* President Bush admits old mistakes in Iraq, then makes a new one. [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT]
* WP says Bush needs to “make the case that those new assumptions are more valid than the last.” NYT thinks “that the new policy will be a tough sell.” [WP, NYT]
* Kid that makes your morning latte to become even more arrogant as House passes minimum wage increase. [WP]
* “Electability” is the only thing Democrats care about for 2008. Well, that and gambling. [WSJ]
* Nancy Pelosi shuts down House-side smoking. Members now required to cower in their offices with the lights off if they want a drag. [WP, NYT, WSJ]
* White House at odds with The House over new stem cell legislation, Dr. House thinks they’re all idiots. [WP, NYT]

Lighting up in a bar became illegal as the Washington, DC smoking ban went into effect midnight last night. Local music venue/watering hole the Black Cat, whose staff was almost unanimous in their denunciation of the ban, celebrated last night with an official Smoke Out, at which patrons could enjoy their last legal public cigarettes. MORE »

• If Sleater-Kinney’s breakup doesn’t crush your soul, the Metro will. [Why I Hate DC]
• Gay refugees flood into the District from the south. [WaPo]
• Tourists continue to not get the whole Metro escalator rage thing. [tourist in dc]
• Cynthia McKinney TOTALLY VINDICATED. [WaPo]
• Breaking and entering: It’s not just for crackheads anymore [Whisky Pants]
• Imagine the most horrifying thing you can possibly conceive of David Brooks saying, then multiply by, like, a billion. [FishbowlDC]
• Top marketing gimmick for DC bars, 2007: Cancer nostalgia. [Metroblogging DC]

* As goes the nation, so goes D.C.: the smoking ban went into effect today. [Head-Case Briefs; Ask KAC] MORE »

• Knowing what the Redskins had invested in their white-on-white unis, why did the Eagles elect to take the field in their away greens? Washingtonian breaks down the superstitions. We say the Skins’ll keep on winning as long as Clinton Portis continues his multi-act hip-hop Fellini routine. [Washingtonian] MORE »

Honestly, we’re not troubled by the D.C. city council’s smoking ban. Hell, there’s an exemption for hookah bars, what more do you want? Mayor Anthony Williams thinks that the prohibition will lead to people stomping off for the tobacco-friendly climes of Northern Virginia, but we think it all depends on where they can find parking. And, come on: Anything that will keep Ann Coulter from coming back is fine with us. MORE »

Smokers and libertarians across the District yesterday are crestfallen today with the news that the D.C. Council’s Committee on Health have decided to move a smoking ban bill out of committee that will ban smoking in all DC bars and restaurants by 2007 and move Christopher Hitchens that much closer to his inevitable nervous breakdown — which we comfortably predict will surpass Breaking Bonaduce in both sheer gut-punching horror and goggle-eyed incomprehensibility. MORE »

From the headlines at WMAL, we see: