Swamp Gas, May 7, 2007

Posted by Frank James at 7:14 am CDT

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

U.S. casualties will increase in Iraq over the next 90 days as more troops flow into violent areas in and around Baghdad as part of the latest security plan and operations increase to confront insurgents and terrorists, according to an American commander on Sunday as the military announced the deaths of 10 troops and an embedded journalist working for a Russian publication.

Most congressional Republicans support President Bush's latest security strategy in Iraq but will be looking for a "Plan B" come September if progress there isn't apparent, said House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader.

House Democrats are working on a new Iraq spending bill that would delay more than half the spending until July which would give lawmakers a chance to see whether progress in achieving benchmarks had occurred.

Because Humvee doors can wedge shut in explosions, trappings soldiers inside, the Army is fixing the doors of every one of the vehicles in Iraq.

French politician, pro-American conservative Nicholas Sarkozy, whose father was a Hungarian immigrant, won the French presidency after vowing a harder stance against immigration and crime and arguing that the traditionally laid-back French workforce needed to shift to a higher gear to boost the nation's lagging economy.

Congress may widen the inquiry into whether Justice Department employment decisions were made taking into consideration political affiliations, in violation of federal law, after a whistleblower alleged that such actions took place in filling jobs in the agency's civil rights division.

California's move of its presidential primary to an earlier date has caused presidential candidates to pay attention to issues important in the state like the environment or urban racial tensions which in past presidential-election seasons typically got less attention in the traditional early primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa.

While Sen. Barack Obama downplayed the addition of Secret Service security to his campaign, there were signs as he campaigned in Iowa Sunday that things had changed, with agents posted at every door during his campaign stops and people approaching him with their hands in pockets being quietly asked to show them.

John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate and former senator, gets credit from some for making poverty a priority in his campaign, the first time it's received sustained attention since Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 bid. But the challenge for the former vice presidential nominee is coming up with new ideas.

Rudy Giuliani, the popular former New York City former mayor, has a real chance at the nomination despite his pro-abortion views according to representatives John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader, and Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) a presidential candidate himself.