Morning copy 11.15.2005

Detainee rights

The Senate has reached a deal to clarify detainee rights, Washington Post. John McCain's amendment also will be involved:

The compromise links legislation written by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), which would deny detainees broad access to federal courts, with a new measure authored by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) that would grant detainees the right to appeal the verdict of a military tribunal to a federal appeals court. The deal will come to a vote today, and the authors say they are confident it will pass.

Graham and Levin indicated they would then demand that House and Senate negotiators link their measure with the effort by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to clearly ban torture and abuse of terrorism suspects being held in U.S. facilities.

The Washington Post also has a story on two detainees in 2003, they were eventually released. They allege that they were beaten, threatened with lions and more.

Iraq

The New York Times melds the story about detainee rights (up for a vote today) with Senate Republicans pushing for an exit strategy from George W. Bush.

The Los Angeles Times has a similar story, framed as U.S., Iraq and British leaders seeking an exit strategy. It adds two interesting details, which you may already know:

Bush has repeatedly refused to offer any timetable for a withdrawal, saying that to do so would strengthen the hand of insurgents. But analysts say there is growing political pressure in all three countries to reduce the presence of foreign forces 2 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion.

In September, an 18-member committee of Iraq's National Assembly termed such troops "occupation forces" and called for a timetable for their withdrawal.

The not so great image of Ahmad Chalabi and Dick Cheney meeting in the New York Times.

Hitch on the "alchemy and hypnotism" of Chalabi, in Slate:

Their current claim to have been fooled or deceived makes them out, on their own account, to be highly dumb and gullible. But as dumb and gullible as that?

A 'fiscal hurricane'

Richard Wolf in the USA Today with a must read:

Sadly, it's no laughing matter. To hear Walker, the nation's top auditor, tell it, the United States can be likened to Rome before the fall of the empire. Its financial condition is "worse than advertised," he says. It has a "broken business model." It faces deficits in its budget, its balance of payments, its savings — and its leadership.

Karl Rove

Murray Waas in the National Journal has this interesting story:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald delayed a decision on whether to seek criminal charges against Karl Rove in large part because he wants to determine whether Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, can provide information on Rove's role in the CIA leak case, according to attorneys involved in the investigation.

Even if Fitzgerald concludes in the near future that he does not have sufficient evidence to charge Rove, the special prosecutor would not rule out bringing charges at a later date and would not finish his inquiry on Rove until he hears whatever information Libby might provide -- either incriminating or exculpatory -- on Rove's role, the sources said.

How is THIS going to play out with whomever has been talking to Mike Allen?

Howard Dean and slurs

It's a lot easier for me to just copy and paste three grafs from the Washington Times than to explain it myself:

"I oppose any effort to make an issue of a candidate's ethnicity in a political campaign, including in the Maryland Senate race," Mr. Dean said.

He issued the written statement after Maryland Republican Party Chairman John M. Kane prodded him to apologize for remarks he made Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

On the program, Mr. Dean avoided questions about racial attacks on Mr. Steele, a candidate for next year's Senate race in Maryland, who has been smeared as an "Uncle Tom" and an "Oreo" -- slurs that some Democratic lawmakers contend are fair comment because Mr. Steele is a conservative black Republican.

Samuel Alito (Scalito)

The growing "paper trail" in the Washington Post.

Tom DeLay

Brendan Miniter in Opinion Journal argues that DeLay is not worth the fight:

For all that time his two biggest achievements are pushing through a redistricting plan in Texas that elected more Republicans to Congress and twisting enough arms to push through a Medicare prescription drug plan. Both of these achievements are bittersweet.

Gaza

The Times of London:

Condoleezza Rice announced today a breakthrough deal that will fully re-open Gaza border crossings for the first time since September.