The Heart of the Matter

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Kate Zernike write in the New York Times: "Three other reviews -- one by the Pentagon, one by the State Department and one by the National Security Council -- are under way, and Mr. Bush reiterated Thursday that while he believed that the nation needed 'a new approach' in Iraq, he would make no decision until he received those reports."

Reaching Out?

Stolberg and Zernike write about Bush's meeting on Wednesday with leaders of congressional committees that oversee foreign affairs, defense and intelligence.

"The Wednesday meeting opened with Mr. Bush making an overture to Democrats, [a] senior official said, and telling them that although they may believe he has made the wrong decisions, they needed to work together. 'The president started by saying that, you know, there's a lot of water under the bridge, but that while we may not share all the views of this report, we ought to use it as an opportunity to work together,' the official said, adding, 'I've been through a lot of those meetings, and sometimes you feel like people are going through the motions. And I felt yesterday that there was really a sincere effort, both Republican and Democrat, to say this could provide us an opportunity to find common ground.'"

Bush met with congressional leaders today as well. Afterwards, he again spoke of cooperation: "I assured the leaders that the White House door will be open when the new Congress shows up. And I think we ought to meet on a regular basis; I believe there's consensus for that. And the reason you meet on a regular basis is so that the American people can know that we're working hard to find common ground. That's what they expect us to do; they expect us to work on big problems and solve them."

The Toughest Challenge

Stephanie Griffith writes for AFP: "The authors of a critical new report on U.S. policy in Iraq acknowledged that bringing a skeptical White House on board could prove one of the biggest challenges.

"One day after unveiling their report, the co-chairs of the Iraq Study Group, James Baker and Lee Hamilton, said little progress will be made in implementing its recommendations without President George W. Bush's support. . . .

"'The fact of the matter is that you have President Bush in office for two more years. The fact of the matter is that the report that we put before you must largely be implemented by the executive branch. You cannot dodge that fact,' said Hamilton, a former Democratic representative."

But Hamilton also spoke of the importance of oversight.

"'I think the Congress has been extraordinarily timid in its exercise of its constitutional responsibilities on the question of war-making and conducting war,' he said.

"'In a word, I think very robust oversight is necessary. I think it's been lacking. I think it has not been a strong performance by the Congress.'"

All Alone?

Carolyn Lochhead writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that "the grim assessment from the bipartisan group of an Iraq rapidly spinning out of control had already, a day after the release of its report, so undermined the ground on which Bush stood that it was unclear where he could turn for political support if he spurned its recommendations for change."

Word Watch

Farah Stockman writes in the Boston Globe: "Bush used the word 'prevail' 11 times in the hour-long White House press conference in his first expansive remarks since the Iraq Study Group offered a devastating assessment Wednesday of U.S. policy in Iraq.