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The groups gathering in Washington this weekend to protest President Bush and the war in Iraq have ties to radical left-wing groups and communist organizations and have enjoyed the support of the left's biggest financial supporter, George Soros. United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) and International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) are the two main organizers of the weekend of events -- the first major public protest allowed to surround the White House in more than 10 years -- and expect 100,000 people from dozens of smaller left-wing and liberal organizations. A highlight of Saturday, the...

Democrats convened a partisan hearing yesterday in an attempt to breathe new life into the suspicion that Karl Rove is guilty of an illegal leak to the press.The hearing, convened in a Senate office building by the Democratic Policy Committee, featured both House and Senate members and a slate of witnesses guaranteed to testify that the deputy White House chief of staff was guilty of misdeeds in leaking the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. "We know that a dastardly crime in all likelihood was committed," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.

COPENHAGEN -- President Bush will pick a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court "in a few weeks," likely pushing his decision well into Congress' August recess when the political heat will be less intense. Mr. Bush spent a quarter of his eight-hour flight to Denmark going over information about a half-dozen candidates to take the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired last week. White House spokesman Scott McClellan would not say who the president has on his shortlist, but he is consulting with high-level staffers and has reached out to members of the Senate, which will have to...

The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman yesterday accused Sen. Richard J. Durbin of insulting American soldiers with a "grievous error in judgment" by comparing U.S. treatment of al Qaeda suspects to the crimes of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Pol Pot, and demanded that the Senate's No. 2 Democrat apologize. The rebuke followed a similar rebuke by the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who called Mr. Durbin "totally out of line." Republican lawmakers lined up to condemn the remarks as making the war on terror more dangerous for American troops. Some were particularly angry about the Al Jazeera...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Conservatives, liberals align against Patriot ActBy James G. LakelyTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished June 14, 2005 Conservative groups have found common ground with the liberal American Civil Liberties Union in their opposition to the USA Patriot Act and pledge to wage a high-profile fight against it, claiming even its renewal is shrouded in secrecy.     Former Rep. Bob Barr, who led conservative efforts to impeach President Clinton, is leading a group called "Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances" that is focused exclusively on opposing the renewal of the Patriot Act.     The effort also has the enthusiastic support of three...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Of President Bush's nearly 50 threats to Congress about vetoing legislation, only 17 contained explicit language that the president "will" wield his veto pen. Nearly all of those "will veto" warnings were for legislation involving what Mr. Bush has called "the culture of life," such as the stem-cell research bill that passed the House this month, suggesting the president may soon break his historically perfect veto-free record. In Mr. Bush's first term, his Office of Management and Budget issued 41 "Statements of Administration Policy" to Congress that expressed displeasure with legislation that might reach his desk and...

The former attorney for Clinton scandal whistleblower Linda R. Tripp -- who, like "Deep Throat," exposed White House misdeeds -- said his client's harsh public treatment stands in stark contrast to the veneration of W. Mark Felt, whose aid to the press helped bring down President Nixon. "I think that what happened to Linda Tripp -- demonization is too kind a word," said David Irwin, who represented Mrs. Tripp during President Clinton's impeachment trial. "I thought she got the brunt of a lot of people's frustrations. "There is no question that Linda Tripp, like Mark Felt, was not happy with...

The White House cannot count on much backing from Democrats to confirm John R. Bolton, as Republicans seek to shore up support for the ambassador to the United Nations nominee before a Senate floor vote later this month. Meanwhile, though, Republicans appear to be rallying behind Mr. Bolton, with key senators such as Susan Collins of Maine and Mike DeWine of Ohio saying they plan to support him when the Senate takes up his nomination, probably next week. "I'm giving deference to the president's choice for the United Nations," Mr. DeWine said, while Miss Collins said Mr. Bolton would not...

When the partisan impasse over rules and procedures on the House ethics committee ends, the first member to face the panel won't be House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, but rather Democrat Jim McDermott of Washington. The Seattle-area congressman, one of the most vocal critics of Republicans, has been under investigation by the panel since last year over his role nearly nine years ago in the illegal taping and distribution of a phone conversation involving then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.A federal court already has determined, for a civil lawsuit against Mr. McDermott, that the liberal lawmaker illegally distributed the tape, a judgment...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES COLUMBIA, S.C. -- President Bush yesterday said raising the retirement age for Social Security and recalculating how future benefits are paid are among many "good ideas" on the table in the discussions about overhauling the 70-year-old retirement system. During a speech at the state Capitol, Mr. Bush said that unless major reforms to Social Security are made, "we will leave our children and grandchildren with only a few drastic options to keep the system afloat." Social Security trustees predict the program will begin running a deficit in 2017 and become bankrupt in 2037 owing to the nearly...

<p>WACO, Texas -- President Bush yesterday said he opposes a civilian project to monitor illegal aliens crossing the border, characterizing them as "vigilantes." He said he would pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law. More than 1,000 people -- including 30 pilots and their private planes -- have volunteered for the Minuteman Project, beginning next month along the Arizona-Mexico border. Civilians will monitor the movement of illegal aliens for the month of April and report them to the Border Patrol. Mr. Bush said after yesterday's continental summit, with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at Baylor University, that he finds such actions unacceptable. "I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America," Mr. Bush said at a joint press conference. "I'm for enforcing the law in a rational way." The Minuteman Project was born out of a long-held perception among many residents that more Border Patrol agents are needed to handle the flow of illegal immigrants. Mr. Bush was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats earlier this month for failing to add 2,000 agents to the Border Patrol, as set out in the intelligence overhaul legislation he signed in December. The president's 2006 budget allows enough money to add only 210 agents for the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. Mr. Bush said he will "continue to push for reasonable, common-sense immigration policy." He has proposed legislation to grant guest-worker status to millions of illegal aliens already in the United States. The legislation has attracted scant support in Congress, where it is widely regarded as another amnesty that will encourage even more illegal immigration.</p>

THE WASHINGTON TIMES WACO, Texas -- President Bush holds a summit today with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at Baylor University, and although the sensitive issue of immigration is not on the official agenda, the White House expects it to appear. "That's not part of the meeting," said a senior administration official yesterday on the condition of anonymity. "But you obviously have a number of meetings [and a lunch at Mr. Bush's Crawford ranch] in which the leaders will be together. I'd imagine in the course of that time, topics of that kind will be...

Democrats say they are confident they are winning the political battle against President Bush's idea to incorporate private accounts into Social Security, and they will continue their campaign to make sure the president won't again outmaneuver them.... Political strategist Dick Morris, who helped engineer Bill Clinton's two presidential wins, said Democrats "can win this just by being opposed. They don't have to have a plan of their own," Mr. Morris said. "It's the beauty of being in the opposition and having been so totally defeated [in the past several elections]. Nobody expects them to have a plan."

Some of the harshest Democratic critics of President Bush's Iraq policy have grudgingly admitted that it has helped spark a growing desire for democracy in the Middle East. Democrats aren't taking to the Senate floor to praise Mr. Bush's role in the spectacle of Lebanese protesters demanding independence from Syrian control, or the elections in Iraq, or the news that Saudi Arabia and Egypt have committed to freer elections. But many critics of the war -- which Lebanese democrats cite as a turning point in their cause -- are slowly admitting that the president may have done the right thing...

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen killed the Basra correspondent of the U.S.-funded television station Alhurra outside his house in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, police said on Wednesday. Abdul-Hussein Khazal was killed when several gunmen attacked his house, police said. Alhurra is an Arabic-language satellite station set up with U.S. funding last year in an effort to compete with other Arabic satellite channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. It is based in the state of Virginia. Dozens of foreign and Iraqi journalists have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES President Bush's second-term strategy of aggressively pursing his domestic agenda and remaining steadfast in his Iraq policy seems to be paying off as he enjoys his highest job-approval rating in more than a year. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday put Mr. Bush's job-approval rating at 57 percent, the highest since a 59 percent rating in January 2004. Last month, Mr. Bush had the worst job-approval numbers of any re-elected president since World War II. The Gallup Poll put his approval rating at 48 percent, and a Time magazine poll showed that only 49 percent of Americans...

Skeptics of President Bush's attempt to bring democracy to Iraq have been largely silent since Iraqis enthusiastically turned out for Sunday's elections. Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros and left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore were among critics of the administration's Iraq policy who had no comment after millions of Iraqis went to the polls in their nation's first free elections in decades. The Carter Center determined that the security situation in Iraq was going to be too dangerous to send election monitors, so the Atlanta-based human rights organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter posted its personnel in neighboring Jordan.

President Bush said yesterday he wants to reform immigration policy so that the Border Patrol will be "chasing crooks and thieves and drug-runners and terrorists," and not the thousands who cross the border every day to find work.     Mr. Bush has for months tried to drum up congressional support for his plan to give illegal aliens "temporary worker cards" that would allow them to legally hold jobs that U.S. businesses say they can't fill with American labor.     At his final formal press conference of the year, Mr. Bush said immigrants are pouring over the U.S. border, mostly from Mexico, to...

SANTIAGO, Chile — President Bush broke up a fight last night between his lead Secret Service agent and a Chilean security detail, pulling the agent through a wall of men trying to bar his bodyguard's access to a state dinner[snip]Mr. Bush calmly turned right as the other three continued on and inserted himself into the fight. The president reached over two rows of Chilean security guards, grabbed his lead agent by the shoulder of his suit jacket and began to pull.     The tape of the incident, viewed by reporters last night, could not pick up any words the president...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Close election adding importance to debateBy James G. LakelyTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished October 5, 2004 Both campaigns think that what has been dubbed the "Shrek vs. Breck" debate tonight in Cleveland between Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic Sen. John Edwards will have more importance than usual, with the race tightening just 28 days before Election Day.     Democrats are brimming with confidence after Sen. John Kerry's performance on Thursday night, and campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart said he thinks Mr. Edwards can further cut into the Bush-Cheney ticket's lead by charging corruption regarding the vice president's ties to Halliburton...