Swamp Gas, November 26, 2007

by Frank James

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

Syria's decision to attend the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Md. raised hopes for progress in soothing tensions in the region between Arab nations and Israel.

Recession fears are rising, hitting the financial markets hard, even as the nation's leading economists say they don't see economic conditions getting that bad.

The back and forth between Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney in New Hampshire is getting more nasty as the presidential campaigns of both Republican candidates see winning that early state as increasingly important.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, returned to his homeland where he was greeted by huge crowds much as Benazir Bhutto, a previous holder of the post, was.

Top Pentagon officials believe that for its credibility and to relieve the burden on one man, it's better for the military establishment's views on Iraq to come from a number of people instead of one general, David Petraeus, as was the case last September.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is seeking to impose stiffer regulations on cable companies which he believes have grown to powerful but it's unclear whether he has enough support on the five-member commission.

Congressional Republicans, losing in the money war against Democrats, have recruited wealthy candidates who can finance their own campaigns, to run for seats in Congress.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is said to be set to announce that he will retire by the end of the year.

Michelle Obama is trying to draw black voters in South Carolina, particularly women, with a finely calibrated message that if they don't vote for her husband because they don't think America's ready for a black president, it might be because they have fallen prey to racism themselves.

A physician believes President Abraham Lincoln had a rare inherited form of cancer which, had he not been assassinated, would have killed him within a year of the Civil War's end and that the condition may explain Lincoln's height and well-known mood swings.