More Ambiguity About Torture

Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce wrote back then: "Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. 'I didn't dig it out, it was given to me,' he said. 'They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.' "

As The Washington Post's Walter Pincus told Chris Matthews on MSNBC last night, the biggest revelation in today's column is how early Novak divulged his sources: "Back in February 2004, before any of the rest of the reporters came forward."

The GAO on Iraq

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Agence France Presse reports: "The investigative arm of the US Congress has openly questioned if victory in Iraq can be achieved without a significant overhaul of President George W. Bush's strategy, arguing the outcome of the war was presently 'unclear.'

"The findings by the Government Accountability Office mark the first time a non-partisan US government agency publicly doubted whether the geo-strategic undertaking that Bush made the defining element of his presidency, could be successful.

" 'It is unclear how the United States will achieve its desired end-state in Iraq given the significant changes in the assumptions underlying the US strategy,' the GAO wrote in its report unveiled Tuesday at a hearing in the House of Representatives."

Christina Bellantoni writes in the Washington Times: "David M. Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, told lawmakers that President Bush did not give proper consideration to conditions on the ground and said the administration is not demanding accountability for the $1.5 billion per week that the United States spends in Iraq. . . .

"The GAO report recommends that the National Security Council outline a comprehensive strategy for Iraq with 'milestones' and 'metrics' so Congress can assess the progress and the problems on the ground."

Here's the full report , which is largely an analysis of the White House's glossy National Strategy for Victory in Iraq brochure. (See my December 1 column .)

Some of the problems, according to the GAO report: "First, the original plan assumed a permissive security environment, which never materialized. . . . Second, the United States assumed that its U.S.-funded reconstruction activities would help restore Iraq's essential services -- oil production, electricity generation, and water treatment -- to prewar levels. However, U.S. efforts to achieve this goal have been hindered by security, management, and maintenance challenges that undermine efforts to improve the lives of the Iraqi people. . . . Third, the strategy assumes that the Iraqi government and international community will help finance Iraq's development needs."

You know, little things like that.

Karl Rove Watch

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Teresa Watanabe and Michael Finnegan write in the Los Angeles Times: "White House political strategist Karl Rove touted 'shared values' of faith and family and reiterated President Bush's support of broad immigration reform in a Los Angeles address Tuesday to one of the nation's largest Latino civil rights organizations."

Voting Rights Watch

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Peter Wallsten and Johanna Neuman write in the Los Angeles Times: "In an intensely competitive election year, this was supposed to be the issue virtually everyone in Congress could agree on: renewing civil rights-era laws protecting minorities' access to the ballot box.

"But on the cusp of a vote scheduled for Thursday that White House strategists and other top Republicans once hoped would symbolize a GOP eager to attract more blacks and Latinos, a group of increasingly vocal Capitol Hill conservatives is staging a revolt -- arguing that certain provisions of the law are out of sync with party principles and are insulting to the South. . . .

"And the dispute is erupting at the same time that White House officials are deciding whether Bush this weekend should make his first speech since taking office to the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest and biggest civil rights organization."

Deficit Watch

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"Some in Washington say we had to choose between cutting taxes and cutting the deficit," Bush said in his speech on budget issues yesterday. "Today's numbers show that that was a false choice."

So David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal asks: "Do Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves?

"Not if you read the fine print in the new White House midsession review of budget trends."

Edmund L. Andrews writes in the New York Times that "the government's overall fiscal health remains far worse than when Mr. Bush took office in 2001. Back then the government had run surpluses in four consecutive years, and forecasters were predicting trillions of dollars in surplus over the coming decade."

New PR Guy

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The White House yesterday announced the high-profile appointment of Kevin Sullivan as Bush's new director of communications, replacing Nicolle Wallace.

Sullivan has been communications director at the Department of Education, and before that was NBC Universal's chief spokesman. He previously worked at NBC Sports and did PR for the Dallas Mavericks.

Off to Europe

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William Douglas writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "President Bush returns to Europe on Wednesday for the second time in three weeks, this time for the annual summit of wealthy democracies, where nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea are likely to take center stage -- unless Bush's relationship with the host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, turns confrontational."

Confrontation? Putin?

MSBNC reports: "President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Vice President Dick Cheney ahead of this weekend's G-8 summit, calling his recent criticisms of Russia 'an unsuccessful hunting shot,' according to a television interview being broadcast Wednesday.

"The remark, from an interview with 'Today' show anchor Matt Lauer, referred to the shotgun blast by Cheney on a hunting trip that accidentally wounded a companion."

The trip starts with pleasantries, however.

Mark Silva blogs for the Chicago Tribune: "One pauses to wonder whether President Bush will find more delight in the ceremonial barrel of herring that he receives upon arrival in the old market square of Stralsund or in the wild game boar that a restaurateur named Olaf in Trinwillershagen plans to personally bag for the president and serve at a German barbecue with Bush's host, Chancellor Angela Merkel."

Hey Junior

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Ken Herman blogs for Cox News Service: "The official website for this weekend's G8 meeting in St. Petersburg incorrectly identifies the U.S. leader as George W. Bush Jr."