson a Democrat 'who is willing to put partisanship aside to focus on what's right for America.'

"In the limousine afterward, Mr. Nelson said he, Mr. Bush and several others mostly gabbed about University of Nebraska football, and the president agreed to quit calling him 'Nellie' and to call him 'Benator' instead. The president hasn't talked to Mr. Nelson since."