Think Fast

“It’s too early to judge the success of this operation,” President Bush said yesterday of his escalation plan. “Yet even at this early hour, there are some encouraging signs.” On the same day in Iraq, suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Shiite religious pilgrims, “killing at least 130 people in one of the deadliest days of the four-year war.”

In a USA Today op-ed, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales calls the purged U.S. attorneys scandal “an overblown personnel matter.” But as Talking Points Memo documented, the excuses given yesterday by the Justice Deptartment for the firings are incredibly strained.

“On a personal level, friends of the vice president say the [Libby] trial has been deeply painful for him,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney were all but inseparable — [ex-Cheney staffer Mary] Matalin has called the former aide ‘Cheney’s Cheney’ -- and often started their days by riding to work together.”

“Reporters will be barred” from Guantanamo Bay hearings meant to determine if 14 terrors suspects transferred from secret CIA prisons are “enemy combatants.” “No word of the hearings will be made public until the government releases a transcript of the proceedings, edited to remove material deemed damaging to national security.”

“President Bush has missed a March 1 deadline to submit a required report to Congress on expanding the eligibility for the Purple Heart.” Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told Bush they are “disappointed” he allowed the deadline to pass, “saying wounded and deceased veterans and their families in this country deserve better.”

Senate leaders said yesterday they will use the upcoming defense spending bill to improve health care for military veterans, including new funding to improve facilities, improve diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries and mental health problems, and ease the transition between the military and veterans’ health care systems.

Meanwhile, the White House is adopting a sharply “defensive stance on the Iraq-war-funding bill,” resisting “giving Democratic staff even technical advice on funding that the new majority wants to add for veterans’ health programs.” President Bush held “a Republicans-only strategy dinner in the White House family quarters last week” on the bill.

The State Department released its annual human rights report yesterday, which cited Sudan, China, Russian, and Venezuela for abuses. Assistant Secretary of State Barry Lowekron admitted the report comes “at a time when our own record, and actions we have taken to respond to terrorist attacks against us, have been questioned.”

And finally: Didn’t do it. Wouldn’t be prudent. Former President George H. W. Bush insists he didn’t pat the behind of “Desperate Housewives” star Teri Hatcher after a lunch last month, despite apparent video evidence. The 82-year-old told Extra, “I have been teased about it relentlessly. (A website) accused me of patting her backside, which I did not do. The camera lies, it’s a fraud.”