• Bush, showing emotion, urges patience with Iraq: “As the Iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, we will be able to decrease our troop levels in Iraq without losing our capability to defeat the terrorists.” Sen. Reid responds: “After nearly 1,000 days of war in Iraq, our troops, their families and the American people deserve more than just a Bush-Cheney public relations campaign.” [WP, NYT, WT]
• Bush admitted “some setbacks,” but “offered nothing new substantively.” [WP, USAT]
• Bush’s advisors doubt that the war will be a “determining factor” in ‘06 House races; still unknown “is how Americans will be able to measure any progress, and whether it is realistic to believe his ambitious goals.” [NYT]
• Bush “came much closer than he has before to matching the hard-nosed assessments of the war that have long been made by American commanders” in Iraq. [NYT]
• Bush “is staking the rest of his presidency on his conviction that the conflict can be won.” [USAT]
• Alito, as member of the Reagan administration, designed a strategy for eventually overturning Roe v. Wade. [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT]
• Court of Appeals hints it might repeal Bush’s power to detain Jose Padilla. [NYT, WT]
• Military planted positive articles in Iraqi newspapers as a component of “‘information war’ against an insurgency adept at spreading its message through local and international media, largely with violent acts.” [WP, NYT]
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) comes out in favor of Murtha’s plan for withdrawal. [WT, USAT]
• Pentagon directive mandates plan for post-conflict stability in the next war. [WP]

MORE »

• Senators, by vote of 79 to 19, pass a resolution marking next year as “a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty. . . thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq.” Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.): “Staying the course will not do.” Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): “It’s a continuation of the oversight we’ve been conducting for years in the United States Senate.” WP, NYT, WSJ, USAT]
• Senators from both parties “are demanding that the administration show that it has a strategy to turn the conflict over to the Iraqis and eventually bring U.S. troops home.” [WP]
• Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) defends critics of the war: “[T]he Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. . . to not question your government is unpatriotic.” [WP]
• Oil executives did meet with Cheney’s energy task force in 2001. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.): “The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force.” [WP]
• Alito tries to downplay conservative remarks from 1985. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Rice reaches deal on access to the Gaza Strip. [WP, NYT, NYT, USAT]
• Lewis Libby plans to “seek testimony from journalists beyond those cited in the indictment and will probably challenge government agreements limiting their grand jury testimony.” [NYT]

MORE »