by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related stories.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace is expected to advise President Bush to call for U.S. troop cuts across Iraq to reduce levels to 100,000 from the current 160,000 in order to prevent further overstretching the military, advice likely to conflict with senior White House and military officials who support the current surge.
The consensus of the U.S. intelligence community on Iraq was that the military surge has improved the Iraq security situation but that the war-torn nation's political progress remains stalled and is likely to remain fragile, according to an unclassified part of the National Intelligence Estimated released Thursday.
Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi demanded that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shi'a led government meet a number of demands, including the release of some detained Sunnis, before his Sunni faction would return to the government.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), one of Congress's most respected voices on military affairs, broke with the White House to suggest that it begin withdrawing U.S. troops to pressure Iraqi political leaders into reaching the kind of accomodations with each other that are necessary for the that government to become self-sustaining.
The refugee crisis in Iraq has continued apace even since the start of the U.S. military surge in February, with many Iraqis still leaving their homes to escape sectarian violence and threats, adding to the increased partitioning of the country along religious lines, two humanitarian groups said.
The U.S.'s fortress-like 65-acre embassy compound in Baghdad, with its own power plant and lighted athletic fields, will be finished next month after two years and much controversy, including its vast size on some of the best real estate in Iraq's capital and the alleged use of exploited foreign laborers to build it.
Robert Toricelli of New Jersey, who left the Senate in 2002 under an ethical cloud and became a lobbyist, has given away tens of thousands of dollars in contributions donors made to his last, aborted campaign to politicians with influence over his lobbying interests, including Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is scheduled to introduce his health care proposal today which calls for tax deductions and administrative changes to encourage more people to purchase their own private health insurance and decrease the reliance on company provided group plans.
Arthur Bremer will be released from a Maryland prison this year after spending 35 years behind bars for shooting and paralyzing George Wallace in 1972 during a presidential campaign event when the former segregationist Alabama governor was running for the White House.
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