A Bang or a Whimper

Whose advice does President Bush value the most? Who is the last person to whisper in his ear?

The answer to that question has never been entirely clear, although Vice President Cheney has generally been the most likely suspect -- certainly when it comes to foreign policy.

But now Bush appears to be facing an ever-deepening rift among his chief advisers, with Cheney and his loyalists advocating a more confrontational response to international challenges and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice marshalling support for diplomacy. Given how trigger-happy Cheney appears to be, and how little credibility this White House has on the international stage, Bush essentially faces the choice of whether to end his tenure with a bang or a whimper.

The latest backdrop for this struggle appears to be the mysterious Israeli bombing raid on Syria five weeks ago.

Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper write in the New York Times: "A sharp debate is under way in the Bush administration about the significance of the Israeli intelligence that led to last month's Israeli strike inside Syria, according to current and former American government officials.

"At issue is whether intelligence that Israel presented months ago to the White House -- to support claims that Syria had begun early work on what could become a nuclear weapons program with help from North Korea -- was conclusive enough to justify military action by Israel and a possible rethinking of American policy toward the two nations.

"The debate has fractured along now-familiar fault lines, with Vice President Dick Cheney and conservative hawks in the administration portraying the Israeli intelligence as credible and arguing that it should cause the United States to reconsider its diplomatic overtures to Syria and North Korea.

"By contrast, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her allies within the administration have said they do not believe that the intelligence presented so far merits any change in the American diplomatic approach."

Warrantless Wiretapping Watch

Ellen Nakashima writes in The Washington Post: "A House Democratic effort to revise the nation's new foreign intelligence surveillance law met swift resistance yesterday from the White House, Republican lawmakers and even some party members.

"The GOP leaders of both chambers said the bill introduced yesterday by the chairmen of the House intelligence and Judiciary committees seeks to impose restrictions that would impede intelligence and law enforcement efforts to prevent a terrorist attack.

"Meanwhile, Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a member of the House intelligence panel, and a handful of other Democrats introduced a competing bill that would impose even more surveillance restrictions than those endorsed by the committee leaders."

Bush made a brief statement about FISA this morning, coming out swinging against the House bill: "Today, the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees are considering a proposed bill that instead of making the Protect America Act permanent would take us backward. While the House bill is not final, my administration has serious concerns about some of its provisions, and I am hopeful that the deficiencies in the bill can be fixed."