There’s an interesting nugget buried in the Washington Post account of the contentious meeting yesterday between President Bush and moderate congressional Republicans: The House members pressed Bush and Gates hard for a “Plan B” if the current troop increase fails to quell the violence and push along political reconciliation. Davis said that administration officials convinced [...]

It’s true that Romney’s comment a couple of weeks ago about the cost-benefit ratio for pursuing bin Laden is the gaffe that’s revealed the most about what kind of foreign policy chief he’d be. But the whole in-France-they-mate-like-Vulcans quote is the most fascinating, and perhaps the most revealing of his general mindset. A friend recently [...]

I don’t understand this. Is he saying that people like Broder and Ron Brownstein and me shouldn’t talk to people outside the Beltway? Look, the blogospheric media critics have served a valuable function at times, and at other times it’s just vitriol for vitriol’s sake. I thought an essential part of the critique was that [...]

Uh-huh… Gonzales Is Said to Seem Confident He Will Stay By DAVID JOHNSTON and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG The attorney general has told aides he believes he has weathered the storm over the prosecutor dismissals. Sort of paying half-an-ear to the hearings now (our colleague Massimo is on the Hill watching live), but it doesn’t seem [...]

Well, I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall yesterday. My guess is, though, that this wasn’t as “candid” a meeting as advertised–more of a spin operation to help the moderate Republicans in iffy districts. (Note the presence of Karl Rove at the meeting.) A day earlier, Bush held a similar session [...]

TotT is a daily rundown of campaign events, compiled by Katie Rooney. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) embarks on yet another trip to Iowa today, making this at least the twelfth time he’s been to the state since January. One of Thompson’s campaign strategies is to visit every county in Iowa (there are 99 [...]