White House

WASHINGTON - A campaign to persuade Republicans to support President Barack Obama's budget is morphing into something broader, with the White House political machine and its allies focusing pressure on conservative Democrats and anyone else who might be tempted to vote no. Targeted Democrats are balking at some of the tactics, a sign that campaign methods so effective in getting Obama elected might not be easily transferable to the policy realm....

When Barack and Michelle Obama move their family into the most storied address in America, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., they will be taking possession of the world's center of power and a museum of American presidential history. They will also be turning a historic house into their home. The Obama family moved from Chicago to Washington two weeks before the inauguration so daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, could start at Sidwell Friends, the private Quaker school. Blair House, the traditional pre-inaugural home for presidents-elect, wasn't ready yet. But the Obamas wanted to be in town for the start of the school semester, so they went to the Hay-Adams Hotel.

WASHINGTON -- White House officials and top-level appointees throughout the executive branch are struggling to cope with the most intensive oversight of an administration in a decade. At least a half-dozen investigations have been launched or extended since Democrats took over Congress this year, including high-profile reviews of the firings of U.S. attorneys and the activities of political adviser Karl Rove's office. Administration figures such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been subpoenaed, although Bush aides say Rice will not testify as scheduled next month.

PHILADELPHIA -- Senators who want America to change course in Iraq should stop wasting their time on opposing the president's troop buildup. Whether or not we deploy a few thousand new troops to Baghdad won't make much difference. The only hope for creating decent conditions for a troop exit is shrewd regional diplomacy that prods Iraq's neighbors to help stabilize Baghdad. Thus far, the White House has rejected the diplomatic track - the main recommendation of the Iraq Study Group. Instead, the Bush team is intensifying its rhetoric against Iran, raising fears it will open a new military front against Tehran to distract from its troubles in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON -- Negotiations to pay for the war in Iraq fell apart yesterday as the White House accused Democrats of "being dug in" on a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops. Democrats charged that President Bush refused to accept any accountability for how the war is proceeding. During a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders offered to drop billions of dollars in domestic spending if Bush would agree to a timetable to pull troops out of Iraq, a schedule that he could waive if he deemed it militarily necessary.

NATIONAL Rev. Falwell dies The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the conservative televangelist and founder of the Moral Majority, died yesterday at a Lynchburg, Va., hospital after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. pg 1a U.S. defends Wolfowitz The White House said "all options are on the table" about the leadership of the World Bank, even as it defended embattled President Paul Wolfowitz as he fights conflict-of-interest charges. pg 4a MARYLAND Council vote topples Icon A key City Council committee has killed the $75 million Icon project, a 23-story tower that would have risen on Canton's waterfront if not for people's fears that it would overwhelm the neighborhood and worsen traffic.

WASHINGTON -- At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the CIA from 2003 to 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two al-Qaida operatives, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials. The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.

WASHINGTON -- Despite earlier denials, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was deeply involved in discussions that led to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, his former chief of staff testified yesterday. Kyle Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the attorney general had participated in "at least five" meetings on the subject over the course of more than two years and had other encounters in which the "strengths and weaknesses" of individual prosecutors were discussed. "I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate," Sampson said.

Next week, the Senate will most likely take up some version of a resolution opposing the deployment of about 20,000 additional U.S. troops in Iraq - either the one approved Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee or a substantially similar measure drawn up by Virginia Republican John W. Warner. The vote is almost certain to go against the Bush administration, and the White House is trying to salvage what it can by trying to portray the resolution as a partisan "Democrat" potshot. So the spotlight falls on those Republicans who are sensible enough to acknowledge that this is not the time to escalate the war. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is in the forefront; he was the one Republican who voted with the Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee proposal, angrily declaring that the time has come for every senator to take a stand.

Washington -- Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee is about to take a big step toward a formal presidential campaign, a move that will shake up the unsettled Republican field and throw a wild card into the competition for the GOP's conservative core. This week, Thompson asked supporters to begin collecting campaign donations on June 4, after he files papers with the Federal Election Commission to establish a political committee to "test the waters" for a White House bid. The move is the clearest signal to date that Thompson, best-known for playing a gruff district attorney on Law & Order, is shelving his reluctance to join the race.

As if President Barack Obama didn't have enough on his plate with health care and Afghanistan, he's now faced with the problem that can't be solved: women. Mr. Obama courted the girls, promised them equality in all things, and now has excluded them from an all-male game of basketball. Not all women are upset, of course. Some on his estrogen-rich staff have shrugged off the faux-scandal about the now-infamous game and point to Mr. Obama's inclusion of women where it matters most. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett noted several high-level female appointments, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Experts say the U.S. military's recent recruitment success is due to the recession - young men and women, lacking job opportunities during a period of relatively high unemployment, have volunteered for duty in record numbers despite the nation being at war. Hard to argue with the experts; "the economy," up or down, is a factor in everything, starting with the career choices young Americans get to make. Throw in pay raises and signing bonuses, and you can see why the Army and Marine Corps were able to reach recruitment goals and then some - nearly 170,000 fresh faces signed on the dotted line during the last federal budget year.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced today that President Barack Obama has been named the 2009 World Series MVP. In a written statement Commissioner Selig conceded the unprecedented nature of the decision to give the award to a non-player, even before the series was played, but said it was an easy choice. "It was obvious after he threw out the opening pitch at the All Star game that the president would be unhittable if he pitched in the Major Leagues," the statement read. Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was euphoric over the announcement, telling reporters that he expected his team to be named world champions, even though they didn't make the playoffs.

Everyone knows you can't judge a book by its cover, but what about this: Can you tell anything about how a president will govern from the artworks he and his wife choose to put on their walls at the White House? That question was implicit in the reporting this week on several dozen artworks that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama borrowed from Washington museums to display in their White House residence and offices. It's one of the perks of office the first couple enjoys when they redecorate their new home's private living quarters and public spaces.

JODY POWELL Carter press secretary Jody Powell, who was White House press secretary and among the closest and most trusted advisers to President Jimmy Carter, died Monday of a heart attack. Powell, a member of the so-called Georgia Mafia that descended on Washington after Carter was elected president, died at his home near Cambridge on Maryland's Eastern Shore, said Jack Nelson, a retired reporter and close friend of Powell. He was 65. Nelson said Powell had been working with firewood with a helper who briefly stepped away.

Washington - -A Baltimore woman joined a dozen other ordinary Americans invited to sit in first lady Michelle Obama's box during President Barack Obama's health care speech to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night. The White House is using some of their stories to illustrate problems that the Democratic overhaul plan is being designed to fix. Darlene Daniels of Baltimore, who has struggled to pay hospital bills even though she has health insurance, was enlisted to exemplify a proposal to eliminate annual caps on medical benefits.

WASHINGTON - - Conservative activists blasted it as socialist. Worried parents called for boycotts. School administrators struggled over whether to let students hear it. But in the "back to school" speech President Barack Obama plans to give today, he will do what American presidents have done before - urge students to work hard, stay in school and follow their dreams. "If you quit on school, you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country," Obama will say in the speech, which is loaded with similar exhortations.

White House officials said Sunday that the presidential environmental adviser Van Jones resigned this weekend of his own accord, a move resulting from a furor over his fiery remarks about Republicans and his signature on a petition questioning whether the U.S. government had any role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks. White House officials never rose to defend the aide, a prominent San Francisco community activist, and took pains over the weekend to distance themselves from Jones' past statements and decisions about his employment status.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - - President Barack Obama ventured into the summer's unpredictable town hall meetings on health care Tuesday, facing a polite audience, while lawmakers elsewhere continued to confront enraged citizens - a contrast that showed how far the administration still must go to bridge the divide. The president used his appearance Tuesday at a high school in Portsmouth, N.H., to frame his view of the health care crisis, appeal to wavering Americans and counter what he said were outlandish fallacies in arguments by Republicans and conservatives.

I think the president should invite Erin Andrews to the White House for a beer. But if Mr. Obama wants to include the creepy peeping Tom who videotaped the ESPN reporter naked through a hole in her hotel room wall, plus all the clowns at Fox, CBS and the New York Post who televised the video or ran still pictures taken from it, he is going to need more than a picnic table on the White House lawn. It seems to me that if the president of the United States is now refereeing community racial dust-ups, we ought to be able to count on him to step in when the national media and the world of sports demonstrate - 30 years after the courts granted women sports reporters equal status - that they haven't learned a thing.