U.S. to Hand Iraq a New Timetable on Security Role  —  The Bush administration is drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government to address sectarian divisions and assume a larger role in securing the country, senior American officials said.  —  Details of the blueprint …

Clothes Aren't the Issue  —  MORGANTOWN, W.Va. When dealing with a "disobedient wife," a Muslim man has a number of options.  First, he should remind her of "the importance of following the instructions of the husband in Islam."  If that doesn't work, he can "leave the wife's bed."

Ford Jr. shows up at Corker event uninvited  —  Harold Ford Jr. showed up uninvited at a campaign event for rival Republican Bob Corker at a private charter airstrip in Memphis this morning.  Corker had scheduled the media event earlier this week.  —  News reporters were surprised …

Can 'Magazines' of The Times Subsidize News Coverage?  —  A PERFUME critic?  Yes, The Times now has one.  Chandler Burr's Scent Strip column appears in the high-gloss T: The New York Times Style Magazine, where the often-fluffy lifestyle coverage is a world apart from the kind of journalism in the daily sections of the paper.

Bush: 'We've Never Been Stay The Course'  —  During an interview today on ABC's This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years.  George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker's plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is …

If we had known then...  WAS IT a mistake to go to war in Iraq?  The latest voice to say so is that of conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online's shrewd editor-at-large and, until last week, a supporter of the war.  —  Goldberg hasn't become a John Murtha clone …

Rank Would Guide Pelosi As She Chose Chairmen  —  If Democrats win control in November, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has decided to award committee chairmanships based almost entirely on seniority, ensuring that the House would feature far more minority faces, and some liberal firebrands, in key posts.

Democrats Strengthen Chances For Senate  —  Democrats in the past two weeks have significantly improved their chances of taking control of the Senate, according to polls and independent analysts, with the battle now focused intensely on three states in the Midwest and upper South: Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.

Blog of war now camouflaged  —  When something good is happening in the military, you can rely on someone high up and behind the lines to try to kill it.  Slowly.  Bureaucratically.  Bleed the life out of it.  —  That is what is happening to milblogging, the Internet phenomenon …

How Foley Skirted Rules To Pursue Relationships  —  Former Pages Describe Lawmaker's Advances  —  They met on the House floor.  He was a 16-year-old political junkie, dressed in the drab navy blazer and gray slacks of a congressional page, rushing phone messages to the members he served.

Wilder advises Webb to make stance clear  —  RICHMOND — Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, a former governor and one of the state's leading Democrats, has some advice for his party's U.S. Senate nominee James H. Webb Jr. — let voters know what you stand for.  —  "The question is …

Al-Qa'eda is winning the war of ideas, says Reid  —  John Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the "battle of ideas" with al-Qa'eda.  —  The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

GOP terrorism ad sparks Democratic furor  —  (CNN) — Republicans took a page from President Johnson's Cold War-era presidential campaign with an advertisement set to air this weekend called "The Stakes," which prominently features al Qaeda leaders threatening to kill Americans.