What Are They Up To Now?

Iran Drumbeat Watch

Lolita C. Baldor writes for the Associated Press: "The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff accused Iran on Friday of increasing arms and training support to insurgents in Iraq as well as militants battling U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"Adm. Mike Mullen told a Pentagon news conference that he has 'no smoking gun' proof that the highest leadership in the Iranian government has approved the stepped up aid to insurgents who are killing U.S. and Iraqi forces. But he said it's clear that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate, including to support insurgents during the recent fighting in Basra in southern Iraq.

"'It's not just weapons,' Mullen said of Iranian support. 'They continue to train Iraqis in Iran to come back and fight Americans in the coalition,' he added, saying U.S. intelligence is seeing similar Iranian aid for militants and the Taliban in Afghanistan."

Yochi J. Dreazen writes in the Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. military says it has found caches of newly made Iranian weapons in Iraq, leading senior officials to conclude Tehran is continuing to funnel armaments into Iraq despite its pledges to the contrary.

"Officials in Washington and Baghdad said the purported Iranian mortars, rockets and explosives had date stamps indicating they were manufactured in the past two months. The U.S. plans to publicize the weapons caches in coming days. A pair of senior commanders said a presentation was tentatively planned for Monday.

"The allegations, which couldn't be independently verified, mark a further hardening of U.S. rhetoric on Iran, which senior American officials now describe as the greatest long-term threat to Iraq."

Middle East Peace Watch

James Gerstenzang and Richard Boudreaux write in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush said Thursday that he wanted to lock in the outlines of a Palestinian state before he left office, even as Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, said the road was 'paved with obstacles.'

"With less than nine months to achieve his goal, Bush is holding a flurry of diplomatic meetings, including a session with Abbas in the Oval Office on Thursday, seeking to pressure Israel, the Palestinians and their Arab allies."

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "Bush met with Abbas at the White House amid pessimism in the region about the prospects for forging a deal to resolve the core issues that have divided the Israelis and Palestinians, including the borders of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "As he prepares for his second trip this year to the Middle East, President Bush is facing mounting criticism from some Palestinians who are upset that he will go to Israel for its 60th birthday celebration without marking the flip side of that event: the flight of Palestinians from their homes."

Ellen Knickmeyer and Griff Witte write in The Washington Post: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published Thursday that he was open to direct talks with Israel on a peace deal based on Israel's return of the Golan Heights. But he added that such negotiations could only happen under U.S. sponsorship after the Bush administration leaves office. . . .

"'This administration doesn't possess a vision, or a willingness for a peaceful progress,'' he said. 'It doesn't possess anything.'"

Bush Legacy Watch

Christopher Lee writes in The Washington Post that Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative "turned on a simple idea: Force federal employees to compete for their jobs against private contractors and costs will decrease, even if the work ultimately stays in-house.

"But as Bush's presidency winds down, the program's critics say it has had disappointing results and shaken morale among the federal government's 1.8 million civil servants. . . .

"The program fell short of the president's goals in scope and in cost savings. Between 2003 and 2006, agencies completed competitions for fewer than 50,000 jobs, a fraction of what Bush envisioned.

"Moreover, the Government Accountability Office found that the administration has overstated the savings from some competitions by undercounting the costs of running them. Collectively, they cost $225 million, or about $4,800 per job, according to White House figures.

"'The competitive sourcing initiative did little to improve management, produced a ton of worthless paper, demoralized thousands of workers and cost a bundle, all to prove that federal employees are pretty good after all,' said Paul C. Light, a professor of government at New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service."

Et Tu, John?

Elisabeth Bumiller writes in the New York Times: "Senator John McCain took direct aim at the Bush administration on Thursday as he stood in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and declared the handling of the disaster 'terrible and disgraceful' and pledged that it would never happen again.

"Mr. McCain ticked off a long list of mistakes by the current administration, saying there were 'unqualified people in charge, there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.'

"The pointed critique was one of his harshest assessments yet of the Bush presidency and came as he has been moving to corral restive elements of the Republican Party -- and the Bush donor network -- behind his candidacy.

"Asked at a news conference outside St. David's Catholic Church if he traced the failure of leadership straight to the top, Mr. McCain, who has said he wants to campaign with President Bush, said emphatically, 'Yes.'"

Rebate Watch

The Associated Press reports: "President Bush says the economic-stimulus tax rebates will begin going out Monday and will help people cope with lofty energy and food prices, as well as giving the economy a jolt. . . .

"'This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and will also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,' Bush said Friday in brief remarks at the White House."

Budget expert Stan Collender takes issue with Bush calling the checks "tax rebates." He blogs: "The entire economic stimulus plan is being paid for with additional government borrowing. That means that no one receiving a check in the coming weeks is actually receiving any of his or her money back because those tax payments long ago were committed to other things. All they're getting now is an additional piece of the national debt."

White House E-Mail Watch

The National Security Archives reports that, in response to one of its motions in the pending White House e-mail lawsuit, "Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the U.S. District Court [yesterday] ordered the White House to provide 'precise information' about the users of the e-mail system from 2003 to 2005 and how many of their hard drives still survive today.

"Citing the 'lack of precision' in White House statements and its changing story about which backup tapes have been preserved, Magistrate Judge Facciola also ordered the White House to 'resolve any ambiguities . . . once and for all' and identify the specific dates between March 2003 and October 2003 for which no backup tape exists."

Stolen Blackberries

Fox News reports that "a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans and has since been fired. . . .

"[Rafael] Quintero Curiel took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.

"Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.

"It didn't take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries."

Does No One Like Him Anymore?

Peggy Noonan writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion column that even Texas Republicans have turned against the president: "In Lubbock, Texas -- Lubbock Comma Texas, the heart of Texas conservatism -- they dislike President Bush. He has lost them. I was there and saw it. Confusion has been followed by frustration has turned into resentment, and this is huge. Everyone knows the president's poll numbers are at historic lows, but if he is over in Lubbock, there is no place in this country that likes him. I made a speech and moved around and I was tough on him and no one -- not one -- defended or disagreed. . . .

"He has left on-the-ground conservatives -- the local right-winger, the town intellectual reading Burke and Kirk, the old Reagan committeewoman -- feeling undefended, unrepresented and alone. . . .

"The reasons for the quiet break with Mr. Bush: spending, they say first, growth in the power and size of government, Iraq."

Silliest White House Briefing Ever?

Ken Herman blogs for Cox News Service -- complete with video: "The question of the day in the White House Briefing Room involved what would happen if the floor gave way and everybody fell into the old swimming pool below.

"Carlton Carroll of the White House Press Office handled the query, which came from questioners perhaps even more immature than the ones usually in the seats. . . .

"Take a look at Carroll's cool-under-pressure handling of an intense grilling by White House staffers' kids on hand for Take Your Child to Work Day."

Froomkin Watch

I'll be taking part in the "Friday Media Roundtable" on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco today from 2 to 3 p.m. E.T. You're welcome to listen live and call in, at 866-798-TALK.

Also, I'll be on the road on Monday, but my intention is to write an abbreviated column -- mostly to fill you in on the horror show that is the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

Late Night Humor

Conan O'Brien, via U.S. News: "It has been reported that President Bush was so impressed with Pope Benedict's recent visit that after he leaves office, Bush may convert to Catholicism. . . . Bush said, 'I'd convert right now, but Dick Cheney freaks out if you get near him with a cross.'"

Cartoon Watch

A Tom Toles sketch on Bush's approval ratings; an Ann Telnaes animation on Bush's personal recession; and Pat Bagley on Bush's track record.