Time for a Debate

"So far, they are putting Mr. Bush on the road to raise huge amounts of cash -- the $100 million-plus he has raised exceeds the amounts he generated at this point in the past two election cycles -- much of it for state and national committees that can, in turn, contribute to endangered candidates. Republican strategists are also making more use of popular first lady Laura Bush. And they are seeking to boost the president's standing on his most troublesome issues -- notably Iraq, but also immigration and energy -- while highlighting their differences with Democrats and underscoring the importance of local issues."

Jim Rutenberg wrote in the New York Times on Saturday: "At a time when Mr. Bush's approval ratings are at or near record lows and many party members have shown an inclination to distance themselves from him this election year, the Washington political classes are keeping careful score of who stands with him and who does not."

Bush traveled to Virginia Beach on Friday to raise funds for Representative Thelma Drake of Virginia. But she was a no-show.

Rutenberg writes: "Ms. Drake's office said she had no choice but to skip Mr. Bush's visit on her behalf because she had to be on Capitol Hill for an important appropriations vote involving $150 million in military spending for her district, much of it for veterans' health care.

"The appropriations were approved 395 to 0."

Vice President Cheney was in California yesterday on a fundraising trip. Rep. Richard Pombo reportedly was willing to appear alongside Cheney at the cocktail party in his honor. As Lisa Vorderbrueggen reports for the San Jose Mercury News: " 'Lord,' said minister Brant Randal Rognart, 'tonight is all about raising money.' "

Iraq Watch

Peter Baker and Bradley Graham write in The Washington Post: "President Bush on Monday hailed the formation of a new Iraqi government as a 'turning point' that will allow U.S. forces to take an 'increasingly supporting role' against insurgents as Washington and London look for ways to disengage from the war.

"Acknowledging the 'unease' felt by many Americans, Bush said the war in Iraq has proved 'more difficult' than expected and has produced only incremental progress. But he said the first government formed under the new, democratic Iraqi constitution will take on more of the burden."

Will Woodward and Ewen MacAskill write in the Guardian: "George Bush and Tony Blair are to discuss in Washington this week a programme of troop withdrawals from Iraq that will be much faster and more ambitious than originally planned.

"In a phased pullout in which the two countries will act in tandem, Britain is to begin with a handover to Iraqi security forces in Muthanna province in July and the Americans will follow suit in Najaf, the Shia holy city.

"Other withdrawals will quickly follow over the remainder of the year. Officials in both administrations hope that Britain's 8,000 forces in Iraq can be down to 5,000 by the end of the year and that the American forces will be reduced from 133,000 to about 100,000."

Gore Slight

Terence Hunt writes for the Associated Press: "Is President Bush likely to see Al Gore's documentary about global warming?

" 'Doubt it,' Bush said coolly Monday.

"But Bush should watch it, Gore shot back. In fact, the former Democratic vice president offered to come to the White House any time, any day to show Bush either his documentary or a slide show on global warming that he's shown more than 1,000 times around the world."

James Gerstenzang writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Although the president has on occasion struck up a warm relationship with former President Clinton, who denied his father a second term, and whom he succeeded, Bush has had a cool relationship with Gore in the 5 1/2 years since they competed for the presidency."

Live Online

I'll be Live Online tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET. In honor of the guy who told Bush that he's running the country the way a chef would, I'll be accepting your suggestions about what you think Bush is cooking up.

Containment Watch

Michael Hirsh writes in Newsweek: "An old word is gaining new currency in Washington: containment. You may be hearing a lot more of it as the Bush administration hunkers down for its final two years. Containment of Iraq's low-level civil war, which shows every sign of persisting for years despite the new government inaugurated this week. Containment of Iran's nuclear power, which may lead to a missile defense system in Europe. Containment of the Islamism revived by Hamas and Hizbullah. . . .

"[F]ew people in the Bush administration will even concede they are thinking in such terms, because the president has not permitted an honest reckoning of the difficulties he faces. . . .

"[T]oday's containment is a furtive policy being developed willy-nilly behind the scenes, as Bush's pragmatic second-term officials seek to clean up the vast Mideast mess left by the ideologues who dominated in the first term."

Scooter Libby Watch

James Gordon Meek writes in the New York Daily News: "Two top CIA officials will bolster prosecutors' charge that Vice President Cheney's chief aide lied to them, court papers show."

Olmert's Visit

Glenn Kessler writes in The Washington Post: "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert won election on a platform of withdrawing from most of the Jewish settlements on the West Bank. But when he makes his first official visit to the White House today, U.S. officials said the message from President Bush will be: Don't fulfill your campaign promises too quickly."

It turns out that, for instance, "many European officials fear Olmert's plan is an attempt by Israel to set permanent borders without negotiating with the Palestinians -- at a time when the Bush administration is struggling to win European support for unified action to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions."

Matt Spetalnick writes for Reuters: "Nearly three years ago, President Bush stood shoulder to shoulder with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and declared Middle East peace a 'matter of the highest priority' for his administration.

"Now, on the eve of talks with new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the conflict has slid down the U.S. agenda as Bush confronts low approval ratings, an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq and an emerging nuclear challenge from Iran."

The Entourage

Ah, the joys of a presidential visit.

The Australian Associated Press reports: "Air Force One damaged the runway when it landed at Canberra airport in 2003, leaving Australian taxpayers to pick up the bill, a parliamentary hearing has been told."

It turns out the airport isn't prepared to handle particularly heavy airplanes.

And not only does Air Force One weigh a lot, explained the airport's director, but " 'the entourage' also arrived. That involved 32 heavy jet movements, from a Boeing-747 filled with journalists to cargo planes filled with security for the president."

Theft of a Message

Frank James blogs for the Chicago Tribune: "In one of those perfect Washington ironies, today was the first meeting of President Bush's newly created Identity Theft Task Force.

"With today's report that a Veterans Administration employee may have just created the mother-of-all-identity-theft opportunities by losing a computer disk with the sensitive personal information of millions of veterans and their spouses, the task force may need to tackle the federal government's problems first."

The task force was created by a May 10 executive order , after a presidential photo op , and it's headed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Writes James: "At the end of today's task force meeting, the closed meeting was supposed to have been opened to TV cameras so the attorney general's remarks could be carried on live TV. But that plan was scrubbed."

After You, Ollie

Washington Times White House correspondent Joseph Curl, in a pool report yesterday, was struck by the image of a fast-moving Bush repeatedly waiting for a slow-moving House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert during yesterday's trip to Chicago.

On deplaning in Chicago, Curl wrote: "Bush again waited for Hastert, this time at the bottom of the stairs, and the two strode off (or, more accurately, Bush strode, Hastert waddled, and the two, for a moment, looked like Laurel and Hardy)."