First glance
President Bush is in Gyeongju, Korea. Back home, Team Cheney launched something of a two-pronged counteroffensive to Democratic attacks on the Administration's case for war. The Vice President stepped into the carefully managed spotlight with a speech echoing Bush's criticism of Democrats on Iraq: "The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone - but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history." He also suggested that Democrats are hurting US troops' morale. Bush backed him up from Asia by charging war critics with "irresponsibly using their positions and playing politics."

And the legal team of former Cheney chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby used Bob Woodward's news of how and when he learned of Valerie Plame's identity to try to discredit prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Libby attorney Ted Wells: "First, the disclosure shows that Mr. Fitzgerald's statement at his press conference of October 28, 2005 that Mr. Libby was the first government official to tell a reporter about Mr. Wilson's wife was totally inaccurate. Second, Woodward's disclosure that he talked to Mr. Libby on June 23 and June 27, 2003 and that Mr. Libby did not mention Wilson's wife undermines Mr. Fitzgerald's key theme that Mr. Libby was involved in a scheme to discredit Wilson."

Squish, goes the ground from which both efforts have been launched. Somewhat overlooked amidst the attention now being paid to journalistic icon Woodward is the prospect that other Bush officials could get caught up in Fitzgerald's probe. And Cheney's standing isn't what it used to be. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from early November showed Cheney's personal rating as 27% positive, 49% negative -- down from 42%-41% in January and well below his previous low of 36%-32% from July of last year. Sixty-nine percent of those polled said Cheney is at least somewhat responsible for what happened with the CIA leak. Also, 79% say the charges against Libby are serious, and 78% say others in the Administration may also have acted illegally, rather than Libby acting alone (8%).

That said, also remember: Of the 19 different issues tested in the poll, those surveyed preferred Democrats over Republicans on 16 of them, including -- by a narrow margin -- the war in Iraq. But two issues on which Republicans maintained a wide advantage over Democrats were: dealing with the war on terrorism (9 points), and ensuring a strong national defense (21 points).

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Which is another way of saying that the ground from which Democrats are attacking isn't exactly firm, either. Kerry, for example, said in a statement last night that it's "hard to name a government official with less credibility on Iraq than Vice President Cheney." But of course, Kerry's "voted for/against it" line on the Iraq war plagued him throughout the 2004 presidential campaign and contributed to the public's impression that Democrats are weak on security. As did the liberal campaign of/for Howard Dean, who now runs the Democratic National Committee. MSNBC's Hardball hosts both Kerry and Sen. John McCain at 5:00 pm.

Democrats keep up the heat on Republicans over Iraq today. Rep. John Murtha (D) will make a "major announcement" on Iraq at 10:30 am; indications are that the respected former Marine, who initially supported the war, will announce he has changed his mind. A new Democratic National Committee web video seeks to cast the Senate vote earlier this week for the GOP proposal on Iraq as a "no confidence" vote on Bush's war policy, and also tries to apply it writ large as a bipartisan rejection of Bush's overall agenda. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee says they'll deliver their web video charging Democratic hypocrisy on WMD to every GOP member of Congress.

On the domestic front, the Senate is expected to vote today on the tax bill that doesn't include Bush's called-for extensions in the cap gains and dividend tax cuts because of dissent within GOP ranks; the plan is for those extensions to be added in conference. And the House may vote today on its budget bill, also plagued by a split within GOP ranks. More on both efforts below.

And on the Alito nomination, the ad wars are beginning: A coalition of interest groups seeking to defeat Alito, including People for the American Way, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, NARAL and Americans for Justice, will hold press conferences in Rhode Island and Maine today to launch a new TV ad. The ad criticizes Alito for his 1985 comments on abortion and claims Alito "ruled to make it easier for corporations to discriminate" and "even voted to approve the strip search of a 10 year-old girl." The ad will air on cable in those two states because, according to the coalition, senators there will play a vital role in the confirmation process.

The Committee for Justice also releases a TV ad today in support of Alito. The ad will air next week in Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Montana, Arkansas, Colorado and DC. It charges that "liberal special interest groups" like PFAW oppose Alito because they want "liberal activist judges who legislate from the bench, rather than interpret our laws and Constitution." The ad also says these groups "want to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and are fighting school choice. They support tax hikes imposed by the courts and partial birth abortion. They are trying to redefine traditional marriage and promote voting rights for convicted felons. They sanction the burning of the American flag and even oppose pornography filters on public library computers."

Alito meets today with, among others, Senators Kerry and Clinton.

National security politics
After fact-checking the Administration's assertions on Iraq and Cheney's speech last night, Knight Ridder finds that "in accusing Iraq war critics of 'rewriting history,' Bush, Cheney and other senior administration officials are tinkering with the truth themselves."

"A top American commander in Iraq on Wednesday denounced calls by some U.S. senators and others to set a deadline for a troop withdrawal, calling it 'a recipe for disaster' for the 2 1/2 -year-old war," says the Washington Post.

Roll Call's Morton Kondracke writes that "Democratic accusations that Bush lied to get the United States into the Iraq war would seem to lead logically to demands for his removal from office." Kondracke thinks that Kerry's mention earlier this week of Republicans' effort to impeach Clinton "was a trial balloon, designed to get the idea out on the table without having to accept responsibility for actually recommending it... To be sure, no party leader has mentioned impeachment, but it’s clear that Democrats are eagerly searching for 'smoking guns.'"

The New York Daily News reports that former President Clinton received a standing ovation at the American University of Dubai yesterday when he called the Iraq war a "big mistake." "Clinton has criticized the war before, but knowledgeable sources said he is miffed the Bushies are using his old comments from 1998 about what a threat Saddam Hussein was."

McCain's proposed ban on torture of detainees appears to have enough bipartisan support to pass, says the Boston Globe. "Democrats said they intend to invoke a special rule that would force the House leadership to consider the measure, while Republican leaders seemed to be relying on stalling tactics to keep the issue from coming to a vote... If that happens, Bush would be in the awkward position of using his first veto to kill a popular measure banning torture even as his own popularity is at an all-time low."

The Bush/GOP agenda
Roll Call's Stuart Rothenberg says of all the "lowest ever" polls that "the explosion of polls is turning out to be another headache for the White House. Every few days, there is another survey that finds Americans unhappy with the president’s leadership, his performance on the economy, health care or Iraq. Television networks and newspapers report about their own polls, as well as about" other reputable surveys. "The constant drumbeat of negativity creates a bandwagon effect... Opinion against the president is gelling, making it difficult for him to change public opinion merely by giving speeches... Ultimately, the president needs some good news."

Both GOP and Democratic strategists tell us they think Bush is bottoming out in the polls because the base is standing by him. His fairly precipitous drop seems to be due to independents abandoning him. Per the crosstabs from this month's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 62% of independents disapprove of the job Bush is doing (by comparison, just 20% of Republicans disapprove). That's a stark change from our January 2005 poll, in which 49% of independents disapproved. At yesterday's Christian Science Monitor breakfast, former GOP House campaign committee chair Tom Davis voiced concern that this loss of the center could hurt the GOP in 2006. "Independent voters... are leaving us in droves," he said.

"Independent voters are the ultimate swing voters," Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg tells First Read, adding that many of them swung toward Bush last year because of security issues, even though the GOP focused its energy on turning out its base. But Greenberg says that independents are now leaving Bush and the GOP because 1) they're not social conservatives; 2) the issues they care about -- Iraq and the economy -- aren't viewed to be going well; and 3) they're upset by the ethical questions surrounding the Administration. Republicans, Greenberg says, "have a real problem."

So faced with this problem with independents, what did Majority Leader Bill Frist announce yesterday would be one of the first items for next year's Senate GOP agenda? Asbestos-litigation reform. More appealing to the base.

In the latest round of Democratic press conferences criticizing GOP priorities, Senators Durbin, Harkin and Kennedy hold one at 11:30 am, and their freshman colleagues Obama and Salazar hold one at 2:15 pm. Also, the party's Senate and House campaign committee chairs will, in a 12:30 pm presser, charge that the Hill GOP is a "rubber stamp" for the Bush agenda.

Taxes and spending
House Republicans are insisting that their controversial package of cuts to Medicaid and other entitlement programs is still alive, and say that the House will stay in session this weekend if that's what it takes to pass it, NBC's Mike Viqueira says. You'll recall that they had to throw in the towel last week on the measure when the leadership failed to twist enough moderate Republican arms to support passage. But they're still at it. At the same time, a House bill that would extend capital gains and dividend tax cuts beyond their current 2008 expiration dates could hit the floor soon, Viq says. A companion tax cut package is moving to the Senate floor, but it's significantly different from the House bill.

The politics for Republicans here are difficult, as Democrats have made a lot of hay by arguing that Republicans are taking from the poor while at the same time lining the pockets of the rich with more tax cuts. Republicans decry that claim as "class warfare" and say they have fought and won on this ground in the past, Viq notes. They also counter that they're slowing the growth of entitlement programs -- not technically 'cutting' them -- while at the same time making them more efficient and less prone to waste, fraud, and abuse. On the tax side, they assert that allowing the rates to go back up in 2008 amounts to a tax hike, which they're against.

"House conservatives say their battles with more liberal Republican colleagues over spending cuts is really about the party's direction and its role as a governing majority," says the Washington Times.

The Hill observes that "Bush and big business are not going all out to pass the budget bill, contrasting with the lobbying blitz on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) earlier this year and the Medicare drug measure in 2003." (Whatever happened to Bush exhorting Congress to cut spending?)

Rep. Tom Davis (R) also was asked by reporters yesterday about what issues the party might be able to campaign on in 2006: "This is way over my pay grade," he admitted, but says that taxes and the deficit are two possibilities. "There will be a day of reckoning, and we have to take some action [on the deficit]." He doubts that real tax reform can be achieved, however, because tax reform always creates winners and losers. "The losers really dig in... I don't think you're going to get tax reform in this environment."

The Washington Post's Broder writes that Democrats "conspicuously lack an agenda for the midterm election year," and should get themselves a tax plan soon.

Ethics
The Washington Post's Kurtz covers Bob Woodward's apology to the Post for taking two years to reveal "that a senior Bush administration official had told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame" because he "was worried about being subpoenaed" by Fitzgerald.

The New York Times: “Mr. Woodward's account of his surprise testimony to Mr. Fitzgerald… now makes it apparent that he was the first journalist known to have learned the C.I.A. identity of Valerie Wilson.”

The Los Angeles Times says "there was rampant speculation about the identity of Woodward's source. The writer has had unparalleled access to administration officials at the highest levels... Some people familiar with the case were shocked that Fitzgerald had not rooted out the conversation earlier."

"Because Woodward's revelation came as a surprise, former prosecutors say, Libby's lawyers will use it to raise doubt about the thoroughness of... Fitzgerald's 2-year-old investigation," says USA Today. "Libby's lawyers could also use Woodward's account to bolster Libby's argument that he wasn't deliberately trying to mislead investigators or the grand jury."

The Wall Street Journal focuses on how Woodward's revelation "raises the prospect of additional Bush-administration officials becoming entangled in the two-year probe... The White House now must brace itself for the possibility that Mr. Fitzgerald's probe, far from winding down, may have just gotten a second wind. Prosecutors deposed Mr. Woodward in anticipation of presenting that evidence to a new grand jury, according to a person familiar with the situation... The best possible scenario for the White House is that Mr. Woodward's source no longer works for the administration."

NBC's Doug Adams reports that a lot of stuff got filed yesterday in the DeLay case. Prosecutor Ronnie Earle responded to the DeLay team's motions to quash all the indictments; Earle's brief explains what actions prosecutors took in dealing with the three grand juries, and disputes the notion that there was any misconduct. The brief is noteworthy, Adams says, because it confirms what's been reported in the Houston papers and elsewhere about Earle's investigators talking to grand jury members outside the courtroom in an apparent attempt to figure out how best to get the new grand jury to indict DeLay.

Earle's team also subpoenaed documents seeking bank records from SunTrust relating to the Americans for a Republican Majority PAC (ARMPAC) that was run by DeLay's associates. And he subpoenaed campaign records from the Texas GOP candidates who received contributions from ARMPAC in 2002. Last but not least, Adams says, Court TV has petitioned the judge for permission to air the DeLay hearing on Tuesday, which will take place in front of new judge Pat Priest. DeLay is seeking a speedy trial -- before the end of the year.

The New York Times adds that prosecutors have subpoenaed the records of transactions between DeLay’s national PAC and another one run by his successor in the House, Roy Blunt. “The subpoena offered no explanation of why..., although news reports have recently questioned why thousands of dollars raised by Mr. DeLay and his committee to entertain delegates at the 2000 Republican convention were shifted to Mr. Blunt's committee.”

The Houston Chronicle, meanwhile, previews tonight’s fundraiser for DeLay, organized by lobbyists and former aides. Good-government group Public Citizen plans to protest outside the event.

Speaking of Public Citizen, the group yesterday asked the SEC to expand its inquiry of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the New York Times says. “The commission is already investigating the senator's decision to sell all of his stock in HCA Inc.… Now [Public Citizen] says financial disclosure documents filed by Mr. Frist reveal several additional ‘exceedingly well-timed transactions’ made by trusts that manage investments for his three sons. All involve healthcare companies that at one point had ties to the Frist family.”

Bloomberg reports that Karl Rove e-mailed with then-Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair Kenneth Tomlinson about adding a new conservative-leaning talk show to the network. An internal CPB probe has determined that Tomlinson broke federal law and violated the organization's rules and code of ethics in his efforts to promote conservatives. The CPB report "discussed the e-mails but didn't identify Rove as one of the people involved."

Energy politics
A floor vote is expected today on Senate Democrats' proposed windfall tax on oil company profits. Also, earlier this week, "the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee added a provision to the pending tax bill that would raise an additional $5 billion over two years from major oil companies... Neither idea is expected to survive in final legislation, since both the White House and top Republican leaders oppose them. Still, their place on the congressional agenda reflects a heightened sense of turmoil as President Bush flounders politically and lawmakers look toward the 2006 midterm elections."

Yesterday, Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg announced that he has written Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for a formal investigation into whether the oil company CEOs lied to Congress when they denied during their testimony last week that they met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001. Even though the CEOs weren't sworn in, NBC's Adams notes, it is illegal for anyone to make "materially false fictitious or fraudulent statement" to Congress. NBC's Vicky Bernal contacted the five companies whose CEOs testified:

-- ExxonMobil says company executives did meet with task force executive director Andrew Lundquist in February 2001, but that the meeting was only to give information about Exxon's annual "energy outlook."

-- Shell says company executives did meet with members of the task force in 2001, but can't confirm if Shell participated in "official task force meetings."

-- ConocoPhillips says their CEO was not aware last week that the company's then-chair reportedly met with the task force in March 2001.

-- Chevron says they did not meet with task force officials, but did send a letter in February 2001 outlining "recommendations" for a national energy policy.

-- And, BP America said company officials regularly meet with Administration officials on energy policy, but would not comment specifically about the task force.

2005 and the midterms
New Jersey Governor-elect Jon Corzine (D) met with Senate colleagues Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer yesterday to discuss Corzine's replacement in the Senate. A source with knowledge of the meeting wouldn't discuss any details that came from it -- other than to say that there will be "no decision anytime soon." Others, however, expect a decision to come one or two weeks after Thanksgiving.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch covers Governor-elect Tim Kaine’s meeting with House Democrats yesterday. During this “victory lap,” Democrats praised him “for the civility of his campaign” and for his “effective discussion of faith and values.”

More from GOP Rep. Tom Davis: "The Democrats are getting some backbone." But he adds that Democrats are trying to nationalize the 2006 elections because they don't have an agenda. "This is nothing more than an organized conspiracy to take power... They don't really offer an alternative... Nancy Pelosi swings at anything -- it doesn't have to be over the plate." Voters, he concludes, aren't going to vote for you just because you're the alternative.

The vote
The Washington Times covers the struggle by Louisiana officials to enable evacuees to vote in the state's elections in February, and consideration of whether the vote should be postponed.

And the Washington Post reports that a "team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters," but were overruled "by higher-ranking officials at Justice... Republican proponents in Georgia have cited federal approval of the program as evidence that it would not discriminate against African Americans and other minorities."

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