Bush Warns Dems to Take Offer in Firings  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush warned Democrats Tuesday to accept his offer to allow top aides to testify about the firings of federal prosecutors only privately and not under oath, or risk a constitutional showdown from which he would not back down.

Why I Was Fired  —  WITH this week's release of more than 3,000 Justice Department e-mail messages about the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters.  —  Of course, as one of the eight, I've felt this way for some time.

Iraq insurgents used children in car bombing: general  —  Insurgents in Iraq detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle with two children in the back seat after US soldiers let it through a Baghdad checkpoint over the weekend, a senior US military official said Tuesday.

Blanco: 'I will not seek re-election'; see photo gallery of the governor in action  —  BATON ROUGE — Gov. Kathleen Blanco has made it official: she will not run for re-election.  —  "I am choosing to do what I believe to be what is best for the state," the governor said in a statewide television broadcast.

More Dishonesty from Moveon  —  I'm trying as hard as I can to avoid attacking Moveon, but I'm afraid they are making it very hard for me.  —  First they ran a dishonest poll on the Iraq Supplemental that left out the one option their supporters want most - a real plan to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible.

John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies  —  John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82.

Clinton Says She's Not Worried About "1984" Ad Impact  —  In an interview with NY1 Tuesday, Senator Hillary Clinton addressed the controversial new video that's attacking her credibility and promoting the presidential campaign of chief rival, Barack Obama.  —  After talking about Senate …

Democrats Split on Iraq Bill  —  Even Vote Counters Aren't Lined Up Behind Spending Measure  —  One of the Democrats' chief designated vote counters, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), is actively working against the Iraq war spending bill.  The leadership's senior chief deputy whip …

Schmidt: Scandal 'overblown'  —  Rep. Jean Schmidt wrote in her weekly column sent out to reporters on Monday that stories about horrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were "overblown."  —  Schmidt, a Clermont County Republican, decided to take "several hours" …

Soldier's dad tells Bush, `This war is wrong'  —  The two-page letter is signed from the "proud father of a fallen soldier."  —  A little more than six weeks ago, his soul a cauldron of grief and rage, Richard Landeck, 56, of Wheaton addressed and mailed it to President Bush.

Far From Iraq, A Demonstration Of a War Zone  —  There's a lot of weirdness every day in the capital city, but this one pushed the envelope: 13 Iraq war veterans in full desert camo going on "patrol" from Union Station to Arlington National Cemetery.  They carried imaginary assault rifles …