September 07, 2006

September:   Sept. 29, 2006   Sept. 28, 2006   Sept. 27, 2006   Sept. 26, 2006   Sept. 21, 2006   Sept. 20, 2006   Sept. 19, 2006   Sept. 14, 2006   Sept. 13, 2006   Sept. 12, 2006   Sept. 07, 2006   Sept. 06, 2006 JULY:   Jul. 28, 2006   Jul. 27, 2006   Jul. 26, 2006   Jul. 25, 2006   Jul. 24, 2006   Jul. 20, 2006   Jul. 19, 2006   Jul. 18, 2006   Jul. 17, 2006   Jul. 13, 2006   Jul. 12, 2006   Jul. 11, 2006   Jul. 10, 2006 JUNE:   Jun. 29, 2006   Jun. 28, 2006   Jun. 27, 2006   Jun. 26, 2006   Jun. 22, 2006   Jun. 21, 2006   Jun. 20, 2006   Jun. 19, 2006   Jun. 16, 2006   Jun. 15, 2006   Jun. 14, 2006   Jun. 13, 2006   Jun. 12, 2006   Jun. 9, 2006   Jun. 8, 2006   Jun. 7, 2006   Jun. 6, 2006 MAY:   May 25, 2006   May 24, 2006   May 23, 2006   May 22, 2006   May 19, 2006   May 18, 2006   May 17, 2006   May 11, 2006   May 10, 2006   May 4, 2006   May 3, 2006   May 2, 2006 APRIL:   Apr. 27, 2006   Apr. 26, 2006   Apr. 25, 2006   Apr. 6, 2006   Apr. 5, 2006   Apr. 4, 2006 MARCH:   Mar. 30, 2006   Mar. 29, 2006   Mar. 28, 2006   Mar. 16, 2006   Mar. 15, 2006   Mar. 14, 2006   Mar. 9, 2006   Mar. 8, 2006   Mar. 7, 2006   Mar. 2, 2006   Mar. 1, 2006 FEBRUARY:   Feb. 28, 2006   Feb. 16, 2006   Feb. 15, 2006   Feb. 14, 2006   Feb. 8, 2006   Feb. 1, 2006 JANUARY:   Jan. 31, 2006 DECEMBER:   Dec. 16, 2005   Dec. 15, 2005   Dec. 14, 2005   Dec. 13, 2005   Dec. 8, 2005   Dec. 7, 2005   Dec. 6, 2005 Archives

Don’t get caught flat-footed in front of the press!  Below is a quick rundown of today’s “must reads.” – John T. Doolittle, House Republican Conference Secretary

The Morning Murmur –  Thursday, September 07, 2006

1. President Shifts Argument, Catches Critics off Guard - Washington Post Op-ed
By challenging Congress to immediately give the administration authority to try notorious al-Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed by military commissions, President Bush shifted the attention of voters this fall away from a troubled and unpopular war in Iraq in favor of his vision of a worldwide struggle against Islamic radicalism and terrorism.

2. Iraq Takes Control of Military from U.S. - Associated Press
Iraq formally took over command of its armed forces from the U.S.-led coalition Thursday, a milestone American officials have hailed as crucial to the country's difficult road to independence and eventual withdrawal of foreign troops.

3. Border security on tap for GOP - Washington Times
House Republicans will make a final push to get border-security legislation on President Bush's desk before November's elections as several key senators said they are willing to consider a border-security-only approach.

4. Vast oil pool tapped in Gulf of Mexico - Associated Press
A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation's reserves by more than 50 percent.

5. Yet Another Newspaper Aimed at Capitol Hill - Washington Post
Local media entrepreneur Robert Allbritton and Washington journalist Martin Tolchin are teaming up to create a new Capitol Hill-centric newspaper, the Capitol Leader, to compete with Roll Call, the Hill and other publications that concentrate on national politics and policy.

For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov

FULL ARTICLES BELOW:

1. President Shifts Argument, Catches Critics off Guard - Washington Post Op-ed

By Michael Abramowitz and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 7, 2006; A01

With a series of forceful speeches on terrorism and a dramatic announcement that he has sent top-tier terrorism suspects to the Guantanamo Bay prison, President Bush this week has demonstrated anew the power of even a weakened commander in chief to set the terms of national debate.

All week, the White House has made plain its desire to refocus the attention of voters this fall away from a troubled and unpopular war in Iraq in favor of Bush's vision of a worldwide struggle against Islamic radicalism and terrorism. Yesterday, Bush sought to turn a legal defeat at the Supreme Court into a political opportunity.

By challenging Congress to immediately give the administration authority to try notorious al-Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed by military commissions, he shifted the argument with Democratic critics of national security policies and competence. As Bush framed the choice, anyone against his proposal would be denying him necessary tools to protect American security.

His success in catching much of Washington by surprise showed that a president who polls show has his political back to the wall still has formidable tools: the ability to make well-timed course corrections on policy, dominate the news and shape the capital's agenda in the weeks before Election Day.

Bush's moves were partly a concession to those who have complained about secret CIA prisons abroad. Even as he acknowledged the existence of the prison program for the first time, Bush could argue that there are no terrorism suspects now in the CIA program.

At the same time, Bush sought to redefine the issue of CIA detentions from one of civil liberties to one of protecting Americans. He asserted that interrogators had reaped an intelligence bonanza from the questioning of top al-Qaeda leaders such as Mohammed -- the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- and Osama bin Laden deputy Abu Zubaida, and insisted Congress pass a law that would allow such interrogations to continue without legal jeopardy to soldiers and intelligence officers.

"We need to ensure that those questioning terrorists can continue to do everything within the limits of the law to get information that can save American lives," he said in his speech in the East Room of the White House.

After months of mostly ineffectual efforts to reverse Bush's year-long decline in public approval -- driven in large measure by growing impatience with the Iraq war -- the White House in recent days has launched an aggressive campaign to use the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to regain momentum and prevent GOP congressional majorities from being routed this fall. Even Democratic aides on Capitol Hill said Bush's tactics this week have diminished their party's efforts to highlight the problems in Iraq and motivate an anti-Republican vote Nov. 7.

Bush's speech took place moments before the Senate launched a lengthy debate on a Democratic proposal urging the president to fire Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as a step toward "a change of course" in Iraq. GOP senators denounced the resolution as partisan posturing, and prevented it from coming to a vote by ruling it not germane to the military spending bill on the Senate floor, and the president's announcement immediately overshadowed the debate.

The midterm elections may well hinge on whether Bush's new move proves effective. There is reason for skepticism. This is already the White House's third effort in the past year to reshape the Iraq debate with new rhetoric.

"This is a political offensive above all, and it's not clear it will work," said Jeremy Rosner, a top Democratic pollster who formerly worked on the Clinton National Security Council staff. "It is elevating the prominence of Iraq, which all polls show has turned unpopular. . . . What they lack still is any signal that they have a way forward. They are ratcheting up the rhetoric without giving voters any sense of how they want to get out of this mess."

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said the president is "desperately trying to use words and make connections that will somehow convince people that what they're seeing and hearing isn't reality." He is "trying to connect it to World War II rather than Vietnam, for example." The tactic will not work, Stabenow predicted, because "the American people understand that there have been missteps, misjudgments" that have had tragic consequences.

White House officials have rejected the idea that the ongoing series of speeches are primarily political in nature, saying Bush has wanted to set the war in Iraq in proper context. White House counselor Dan Bartlett said the president has been anxious to help the public understand the scenes of violence from Lebanon and Iraq this past summer. But he also said the administration was determined to answer Democratic charges. "It is very important to define the terms of the debate and not be defined by others," Bartlett said. "Sometimes in the past charges that go unanswered, however egregious they may be, can then become conventional wisdom."

This mind-set was behind an unusual White House public relations gambit yesterday, which saw the White House release a letter from Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten, who seldom speaks in public, responding to Democratic Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) criticizing the administration's Iraq policy this week. Bolten essentially said that most of Reid's suggestions for changing policy in Iraq were already being pursued by the administration.

Such letters have heartened Republicans looking for more energetic leadership from the White House. "The Democrats are trying to politicize the war on terror," said Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "They are the ones who chose to make this a political issue, and we said, 'Okay, we'll engage.' "

Vin Weber, a top GOP strategist and lobbyist, said the White House "has substantially stepped up its effort to win the argument in the country about the war on terror."

He contrasted the intensity of the involvement of Bolten and White House press secretary Tony Snow with their predecessors in framing the new message. He said it was a mistake to view the ongoing speeches solely from a political perspective, but he said Republicans could eventually benefit.

"I think the Democrats have been a little seduced by polls showing that Iraq is a big issue," he said, asserting that national security remains an issue that will favor Republicans. "I would not want to be the opposition party challenging the commander in chief in a fundamental way going into the election."

But Bill Galston, a Democratic analyst from the centrist wing of his party, was skeptical that the president would have much success changing voters' negative impressions of the war in Iraq. "If the facts on the ground are bad enough at home and abroad, then the most artful presidential framing will not alter people's judgments, and that's where I think people are," said Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/06/AR2006090602098.html
 

2. Iraq Takes Control of Military from U.S. - Associated Press

Iraqi Gov't Takes Control of Its Armed Forces From U.S.-Led Coalition; 17 Dead in Bombings

By REBECCA SANTANA

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq formally took over command of its armed forces from the U.S.-led coalition Thursday, a milestone American officials have hailed as crucial to the country's difficult road to independence and eventual withdrawal of foreign troops.

However, Iraq's bloodshed continued in the hours before the handover. Six bomb attacks targeting police patrols in Baghdad killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 50.

"This is such a huge, significant event that's about to occur," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Wednesday of the handover. "If you go back and you map out significant events that have occurred in this government's formation in taking control of the country, tomorrow is gigantic."

The heavily touted transfer was scheduled to take place five days ago, but was canceled at the last minute as the two sides tried to work out differences over the documents involved.

Neither the Iraqis nor coalition officials would describe the exact nature of the disagreement, except to say that it was procedural rather than substantive. Caldwell said the two sides decided it would be better to delay the event until there was complete agreement.

"It's the one event that puts the prime minister directly in the operational control of his military forces as his role as the commander in chief," Caldwell said. "So that's not something you want to rush into."

Turning over control of the country's security is vital to any eventual drawdown of U.S. forces here. After disbanding the remaining Iraqi army after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, coalition forces have been training the new Iraqi military.

However, it is unclear exactly how quickly Iraqi forces will be prepared to take over their own security.

"It's the prime minister's decision how rapidly he wants to move along with assuming control," Caldwell said. In Thursday's ceremony, the prime minister will take control of Iraq's small naval and air forces and the 8th Iraqi Army Division.

"They can move as rapidly thereafter as they want. I know, conceptually, they've talked about perhaps two divisions a month," Caldwell said.

The 8th Division has recently been in the center of one of the fiercest battles between Iraqi forces and Shiite militias. More than 20 soldiers and 50 militiamen were killed in the fighting between the division's troops and militia fighters on Aug. 28 in the southern city of Diwaniyah.

Days before the battle, the division's commander, Brig. Gen. Othman al-Farhoud, told The Associated Press that while his forces were capable of controlling security, they still needed support from the U.S.-led coalition. He said there was still a need for coalition air support, medical assistance and military storage facilities.

"In my opinion, it will take time," al-Farhoud said when asked how long it would take before his division was completely self-sufficient.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani predicted in a Tuesday meeting with visiting British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett that fighting in Iraq will have abated by the end of 2007, and that Iraqi forces will be able to handle any remaining violence.

Iraqi police, meanwhile, were once again the target of attacks Thursday.

A suicide car bomb targeting a police patrol outside a gas station near the Elouya Hospital in central Baghdad killed 10 people, including four policemen, and wounded 21, police said.

Another suicide car bombing in Taiyran Square in the center of the city killed three policemen and wounded 15, the prime minister's office said. Police initially reported two civilians and two policemen were killed.

Two suicide car bombs exploded near al-Nidaa Mosque in northern Baghdad, the prime minister's office said. Nobody was hurt in the first, but the second killed three civilians and wounded 12.

Another suicide car bomb in Taiyran Square in the center of the city killed two civilians and two police special forces members, and wounded 13 people, police said.

In western Baghdad, a roadside bombing in Qahtan Square near Yarmouk hospital wounded four people, including a policeman, Mahmoud said. Elsewhere, in the upscale district of Mansour, a roadside bomb explosion killed a man and injured his daughter and another person, police said.

On Wednesday night, gunmen kidnapped the nephew of Iraq's parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, in Baghdad, was kidnapped, an interior ministry official said.

Associated Press Writer Bushra Juhi contributed to this story.


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2404361

3. Border security on tap for GOP - Washington Times

By Charles Hurt
Published September 7, 2006

House Republicans will make a final push to get border-security legislation on President Bush's desk before November's elections, senior aides told The Washington Times yesterday.

Top Republicans are planning a series of tough new border-security measures that they hope can get through the Senate, which in the past has opposed border-security legislation unless it has included a guest-worker program and grants citizenship rights to the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens already here.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, said yesterday it would be "next to impossible" to approve such comprehensive immigration reform, but several key senators said they are willing to consider a border-security-only approach.

"If our only options are a half a loaf or no loaf, then I'd be inclined to take half a loaf," said Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who for years has been a leading advocate of comprehensive immigration reform that secures the borders.

The renewed House effort comes after a monthlong August recess during which time Republicans held a series of "field hearings" to further explore the problem of illegal immigration.

Republicans now worry that many voters will blame them for not doing more because they control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

"Some of our members need something to hang their hat on," said one senior House Republican aide.

House Republicans say they get little credit for having approved a border-security bill 10 months ago and the Republican Congress as a whole gets little credit for the border-security improvements that have passed both chambers.

The latest bill to fund the Iraq war, for instance, contained $1.9 billion for beefed up border patrol. And by year's end, Congress is expected to have approved another $20 billion.

The sticking point for border-security legislation has been a handful of Senate Republicans who sided with most Democrats to oppose any immigration bill that doesn't include a guest-worker program and provisions to grant citizenship to the majority of the illegal alien population.

Some, however, are having second thoughts as the November midterm elections near.

"If all we could get through is border security and work-site enforcement, I could support that," Mr. Cornyn said yesterday.

Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas has been another stalwart Republican opposed to the border-security-only approach. But yesterday, he said he's "not sure" how he would vote on such a bill now.

"I'd like to see us do something. I'd like to see us do something comprehensive," he said. "But I would look at it."

Even Sen. Mel Martinez, the Florida Republican who wrote the compromise bill that ultimately passed the Senate, has softened to the idea.

"It really would depend on what it looked like," he said yesterday.

Such legislation could also pick up a few Democrats. A handful already have expressed public support for a straight border-security bill. And yesterday, Sen. Mark Pryor, the Arkansas Democrat who has supported comprehensive legislation, said yesterday he would consider a border bill.

Mr. Martinez acknowledged that, without a major immigration bill passing both chambers, Republicans have a problem on their hands heading into November.

"It was a serious risk when we left here in July with this cocky attitude that this would be a better political issue for us if we get nothing done on it," he said. "That was a real mistake."

That vulnerability was clear yesterday with Mr. Frist's "next to impossible" statement about comprehensive reform.

Within hours, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who has been on the forefront of immigration reform, issued a statement.

"How can Republicans say they are for making America safer when they can't even pass a comprehensive immigration-reform bill to protect our borders?"


http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060907-124659-6366r.htm

4. Vast oil pool tapped in Gulf of Mexico - Associated Press
 

By BRAD FOSS
AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation's reserves by more than 50 percent.

A test well indicates it could be the biggest new domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay a generation ago. But the vast oil deposit roughly four miles beneath the ocean floor won't significantly reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and it won't help lower prices at the pump anytime soon, analysts said.

"It's a nice positive, but the U.S. still has a big difference between its consumption and indigenous production," said Art Smith, chief executive of energy consultant John S. Herold. "We'll still be importing more than 50 percent of our oil needs."

Chevron on Tuesday estimated the 300-square-mile region where its test well sits could hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids. The U.S. consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude-oil in a year.

It will take many years and tens of billions of dollars to bring the newly tapped oil to market, but the discovery carries particular importance for the industry at a time when Western oil and gas companies are finding fewer opportunities in politically unstable parts of the world, including the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

The proximity of the Gulf of Mexico to the world's largest oil consuming nation makes it especially attractive. And it could bring pressure on Florida and other states to relax limits they have placed on drilling in their offshore waters for environmental and tourism reasons.

The country's reserves currently are more than 29 billion barrels of oil equivalent, according to the U.S. Energy Department. But the U.S. imports most of its oil from abroad and its overall supply is tiny when compared with, say, Saudi Arabia, whose reserves exceed 250 billion barrels.

Chevron's well, called "Jack 2," was drilled about 5.3 miles below sea level. Chevron has a 50 percent stake in the field, while partners Statoil ASA of Norway and Devon Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City own 25 percent each.

During the test, the Jack 2 well sustained a flow rate of more than 6,000 barrels of oil per day, but analysts and executives believe the payoff could be much larger than that.

The financial implications of the prospect are most significant for independent oil and gas producer Devon, which is the smallest of the three partners. Devon's shares soared 12 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

"This could not have happened in a better place," Devon CEO Larry Nichols said in a conference call with analysts.

The successful test well does not mean a huge supply of cheap oil will hit the market anytime soon.

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit estimated that the first production for the Chevron-led partnership might not come on line until after 2010, depending on how many more test wells the companies drill. That said, many companies, including BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., stand to benefit from their own projects in the so-called lower tertiary, a rock formation that is 24 million to 65 million years old.

"They may be the first ones to hit the jackpot, but if the current thinking is correct, this is only a beginning," Gheit said.

The well was drilled in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf, about 270 miles southwest of New Orleans and 175 miles off the coast. It followed up a discovery made by Chevron in 2004.

San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron said the well set a variety of records, including the deepest well successfully tested in the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron said the well was drilled more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor below 7,000 feet of water for a total depth of 28,175 feet.

Shares of Devon rose $7.99 to close at $72.14 on the New York Stock Exchange, above the top end of the stock's 52-week range of $48.94 to $70.35. Shares of Chevron rose $1.51, or 2.3 percent, to finish at $66.34.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MAJOR_OIL_DISCOVERY?SITE=CADIU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

5. Yet Another Newspaper Aimed at Capitol Hill - Washington Post

By Chris Kirkham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; D01

Local media entrepreneur Robert Allbritton and Washington journalist Martin Tolchin are teaming up to create a new Capitol Hill-centric newspaper that will debut Nov. 21.

The paper, to be called the Capitol Leader, will enter a competitive niche market, joining Roll Call, the Hill and other publications such as the National Journal and Congressional Quarterly that concentrate on national politics and policy.

Allbritton said the intent is to combine in-depth reporting from the Capitol Leader with the exposure of his company's local television stations, WJLA (Channel 7) and News Channel 8. Demand for political news in the city remains strong, Allbritton said, and the hope is to offer advertisers packages with politically oriented television programs such as "Inside Washington" and "Capital Sunday," which appear on Allbritton stations.

The venture is a pairing of two high-profile Washington figures with long backgrounds in the news and other industries. Allbritton's family owned the Washington Star in the 1970s. Allbritton also succeeded his father, Joe L. Allbritton, as chief executive at Riggs Bank, which was sold in 2004 after reports that it helped hide money for the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the ruling family of Equatorial Guinea. He is now chief executive of Allbritton Communications Co. and will be publisher of the Capitol Leader.

Tolchin is a former New York Times correspondent who co-founded the Hill in 1994. He said the new publication would do more investigative reporting and include book and restaurant reviews of interest to members of Congress, staff members and lobbyists.

"There is so much going on up there that there's definitely room for another publication, and probably many more publications," Tolchin said. "I don't think we'll be the last." Tolchin left the Hill three years ago to work on a book and said he planned to stay with the Capitol Leader as a senior editor for about a year and a half.

Tolchin said he had been recruiting from several Washington publications, including The Washington Post, Roll Call and the Hill. Frank Meyers, the production manager at the Hill, has already joined, Tolchin said.

He said he hoped to have about 14 reporters and a dozen editors when the paper is at full staff. The paper will publish Tuesday through Thursday when Congress is in session, and on Wednesdays during recess. That's the same publication schedule as the Hill. Roll Call publishes Monday through Thursday, and Mondays during recess.

Allbritton executives plan to have Capitol Leader reporters appear regularly on WJLA and News Channel 8 programs. About 90 percent of the copies of paper will be available free on Capitol Hill.

Allbritton Communications owns television stations in Washington and six other markets. Allbritton had explored buying the Hill last year but the asking price was $40 million.

Like Roll Call and the Hill, the Capitol Leader plans to get advertising mainly from advocacy groups that want to get their message around Capitol Hill.
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501376.html

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