Who Has No Plan?

Here's that transcript , from the Web site of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

James Glanz writes in the New York Times: "Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.

"And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen's supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

"The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation."

Paul Krugman writes in his New York Times opinion column (subscription required): "Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to stay the course complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they've already cut and run. . . .

"[M]ajor contractors believed, correctly, that their political connections insulated them from accountability. Halliburton and other companies with huge Iraq contracts were basically in the same position as Donald Rumsfeld: they were so closely identified with President Bush and, especially, Vice President Cheney that firing or even disciplining them would have been seen as an admission of personal failure on the part of top elected officials. . . .

"You can see, by the way, why a Democratic takeover of the House, if it happens next week, would be such a pivotal event: suddenly, committee chairmen with subpoena power would be in a position to investigate where all the Iraq money went."

Scooter Libby Watch

Matt Apuzzo writes for the Associated Press: "Former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby will not be allowed to use a memory expert at his perjury and obstruction trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday, blocking a key tactic in Libby's defense strategy.

"Libby, who is accused of lying to investigators in the CIA leak case, wanted an expert to testify that memory is unreliable, especially during times of stress. Libby says he had national security issues on his mind and any misstatements he made about the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name were mistakes, not lies.

"U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said allowing a memory expert would be a waste of time and would only confuse the jury. . . .

"The issue provided the case's first courtroom drama last week when Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent hours questioning the research of memory expert Elizabeth Loftus. Fitzgerald picked apart the psychologist's testimony until she acknowledged errors and misstatements in her findings."

Nuclear Proliferation Watch

Dafna Linzer writes in The Washington Post: "In the waning days of the 20th century, nearly a dozen countries abandoned nuclear weapons programs, betting on the promised security of a post-Cold War world.

"But the trend toward disarmament seems to have tapered off almost as quickly as it began. . . .

"Officials and nuclear experts who felt nothing but optimism in the early 1990s now see a world on the threshold of a dangerous arms race. Some fault the Bush administration for policies that rewarded nuclear-armed friends while denouncing foes accused of building the same weapons. Others say the current situation is a natural byproduct of a fragmented world in which countries no longer have to choose between the United States and the Soviet Union, but can go separate ways and build independent alliances."

Optimist in Chief

Janet Hook writes in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush was hosting lawmakers in the Oval Office last week when he asked House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to size up GOP prospects in the midterm election.

"When Boehner said he had already written off some Republican House seats, naming one in the South, Bush protested loudly and called in his chief political advisor. Karl Rove entered on cue with an armful of charts to prove that the seat was still in play and that the party could hold on to its House majority. . . .

"Senior party officials, including Rove and Bush, insist that Republican fundraising and voter-mobilization advantages -- or some 11th-hour surprise -- will preserve their Senate majority and keep GOP losses below the 15 seats that would give Democrats control of the House. . . .

"Many strategists in both parties dismiss that kind of talk as a Pollyannaish effort to keep GOP voters from being so discouraged they stay home on election day. The fact that Republicans are fighting so hard in some of the country's most conservative regions is a measure of how tough a road they face."

Haggard and Bush

Alan Cooperman writes in The Washington Post: "One of the nation's most influential conservative Christian leaders, the Rev. Ted Haggard, resigned yesterday as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and temporarily stepped aside as pastor of a Colorado mega-church after a self-described male escort accused him of paying for gay sex."

How close was Haggard to the White House?

Tim Grieve of Salon talk to Lauren Sandler, the author of "Righteous: Dispatches From the Evangelical Youth Movement," who reports: "Haggard participates -- or at least he did -- in weekly White House conference calls, and he and the president like to joke that the only thing they disagree on is what truck to drive."

Pool Follies

Joseph Curl of the Washington Times uses blind items and turgid prose to spice up his pool report. From yesterday morning: "On a crisp, sunny morning, the president's first step down the stairs of Marine One at Andrews Air Force Base was shaky, but he quickly grabbed the handrail and righted himself. Still, that split second was enough time for one White House reporter to let loose a delighted 'Aha!' (try to figure out who). Bush's second step, though, was confident, bold, fully presidential -- a step that said he would not quit those stairs until the job of walking down them was done. And, no Defeatocrat, he did not. . . .

"The president made goo-goo eyes at one TV reporter (a favorite target) as he pretended to straighten an askew, make-believe pocket hanky (mocking the reporter's gold-colored flourish). Frivolity ensued."

Loose Ends From the Pool Reports

Mark Silva described the flight from Montana to Nevada: "On board Air Force One a ' senior administration official ' who is not Karl Rove came back to talk about the itinerary and strategy of this 10-state tour of states that Bush carried. It got a little testy when the press office attempted to control the subject of questioning but your poolers prevailed in asking the questions we wanted - if not prevailing in forcing an on-record attribution to said official."

What was the testiness about? And what was the White House's rationale for not putting this on the record?

And here's Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times describing the flight from Nevada to Missouri: "At about 6:30 pm EST, those on the right side of AF1 gasped. Your pool was called over to witness condensation which was apparently cast off by another plane flying rather close. Pool could not verify."

What was that about?

Flipping the President Costs Driver Job

Manuel Valdes writes in the Seattle Times: "An Issaquah school bus driver fired for allegedly 'flipping off' President Bush during a visit to Seattle in June is appealing her termination.

"According to Issaquah School District officials, the incident happened when a district school bus stopped for the president's motorcade while returning from a field trip in Seattle.

"As the president waved to the school children from his limousine, the bus driver made an obscene gesture, said Sara Niegowski, a spokeswoman for the district.

"Bush was in Seattle attending a fundraiser for Congressman Dave Reichert, who was riding in the same limousine.

"Reichert campaign officials confirm that Bush told Reichert about the gesture and that the congressman later called Issaquah's superintendent to let her know about the incident."

Who's More Threatening?

Julian Glover writes for the Guardian: "America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

"Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."

Bad Luck

Michael Hirsch writes in his Newsweek.com column: "Was there any more mind-boggling bit of historic bad luck than what happened after Election Day 2000, when those 537 votes in Florida wobbled, then stayed in George W. Bush's column? Never mind what kind of president Al Gore would have been--he would have been adequate, I suppose, but so would have most Republicans--it is hard now to avoid the conclusion that Bush was precisely the wrong man at the wrong time. Perhaps Bush would have been OK fighting another kind of war, a Jacksonian Battle of New Orleans-type war. But at a moment in history when we faced the most subtle sort of global threat, when we needed not just a willingness to use military force but a leader of real brilliance--someone who would carefully study a little-understood enemy--we got a man who actually took pride in his lack of studiousness. No surprise: Bush never once presided over a grand-strategy session to divine the nature of Al Qaeda, and he ended up lumping Saddam and every Islamist insurgent and terrorist group with Osama bin Laden. He ensured that a tiny fringe group that had been hounded into Afghanistan with no place left to go--one that could have been wiped out had we focused on the task at hand--would spread worldwide and become a generational Islamist threat.

"And at a time when we needed a world leader who understood the nuances of burden-sharing in the international system, we got a president who so badly wanted to be a cowboy and not his father (offending even some Texans: 'all hat and no cattle' is the term they use down there) that he proudly declared he doesn't 'do nuance.' Bush stomped around huffily in his first term, talking loudly and carrying a big stick, in the process all but trashing a half century of carefully nurtured American prestige. No surprise: he alienated a world we desperately needed on our side, thus leaving America alone with all the burden and generations' worth of bills to pay. Now we face two serious rising threats, North Korea and Iran. And having squandered our attention, resources and prestige on a trumped-up threat, Iraq, we are simply too weak and friendless to confront them as they should be. That's what I call bad luck."

Froomkin on the Radio

I'll be on Washington Post Radio today a little after 2 p.m. ET.