Bush Meets Blacks Behind Closed Doors

Q: "Is it more so about lessons learned, or is it into concrete details of solutions --

"MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, this is a meeting -- the President has met with African American leaders on a frequent basis, and this was a meeting that was set up mutually -- in a mutual way. I think that everybody who helped set up this meeting agreed that we'd keep it a private discussion. And if there's anything else to add after it, I'll be glad to do that. I'll be attending the meeting here shortly, if I can get out of this room in time.

"Q Well, why private when it's been so public, all the problems that have happened --

"MR. McCLELLAN: Because a lot of times you can discuss shared priorities and how to move forward on those better in a quiet way. And I think the decision was just made that this would be a private discussion."

Fitzgerald Watch

Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei write in The Washington Post: "A special prosecutor questioned Time magazine reporter Viveca Novak under oath yesterday about a conversation she had with the attorney for presidential adviser Karl Rove that has become part of the CIA leak investigation, according to a top editor at the magazine.

"In another twist, the lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, was deposed on the same issue last Friday, a source close to the case said."

What's is Rove's vulnerability here? In case you've forgotten: "For more than a year after the investigation began, Rove failed to reveal to the FBI and the grand jury that he had privately told another reporter for Time, Matthew Cooper, about the CIA role of undercover operative Valerie Plame."

David Johnston writes in the New York Times: "Jim Kelly, Time's managing editor, said Ms. Novak's account of her testimony, in a deposition, would appear in the magazine on Monday."

Politics and the Troops

Greg Kelly of Fox News is pursuing a story no one else seems to want to touch. On Tuesday, he filed this report: "Twice last month in speeches to military audiences, the president attacked Democrats and fired back at their accusations that pre-war intelligence was manipulated by his administration. . . .

"The attacks against critics at military settings may have put troops in the awkward position of undermining their own regulations. A Department of Defense directive doesn't allow service members in uniform to attend 'partisan political events.' . . .

"Several members of the military told FOX News that Bush is inviting the troops to take sides in a partisan debate in his speeches.

" 'This is a very bad sign,' said retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, who led Central Command in the early 1990s and is an administration critic. 'This is the sort of thing that you find in other countries where the military and political, certain political parties are aligned.' "