The Times — General Ray Odierno: we may have to ignore Iraq deadline to halt al-Qaeda terror
In his first major interview since briefing President Barack Obama’s surprise visit to Iraq, the Army commander there seemed encouraged that his troops would be allowed to complete their mission, regardless of the June 30 deadline Obama set for U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from all Iraqi cities in advance of full withdrawal next year.
Writer Deborah Haynes explains that Odierno is optimistic about the overall state of affairs in Iraq but thinks some problem areas may need attention.
“US troop numbers in Mosul and Baqubah, in the north of the country, could rise rather than fall over the next year if necessary, General Ray Odierno told The Times in his first interview with a British newspaper since taking over from General David Petraeus in September.
He said that a joint assessment would be conducted with the Iraqi authorities in the coming weeks before a decision is made.
Combat troops are due to leave all Iraqi cities by the end of June. Any delay would be a potential setback for President Obama, who has pledged to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq by August 2010 as he switches his focus to Afghanistan.”
Bloomberg — Fed Said to Order Banks to Stay Mum on ‘Stress Test’ Results
After the first good news from the banking industry in a while – a projected $3 billion profit from Wells Fargo – President Obama will be briefed today on the status of the “stress tests” to which the Treasury department is subjecting the 19 largest U.S. banks.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley will all be announcing first quarter earnings and estimates in the next two weeks, and the effort at Treasury to keep them from hinting at how they’re performing under Dr. Geithner’s evaluation is intense.
The White House wants to roll out all the results at once at the end of the month along with, if need be, a promise for more tax billions to stabilize the industry. But if bankers are leaking about the gag order, how likely is it that those getting good news will keep the secret?
“’If you allow banks to talk about it, people are just going to assume that the ones that don’t comment about it failed,’ said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.
Regulators are using the tests to determine whether the 19 biggest banks have enough capital to cover loan losses during the next two years if the economy shrinks, unemployment surges and housing prices keep declining. The tests are a linchpin of the plan Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced in February to bolster confidence in the nation’s banks and restore financial-market stability.”
Wall Street Journal — Emanuel Now a Backer of Immigration Action
To know where the Obama White House is heading, look to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. And as writer Laura Meckler explains, Emanuel is heading for comprehensive immigration reform after pushing back against fellow Democrats on the issue for more than a decade on the grounds that any amnesty might cost the party with blue collar voters.
Seeing that 9 percent of the electorate is now Hispanic and the Dems have a chance to shut the GOP out for good, Emanuel is moving toward some form of amnesty for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the nation.
What isn’t clear is whether the move is going to be a sprint or a slow walk.
“But as chief of staff, Mr. Emanuel has taken concrete steps that are sending a different message. He pushed hard for Congress to act fast on a children’s health-insurance bill, including a provision lifting Clinton-era restrictions on benefits for legal immigrant children. He has also arranged for members of the Hispanic media to get special briefings by White House senior officials every two weeks. He did the first one, and put other aides on notice that they were expected to do the same.
‘You don’t get to say no,’ he told colleagues at a senior staff meeting early in the administration.
While Mr. Emanuel once predicted that comprehensive immigration reform wouldn’t be considered until the second term of a Democratic president, he now says conversations on the issue will begin this year to lay the groundwork for possible action in 2010. The issue is also likely to arise next week when President Barack Obama travels to Mexico to meet with President Felipe Calderón.”
FOX News – Rove Calls Biden ‘Liar’ After VP Boasts of Scolding Bush
Going back to 2004, vow Vice President Biden has told variations on a story about him rebuking or mocking George W. Bush for his Iraq policy. The dressings down sometimes take place in the Oval Office or in other places where Biden and Bush were long, one-on-one talks about foreign policy.
Biden trotted out the tale Tuesday for an interview with Gloria Borger on CNN, and it was too much for the Bush inner circle. FOX News Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon chronicles the slams of Biden’s boasts. Bush insiders say there was no chance for the two to have even been alone for any of the put-downs to have taken place.
“Rove scoffed at Biden’s claims that “he and the president were sitting there in the Oval Office, he was tutoring the president, he was asking him the critical questions that no one was willing to confront him with.”
‘With all due respect to the vice president, these are the kind of things you can get away with if you are a United States Senator, or a backbencher in the U.S. House of Representatives,’ Rove said. ‘You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States.’
[Biden Spokesman Jay] Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss’s purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.”
Politico – GOP govs get dose of stimulus reality
Writer Ben Smith takes some evident pleasure at how all of the Republican governors who threatened to refuse stimulus money for expanding unemployment have all been forced to back down. Most will still decline some money that amounts to a down payment on unfunded mandates for less direct forms of welfare.
Smith also charges hypocricy against Bobby Jindal for rejecting some funds but seeking others for a similar project.
In the modern, compressed political cycle, decisions like whether to accept the stimulus will be closely scrutinized and deeply effect governors like Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford in their aims to be national leaders and in their efforts to govern their home states.
Aside from Smith’s clucking, the piece offers good perspective.
“The concessions in Louisiana and Alabama leave South Carolina’s Sanford as the only governor resisting large elements of the stimulus beyond unemployment insurance. Sanford plans to refuse $700 million from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, on the grounds, he said, that it would expand government and impede reform. “Once you’ve got the money, there’s no need to make the reforms,” he said of changes he’s seeking to the state education system. The state’s attorney general has said legislators can’t accept the money without the governor’s cooperation, leading to a charged standoff in Columbia that’s left Sanford bloodied but, he says, undeterred. ’Over time we’ll be vindicated, but it’s been tough,’ he said.
