Swamp Gas, April 12, 2007

Posted by Frank James at 7:40 am CDT

A quick guided tour of some of the day's most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related news stories

Staying on. The tours of active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will be extended to as long as 15 months from the current 12 months in a move the Pentagon says will allow it to maintain the troop surge in Baghdad for a year while providing troops in the U.S. more certainty about when they'll be deployed.

Unfounded fears. A five-year push by the Bush Justice Department to investigate allegedly widespread voter fraud turned up little evidence of a systemic problem, instead snaring a relatively small number of people who improperly completed voter registration forms or committed other infractions.

Oops. The White House has acknowledged that some aides may have used non-government e-mail systems provided by the Republican National Committee to conduct official government business which would be a violation of federal laws meant to keep government officials accountable and may hinder the congressional probe into the firing of federal prosecutors since e-mails apparently have been deleted.

Showing up. After saying they wouldn't meet with President Bush at the White House if he refused to negotiate on the Iraq War spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to relent, saying they will sit down with Bush after all next Wednesday but they will not accept him dictating terms to them since they believe they better represent the the American people's position on the war.

Catastrophic refusal. The Bush Administration rejected pleas for national catastrophic insurance to help residents and businesses in disaster prone areas, like the Hurricane Katrina devastated Gulf Coast, having difficulty finding affordable private-market insurance.

Nuclear squeeze play. The Bush Administration's tactic of squeezing a small Macau bank which was also a conduit for North Korea money has had surprising success in getting the rogue regime to promise to shut down a nuclear reactor thought to be vital to its ambition of creating an atomic arsenal.

Al Qaeda strikes. A group newly associated with al Qaeda claimed responsibility for two bombings in the Algerian capital which killed 23 people and caused significant damage to the government building housing the prime minister's office.

Cell division. A broadly bipartisan group of senators approved legislation to permit federal funding of wider research using embryonic stem cells, the second time in a year they've done so, but fell four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised presidential veto.

Fading McCain. A recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll gave Sen. John McCain his worst showing yet, putting him third after Rudy Giuliani and actor and former senator Fred Thompson who hasn't even officially announced he's in the race. The Democratic race was stable, with the order of preference remaining senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama then former senator John Edwards.

Fighting Hillary. Sen. Hillary Clinton, a veteran of decades of vicious political battles, says she won't be stopped in her quest for the White House by the nastiness of presidential politics because "I've decided this country is worth fighting for."

Thompson's cancer. TV star, former senator and potential Republican presidential candidate, Fred Thompson, said he has lymphoma but that it's in remission, a situation confirmed by his doctors at a Washington press conference.

McCain undaunted. Sen. John McCain tried to re-energize his flagging presidential campaign by attacking congressional Democrats as "reckless" for wanting to withdraw U.S. troops and warning of dire consequences to U.S. security from such a move.

Imus-free MSNBC. NBC announced it would no longer simulcast embattled shock jock Don Imus on its MSNBC cable channel, raising the pressure on CBS which carries the radio show.