Bush's Big Nyet

"Joseph R. Wood, Cheney's deputy assistant for national security affairs, was in Georgia shortly before the war began.

"But, the vice president's office says, he was there as part of a team setting up the vice president's just-announced visit to Georgia. (It is common for the White House to send security, policy, communications and press aides to each site the president and vice president will visit ahead of the trip, to begin making arrangements and planning the agenda.)"

The Clock is Ticking

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "A federal judge yesterday refused to delay his order requiring former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers to testify in Congress, another legal setback for the Bush administration's attempts to limit cooperation with Democratic lawmakers.

"U.S. District Judge John D. Bates rejected the administration's argument that Miers should not be required to cooperate with Congress while the government appeals an earlier ruling he issued.

"In the previous decision, Bates rejected the administration's assertions that Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten were protected by executive privilege and could not be forced to testify or provide documents to Congress about the controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. The judge said that the government's position was excessively broad and that senior aides must be more specific about the information they say is protected.

"The new ruling will make it more difficult for Miers to avoid testifying by running out the clock on the 110th Congress, which ends in early January. Without a stay, she could be compelled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee as early as next month."

Matt Apuzzo writes for the Associated Press: "Bates, who was appointed by President Bush, said a delay would not be in the public interest.

"If a delay is granted, he said, 'There is a very strong possibility that the committee will be unable to complete its investigation before Congress expires. That may leave important public concerns regarding the nation's federal criminal justice system unaddressed.'"

Yesterday's ruling, like Bates's previous one, was blistering about the administration's positions.

Consider, for instance, this passage: "Without any supporting judicial precedent whatsoever -- and, indeed, in the face of Supreme Court case law that effectively forecloses the basis for the assertion of absolute immunity here -- it is difficult to see how the Executive can demonstrate that it has a substantial likelihood of success on appeal, or even that a serious legal question is presented. The Executive's argument boils down to a claim that a stay is appropriate because the underlying issue is important. But that is beside the point and does not demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits. Simply calling an issue important -- primarily because it involves the relationship of the political branches -- does not transform the Executive's weak arguments into a likelihood of success or a substantial appellate issue."

Convention Watch

Charles Babington writes for the Associated Press: "A two-headed creature is stalking the Democratic convention, getting kicked and pummeled at every turn. 'Bush-McCain' is not a political ticket, but a hyphenated target that Democrats have invented from necessity."

Babington quotes Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel: "'George Bush has put the middle class in a hole,' he said, 'and John McCain has a plan to keep digging that hole with George Bush's shovel.' Noting that Bush inherited a budget surplus that turned into a deficit, he said: 'Mr. President, we will be forever in your debt. . . . You would think the one thing President Bush was good at was inheriting things.'

"Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., told the convention crowd that McCain 'calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush 90 percent of the time. That's not a maverick, that's a sidekick.'

"Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland used a baseball analogy about job losses. Bush 'came into office on third base, and then he stole second,' he said. 'And John McCain cheered him every step of the way.' . . .

"The night's most important speaker, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, delivered one of the sharpest jabs. 'It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities,' she said. 'Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.'"

Afghanistan Watch

Candace Rondeaux and Karen DeYoung write in The Washington Post: "United Nations officials in Afghanistan said Tuesday that there was 'convincing evidence' at least 90 civilians -- two-thirds of them children -- were killed in a U.S.-led airstrike last week that caused the Afghan government to call for a review of U.S. and NATO military operations in the country. . . .

"U.S. forces in Afghanistan have increased their reliance on air power since last year, causing a corresponding increase in civilian deaths. . . .

"Afghan officials and independent investigators say more than 165 civilians have been killed in four airstrikes in the past two months. The deaths have angered Afghans, who are pressuring Karzai to seek greater control over foreign troops even as resurgent Taliban fighters increase their attacks on the international presence in Afghanistan."

Over at NiemanWatchdog.org, where I am deputy editor, the authors of a new Institute of Peace report on civilian casualties pose the question: Are we bombing our way to disaster in Afghanistan?

Carlotta Gall writes in the New York Times: "The failure of the American-backed Afghan government to protect Kandahar has rippled across the rest of the country and complicated the task of NATO forces, which have suffered more deaths here this year than at any time since the 2001 invasion."

Iraq Watch

Reuters reports: "The United States asked Iraq for permission to maintain a troop presence there to 2015, but U.S. and Iraqi negotiators agreed to limit their authorization to 2011, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said.

"'It was a U.S. proposal for the date which is 2015, and an Iraqi one which is 2010, then we agreed to make it 2011. Iraq has the right, if necessary, to extend the presence of these troops,' Talabani said in an interview with al-Hurra television, a transcript of which was posted on his party's website on Wednesday."

North Korea Watch

P. Parameswaran writes for AFP: "The United States accused North Korea Tuesday of violating a six-nation nuclear accord and retained it on a terror blacklist, after the hardline communist state defiantly suspended disabling its atomic plants.

"Washington said North Korea would stay on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list until it agreed to a protocol that could verify a nuclear program declared by Pyongyang in June ahead of dismantlement of its atomic arsenal."

Suskind Watch

Mark Danner reviews Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World," in the New York Times: "In a crowded, highly talented field, Mr. Suskind bids fair to claim the crown as the most perceptive, incisive, dogged chronicler of the inner workings of the Bush administration."

Crawford Watch

Rosalind S. Helderman writes in The Washington Post: "Wednesday marks the final day of Bush's last Crawford summer vacation, a prospect that has left longtime residents marveling at the changes that have come to their dusty, 700-person town about 20 miles west of Waco -- and wondering what comes next."

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Late Night Humor

Stephen Colbert talks to former White House press secretary Scott McClellan: "You've admitted that you were misled, and therefore you misled the press. . . . First of all, well done! And second, isn't it just as possible now . . . that you are being misled about having been misled? . . . Isn't there a slim chance that you are actually trustworthy?"

Cartoon Watch

Daniel Wasserman on the prisoner of W.