Category: white house fence

Daily Briefing: Condi to 'Come Out Swinging'

• McCain intends to remain steadfast with his effort to ban torture of detainees. [WP]
• Condoleezza Rice, visiting Europe, "plans to come out swinging" on the issue of secret prisons, "shifting the focus back to the responsibilities of Europe’s governments in the war on terror." [Time, NYT]
• Top Democrats disagree and waver on Iraq strategy. Richard Holbrooke: "I'm not prepared to lay out a detailed policy or strategy." [WP]
• Moderate and liberal states are rejecting national conservatism, notes Ronald Brownstein. [LAT]
• Republicans "are trying to ease widespread confusion and apprehension" about the new Medicare drug benefit program. [NYT]
• Republicans "want to end the year with a legislative bang." [LAT]
• Documents reveal rift between Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco in immediate aftermath of Katrina. [WP]
• Andrew Card may resign come January. Card: "My entire life has been exhaustion." [NYT]
• Rice's senior aide Jim Wilkinson is largely responsible for her "rock star status." [NYT]
• Kennedy Center Honors dinner is the "marriage of art and politics, of the Hollywood glitterati and New York theater crowd rubbing elbows with Washington's haute monde." [WP, NYT]

• White House efforts to claim responsibility for the strong economy have their superseded goals for tax reform. [WSJ]
• The fall of Rep. Randy Canningham (R-Calif.); rumors "strained his marriage, and that the lavishly furnished mansion represented an effort to make things up to his wife." [LAT]
• House ethics committee "has been virtually moribund" this year. [WP]
• Cheney is expected to remain on board. Political scientist: "It's almost like everything that's bad in the administration has come back to stick to Dick Cheney." [USAT]
• Pithy slogans like "Plan for Vistory" are "about reinforcing the message," says Scott McClellan. [USAT]
• Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) has his own entanglement with Jack Abramoff. [WP]
• Gov. Mitt Romney touts "remarkable plan to bring mandatory universal health-care coverage to Massachusetts by next summer, the first time a Republican has tried to pull off this most Democratic of policy goals." [Time]
• Hillary Clinton courts the security vote with war stance. [Newsweek]
• Alito frequently mentions his admiration for his father. [NYT]
• Man jumps White House fence; is promptly captured. [AP]

READ MORE: 2008 , CIA , Democrats , Republicans , SCOTUS , andrew card , byron dorgan , condoleezza rice , dick cheney , economy , europe , george w. bush , hillary clinton , iraq , jack abramoff , jim wilkinson , john mccain , kathleen blanco , katrina , kennedy center honors , medicare , mitt romney , randy cunningham , richard holbrooke , samuel alito , scott mcclellan , tax reform , treatment of detainees , white house fence

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