The Politico’s John Bresnehan reports that tomorrow, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will “announce a new coordinated effort to force votes in July to end the Iraq war“:

Reid has already publicly declared that Senate Democrats will offer four Iraq-related amendments to the upcoming 2008 Defense authorization bill, including a proposal by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to set a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring.

Pelosi is planning to announce that the House will also vote on a bill setting a new withdrawal timetable of April 1, 2008, although the details of the proposal were still up in the air at press time, according to Democratic sources. The House will consider this proposal as a freestanding bill, said the sources.

Pelosi is also planning to force a vote on a proposal by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to repeal the 2002 use-of-force resolution for Iraq. [...]

In addition, House Democrats will push proposals to prohibit the creation of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, as well as a “readiness” initiative similar to that authored by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.).

During a speech on Tuesday at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani indirectly blamed President Clinton for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He claimed that Clinton treated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing “as a criminal act instead of a terrorist attack,” which “emboldened other strikes” on U.S. targets. According to Giuliani, “The United States government, then President Clinton, did not respond.”

Giuliani himself knows this attack on Clinton is false. Just last year, before he became a presidential candidate, he said:

The idea of trying to cast blame on Clinton [for the 9/11 attacks] is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don’t think he deserves it.

More troubling than Giuliani’s false attacks, however, is that his speech at Regent revealed a fundamental lack of understanding of the basic history and practice of counterterrorism. Here’s some information that needs to be added to his national security reading list.

The United States “has long regarded [terrorist] acts as criminal,” according to the 9/11 Commission Staff Report. This practice continues even under Bush; last year, for example, Bush introduced a plan to “improve national legal and regulatory frameworks to ensure appropriate criminal and civil liability” for nuclear terrorists.

A June 1995 Presidential Decision Directive issued by Clinton for the first time emphasized concern about terrorism “as a national security issue,” not just a matter of law enforcement. Clinton’s directive declared that the United States saw “terrorism as a potential threat to national security as well as a criminal act and will apply all appropriate means to combat it.” For the last three years of his presidency, Clinton “raised the issue of terrorism in virtually every important speech he gave.”

Either Giuliani doesn’t understand counterterrorism or he’s not one to let honesty get in the way of a good political pandering opportunity.

– Jordan Grossman

MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski repeatedly refused to report on the Paris Hilton story yesterday morning. At one point, she even attempted to burn her cue cards. An emotional Brzezinski proclaimed, “I’m not doing it. I’m not doing the story.” At which point, host Joe Scarborough called for MSNBC to show video footage of Hilton. Watch it:

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) said recently that “talk radio is running America” and that “we have to deal with that problem.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “hate radio” has hijacked the political discourse with its “xenophobic, anti-immigrant” rhetoric.

Yesterday, Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) released his frustration in a “hate radio” interview with Sean Hannity. “A lot of radio programs have really got out there and fired this thing up,” Voinovich said of the immigration debate. “And so people are really hot about it. And I’m getting calls from people that basically are intimidating me.” Voinovich told Hannity:

I’ve had people back home because of programs like yours said to me if you vote for this bill, it’s the end of your political career. I just want you to know and I want everybody else to know that you do not intimidate George Voinovich.

Fed up with Hannity’s efforts to turn the interview into a right-wing commentary, Voinovich lashed out, “I really don’t think it’s worthy to talk to you right now because you’ve got your mind made up.” Hannity then turned on Voinovich, telling him, “You’re running away because you can’t answer a simple question. … Oh, so I’m irrational because I disagree with you? You’re a mighty senator, ok I get it.” Voinovich then hung up.

Listen to the interview:

UPDATE: The right is outraged over Voinovich. Hot Air says he humiliated himself. KLo writes, “At least he didn’t cry.” Radio Equalizer asks, “How did these elected officials get so out of touch with reality?” And FrontPage calls him “Senator Embarrassment.”

Donald Rumsfeld, claiming he took the phrase “mission accomplished” out of a draft of President Bush’s speech:

“I took ‘Mission Accomplished’ out,” Rumsfeld said. “I was in Baghdad and I was given a draft of that thing and I just died. And I said, it’s too inclusive. And I fixed it and sent it back. They fixed the speech but not the sign.”

But Dan Bartlett says Rumsfeld is lying:

There was a comment Rumsfeld made in one of those books where he claimed that he took the phrase mission accomplished out of the speech itself but that he couldn’t get the banner pulled down. That’s just wrong. I went back and looked at every draft of the speech. That phrase was never in it.

The Rhode Island Providence Journal reports:

Reporter Jarrod Holbrook had his White House press pass snatched today after he shouted “Mr. President” twice as President Bush greeted Air and Army National Guardsmen gathered on the tarmac at Quonset airport in North Kingstown.

A member of the president’s entourage pointed at Holbrook after he first tried to get Bush’s attention. The man then ripped the pass from Holbrook’s belt after he shouted to the president, who was less then 10 feet away, again.