Follow the Leader

Culver: "Thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.) If I could, just very quickly, I want to thank the President on behalf of the people of Iowa -- "

Bush: "Get those cameras back in here. (Laughter.)"

Iraq Watch

Reuters reports: "President George W. Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday and they agreed negotiations for a long-term security pact were going well, the White House said. Maliki last week had said the talks were stalled.

"'The two leaders discussed the ongoing negotiations to develop normalized bilateral relations -- and agreed that the negotiations are proceeding well with constructive ideas being offered by both sides,' White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement. . . .

"'President Bush confirmed the United States' commitment to forge an agreement that fully respects Iraqi sovereignty,' Johndroe said. The two leaders spoke in a video conference call."

Iran Watch

Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt write in the New York Times: "Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities."

A Pentagon source told the Times that one of Israel's goals "was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter."

Afghanistan Watch

The New York Times editorial board writes: "An unstable Afghanistan in which extremists and narco-traffickers have a safe haven may well be another Bush legacy. His would-be successors need to explain how they would deal with it."

Torture Watch

Dahlia Lithwick writes for Slate: "It isn't easy to justify torture. It does, after all, violate centuries' worth of human rights norms and international and domestic law. It has famously been used by the Nazis and Stalin, Saddam Hussein and Kim Il-Sung--not really the kinds of folk we usually strive to emulate. And as professor Darius Rejali explains in his superb Torture and Democracy, it also doesn't work, at least not as a means of extracting useful information. It doesn't work because, among other things, torture leads to false confessions, because interrogators are not skilled at detecting false confessions, and because tortured prisoners are inclined to misremember and misstate what information they do know. You would think that having decided to permit torture, in the face of all these legal, moral, and practical objections, those members of the Bush administration who did so could assemble a coherent defense: We tortured because it works; we tortured because nothing else worked better. We tortured because after careful consideration, it was worth the moral price we paid. But as Congress begins the painful process of tracing the origins of the government's abusive interrogation program, its members are now confronted by the last refuge of torturers everywhere: We tortured with the very best of intentions."

But, Lithwick asks: "Is it enough to say in hindsight that the men who knowingly gutted the American anti-torture policy were genuinely terrified of the next attack, genuinely bending to intense White House pressure, or genuinely behaving in 'good faith?' I suspect they were genuinely all of the above. Are we prepared to commit ourselves to a legal regime--particularly in times of great national fear and uncertainty--in which the good faith of those who act, and act in secret, is all that matters?"

And Jan Crawford Greenburg and Ariane de Vogue report for ABC News: "Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, now under investigation for allegedly politicizing the Justice Department, ousted a top lawyer for failing to adopt the administration's position on torture and then promised him a position as a U.S. attorney to placate him, highly placed sources tell ABC News."

Detainee Watch

Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor write for McClatchy Newspapers: "The Taliban tortured Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Ginco. They thought he was a U.S. spy. Then, U.S. soldiers called the Syrian native an enemy and shipped him to Guantanamo.

"Now, Ginco will be turning a spotlight back on the Bush administration itself. Newly empowered by the Supreme Court, Ginco has become the first Guantanamo detainee to demand in a U.S. federal court that the military show the hard evidence that justifies his detention. Scores of others are expected to do likewise, attorneys predict.

"The war on terror may never be the same."

Legacy Watch

Jonathan Last writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece: "The Bush presidency can fairly, if tentatively, be judged a failure."

Last argues that "Bush's most serious flaw was not a lack of IQ, but rather use of a management philosophy unsuited to the presidency." Specifically: He delegated too much to Cheney.

"[U]pon assuming the presidency Bush made the more experienced Cheney a hands-on vice president who effectively served as the White House chief of staff. . . .

"A chief of staff is an employee who serves at the pleasure of the president. The vice presidency, on the other hand, is a constitutional office. A chief of staff can be fired. A vice president cannot.

"If the vice president is acting as chief of staff, it creates a situation where one cannot have disagreement between the president and the man responsible for running the White House, because there is no practical way to resolve such a disagreement.

"And disagreement is one of the necessary ingredients for change. One of the striking features of the Bush administration is a dearth of disagreement among the president's advisers.

"Disagreement is not always productive, mind you. But when a situation goes sideways, as the Iraq project did in late 2003 and early 2004, disagreement is vital to finding a solution."

Andy Sullivan writes for Reuters: "When President McCain or President Obama takes office next year, he will inevitably find George W. Bush's budgetary legacy haunts the White House.

"Bush will leave record budget deficits, a sluggish economy and rising health-care and retirement costs that are likely to constrain his successor's ability to pursue his own policies, analysts say. . . .

"The next president will inherit a sluggish economy hobbled by high energy prices and a housing slump, brought on in part by the Bush administration's drive to expand home ownership."

Albatross Watch

Maeve Reston and Bob Drogin write in the Los Angeles Times: "In the months ahead, John McCain will have to repeatedly beat back claims by Barack Obama's campaign that he is running to win a third term for the Bush administration.

"But events this week have illustrated just how difficult that could be. In this crucial opening phase of the general election campaign -- when McCain is trying to establish his independence from the unpopular president -- his message has repeatedly been eclipsed by that of the White House. . . .

"Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri, . . . [said] it wasn't clear whether Bush was 'yet willing to do things that a president leaving office needs to do to help his party's candidate' -- namely, stepping back to give McCain first billing."

Karl Rove Watch

Jonathan Martin of Politico looks for signs of third-party groups preparing to spend millions attacking Barack Obama -- and finds Karl Rove.

"Multiple Republican sources say that Karl Rove has been in contact with donors such as [Sheldon] Adelson [a Las Vegas casino mogul who has been the chief financial patron of Freedom's Watch] and [T. Boone] Pickens [the Texas oilman who gave $3 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] about helping to create an independent effort but that to date nothing has come of it."

Cheney Keeps His Secrets

Kevin Bogardus and Rebecca Brown write in the Hill: "Vice President Dick Cheney has won his battle to withhold records from the public despite efforts by Congress and other critics who say they should be open to scrutiny. . . .

"'He has managed to stonewall everyone," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. 'I'm not sure there's anything we can do.'"

In particular, Congress has demanded that Cheney turn over to an oversight agency the precise number of records he has determined to be classified. It has requested a detailed list of his employees.

"Cheney argues that, as the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, he is not exclusively part of the executive branch and therefore not subject to the public-records standards that have been applied to past administrations."

Bogardus and Brown suggest: "The question now is whether his unique position will survive into the next administration.

"Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, who has battled with OVP to release more information, thinks not.

"'Vice President Cheney won the battles over non-disclosure, but I believe he has lost the war," said Aftergood. 'His position has become an object of public ridicule.'"

No Peeking

Al Kamen writes in The Washington Post with an explanation for the " No Peeking" memo he reproduced on Wednesday.

The memo, distributed to folks working in the National Grange Building at 1616 H St. NW, next door to Decatur House and a block from the White House, conveyed a Secret Service request that organizations with windows facing Lafayette Park draw their blinds and stay away from their windows between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.

Kamen discloses that it "was sparked by a visit from Vice President Cheney. He was at Decatur House, which is on the park, for a Republican National Congressional Committee fundraising lunch."

Late Night Humor

Jay Leno via U.S. News: "President Bush spoke at a campaign rally in support of John McCain. They raised millions and millions of dollars, most of which will be used to repair the damage of President Bush supporting John McCain at a campaign rally."

Jon Stewart looks at how Bush has recently announced his intention to track down Osama bin Laden, get an international agreement on climate change and reach peace in the Middle East -- all in the next seven months.

Being president is not like being in college, Stewart says. "You can't just dick around all semester and then pull off a couple of all-nighters before graduating. It doesn't work that way. You can't just throw down some Red Bull and Adderall, and think you're going to fix the Middle East."

Stewart has a new nickname for the president, and a new comic book hero: The Procrastinator.

Cartoon Watch

Lee Judge, Pat Oliphant, Pat Bagley and Daniel Wasserman on Bush and Big Oil; Ed Stein on McCain's Bush problem; Clay Jones on Bush's tradition of disaster response; Jim Morin on the worst of the worst.