It was Bush's decision.  But Rumsfeld drove the dynamic on Iraq.  How the SecDef blew it.  An exclusive excerpt.  —  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (left) had concerns about the 'overbearing style' of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (right), according to Woodward's book

Hume Compares Mark Foley To President Clinton  —  This morning on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume compared Mark Foley's predatory behavior towards underage pages to President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.  Hume said that while Foley is now "in total disgrace in his party," Clinton's …

A Note From the Editors  —  There still seems to be some confusion about the order of events related to our coverage of Rep. Mark Foley and his email exchanges with teenagers he met through the congressional page program.  Let me try to clear this up.  —  In November of last year …

Good news in the good fight, Iraqis hate al-Qaeda, too  —  "Light at the end of the tunnel" was one of those optimistic phrases from the Vietnam War that was widely mocked, until political pressures led the U.S. to abandon Vietnam.  The light became the oncoming train of another Cold War cliche …

Campaign 2006: The Republicans' Secret Weapon  —  You think the GOP is sure to lose big in November?  They aren't.  Here's why things don't look so bad to them  —  The polls keep suggesting that Republicans could be in for a historic drubbing.  And their usual advantage …

Is there blood on his hands?  —  As Kofi Annan prepares to stand down as UN secretary-general, Adam LeBor investigates the accusations made against the world's chief defender of human rights  —  THE CASE AGAINST KOFI ANNAN  —  The bodies were still warm when Lieutenant Ron Rutten found them …

Justices to Hear Abortion, Integration Cases  —  'Partial-Birth' Procedure and Schools' Race Policies to Dominate Court's Agenda  —  Abortion and race dominate the Supreme Court's agenda for the term that begins tomorrow, with the Bush administration and its conservative allies urging …

The laughing 9/11 bombers  —  Exclusive film of suicide pilots at Bin Laden's HQ  —  FILM of the ringleader of the September 11 hijackers reading his "martyrdom" will inside Afghanistan at Osama Bin Laden's headquarters has emerged five years after the Al-Qaeda outrage.

Bobblehead Rage!  —  I'm going offline the rest of the day, but had to blog this.  —  From fresco rage to book rage to film rage to beauty pageant rage to Koran-dropping rage to cartoon rage to Pope rage, it's always something with the Religion of Perpetual Outrage (hat tip-Andrew Bostom via NY Daily News).

The Inside Agitator  —  Not all states are equal on an election map, and Alaska is one of those less populous states — like Kansas or Idaho or Alabama — that national Democrats almost never bother to visit.  For one thing, just getting there presents a logistical ordeal …

Powell Tried to Warn Bush on Iraq, Book Says  —  Colin L. Powell, in his last face-to-face meeting with President Bush before stepping down as secretary of state in January 2005, tried to impress upon him one last time the dangers he saw the United States facing in Iraq, according to a new Powell biography.

Florida Republicans angry at Foley's 'hypocrisy'  —  The congressman was known for crusading against sex predators and Internet porn.  —  FORT LAUDERDALE — At the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a young Republican congressman from Florida did something that seemed ordinary at the time …

Mormon with a JFK touch is right on McCain's tail  —  FOR a glimpse of the top candidates for president in 2008, the best venue last week was a fashionable bar in Washington where the favourites for the Republican and Democratic nominations gathered like show ponies for the launch of a book called The Way to Win.

How Pakistan became an ally  —  While interviewing Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf after the 1999 military coup that brought him to power, I was struck both by his plain-spoken honesty — and doubts that this rather eccentric general-turned-politician would survive.

Pelosi Letter to Ethics Committee on Cover Up of the Foley Matter  —  Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following letter sent today to House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings and Ranking Member Howard L. Berman about the Foley matter.  The text of the letter follows: