Swamp Gas, December 18, 2007

by Frank James

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

Washington regulators and policymakers, notably the Federal Reserve Board, for years did little to rein in the excesses in subprime-lending that helped fuel the housing bubble even though they were repeatedly warned of the potential for economic disaster.

U.S. efforts to isolate Iran were set back greatly by Russia's delivery of enriched uranium to an Iranian nuclear power plant although Russia said if had received assurances that the nuclear fuel would only be used for energy and would be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran is still providing weapons and training to insurgents in Iraq, according to a Pentagon report, fueling a debate as to whether Iran is helping or hindering the recent decline of violence in Iraq.

The U.S. helped Turkey gave real-time intelligence to the Turkish military, allowing the ally to launch attacks on Kurdish separatists in Northern Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made an unannounced visit to Kirkuk, Iraq, in a visit to highlight the decline in violence in Iraq and encourage Iraqi leaders to make progress on political reconciliation.

There's disagreement between the FBI and the CIA over both the significance of al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaida and whether his most valuable disclosures resulted from standard interrogation techniques or torture.

The economic woes hitting Florida, especially the declining housing market, are likely to be mirrored nationwide and have a significant impact on political outcomes, though no once can say with certainty which party will be helped most.

The House approved a $516 billion omnibus spending bill that largely adhered to President Bush's spending limits but shifted billions of dollars to Democratic priorities.

House members added numerous new earmarks to the omnibus-spending legislation, with 115 new member-requested spending projects added to the homeland-security section alone, including some clearly meant to aid vulnerable Democrats in their re-election bids.

Though he's getting fiercely criticized across the political spectrum and from the cable industry, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin was expected to press on to get FCC approval today of two controversial changes—one that would allow any newspaper company in the nation's 20 biggest markets to own a radio or television station in the same market, the other that would cap the reach of cable companies to no more than 30 percent of the nation's cable subscribers.

Family values issues have receded into the background in this presidential-election cycle as an issue in the race for the White House as the Iraq War, economy and terrorism loom ever larger for voters.