A Karl Rove Solution for Iraq?

Martha Raddatz reports: "ABC News has been told the White House is in 'panic mode' over the recent defections of Republican senators on the president's stay-the-course policy in Iraq.

"Senior Bush administration officials are deep in discussion about how to find a compromise that will 'appease Democrats and keep wobbly Republicans onboard,' a senior White House official told ABC News.

"The official said the White House 'is in panic mode,' despite Monday's on-the-record briefing by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, who played down any concern over the recent spate of GOP senators who have spoken out publicly in support of changing course in Iraq.

"The Republican defections are seen as 'a crack in the dike,' according to the senior White House official, and National Security Adviser Steven Hadley is most concerned."

Thomas M. DeFrank and Richard Sisk write in the New York Daily News: "'I don't know what they're up to,' said a top Bush adviser, 'but they're up to something. They're cooking something new up.'"

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux tells Anderson Cooper that some White House aides are worried. "The big concern, many are telling me, is that this White House fears it's going to lose its ability to manage the war. As one official put it, nobody wants to lose control to Congress.

"The other thing that they are concerned about inside of the White House is that . . . nobody has figured out what this alternative policy would be to the present one. . . .

"COOPER: So, they are, behind the scenes, discussing some sort of Plan B?

"MALVEAUX: They are trying to come up with a Plan B. What people are saying is that they don't have a Plan B at this time. And what they are trying to do is, they are desperately trying to buy time here."

Eugene Robinson writes in his Washington Post opinion column: "Allowing himself to be forced to retreat from Iraq would ruin George W. Bush's fantasy of someday being seen as a latter-day Churchill. . . .

"I don't see how anyone can realistically expect Bush to change course at this late date. It wouldn't be 'resolute,' in his understanding of the word, to acknowledge that he made a terrible mistake. What he can do instead is play for time and hope for some sort of deus ex machina that miraculously saves the day."

On the Hill

Meanwhile, Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman write in The Washington Post: "In a new series of votes on Iraq expected to begin today, Democrats will attempt to break the united Republican front that has sustained Bush and make their toughest push yet to enact firm dates for bringing the war to an end. . . .