Bush's Oily Embrace

"Viewed in this light, the Bush Administration figures involved in the formation of torture policy face no immediate threat of prosecution for war crimes. But Colin Powell's chief of staff, Colonel Larry Wilkerson, nails it: 'Haynes, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzales and--at the apex--Addington, should never travel outside the U.S., except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel. They broke the law; they violated their professional ethical code. In the future, some government may build the case necessary to prosecute them in a foreign court, or in an international court.' Augusto Pinochet made a trip to London, and his life was never the same afterwards.

"The Bush administration officials who pushed torture will need to be careful about their travel plans."

War Funding Watch

Paul Kane writes in The Washington Post: "The White House and leading House Democrats agreed yesterday on a massive emergency spending bill that would provide more than $162 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and create an education benefit for veterans of those battlefields.

"Moving toward the end of the last fight of his tenure over Iraq war funding, President Bush yielded to Democratic demands to include the veterans benefit and a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits in exchange for a reduction in other domestic spending and no tax increases."

Carl Hulse writes in the New York Times: "The willingness of House Republicans and Democrats to reach a deal showed that both sides concluded it was expedient for them to dispose of politically troublesome issues like the war money and the unemployment aid. Mr. Bush, should he sign the measure, would be relenting as well since he had earlier indicated he would reject the veterans program and the unemployment aid."

Abramoff Watch

R. Jeffrey Smith writes in The Washington Post that e-mail traffic made public recently by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee provides a "rare glimpse of high-level, behind-the-scenes string-pulling."

As Smith explains, Jack Abramoff and his colleagues at Greenberg Traurig successfully manuevered to push aside a State Department official who was working against their clients' interests in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The e-mails, which Smith excerpts, "show how Abramoff, now serving a prison term for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy, relied on key White House contacts, including Susan Ralston, executive assistant to political adviser Karl Rove; Monica Kladakis, then deputy White House personnel chief; and Ken Mehlman, then the White House political director."

Briefing Watch

The questions at White House spokesman Tony Fratto's press briefing yesterday were far more informative than the answers. Consider:

Q. "On the President's offshore oil statement today, it didn't seem like he really wanted to cooperate much with Congress. He's calling them obstructionists, and blaming them for the high price of oil. Where do you come up with the idea earlier that he wanted to work closely with Congress on this?"

Q. "Tony, the Democrats have made it clear for a long time that they're absolutely opposed to this. This appears to be going nowhere. Are there any other ideas that the White House is exploring that can actually do something about the high gas prices?"

Q. "If $4-a-gallon gasoline is enough to make people rethink drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, is it also enough to make people rethink perhaps raising the CAFE standard requirements for automakers?"

Q. "Why is he pushing Congress on this, and not pushing the oil companies that have 33 million acres of leased area that they aren't developing . . . ?"

And Q. "Tomorrow President Bush is awarding the Medal of Freedom to General Pace. And in the past when he's awarded that medal to other architects of the war -- George Tenet, General Franks -- there's been some criticism from Democrats that they're too controversial to give the award to and it's really just kind of a concession to quiet their criticism, perhaps, of the war in their retirement years. Do you have any response to that kind of criticism?"

Medal of Freedom Watch

Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press about today's Medal of Freedom ceremony. Here are the citations; here is the transcript of Bush's remarks.

Override Redux

Mary Clare Jalonick writes for the Associated Press: "Congress enacted a massive $290 billion farm bill for a second time on Wednesday after a clerical error in the first bill threatened delivery of U.S. food aid abroad.

"The Senate voted 80-14 to override President Bush's veto of the legislation, more than the two-thirds majority necessary to enact it. Bush vetoed the bill for a second time earlier Wednesday, and the House voted 317-109 to override it a few hours later.

"Most of the bill was enacted in May, when both the House and Senate easily overrode Bush's first veto of the legislation. But 34 pages of the bill that would extend foreign aid programs were mistakenly missing from the parchment copy Congress sent to the White House, so that section did not become law."

McClellan Watch

Kenneth T. Walsh writes for U.S. News: "Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, scheduled for Friday, has some Republican insiders worried. . . .

"GOP strategists say McClellan's experience could underscore one of the weak points of the West Wing--the conversion of the press secretary's job, at least under McClellan, into what some call a propagandist. 'The press secretary has become the mouthpiece and not the fact checker,' says a former senior adviser to a Republican president.

"In the past, he added, the press secretary played a dual role of serving the president by putting the best face on news developments regarding his or her boss, and, on the other hand, also recognizing the need to provide a healthy amount of unbiased information to the public through the media. 'They didn't let him [McClellan] see things for himself. They just told him what to say,' the former adviser says."

Impeachment (Non) Watch

Mary Ann Akers blogs for washingtonpost.com that Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) "tells us he's giving the House Judiciary Committee 30 days to act on his resolution proposing 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush or else he'll raise even more hell on the House floor. Thirty-five articles was just the tip of the iceberg. If Judiciary does nothing, he'll go back to the House floor next month armed with nearly twice as many articles."

Ray McGovern writes in a Detroit Free Press op-ed: "United States Rep. John Conyers, the Detroit Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has a rendezvous with destiny. He is uniquely placed to thrust a rod through the wheels of a White House juggernaut to war with Iran by commencing impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush. . . .

"When bombs are falling on Iran, it will be too late -- and our commander in chief is likely to give that order within the next couple of months. As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan reminds us, when the president sets his mind on something, he is not going to let anything stop him. . . .

"Conyers may say there's not enough time to begin impeachment, with only seven months left to this administration. But how could Conyers say this one day, and on the next say that if Bush attacks Iran, well then the House may move toward impeachment? His nonchalance regarding what an attack on Iran would mean is mind-boggling. You impeach the scoundrels before they start another war."

More on Sunday Dinner at No. 10

Alistair Horne, writing in an opinion column in the Independent, has more on Bush's unusual dinner Sunday at 10 Downing Street, where the guests included Rupert Murdoch -- and a handful of British historians.

"I had the honour of being seated on the right of the President. I had first met him, just a year ago, having been invited to the White House, following his reading of my book, A Savage War of Peace; Algeria 1954-1962, which had been recommended to him by Henry Kissinger.

"Then -- as last Sunday -- far from being the wooden, robotic figure as seen on the television screen, I found him relaxed, humorous, and considerably interested in contemporary history. . . .

"In the Oval Office last year, I was questioned intently on how de Gaulle got out of Algeria; I had to reply, 'Mr President, very badly; he lost his shirt.' Though it was clearly a disappointing response, Mr Bush replied, with emphasis: 'Well, we're not going to get out of Iraq like that.' That was shortly after the launch of the 'surge'. This Sunday we talked almost entirely about the Second World War -- its turning-points and 'what-ifs' -- and the 'special relationship', which both leaders toasted reciprocally in generous terms. The President was well-informed, and a flatteringly good listener.

"We kept off the Middle East.

"Of course, as a critic of Iraq, and current US policy towards Israel and Palestine, I could have wished that the White House had studied the lessons of the Algerian War before rushing in in 2003. One day history itself will doubtless inform us as to whether Bush might have acted more cautiously, had he had the lessons of history at his elbow, rather than the impetuous rashness of hawkish advisors like Vice President Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz."

Countdown to Crawford

The Los Angeles Times has launched a new blog -- Countdown to Crawford; The Last Days of the Bush Administration-- primarily authored by reporters James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman.

In a post on Tuesday, Gerstenzang writes that the energy level at the White House mess ain't what it used to be.

"A recent visitor to the basement suite of dining rooms near the Situation Room in the West Wing reported a tomb-like atmosphere -- and it was a day when President Bush was at work in the Oval Office one floor above. The visitor has dined at the mess on many more occasions than he can count over the last three decades. It has always been the same: Phones ringing, aides scurrying in for quick conversations.

"Not now. . . .

"'There was no excitement. No energy,' the visitor said. 'It's astounding.'"

Late Night Humor

Conan O'Brien via U.S. News: "In a recent interview, President Bush said that he might not be the last President Bush if his brother Jeb decides to run. . . . Yeah, when he heard this, Jeb said, 'Please stop reminding everyone we're related.'"

Cartoon Watch

Walt Handelsman on Bush's gift to big oil, M.e. Cohen on Bush's dry well, John Sherffius on what Bush has in unlimited supply, Mike Luckovich on Bush's alternate reality sources, Bruce Plante on Bush thinking outside the box, and Adam Zyglis on Bush's idea of helping.