Democrats Pull Troop Deadline From Iraq Bill  —  Congressional Democrats relented Tuesday on their insistence that a war spending measure set a date for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq.  Instead, they moved toward a deal with President Bush that would impose new conditions on the Iraqi government.

Officials Describe Interference by Former Gonzales Aide  —  When Jeffrey A. Taylor, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wanted to hire a new career prosecutor last fall, he had to run the idea past Monica M. Goodling, then a 33-year-old aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran  —  Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:  —  The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Freshmen fail first ethics test  —  Despite last week's media blitz promoting tougher ethics enforcement, a group of freshmen Congressmen failed their first practical test Tuesday night, when they refused to reprimand one of their colleagues for an apparent ethics violation.

Survey: U.S. Muslims Assimilated, Opposed to Extremism  —  Unlike Muslim minorities in many European countries, U.S. Muslims are highly assimilated, close to parity with other Americans in income and overwhelmingly opposed to Islamic extremism, according to the first major, nationwide random survey of Muslims.

Senate Votes to Keep Temporary Worker Program  —  A comprehensive immigration bill survived a significant test on Tuesday as the Senate voted to keep a provision that would let hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers enter the country each year.  —  If the guest worker program …

McCain Turns Focus To His Fundraising  —  As the Senate debate over immigration raged yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had breakfast, brunch and lunch fundraisers in Houston before heading north to gather money at a supporter's home in Dallas and, later, from young professionals at a gourmet Mexican restaurant.

Bush: Bin Laden ordered non-Iraq attacks  —  WASHINGTON - Seeking to rally support for the war, President Bush released intelligence asserting that Osama bin Laden in 2005 ordered creation of a terrorist unit to hit targets outside Iraq, including the United States.

Iraqis in Hunt for Missing GIs Find Body in U.S. Uniform  —  BAGHDAD — Iraqi police found the body of a man who was wearing what appeared to be a U.S. military uniform and floating in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad on Wednesday morning.  One Iraqi official said the body was that of an American soldier.

Fred Thompson Inks Another GOP Insider  —  Fred Thompson has inked former Federal Elections Commission Chairman Michael Toner to serve as the lead lawyer for his increasingly likely campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.  —  Toner is the second major Thompson hire to become public in recent days.

New Strategy for War Stresses Iraqi Politics  —  U.S. Aims to Oust Sectarians From Key Roles  —  Top U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq are completing a far-reaching campaign plan for a new U.S. strategy, laying out military and political goals and endorsing the selective removal …

McClatchy's D.C. Bureau Claims It's Barred From Defense Secretary Plane  —  NEW YORK Staffers at McClatchy's Washington, D.C., Bureau — one of the few major news outlets skeptical of intelligence reports during the run-up to the war in Iraq — claims it is now being punished for that coverage.

Older and Wiser Heads  —  Last night I sat in the stately ceremonial courtroom in the United States Courthouse for the Southern District of New York.  In the room were lawyers from some of the most powerful law firms in the country.  There were current and former "career" DOJ employees, there were former political appointees.