Bush Wins Terror Bill and the Campaign Continues -- 9/29/06
Both Houses of Congress have now passed the terror interrogation bill. The WaPo does a good job of setting out what it entails. (R. Jeffrey Smith, Many Rights in U.S. Legal System Absent in New Bill, 9/29/06). The NYT explains why 32 Democrats in the Senate opposed the bill even though Republicans have vowed to use their vote against them in the upcoming election. (Carl Hulse, Democrats See Strength in Bucking Bush, 9/28/06) Bush is already accusing the Democrats of soft on terrorism and weak on repulsing the enemy, signaling the theme that his campaigning can be expected to take over the next month or so. (Michael A. Fletcher, Bush Attacks ‘Party of Cut and Run,” WaPo, 9/29/06)
The war will be an issue both sides will seek to exploit. That Bush will not have it all his own way was apparent with early reports on the Bob Woodward book that will be released on Monday. (Bob Woodward was one of the two Washington Post reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal through painstaking investigative reporting in the 1970s, leading to Nixon’s resignation. He has written a number of books about Washington since.) Though his previous two books on the Bush administration have painted a generally positive picture of Bush and the war effort, this one is much more damning (David E. Sanger, Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq, NYT, 9/29/06.) Woodward also has an appearance scheduled on 60 Minutes this Sunday. Advance reports of the interview indicate that it will be troublesome for Bush as well since he claims that the administration is concealing the worst news about Iraqi violence and the power of the insurgency from the American public. (Reuters, Woodward: Bush Concealing Level of Iraq Violence, WaPo, 9/28/06)