Daily Briefing: ‘Smaller, More Lethal’ Force

• Military requests $3.9b to prepare Iraqi forces for a reduced American presence; Bush’s “strategy for victory” would rely on a “smaller, more lethal” American force. [NYT]
• Bush: “I want to defeat the terrorists, and I want our troops to come home, but I don’t want them to come home without having achieved victory… Quitting is not an exit strategy.” [WP]
• Administration vows to respond to E.U. questions concerning secret CIA prison locations in Europe. [WP]
• Republicans strongly denounce Rep. Randy Cunningham’s conduct in an effort to distance themselves from bribery scandal. [NYT, LAT]
• Businessman under investigation in Cunningham case supported 32 House members or candidates and raised over $100,000 for Bush’s re-election. [USAT, USAT]
• Bush continues promotion of his border security plan; raises $1.3m for Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and $450,000 for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO). [WP, NYT]
• R. Glenn Hubbard, the former chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, calls the president’s Medicare plan “unwise”: “The current Social Security and Medicare systems are on an unsustainable path… The drug benefit is a new entitlement. This isn’t sustainable over the long haul and I don’t think it’s sustainable even over the next five years.” [WSJ]

• Two defense contractors who allegedly bribed Cunningham also worked together for several years. [WP]
• New Hampshire Democrats campaign to save their first-in-the-nation primary status. [WP]
• Parental notification case will be a test for the new Supreme Court. [USAT, USAT]
• Provision in House budget bill “would largely exempt antipsychotic and antidepressant medications from a larger measure designed to steer Medicaid patients to the least expensive treatment options.” [WP]
• Department of Justice issues a 10-page rebuttal to Washington Post report about the FBI’s frequent use of “national security letters.” [WP]

READ MORE: 2008, CIA, SCOTUS, abortion, border security, europe, george w. bush, iraq, jon kyl, marilyn musgrave, medicaid, medicare, military, new hampshire, r. glenn hubbard, randy cunningham, secret prisons