The Tell-Tale Stall

Debbi Wilgoren and Michael Schmuhl write for The Washington Post: "D.C. firefighters broke windows and doused the second and third floors with water in order to extinguish the two-alarm blaze."

Here's some background on the building, and photos of the vice president's ceremonial office.

Iraq Watch

Peter Eisler, Blake Morrison and Tom Vanden Brook write in USA Today that "the strategy now used to defeat the bombmaking networks and stabilize Iraq was ignored or rejected for years by key decision-makers. As early as 2004, when roadside bombs already were killing scores of troops, a top military consultant invited to address two dozen generals offered a 'strategic alternative' for beating the insurgency and IEDs.

"That plan and others mirroring the counterinsurgency blueprint that the Pentagon now hails as a success were pitched repeatedly in memos and presentations during the following two years, at meetings that included then-Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby....

"Bush administration officials, however, remained wedded to the idea that training the Iraqi army and leaving the country would suffice. Officials, including Cheney, insisted the insurgency was dying. Those pronouncements delayed the Pentagon from embracing new plans to stop IEDs and investing in better armored vehicles that allow troops to patrol more freely, documents and interviews show."

Karen DeYoung writes in The Washington Post: "Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of 'occupying forces' as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month.

"That is good news, according to a military analysis of the results. At the very least, analysts optimistically concluded, the findings indicate that Iraqis hold some 'shared beliefs' that may eventually allow them to surmount the divisions that have led to a civil war...

"Dated December 2007, the report notes that 'the Iraqi government has still made no significant progress toward its fundamental goal of national reconciliation.' Asked to describe 'the current situation in Iraq to a foreign visitor,' some groups focused on positive aspects of the recent security improvements. But 'most would describe the negative elements of life in Iraq beginning with the 'U.S. occupation' in March 2003,' the report says.....

"Few mentioned Saddam Hussein as a cause of their problems, which the report described as an important finding implying that 'the current strife in Iraq seems to have totally eclipsed any agonies or grievances many Iraqis would have incurred from the past regime, which lasted for nearly four decades -- as opposed to the current conflict, which has lasted for five years.'"

Middle East Watch

The White House announced yesterday that Bush will travel to Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt from Jan. 8-16, 2008.

Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "Bush is scheduled to meet separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. No three-way meeting is planned, and it remains unclear whether Bush will engage in detailed negotiations."

At yesterday's briefing, Perino perpetuated the mythology of Bush as great negotiator:

Q: "When you say he can facilitate the discussions, how so?"

Perino: "I think just like he did in Annapolis, where he brought the leaders together and said -- they were close on a statement ... they could agree to in Annapolis, but they hadn't quite gotten there. And the President was able to sit down with them and push to bring them together so that they could resolve their differences and issue a statement that helped launch the negotiations. That's one of the things that the President can do, and will do when he's in the Middle East."

But as The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler and others have reported, the "deadlock" was broken mainly by watering down or eliminating phrases that troubled each side.

Al Kamen writes in The Washington Post: "And now, an answer to why Iraq didn't attend that groundbreaking Annapolis peace conference last month. It's not simply that the Iraqis were invited but that they 'chose not to come,' as the State Department observed at the time.

"'President Bush personally asked Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to send a representative,' Jonathan Karl writes in the Weekly Standard's Dec. 24 issue, adding that senior administration officials 'lobbied hard.' . . .

"Maliki had the dilemma of either skipping Annapolis and offending Washington, or going and offending Iran. He chose to offend the United States."

Budget Watch

Paul Kane and Jonathan Weisman write in The Washington Post: "The Senate last night approved a $555 billion omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, shortly after bowing to President Bush's demand for $70 billion in unrestricted funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Democrats had vowed only weeks ago to withhold any Iraq-specific money unless strict timelines for troop withdrawal were established, but they instead chose, on a 70 to 25 vote, to remove what appeared to be the final obstacle to sending the spending bill to the White House, where Bush has indicated he will sign it. Senators then passed the omnibus bill, 76 to 17.

"The House must still approve the revised spending bill, with the unrestricted war funds, but Democrats there concede the measure is likely to pass behind strong Republican support."

Nuke Watch

Walter Pincus writes in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration yesterday announced its intention to modernize and sharply reduce the size of the nation's aging nuclear weapons program by closing or abandoning 600 buildings at facilities across the country and gradually reducing the associated workforce by at least 7,200."

The moves "leave key parts of the U.S. nuclear weapons program intact, including research centers where scientists study the effects of nuclear blasts, monitor how existing warheads are faring and examine potential designs for new warheads. Nearly 30,000 people would continue to be employed in nuclear-arms-related work. . . .

"Hans M. Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists called the 15 percent cut announced yesterday 'a bookkeeping event,' since the number of warheads deployed with bombers, missiles, and submarines will not be substantially reduced, including the number kept on 24-hour alert. He also noted that the weapons taken out of the active stockpile will be transferred from the Defense Department to the Energy Department for storage but will not be dismantled."

A Blow to Secrecy

Elizabeth Williamson writes in The Washington Post: "Taking aim at Bush administration secrecy, Congress yesterday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would toughen the Freedom of Information Act and penalize government agencies that fail to surrender public documents on time."

41 Nixes 42's anti-43 Role Under 44

Rebecca Sinderbrand writes for CNN: "Former President George H.W. Bush has shot down his successor Bill Clinton's idea of a diplomatic mission under a Hillary Clinton presidency that would send him and other notables abroad to assure other nations that 'America is open for business and cooperation again.' . . .

"In a statement sent to CNN Tuesday afternoon, former President Bush's chief of staff Jean Becker said that he 'wholeheartedly supports the President of the United States, including his foreign policy. He has never discussed an 'around-the-world-mission' with either former President Bill Clinton or Sen. Clinton, nor does he think such a mission is warranted since he is proud of the role America continues to play around the world as the beacon of hope for freedom and democracy."

WWJD?

Harold Meyerson writes in his Washington Post that "if Bush can conform his advocacy of preemptive war with Jesus's Sermon on the Mount admonition to turn the other cheek, he's a more creative theologian than we have given him credit for. Likewise his support of torture, which he highlighted again this month when he threatened to veto House-passed legislation that would explicitly ban waterboarding."

No Takers for Bush's Cookies

Matt Canham of the Salt Lake Tribune represented the print media pool during Bush's visit yesterday to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a charity serving the elderly. Canham wrote to his colleagues: "A staffer handed President Bush a tray. He took it and said 'Anybody want some Christmas cookies from the White House?'

"He didn't know that the Sisters had already handed out the cookies shaped like Christmas trees and the president's dogs Barney and Beazley. The residents weren't very interested in seconds."

Cartoon Watch

Mike Keefe on Cheney and the torture tapes.