50 More Years in Iraq?

* "Leave Iraq. Get his head out of the sand. I would tell him that his expectations are unrealistic and that his friends are making too much money on the war and that there are people dying. Also, if it's such a good idea, he should be sending his daughters."

* "Continue doing the job he is doing and not worry about the press."

* "I would tell him I appreciated him being the president, but I would like him to bring those people in Iraq home, because there has been enough suffering."

* "It's not a disgrace to admit you made a mistake. Stand up tall and be a man and say, 'Hey, I blew it.' Bring the troops home because you are just making it worse."

* "I would say what is wrong with your crazy [swear word], what the hell are you doing, we went over there to get oil and straighten these people out, and we are paying out of the nose for gasoline now."

* "Quit giving out so damn much information."

* "Admit up front that what we set out to do is going to take up to 40 years to do."

* "Stay the course and finish it."

* "Get out. Let them fight for themselves."

* "Get out of Iraq and start thinking about the American people and not about himself."

* "Hold his ground and do what he knows is best."

* "Get out."

* "Shut his mouth and get out."

* "Enlist."

But Bush Isn't Listening

Georgie Anne Geyer writes in her Dallas Morning News column that when it comes to his war in Iraq, "by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

"Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated 'I am the president!' He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of 'our country's destiny.'"

Beware the Withdrawal Plans

Greg Jaffe and Yochi J. Dreazen write in the Wall Street Journal: "Pentagon officials and the White House are developing rough proposals to begin withdrawing tens of thousands of soldiers sometime next year as a way of defusing some of the public fury over the war and making it less of an issue in next year's presidential and congressional elections. White House officials caution that the efforts are preliminary and that President Bush has yet to sign off on them. One aide acknowledged that the White House has developed similar withdrawal plans in the past, only to abandon them when violence in Iraq continued to climb."

U.S. Attorney Watch

Tom Hamburger writes in the Los Angeles Times about Tom Heffelfinger, the widely admired Republican U.S. attorney for Minnesota. "By the time Heffelfinger resigned last year, his office had collected a string of awards and commendations from the Justice Department.

"So it came as a surprise -- and something of a mystery -- when he turned up on a list of U.S. attorneys who had been targeted for firing.

"Part of the reason, government documents and other evidence suggest, is that he tried to protect voting rights for Native Americans.

"At a time when GOP activists wanted U.S. attorneys to concentrate on pursuing voter fraud cases, Heffelfinger's office was expressing deep concern about the effect of a state directive that could have the effect of discouraging Indians in Minnesota from casting ballots. . . .

"Politics have always played a role at Justice and other Cabinet-level departments. But, critics say, Bush administration strategists went beyond most of their predecessors -- Democratic or Republican -- in seeking ways to convert control of the federal government into advantages on election day."

Expanded Investigation

Charlie Savage writes in the Boston Globe: "The Justice Department has launched an internal investigation into whether Bush administration officials violated civil service rules by favoring conservative Republicans when hiring lawyers in the Civil Rights Division, the department disclosed yesterday in a letter to Congress.

"The probe will also examine whether the administration illegally used a political litmus test when vetting candidates for non-partisan positions elsewhere in the Justice Department, according to the heads of the department's offices of inspector general and professional responsibility."

Savage broke an important part of this story last July: "The Bush administration is quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights, according to job application materials obtained by the Globe."

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "The widening inquiry is likely to pose an additional challenge for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who is already facing lawmakers' calls for his resignation and a potential no-confidence vote by the Senate. While the U.S. attorney dismissals have prompted wide political criticism, improper hiring practices could be deemed a violation of the law."

Talking Points Memo has the letter announcing the expansion.

Margaret Talev and Greg Gordon write for McClatchy Newspapers: "It couldn't be determined whether the . . . inquiry will be expanded to include what direction [former Gonzales aide Monica Goodling] received from higher-ups within the department or the White House. . . .

"In other development, the Justice Department said Wednesday that Tim Griffin, the interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., since last December, would resign his post effective June 1.

"Griffin, a former Republican Party opposition researcher, has been a controversial figure in the firing controversy because of his close ties to White House political adviser Karl Rove and allegations that he was part of a GOP effort in 2004 to get minorities knocked off of voting rolls. Republican Party officials have denied any impropriety.

"To make way for Griffin, the White House and Justice Department last year sought U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins' resignation.

"Griffin at one point might have stayed on through the remainder of Bush's term. But when it was revealed that he was installed using a change to the USA Patriot Act that took away the Senate's power to reject him, Griffin said he would stay on only until a permanent replacement was nominated."

Immigration Watch

Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey write for Newsweek: "[I]s Bush too late to the game to make a difference?

"When he arrived in Washington more than six years ago, Bush told reporters that immigration reform would be one of his top legislative priorities--a plan delayed by the 9/11 attacks and the administration's subsequent focus on international terrorism. . . .

"Behind the scenes, [political adviser Karl] Rove and his colleagues have been reaching out to prominent GOP activists on immigration, hoping to win their support, but it's unclear if their campaign to win hearts and minds is working.

"One GOP activist and longtime ally of the White House, who declined to be named so as not to further inflame tensions with administration officials, tells Newsweek he was 'incensed' by Bush's comments Tuesday, particularly at a time when White House officials have been working to win support of people like him behind the scenes. '[The White House] has lost credibility with conservatives,' the activist told Newsweek. 'Their arrogance on this issue... it's just astounding. Their attitude is that if you disagree with them, you're wrong. It's just unbelievable.'"

Forget Something?

Here is Bush's speech at a New Jersey Republican fundraiser last night.

Abundantly aware that the issue has split his party and might earn him boos, Bush chose to mention his big immigration push exactly zero times.

Better to stick to safer stuff, like accusing "people in Washington" of not wanting to support the troops: "And I believe this: No matter what the opinions of people in Washington may be, when we've got our troops in harm's way, they need all the support, they need all the support they can get from the U.S. government. (Applause.)"

Putin Visit

Peter Baker and Peter Finn write in The Washington Post: "President Bush yesterday launched a high-stakes effort to repair the dramatically deteriorating U.S. relationship with Russia by inviting President Vladimir Putin to visit the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, after weeks of rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War.

"The White House has grown increasingly alarmed lately with the harsh tone coming out of Moscow and its hardening positions on issues that include Iran's nuclear program, Kosovo statehood and missile defense. Administration officials said privately that the situation has reached a crisis stage and needs to be reversed before it gets worse.

"Although the president's aides do not expect to resolve the stickiest issues dividing the two sides during the visit to the Bush family retreat on the rocky Maine coast July 1-2, they hope the relaxed setting will restore U.S.-Russian relations to a more constructive footing. In more than six years as president, Bush has never asked any foreign leader to join him at his parents' seaside home until now, and aides hope Putin will be impressed with the show of intimacy."

Michael Hirsh writes for Newsweek: "Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the conventional wisdom in Washington has been that a new cold war wasn't possible because the vast ideological differences that separated America and Russia no longer existed. But is that so true any longer? Once an eager student of Washington's free-market, democratic reforms, the Russia of today has become another beast entirely, says a senior Bush administration official. . . .

"This is, sadly, a shift in the post-cold war world that is becoming all too familiar. Compared to a decade or so ago, the belief in the messianic power of democracy and markets has reached a new low. Bush has helped the trend along by allowing Iraq to disintegrate from a would-be model into a morass, turning the country into perhaps the most powerful example of democracy's drawbacks since the Weimar Republic, and by hypocritically embracing the rhetoric of democracy while giving big hugs to its most flagrant detractors, like Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt."

AIDS Watch

Michael A. Fletcher writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush's call for a doubling of the U.S. commitment to battling the global AIDS crisis was met yesterday with broad support uncommon in Washington. International aid organizations, advocacy groups and members of Congress from both parties offered praise for the proposal -- even if some argued that the proposed increase is insufficient."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times that the move is "part of a White House effort to burnish Mr. Bush's humanitarian credentials before he meets leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations next week. . . .

"[White House counselor Dan] Bartlett said the president was convinced America's image in the world would improve because of it."

Ken Herman writes for Cox News Service: "Experts say it's an uphill struggle for a president even more unpopular around the world than he is in his own country."

Routing Around the Filter

U.S. News reports: "Current and former Bush administration communications officials tell the US News Political Bulletin that they now believe they relied too heavily on traditional media and the White House press corps to get out the President's message about the broader war on terrorism and the booming economy. 'We didn't use the new tools of communication' like the Internet, blogs and mobile technology, said a former key official. As a result, added another official, the President's message was filtered through the mainstream press which eventually got bored with the story and stopped reporting the President's repetitive messages. 'You've got to use the new tools. They can reach far more people than TV or the papers,' said an administration official. 'A video on the Internet or some blogging can reach millions and we should have played with that much more,' said the official. White House insiders, however, dismissed the complaints, mostly from former communications officials, claiming that they have worked with bloggers and non-traditional media but that the tide has turned against them."