Where the President Isn't

Torture Watch

Liz Sidoti writes for the Associated Press: "Sen. John McCain and President Bush's national security adviser met early Wednesday in hopes of reaching a compromise on the senator's proposed ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of foreign terror suspects.

" 'We continue to chat,' McCain told The Associated Press on his way into his Capitol Hill office for the meeting with national security adviser Stephen Hadley, who arrived just before 7 a.m. The ban on mistreatment of prisoners, and another provision standardizing the interrogation techniques used by U.S. troops, have stalled two defense bills in Congress, including a must-pass wartime spending measure."

Eric Schmitt writes in the New York Times about a new classified set of interrogation methods approved by the Army "that may complicate" those negotiations.

Briefing Follies

The highlight of yesterday's press briefing with Scott McClellan was probably ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz's determined but futile attempt to get McClellan to flesh out what "completing the mission" really means.

"Q You keep talking about, 'as Iraqi forces are stood up, U.S. forces can stand down.'

"MR. McCLELLAN: That's right.

"Q Whether or not the insurgents are defeated, whether or not there's a civil war, as there are more and more Iraqi security forces, does the U.S. just start pulling out?

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, as they have the capability --

"Q No matter what the conditions on the ground are.

"MR. McCLELLAN: As they have the capability to be able to protect themselves, not only from external threats, but from internal threats, then we will be able to stand down coalition forces. And that's what the President has talked about at length.

"Q So, no matter what the conditions are on the ground?

"MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

"Q No matter what the conditions are on the ground, if there are more Iraqi troops --

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'm not going to get into -- get into speculation. I think the President has very clearly outlined it in the remarks he's been making. It's very clearly outlined in our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

Oversight Watch?

Spencer S. Hsu writes in The Washington Post: "Democrats yesterday pushed a Republican-led House panel investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina to vote today to subpoena the White House, saying the Bush administration is refusing to produce key documents to 'run out the clock' on the three-month-old investigation."

Who Gets Briefed?

Bush and senior aides yesterday briefed a group of Republican senators on the war in Iraq. Here's a White House photo .

This morning, Bush was scheduled to meet with some House Democrats as well -- just not members of the increasingly adversarial leadership. Among those I've been told were invited: Reps. Ike Skelton of Missouri, Tom Lantos and Howard Berman of California, and Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota. It appears that all of them have a few things in common: They voted for the war and oppose Rep. Jack Murtha's proposal to begin pulling troops out of Iraq right away.

Plame Watch

Rob Christensen writes in the Raleigh News and Observer: "Newspaper columnist Robert Novak is still not naming his source in the Valerie Plame affair, but he says he is pretty sure the name is no mystery to President Bush.

" 'I'm confident the president knows who the source is,' Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh on Tuesday. 'I'd be amazed if he doesn't.'

" 'So I say, "Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is." ' . . .

"Novak said his role in the Plame affair 'snowballed out of proportion' as a result of a 'campaign by the left.'

"But he also blamed 'extremely bad management of the issue by the White House. Once you give an issue to a special prosecutor, you lose control of it.' "

Byron York writes in the National Review: "There have been rumors flying around Washington in the last few days that Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, might soon be indicted in the CIA leak investigation. At least for now, the rumors appear to be based on someone hearing that someone else had heard something, or that someone had gotten a sense that something was about to happen and told someone else. Are there any facts to back up such gossip and guessing? No one seems to know.

"But it is true that there is growing nervousness among people who support Rove's side in the case. They know that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in addition to presenting some new evidence to a new federal grand jury, has also re-presented previously-gathered evidence to that grand jury. To most observers, that suggests Fitzgerald could be planning to indict someone."

Blogger Digby has a primer on the Rove storyline.

Overheard

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts write in Washington Post about a reader who found herself practically sitting in on a meeting between Scooter Libby and his lawyers at a Capitol Hill eatery yesterday.

"Libby -- the former veep aide indicted in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, the most closely shrouded federal prosecution in recent years -- was at the next table, she said, while his defense attorneys, Ted Wells and William Jeffress, had a loud and 'lively discussion' about matters such as who will draft discovery letters and petitions. She heard Wells say he hopes Karl Rove will not be indicted because he fears the press coverage would complicate Libby's defense. Jeffress, meanwhile, speculated that Time's Viveca Novak could be the next reporter to lose her job because of the probe."

The Dingell Lunch

Bush and the first lady hosted a luncheon in their private quarters at the White House for Rep. John Dingell yesterday, honoring the Michigan Democrat's 50 years in Congress.

Richard Ryan wrote in the Detroit News in October: "Even though he no longer wields the chairman's gavel, Dingell's longevity and the respect of his colleagues still give him considerable clout.

"In fact, during negotiations over legislation regulating health maintenance organizations, President Bush told the congressman that he was the 'biggest pain in the ass on Capitol Hill.'

" 'I said 'Mr. President, thank you,' '' Dingell said. "That's one of the nicest compliments that I've gotten. And I want you to know that I am going to work very hard to enhance that reputation.'"

Here's a White House photo of Bush and Dingell sharing a quiet moment yesterday.

Off Broadway Humor

New York Times theater critic Jason Zinoman reviews " Fear Itself: Secrets of the White House ."

"[S]oothing the pain of liberals seems to be the object. And on that front, this show succeeded for at least one audience member on the night I attended. When Emperor Butch (Ken Perlstein, whose eyebrows do most of his acting), a cowboy warmonger based on the president, bent down and allowed his wife, Mommy (Susan Patrick), to spank him with a wire hanger, there was a cathartic cry from the back of house: 'Give it to him!' "

But it's no rave review: "The satire is obvious and muddled. (Why does Bush literally gun down the press if it is also in his pocket?)"