Bush to Declare Gains in Iraq on Some Fronts  —  The Bush administration will assert in the next few days that progress in carrying out the new American strategy in Iraq has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

Rocking the Hard Place  —  SARA TAYLOR PLAYS THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE LIKE A HARP.  —  It's not that I don't want to feel sorry for Sara Taylor.  I do.  As she reminds us dozens of times today, she's been put in an impossible situation: caught between her desire to testify truthfully …

McCain Call Raises an Ethics Question  —  About 3 p.m. Tuesday, Senator John McCain ducked off the Senate floor, entered the Republican cloakroom and took out his mobile phone.  Just hours after accepting the resignation of his two top campaign aides, he was making a conference call …

Rep. Bob Allen arrested on sex charge  —  TITUSVILLE - State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said.  —  Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail …

A Nuclear Ruse Uncovers Holes in U.S. Security  —  Undercover Congressional investigators set up a bogus company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a so-called dirty bomb.

Wishful Thinking on Iraq  —  IT SEEMS like just weeks ago, because it was, that Congress approved funding for the war in Iraq and instructed Gen. David H. Petraeus to report back on the war's progress in September.  Now, for reasons having more to do with American politics than with Iraqi reality, September isn't soon enough.

Intelligence Briefing on the Hill Today  —  The top intelligence analysts for the CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) provided a Global Security Assessment to the full House Armed Services Committee today.

Flynt is tracking 20 congressional sex scandal leads  —  Larry Flynt, the porn-industry magnate who first linked Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) to the escort service of the "D.C. Madam," said Wednesday that his investigators are tracking more than 20 leads on alleged congressional sex scandals.

Initial Benchmark Assessment Report  —  This report to Congress is submitted consistent with Section 1314 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 110-28) (the "Act").  It includes an assessment …

Farewell to a Lady  —  "My mother," Lynda Bird Johnson once told me, "thinks well of everybody.  She's even sure the Devil's been maligned.  Just got a bad press."  —  I got to know the First Lady during the time her daughter worked for me when I was editor of McCalls.

Lazy, Stupid or Willfully Ignorant?  —  Right now, all the talk in DC is whether there has been any progress in Iraq.  No one can wait till September.  They need to know now.  Primarily, it appears, because they need to kill the war for their own domestic political reasons before it kills them.

"My Oath, Like Your Oath, Is to Uphold the Constitution"  —  This is some good indignation right here from Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) in response to Sara Taylor's view that her oath of office was an oath of personal loyalty to George W. Bush:  —  Expressing good, old-fashioned outrage …

Whatever Happened to Lynne Stewart?  —  PASSION DISTORTS PERSPECTIVE.  Nowhere is that more evident than in Rep. John Conyers' inquiry into the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence.  —  Yesterday, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wasted a calendar day holding hearings on …

Quick US Exit From Iraq: Seven Scenarios  —  I've ten minutes to put this together before leaving for the airport.  Nope — I haven't posted in almost two weeks.  I have been busy doing some research for an article.  The research is time-consuming but fun.  It's a US Civil War article.