GOP Moderates Huddle With Bush on Iraq

(NEWSER) - President Bush will veto a second proposed Iraq appropriations blll, the White House said today, dashing hopes for an agreement on the controversial measure. The new bill, which House Dems unveiled yesterday, requires the President to report to Congress on Iraq's progress in order to receive full funding for the war. More»

(NEWSER) - With Congress and the president now officially at war over Iraq, all parties scrambled yesterday to gear up for the coming firefight. The President promised to veto the spending bill with troop withdrawal deadlines attached, seeming to relish the fight ahead. Tthe newly aggressive and unified Democrats, notes the New York Times, seemed surprised at their own success at pushing for an exit strategy after years of wishy-washiness. More»

(NEWSER) - The FT catalogs a litany of the obstacles for President Bush achieving anything meaningful in his last 22 months in office. At the core of it all is the Iraq war, which has reduced Bush’s popularity to the point where he has no more political capital to spend. More»

Approval ratings hit 10-year low, but Hillary's no shoo-in

(NEWSER) - Americans are down on the feds these days, a new poll shows. Only 24% give them thumbs up, while 75% want White House policy change—the worst ratings in a decade, the Washington Post reports. Dems can best capitalize on discontent in 2008, numbers say, but Hillary's leads against Giuliani or McCain are slim. And voters don't like the Democratic Congress either. More»

Speech asserts war succeeded in helping transform area

(NEWSER) - President Bush will tell a convention of veterans today that the Vietnam War was, in the long view, a success that has lessons for Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reports. In excerpts released by the White House, Bush argues that the war contributed to bringing peace and prosperity to the area. "In Asia, we saw freedom triumph over violent ideologies after the sacrifice of tens of thousands of American lives—and that freedom has yielded peace for generations," the draft speech says. More»