Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had a surprise for President Bush when they sat down with their aides in the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman, Jordan. Firing up a PowerPoint presentation, Maliki and his national security adviser proposed that U.S. troops withdraw to the outskirts of Baghdad and let...

Sen. John Warner (R-VA) will introduce a resolution today “making clear that he does not support the President on increasing the troop levels in Iraq” and calling escalation “a mistake,” CNN’s Dana Bash reports. Warner’s resolution will be cosponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE). Warner, the former Armed Services Committee chairman,

By Leila Fadel and Yaseen Taha McClatchy Newspapers Tom Lasseter/MCT Iraqi Army soldiers from the Kurdish-dominated units in northern Iraq at a base outside of Mosul, Iraq, December 2005. The Kurdish flag, and not the Iraqi flag, flies at the gate. U.S. forces detain key al-Sadr aide SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - As the Iraqi government attempts to secure a capital city ravaged by conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs, its decision to bring a third party in

Back in July, I reported that, in spite of pressure from CIA analysts, intelligence czar John Negroponte was blocking a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq. The CIA describes an NIE as “the most authoritative written judgment concerning a national security issue,” and a fresh one was badly needed because the last one on Iraq, which was compiled between 2004 and 2006 and leaked to the New York Times last September, had become outdated. Negroponte was said to fear that given the worsening situation in Iraq a new NIE would, of necessity, be deeply pessimistic, and that such an assessment might get leaked and embarrass the Bush Administration during last fall's elections. (Continued...)

This morning on Fox News, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol said that opponents of escalation in Congress are “leap-frogging each other in the degrees of irresponsibility they’re willing to advocate.” Kristol said, “It’s just unbelievable. … It’s so irresponsible that they can’t be quiet for six or nine months,” adding, “You really wonder, do they

Remember the long-delayed National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that the Bush Administration managed to push off completing until after the election? Well, the Administration has slow-rolled completion of the NIE past the introduction of the surge and the State of the Union address, according to Ken Silverstein at Harper's: The situation came to a head last week, during a closed-door session of the Senate Armed Services Committee. This committee expected to be briefed on the long-awaited NI

Bush's 33 Percent Approval Rating Lowest Since Nixon for President Entering State of the Union Speech Bush Expected to Stress Energy Security Senators Seek Support for Iraq Resolution

In October 2006, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called for “another 20,000 troops in Iraq.” In January 2007, President Bush accepted the idea and announced he would send 21,500 more soldiers into the middle of Iraq’s civil war. McCain quickly endorsed the strategy. Since that time, McCain has been slowly back-pedaling from the escalation plan, offering numerous

Bombings and a mortar attack struck Shiite targets in Baghdad and north of the capital on Monday, killing at least 100 people and wounding scores in a further sign of what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence.

The White House press corps last week found itself embroiled in controversy -- a controversy over its efforts to avoid controversy at an event whose guests include President Bush.

Bob Geiger: GOP Senator Still Linking Iraq To 9/11 Byron Williams: Bush's Rationale for odd Juxtaposition of War John Zogby: State of the Union? Pessimistic Comments ( Page 1 of 6 > » ): Gee, Republican Frank Luntz wants us to play nice with the Republicans. What a shock. Thanks for the great advice. Should we bend over too? /sarcasm By: deedeem on January 21, 2007 at 10:23pm Flag: [abusive] Biased political oper

Exclusive: Richardson Enters 2008 Presidential Race

Tuesday would have marked Jeb Bush's sixth State of the Union address -- and it might have been his best yet.

President Bush is someone with no sense of what it’s like to be uninsured.

America will be safe, Dinesh D’Souza claims, if only we get rid of all the leftists.

President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday at the weakest point of his presidency, facing deep public dissatisfaction over his Iraq war policies and eroding confidence in his leadership, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Suspects, Reportedly Tied to Al Qaeda in Iraq, Sought Student Visas Is Iraq's Sucess Tied to Our Safety?

By noon on Jan. 10, Matt Rhoades and Kevin Madden knew they had a problem.

Bill Richardson for President Exploratory Committee

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone January 16-19, 2007, among a random national sample of 1,000 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Sampling, data collection and tabulation by TNS of Horsham, Pa.

BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 -- The armored sport-utility vehicles whisked into a government compound in the city of Karbala with speed and urgency, the way most Americans and foreign dignitaries travel along Iraq's treacherous roads these days.

A CBS News poll finds President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address to a nation strongly opposed to his plan for increasing troops in Iraq. The poll shows the president's overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent.

The deaths of two marines today followed 25 deaths on Saturday, the third deadliest day for U.S. forces since the war began.

The contest for the White House is off to a breathtakingly fast start, exposing an ever-growing field to longer, more intensive scrutiny.

Prompted by my post from yesterday about Bill Kristol and Fred Kagan, I want to raise an issue which I think receives far less attention than its significance warrants. Among the country's most influential neoconservatives, one finds extremely pervasive nepotism. Beyond that, a conspicuously high percentage of them have had their careers created, shaped and fueled by their parents. They have been dependent upon the accomplishments of their parents, especially their fathers, whose political views they end up reciting almost without deviation. Just look at the intertwined axis that spawned the two leading "surge" advocates, Kristol and Kagan: Bill Kristol's parents are Irving Kristol, the so-called "godfather of neoconservatism," and Gertrude Himmelfarb, whose defining political act was a homage paid at the AEI to the virtues of Victorian