Congress to Bush: You've Lost Mail

Here's the transcript of yesterday's press briefing by two anonymous administration officials. More on that tomorrow.

Housing Watch

Edmund L. Andrews writes in the New York Times: "President Bush sided with banks and mortgage lenders on Tuesday, threatening to veto a bill being offered by Senate Democrats that would give more bargaining power to homeowners who face foreclosure.

"Opening what is likely to be an intense political battle in the deepening mortgage crisis, the White House said it strongly opposed the bill, which would let bankruptcy court judges modify the terms of a mortgage as part of the restructuring of a debt in a bankruptcy filing.

"Supporters of the legislation say it could prevent as many as 600,000 home foreclosures affecting people who took out tickler or other complicated mortgages and now face steep increases in interest rates and monthly payments.

"Consumer and civil rights groups argue that the change in bankruptcy law would provide the surest way of helping families renegotiate mortgages that have been bundled into complex securities and sold to investors.

"But mortgage lenders, and the Wall Street firms that purchased the loans, have mounted a campaign against the bill, saying it would send a chilling message to investors and lead to higher borrowing costs in the future."

David Cho and Lyndsey Layton write in The Washington Post that the most controversial issue is Sen. Richard J. Durbin's proposal, "which would allow bankruptcy judges to cut the interest rates of housing loans to the prime rate plus a 'reasonable' premium for homeowners who cannot afford their subprime mortgages or other nontraditional loans.

"This would reduce payments and allow them to keep their homes after emerging from bankruptcy.

"Durbin said his proposal would extend to homeowners the same kind of protections that already apply to family farms, vacation condos and yachts.

"'If I go into bankruptcy, a court can renegotiate the terms on my vacation condo but is prohibited from renegotiating the terms on my home,' said Durbin, whose plan is backed by labor and civil rights groups, AARP and credit unions. 'It makes no sense whatsoever.'"

Iraq Watch

David Herszenhorn writes in the New York Times: "Undeterred by President Bush and Senator John McCain proudly pointing to progress in Iraq, Congressional Democrats are trying to mount new lines of attack against the administration's war policies.

"In a shift from last year's failed legislative efforts to force a reduction of troops, the Democrats' new approach is aimed primarily at framing the issue for the November elections by focusing on the financial cost of military operations and on the war's implications for the nation's troubled economy.

"With the fifth anniversary of the war fast approaching, the Democrats, citing testimony by the Pentagon's own commanders, are also emphasizing the strain on the armed forces. In addition the Democrats contend that the war against terrorism should be waged primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq. . . .

"'We have to send a message here,' said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a West Point graduate and former Army paratrooper who has emerged as one of the Democrats' most authoritative voices on the war.

"'We have to have a long-term sustainable strategy; 140,000 troops is not sustainable in the longer term,' he said."

Torture Watch

Jonathan Turley writes in a USA Today op-ed about "the twisted testimony given this month by Steven Bradbury, the acting chief of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and one of the central figures in the Bush torture controversy. While it received relatively little attention, Bradbury not only acknowledged a formal program of waterboarding, he also casually distinguished President Bush's approach from historical models such as waterboarding by the Spanish Inquisition. Though Bradbury insisted that the 'only thing in common is, I think, the use of water,' he omitted that other common denominator: pain. Indeed, the primary difference appears to be that the administration rejected water ingestion rather than water saturation to cause the pain. It turns out that the administration thought seriously about its own style of waterboarding and opted for a Khmer Rouge style over the Spanish style.

"For civil libertarians, it was like having the Inquisition's Tomas de Torquemada calmly testifying on '10 charming facts about torture.' Yet, while members of Congress are falling over themselves this month to demand criminal charges in the scandal over performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, there is a conspicuous silence in the wake of Bradbury's torture tour de force. . . .

"After Bradbury's useful primer on torture, the only uncertain thing about waterboarding is not the program but any remaining principles in Congress. If Mukasey refuses to fulfill his oath and investigate a criminal torture program, Congress has the power to investigate these crimes and demand a special prosecutor. Regardless of whether we like our waterboarding with a Latin or Asian flare, it remains torture, and torture remains a crime -- not a question of style. We just need someone in Congress who can see -- and act on -- the difference."

Warming to Limits?

James Kanter and Andrew C. Revkin write in the New York Times: "A senior White House official on Tuesday outlined a new tactic aimed at convincing a skeptical Europe that the Bush administration would support a meaningful agreement to limit global warming.

"The official, James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the United States could accept a binding treaty if it included mandatory steps by China and other big developing countries as well.

"An acceptable pact, he said, would have all the world's economic powerhouses, established or emerging, agree to a long-term goal for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at some point, and commit to take measurable, verifiable steps domestically in the short term. . . .

"'We would have an interest in joining an internationally binding agreement as long as China and India are also legally bound.'"

But, as Kanter and Revkin explain: "That is a very big condition, particularly because the major developing countries have insisted that they have the right to expand their economies -- and emissions -- so long as the emissions did not approach the much higher per-capita emissions rates that are the norm in the world's industrialized powers."

EPA Watch

David Whitney writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "Sen. Barbara Boxer released internal Environmental Protection Agency documents Tuesday that add to her suspicion that the White House directed the agency's rejection of California's tough fuel-standards waiver. . . .

"The denial has stalled plans by California and at least 16 other states to enact vehicle emission standards tougher than federal law in an effort to curb carbon-dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming.

"EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said in December when he rejected California's request that since the effects of global warming weren't confined to the state, its release from the less stringent Clean Air Act requirements wasn't appropriate. He said that toughened vehicle-mileage standards enacted last year would achieve similar results.

"But documents obtained by congressional investigators have revealed disagreements within the agency over the waiver, with professional staff members saying that California had a legitimate claim and the EPA probably would lose a lawsuit filed by the state if the waiver were denied.

"In congressional hearings, Johnson has testified that he alone made the decision. But Boxer said the new documents showed that Johnson went to the White House last May 1 with briefing papers supporting California's position.

"'A funny thing happened on the way to the White House,' she said."

Bush's Slide Show

Ben Feller writes for the Associated Press: "Almost any proud traveler has said it upon returning home: Hey, want to see the pictures from my trip?

"Sure, President Bush. Fire up the slideshow.

"In a rare presidential show-and-tell, Bush spent almost 30 minutes Tuesday narrating images from his five-country journey across Africa. . . .

"'Without a doubt, this was the most exciting, exhilarating, uplifting trip I've taken since I've been the president,' Bush told hundreds of guests at a hotel ballroom.

"That, in perspective, is quite a statement.

"Bush has ranged all over the globe as president: India and Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam, France and Ireland, Japan and China, Chile and Colombia, on and on. He has met U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the pope in Vatican City, the queen in England, Mideast leaders in the holy land."

Here's the slide show and here are Bush's remarks.

Bush's Lament

Ken Herman blogs for Cox News: "In an interview today, President Bush lamented his inability to garner favor among African-Americans. He blames himself. He blames politics. He says Republicans have to find a way to attract blacks.

"The comments came in an Oval Office interview with April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, an operation with broad reach in black communities around the nation. . . .

"'I guess people get images in their mind in the political world where they just don't get to know a person's heart. I'm sure it's my fault that I wasn't able to go into some African-American communities and share my heart,' Bush said.

"'Secondly, I am a Republican and there is a suspicion of being a Republican. You hear, 'Aw, Bush is a Republican. He doesn't care about us.' And I understand that. And our party has to do a better job of making sure our policies are viewed as hopeful policies. I guess that's the reason why,' he said."

For some background, see my column from Sept. 13, 2005: Was Kanye West Right?

AFP reports that in the same interview, Bush denied that the economy was in recession or would go into one. "We're not in a recession, I don't think we will go in a recession. We're in a slowdown, and there's a difference," Bush said.

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Cartoon Watch

Ann Telnaes on what Dick Cheney does to babies.