Bartlett: 'It's Never Been A Stay The Course Strategy'  —  On CBS this morning, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett claimed that the administration has "never" had "a stay-the-course strategy."  Watch it:  —  President Bush made the same claim over the weekend.  It's not true.

MTP Transcript for Oct. 22  —  Barack Obama, David Broder, Charlie Cook, John Harwood, Robert Novak  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Only 16 days until the midterm elections.  Will the Democrats retake control of the Congress?  What would they do if they did?

Open Secrets: Voting In The Blogosphere  —  Secret ballots are taken for granted in America these days, but it wasn't always the norm that it is now.  The first president elected by secret ballot was Grover Cleveland in 1892, so until Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, more presidents had been elected by open ballot than in secret.

Washington Whispers  —  Calling President Bush's third and best treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, a different kind of bird than Washington is used to doesn't ruffle the feathers of the former Goldman Sachs chairman.  How could it?  A nature buff who got his start in birding at 26 …

Questions to Guide an Exit Policy  —  A realist with a wintry smile, James A. Baker III, who helped make George W. Bush's presidency possible, is seeking ways to salvage it.  After the 2000 election, Baker orchestrated the Bush campaign's lawyering against the Gore campaign's lawyering …

State Department official: I misspoke on Iraq policy  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A senior State Department diplomat apologized Sunday for having told the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera on Saturday that there is a strong possibility history will show the United States displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in its handling of the Iraq war.

Lancet-go-round  —  Tim Lambert easily dispenses with criticism of the Hopkins/Lancet study of "excess deaths" in Iraq grounded in the divergence between their estimate of Iraq's pre-war death rate and the UN's estimate.  The UN's estimate turns out to have just been a kind of guess with no real methodological grounding at all.

Follow-up questions for Byron Calame and the Times' Bush-bashing allies  —  Byron Calame: NYTimes' lapdog tucks tail  —  I am sure that the New York Times public editor, Byron Calame, is hoping we will all go away now.  —  Fat chance.  —  Three months after defending his paper's decision …

Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections  —  Researchers, Candidates Have Little Confidence in Machines Designed to Make Elections Easier to Call  —  Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail Wednesday morning.  —  Inside, she discovered three computer discs.

BEST GOP HOPE: SCARE 'EM SILLY  —  WITH only two weeks left 'til Election Day, Republicans won't save themselves with phony optimism - pathetic claims that, somehow, they're mounting a comeback.  They need to sound a note of alarm and fill the airwaves with specifics of exactly what will happen if the Democrats triumph.

We Can't Just Withdraw  —  I f only Iraq were like Vietnam.  After the 60-day siege of An Loc in the spring of 1972, where heavily outnumbered South Vietnamese troops and their American advisors rebuffed several North Vietnamese divisions, the Saigon government found itself …

Mud in the face  —  Clinton foe: 'Whew' she was hideous before 'work'  —  Hillary Clinton's Republican challenger is getting personal and it's not pretty: He says the senator used to be ugly - and speculates she got "millions of dollars" in plastic surgery.  —  "You ever see a picture of her back then?

In Balad, Age-Old Ties Were 'Destroyed in a Second'  —  Sectarian Battles Drive Out Sunnis, Create State of Siege  —  OUTSIDE BALAD, Iraq — At midweek, Shiite Interior Ministry commandos and their Shiite militia allies cruised the four-lane hardtop outside the besieged city of Balad …

Mike McGavick for U.S. Senate  —  In Sen. Maria Cantwell and challenger Mike McGavick, Washington has two fully qualified choices for the Senate.  The better choice is the Republican, McGavick.  —  Some see this election as a referendum on George W. Bush.  If we did, we would be for a solid Democratic ticket.

Sudan Orders U.N. Envoy to Leave Country  —  Sudan's government ordered the chief United Nations envoy out of the country today, saying he was an enemy of the country and its armed forces.  —  Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he was reviewing the letter from the Khartoum government …

Radical Islam finds US 'sterile ground'  —  Home-grown terror cells are largely missing in action, a contrast to Europe's situation.  —  NEW YORK - The Islamist radicalism that inspired young Muslims to attack their own countries - in London, Madrid, and Bali - has not yielded similar incidents in the United States, at least so far.

Columnist Settles in Propaganda Case  —  Columnist Armstrong Williams has reached a settlement with prosecutors regarding payments he received from the Education Department to promote President Bush's agenda.  —  Under the agreement, Williams admits no wrongdoing but will have to pay $34,000.