Much Ado About Tuesday

Briefing: On the Defensive

Here's the transcript of yesterday's relatively sedate press briefing by Scott McClellan.

McClellan denied that Tuesday's election results were any sort of referendum on the presidency -- or the least bit alarming.

"I don't think any thorough analysis of the election results will show that the elections were decided on anything other than local and state issues and the candidates and their agendas. That's what I think," he said.

And he went to great pains to try to prevent Voice of America reporter Paula Wolfson from reading aloud from this section of the U.S. criminal code.

The Chalabi Visit

Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi politician, is in town. He met yesterday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley; he meets on Monday with Cheney.

Robin Wright writes in The Washington Post: "Chalabi remains a lightning rod for the Iraq war. An FBI probe into allegations that Chalabi provided highly sensitive U.S. intelligence to Iran -- involving U.S. intelligence breaking a secret Iranian code for transmitting encrypted messages -- is still 'open and active,' FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. . . .

"In one of several expressions of concern about Chalabi's visit on Capitol Hill, three Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday wrote Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to press for Chalabi to sit down with FBI investigators rather than meet Cabinet members. Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) and Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) asked Gonzales if the FBI would be interviewing Chalabi about the Iran allegations, and whether the attorney general had advised the White House about the appropriateness of meeting with Chalabi."

Karl Rove Watch

Finally: Proof that Karl Rove can in fact be embarrassed.

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts write in The Washington Post that "a sexy Arab dancer" made Rove "turn as red as her veil" last night at a dinner for Gen. Peter Pace, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hosted by Kuwaiti Ambassador Salem Sabah.

Tonight, Rove is the dinner speaker at the Federalist Society's annual convention.

Whither Tax Reform?

Ryan J. Donmoyer writes for Bloomberg about the upcoming debate on whether and how to make an overhaul of the tax code the centerpiece of the Republican agenda in 2006.

"Republican congressional leaders don't want to confront voters in an election year with hard choices such as trimming homeownership tax breaks to help abolish the alternative minimum tax, as a presidential panel has recommended, according to strategists. Their uncertainty is magnified by a lack of guidance from Bush's administration, which hasn't commented on its panel's recommendations. . . .