Bush: 'I Am Relevant'  —  A defensive President Bush insisted that he was still relevant this morning in a news conference dominated by his bitter complaints about the Democratic Congress.  —  Asked how he found himself vetoing a children's health insurance bill that had passed Congress …

Stephen Colbert: I am running for president  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Colbert has announced his candidacy for president on "The Colbert Report," tossing his satirical hat into the ring of an already crowded race.  —  "I shall seek the office of the president of the United States," …

House Democrats Shut Down Debate to Preserve Terrorist Loophole  —  Not many people are familiar with the House Rules Committee, or why it has so much power to determine what legislation passes the House.  Simply put, the Committee sets the terms for debate of all significant legislation …

Birth-Control Foe To Run Office on Family Planning  —  The Bush administration again has appointed a chief of family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who has been critical of contraception.  —  Susan Orr, most recently an associate commissioner in the Administration …

Syrian officials admit site attacked by Israel nuclear  —  Israeli reps at UN Disarmament Commission meeting overhear Syrian official say facility targeted by Air Force last month nuclear  —  Syrian officials have admitted that the site attacked by the Israeli air force last month was a nuclear facility …

Morgan Stanley Sells Entire New York Times Stake  —  Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years.

Mukasey Calls Torture 'Antithetical' to American Way  —  That was, um, unexpected.  Not only did Michael Mukasey repudiate the so-called 2002 "torture memo" signed by Office of Legal Counsel chief Jay Bybee — which appears to have survived in spirit, if not in letter — but he compared U.S. torture to the Holocaust.

McConnell knew of e-mails about boy  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell knew last week — at a time when he was denying it — that his staff had sent e-mails encouraging reporters to look into the background of a 12-year-old boy used by Democrats to support expansion of a health-care program.

Packaging 9/11, Terror and the War in Iraq  —  The language used to talk about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the language used to take the nation to war in Iraq have been so interlaced that polls show they are inextricably linked in the minds of a substantial number of voters.

Pelosi sours on Senate  —  Frustrated by lack of legislative progress in the Senate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is increasingly touting Democratic achievements in the House.  —  Her statements represent a significant shift from the stance she took six months ago.

THE PARTY LINE....The point of the Laffer Curve, in a nutshell, is that sometimes tax rates can be so high that they seriously disincentivize people from working at all.  Ronald Reagan was a Laffer acolyte because of his days in Hollywood during the era of 90% marginal rates …

Republican Iowa Caucus  —  Iowa: Romney 25% Thompson 19% Huckabee 18%  —  The first Rasmussen Reports poll of the Iowa Republican Caucus for 2008 finds former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney enjoying a six-point lead while former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee …

McKinney registers in Calif., where some want to nominate her  —  Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has registered to vote in California, where some want her to run for president as a Green Party candidate.  —  McKinney posted a letter on her Web site last month saying she has no interest in the Green Party nomination.

Pence pushes vote against Fairness Doctrine  —  Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) filed a discharge petition Wednesday to force a vote on legislation to ban the so-called Fairness Doctrine.  —  "The time has come to do away with the Fairness Doctrine once and for all," the lawmaker said on the House floor.