Writers Peter Baker and Elisabeth Bumiller say what Biden wants is to phase out of Afghanistan and start deploying special forces to fight al Qaeda in Pakistan. Obama is holding a series of meetings with his defense and diplomatic teams to discuss the status quo, Biden’s plan and other options revealed in new intelligence estimates the White House has ordered up. The internal debate is reportedly intense.

“A shift from a counterinsurgency strategy to a focus on counterterrorism would turn the administration’s current theory on its head. The strategy Mr. Obama adopted in March concluded that to defeat Al Qaeda, the United States needed to keep the Taliban from returning to power in Afghanistan and making it a haven once again for Osama bin Laden’s network. Mr. Biden’s position questions that assumption.

Mrs. Clinton, who opposed Mr. Biden in March, appeared to refer to this debate in an interview on Monday night on PBS. ‘Some people say, ‘Well, Al Qaeda’s no longer in Afghanistan,’ ’ she said. ‘If Afghanistan were taken over by the Taliban, I can’t tell you how fast Al Qaeda would be back in Afghanistan.’”

New York Times — Democrats Spar Among Themselves Over PhRMA Deal

In the Senate, the discussion has turned to how low to aim in order to pass something on health care costs this year and move on. But as Examiner colleague Susan Ferrechio points out, that approach is a far from what’s being sought by liberals, who are again questioning whether the administration and Senate leaders are really serious about a health overhaul.

A battle that erupted Tuesday night reveals the depths of that distrust and the part that deals with corporate special interests have played in sewing doubts.

As the Senate Finance Committee continues its brutal health bill markup, the president’s deal with the biggest drug makers to trade savings for profits and protection became a point of great contention.

Writers David Herszenhorn and Robert Pear have the details on a surprising rejection of the White House approach of creating a health care cartel:

“Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, has proposed an amendment that would essentially toss out the White House deal with PhRMA, the lobbying association for the drug industry. Mr. Nelson said his alternate plan would extract an additional $86 billion more from the drug industry.

One by one, the more liberal Democrats on the Finance panel, including John Kerry of Massachusetts, Charles E. Schumer of New York and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, raced to Mr. Nelson’s side, asking to be added as co-sponsors of his amendment.”

Washington Post — Nations Appear Headed Toward Independent Climate Goals

In his address to the general session of the United Nations today (before Col. Gaddafi and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) , President Obama is expected to again discuss global warming as an international imperative.

But as the U.S. Senate has resisted his calls for sweeping action, the president is looking for new ways to declare victory at home and abroad.

And, like an Illinois legislature with more funny hats, the U.N. is a perfect place for fake solutions.

Writers Juliet Eilperin and Colum Lynch explain that rather than a new Kyoto, which means accountability and global governance, Obama may be inching toward an “individual” approach, in which countries would make bilateral climate treaties and continue to reduce emissions on their own to engender more global trust.

But as Examiner colleague Julie Mason shows, liberals are growing weary of stalling on a host of issues.

And part of Obama’s plan also depends on the goodwill and honesty of the Chinese government.

“Chinese President Hu Jintao, for his part, said his country will establish ‘mandatory national targets’ for the reduction of emission-intense energy sources and said the government will increase the size of the nation’s forests. He said his country will place climate change at the center of its long-range plans for economic and social development, and he vowed to ‘endeavor to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level.’”

Washington Post — Obama to Set Higher Bar For Keeping State Secrets

The Justice Department has decided to give up a key tool in blocking lawsuits from terror suspects: the right to invoke a state secret exemption to ask a judge to prevent sensitive cases to proceed. The move is intended to “increase public confidence” in the department and the government. It’s been a top priority of Attorney General Eric Holder and the president, who said he felt past use of the exemption was “overbroad” and unfairly restricted terrorist litigation.

Writer Carrie Johnson explains:

“Under the new approach, a team of career prosecutors must review and the attorney general must approve any assertions of the state secrets privilege before government lawyers can make that argument in court. Officials said the new policy will ensure that the secrecy arguments are more narrowly tailored and that they are not employed to hide violations of law, bureaucratic foul-ups or details that would embarrass government officials.”

New York Times — Agencies Instructed to Separate Politics From Grant Awards

Having learned the lesson of the Van Jones and ACORN scandals, the White House and the Times are trying to get out ahead of the story about how the Obama campaign publicist appointed to be the communications director of the National Endowment for the Arts encouraged grant seekers to take on projects that glorified the presidential agenda on health care, education, etc.

After the site biggovernment.com broke the story with a super-creepy sounding tape of a conference call in which Obamanaut Yosi Sergant called for art that celebrated state priorities, the administration didn’t officially respond. But Tuesday, after another online push with the release of the full audio, the White House answered and the Times reported. The Obama press shop may still refuse to go on Fox News Sunday, but they’re answering conservative blog posts now.

Writer Jeff Zeleny reports:

“‘We regret any comments on the call that may have been misunderstood or troubled other participants,’ said Bill Burton, a deputy White House press secretary. ‘We are fully committed to the N.E.A’s historic mission, and we will take all steps necessary to ensure that there is no further cause for questions or concerns about that commitment.’

A White House memorandum, distributed to agencies across the executive branch, told officials that grant decisions should be made on their merits and government officials should avoid creating an appearance that politics was involved in any decisions. The administration does not believe the N.E.A. conference call violated the law, Mr. Burton said, but conceded that it bothered some participants who said it crossed the line by promoting the president’s agenda.”

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