Much Ado About Tuesday

Jeff Shields writes for Knight Ridder Newspapers that "while White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby dominate the headlines, Abramoff remains - according to some observers - the Republican Party's most dangerous problem."

Here's a White House photo of Bush's meeting with Bongo. And here's a photo of Laura Bush hosting Mrs. Bongo in the Yellow Oval Room.

Torture Showdown

Kathy Kiely and John Diamond wonder in USA Today if the House will go along with the Senate and attach amendments to defense bills that would ban abusive treatment of detainees. "Bush has never vetoed a bill, but it's unclear if that prospect will be enough to persuade the House of Representatives to excise the ban."

In a Q and A , Diamond and Kiely do their best to answer one of the more perplexing questions in the matter:

"Q: Since Bush says we don't torture, why does he oppose the bill?

"A: The administration has said little publicly about the McCain proposal but the main objection appears to center on presidential power and prerogatives rather than an explicit desire to torture. Bush says he must have power to 'aggressively pursue' terrorists who may know about plans for attacks."

About Those Ethics Classes

Just trying to be helpful, I'm sure, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) yesterday sent White House Counsel Harriet Miers a series of questions and answers about the rules governing security clearances and the protection of classified information for possible inclusion in the ethics refreshers White House staff are taking this week. Among Waxman's proposed questions:

* "Is it appropriate for President Bush to wait until a criminal investigation is complete before taking action on security breaches?"

* "Is it appropriate for President Bush to allow White House officials to retain security clearances pending a leak investigation?"

* "Is it appropriate for President Bush to apply different security rules to White House officials than are applied to other federal officials?"

Meanwhile, even more helpfully, satirist Christopher Buckley writes an ethics-refresher skit for the New York Times op-ed pages.

Instructor: "I thought we'd start this morning with a situational exercise. Karl, suppose a reporter called you and said, 'I will write a very favorable article for my paper and make you look really good if you will tell me a super-duper classified national secret.' What would the correct thing to do be?' " Rove: "Tell him, 'Let me get back to you on that?' "