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Bush: ‘never really thought about’ war.
In an interview with Al Arabiya television, President Bush said, “When I campaigned for office, I never really thought about the decision to put men and women in harm’s way. I never thought that that would happen.” “But the war in Iraq is necessary,” he added. A reporter asked if “emotional moments” with relatives [...]

Conyers Seeks Confirmation That Justice Dept. Is Limiting White House Interference
In 1993, then-Attorney General Janet Reno instituted a policy that limited the number of people at the DoJ and the White House who could communicate with each other about pending investigations and cases. Only three people at the Justice Department and four people in the White House — the President, the Vice President, the White [...]

Do you pray for Bush?
Fox News asks the tough questions, and finds: “Republicans (74 percent) are twice as likely as Democrats (37 percent) to have included the president in their prayers, while just over half (52 percent) of independents have prayed for Bush.”UPDATE: “Prayforgeorgewbush.com is a non-denominational, non-partisan ministry dedicated to lifting up President George W. Bush in Prayer [...]

Snow: ‘Bin Laden is outpolling Congress.’
Last night on the David Letterman Show, former White House press secretary Tony Snow responded to Bush’s low approval ratings. “It’s not as good as it could be,” he acknowledged. In an effort to change topics, he then compared Congress’s approval rating to the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. “Bin Laden is outpolling Congress,” Snow [...]

New right-wing group to have $17 million budget.
Claiming the Republican party has “been betrayed by corruption and betrayal of conservative principles,” a “group of former aides to Ronald Reagan” are “reviving the organization that brought Reagan to power.” The group, Citizens For The Republic, includes former Reagan attorney general Richard Allen; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and conservative activists Brent Bozell and [...]

Rockefeller Rejects White House Claim That He Was Fully Briefed On Secret Torture Opinion
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV) reacted angrily yesterday to the New York Times’ revelation that the Bush administration gave the CIA secret approval in 2005 to use harsh interrogation techniques. Rockefeller is demanding copies of all the administration’s opinions on interrogation since 2004.In this afternoon’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino asserted [...]

Boehner’s Rules: I Only Punish Corrupt Colleagues When It’s Politically Advantageous
In May, after the FBI raided his Northern Virginia home, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) was forced by his Republican colleagues to step down from his seat on the House Appropriations Committee. At the time, Roll Call reported that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was seeking “to enforce a tougher ethical standard in the 110th [...]

State Dpmt. won’t say if Rice knew of secret opinions.
Yesterday, ThinkProgress questioned whether Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was aware of the secret torture opinions revealed by the New York Times, given her previous declaration of “no more secret opinions.” At the State Department press briefing yesterday, a reporter asked spokesman Sean McCormack about Rice’s knowledge. He said he “didn’t ask her” yet:QUESTION: Sean, [...]

Bush predicts successor will keep Gitmo open.
The Guantanamo Bay detention center “must remain active until at least 2009 to allow the next president to decide whether it should be continued, President Bush says in a just-published book.” Bush predicted that his successor, whether Republican or Democrat, will keep the facility open. “I suspect they’ll find that it is necessary,” Bush said.

Does Bush Think His New Joint Chiefs Chairman Is ‘Nave’?
In May, former senator John Edwards (D-NC) said that “war on terrorism” is a “slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe.” During a press conference, Bush attacked critics of the phrase, calling them “naive“:This notion about how this isn’t a war on terror in my view is nave. It doesn’t [...]

Senior U.S. Military Official Faults Blackwater In The Shooting Of 11 Iraqi Civilians
A senior U.S. military official tells the Washington Post that the Sept. 16 firing incident at Nissor Square involving Blackwater USA was unprovoked and that the 11 civilian victims were unarmed: “It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong,” said the U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident remains [...]

A big fat no.
Asked his opinion on the wisdom of mounting airstrikes against Iran, Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie left little doubt about his country’s position. “A big fat no,” he said.

Bush White House has tried to ’silence’ Chris Matthews.
Last night at the 10th anniversary party for MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews criticized the Bush administration for trying to meddle in his editorial content: After praising the drafters of the First Amendment for allowing him to make a living, he outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations.The [...]

ThinkFast: October 5, 2007
The CIA’s secret overseas prison system “remains active and has held at least one al Qaeda militant” since first being revealed last year, says a U.S. official. “The official confirmed the detention as the White House” refused to say “whether the agency had resumed holding prisoners at secret sites and insisted that the United States [...]