The congressional attempt to fix the crisis in the housing market -- specifically rescuing those in danger of home foreclosures -- may be on the cusp of passage into law. The White House has dropped its veto threat today, and the bill is expected to come up very soon for a vote in the House.

The House and Senate have already passed versions of this sweeping housing rescue, so this is to be the final compromise version. Sen. Chris Dodd, who was one of the central authors of the bill, has repeatedly expressed hope that when the Senate gets its last turn, it acts with speed in sending the bill to the president's desk for a final signature.

The housing legislation, which now also has a lifeline provision to help struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would also make reforms to the Federal Housing Administration and establish a new regulator of government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie and Freddie.

Read more about the housing legislation at On Background, the Hartford Courant's political blog.

SDEROT, Israel--Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came Wednesday to an Israeli town that has been rocketed repeatedly by Palestinian militants to assure Israelis--and, crucially, Jewish voters in the United States--of his commitment to protect Israel's security.

"I'm here to say as an American and as a friend of Israel that we stand with the people of Sderot," Obama said. "America must always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself."

Obama spoke in front of shelves stacked with twisted, rusted rocket casings and mortar shells outside a police station that had been attacked by a rocket within the past two weeks.

Sderot is just 4 miles from the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian area controlled by the extremist group Hamas. The town has been hit by 1,900 rockets and mortars, according to the Israel Project, though the attacks recently halted.

With many Israelis expressing concerns about Obama's professed willingness to hold talks with Iranian leaders, he also pledged his determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. A nuclear-armed Iran is widely feared here as a dire potential threat.

"Iranians need to understand that whether it's the Bush administration or the Obama administration this is a paramount concern of the United States."

He said he would offer "a series of big sticks and big carrots to the Iranian regime to stand down on nuclear weapons."

Obama was accompanied at the news conference by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

While Obama spent much of the day in a series of meetings with high-level Israeli officials, he also traveled to the West Bank to meet with officials of the Palestinian Authority there. He is the first major presidential candidate to do so. Republican rival John McCain visited Israel in March but did not meet Palestinian officials.

Obama met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Sala Fayyad for an hour. He waved but made no comments as he walked to his motorcade afterward.

Earlier in the day, Obama laid a wreath at Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial and began a series of meetings with Israeli officials.

Israeli President Simon Peres greeted Obama at the presidential residence by telling him of his "high regard" for Obama and his belief that "the future belongs to the young."

Obama's overseas trip, which has included visits to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Jordan and is now in its sixth day, is clearly beginning to wear on him. He appeared fatigued at his news conference. And when Likud party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu asked him how he was feeling at the start of a morning meeting, Obama responded, "I could fall asleep standing up."

Obama is scheduled to have dinner Wednesday evening with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. On Thursday, he flies to Berlin, where he is scheduled to give a speech on trans-Atlantic relations at an outdoor rally. He meets with officials in France and Britain later in the week.

He hasn't even been picked yet.

But with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney touted repeatedly by prognosticators as a likely vice presidential pick for Sen. John McCain, the Michigan Democratic Party is putting its two cents in.

"We've noticed 'Mitt' and 'Michigan' showing up in the same sentence a lot lately, so we thought it was time to take a hard look at Romney's record on the issue that matters most to Michigan voters--jobs," said Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer, touting a new web ad. "And any way you look at it Romney earns a failing grade. Conventional wisdom in Washington might be that Romney's business experience means he's good on the economy, but even the slightest glance at his record indicates otherwise."

Romney, who was born in Michigan and is the son of a famed former Michigan governor, is often described as having just the right sort of business experience that could be helpful to McCain during these tough economic times.

But the Michigan Democratic Party helpfully reminds that as a venture capitalist for Bain Capital, some of his investments resulted in plants and factories being shut down and workers losing their jobs.

"John McCain might trust him with the economy, but you can't afford to," the state party's video concludes ominously.

President Bush was asking for a shutdown of video cameras at a party fundraiser in Houston.

Judging by a tape obtained by KTRK, the ABC affiliate, we now know why. See NBC's report:

"There's no question about it, Wall Street got drunk,'' Bush told his audience last week, adding with a smile: "That's one reason I asked you to turn off your TV cameras.

"It got drunk and now it's got a hangover,'' the president said of the economic turmoil the nation is facing at the moment. "The question is, how long will it sober up...

"And then we've got a housing issue -- not in Houston,'' he said, adding of his own eventual retirement homestead and a house-shopping first lady: "Evidently not in Dallas, because Laura's over there trying to buy a house.

"I like Crawford,'' Bush said of his Texas ranch. "Unfortunately, after eight years of asking her to sacrifice, I am no longer the decision-maker. She'll be deciding.''

Politico is reporting that syndicated conservative columnist Robert Novak hit a pedestrian this morning during rush hour, then drove off in his black Corvette.

Fortunately, the pedestrian appears to have sustained only minor injuries and was released from the hospital, according to the report which also says Novak was cited by the police.

Novak was chased down by a bicyclist who happened to be partner in a law firm who was pedaling to work when he saw the accident.

Novak told journalists who arrived on the scene that he didn't know he had hit the pedestrian.

"I didn't know I hit him," Novak told reporters from Politico and WJLA on the scene. "He's not dead, that's the main thing." Novak said he was a block away from 18th and K St. NW, where the accident happened, when a bicyclist stopped him and said, "You hit someone." He said he was cited for failing to yield the right of way. (WJLA has video of Novak being interviewed its website. We can't display it in this posting because, alas, we don't have legal rights to it.)

Okay, maybe he didn't see him before he hit him. But there's reason to believe he had a great view of the pedestrian afterwards.

The bicyclist was David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, who was on his usual bike commute to work at 1700 K St. NW when he saw the accident happen.

As he traveled east on K. Street, crossing 18th, Bono said a "black Corvette convertible with top closed plowed into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed onto the windshield."

Then he's involved in a hit-and-run car accident.

And it's only Wednesday.

John McCain's campaign kept its lips tight about the amount raised at a fundraiser in Baltimore last night. But the father of Maryland's former governor spilled some beans.

The reception held at the Center Club, a wood-paneled business club in an office tower overlooking the Inner Harbor, was hosted by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The invitation to the event said ticket prices were $2,300 for a VIP photo op and $1,000 for general admission.

The invitation told only part of the story, however. As the event was underway, Ehrlich's loquacious father, affectionately known as "Senior" to Maryland politicos, strolled by the reporters traveling with the McCain campaign and characteristically dropped a bit of news.

There was a fancy dinner at the Center Club for 12 couples costing $70,000 apiece, Senior told the reporters. There was a similar breakfast in another state.

"According to Ehrlich Sr., one of the attendees at this evening's dinner was Art Modell," wrote Adam Aigner-Treworgy of NBC News and National Journal in his pool report on the event. Modell is the former football team owner best known for moving the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore and making them the Ravens. "It is unclear when the breakfast was or if it took place at all," Aigner-Treworgy wrote. "But the rumor mill has begun."

Reached by telephone on Wednesday, Modell confirmed that he attended a private dinner and paid $70,000. He left, he said, "more impressed with McCain than I ever have been."

"He came across last night entirely different than he does on television," Modell said. McCain sat at the head of a large table, Modell said, and participated in a "general discussion on many issues."

Richard E. Hug, the former governor's longtime finance chief, confirmed that nearly a dozen couples paid the $70,000 contribution for the private dinner, accounting for a "a very large portion of the money" raised last night.

Ehrlich announced as he introduced McCain during the open portion that the event raised $1 million. It's now clear most of the money will go to the Republican National Committee.

According to the fine print on the invitation, for donations of up to $37,000 per person, the first $2,300 goes to the John McCain 2008 and the next $2,300 goes to the John McCain 2008 General Election Compliance Fund. "The next $28,500 (goes) to the RNC," the invitation says, "and the balance of up to $20,000 will be divided evenly between the Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico and Wisconsin state parties' federal accounts.

Hug, too, was keeping quiet on other dinner attendees. "We told the private donors there would be no publicity," he said. But, he added, "the majority of fundraising came from the private dinner."

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ A Continental Airlines flight carrying former presidential candidate Ron Paul and six other members of Congress to Washington, D.C., made an emergency landing in New Orleans on Tuesday after a loss in cabin pressure.

The seven congressmen, all from Texas, were trying to get back in time for a Tuesday night vote on an aviation safety bill when the flight landed without incident, a spokesman for one of the representatives said. No injuries were reported among the 128 crew and passengers.

All's well that ends well. Suffice it to say, this is a problem the Ron Paul blimp would've never experienced.

Oregon venture capitalist Craig Berkman, who was found guilty of negligence and breach of contract, donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Commitee, John McCain's campaign for president and other candidates during this election season, the Washington Post reports today. Now, the McCain campaign says it has donated Berkman's $4,600 to charity and will encourage the RNC to follow suit.

Berkman and his wife raised $50,000, including a $28,500 donation to the RNC victory fund.

"The failure to earlier identify Berkman as a risk reveals a recurring blind spot for presidential campaigns, which in their zeal to raise cash sometimes overlook evidence about potentially embarrassing donors," the Post reports. "McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said that Berkman's problems were overlooked by a 'skeleton staff' that 'was obviously focused on winning primaries.'"

The McCain campaign donated the contribution to the American Red Cross when it found out about the jury verdict two weeks ago, Rogers told the Chicago Tribune today.

An Oregon circuit court jury ordered Berkman to pay $28 million in civil damages after finding that he bilked money from investors in failed venture capital funds.

McCain opponent Sen. Barack Obama gave over $100,000 worth of donations raised by disgraced fundraiser Tony Rezko to charity.

Our colleague Stuart Silverstein has more on Berkman's donations at Top of the Ticket.

Despite persistent fears of mad cow disease in Canadian beef, the Department of Agriculture has failed to properly track hundreds of Canadian cattle coming into the United States, the department's inspector general has concluded.

An audit, completed in March but only recently made public, said that some of the imported cattle did not have proper identification or health records despite federal regulations requiring them.

The audit did not say how many cattle were improperly brought into the U.S. and inspector general spokesman Paul Feeney said auditors are not sure of that number. The report said that a lack of records meant that "it cannot be determined" whether shipments other than those discovered "have bypassed inspection or whether this is a systemic problem."

About 1 million cattle were imported into the U.S. from Canada in the fiscal year ending in September 2006, the period covered by the audit.

The audit mainly faulted Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service for failing to properly check records as the cattle crossed the Canadian border.

"APHIS does not adequately track live animal imports and, if problems are detected, does not collectively analyze import violations," the report said. "Additional controls are needed at northern ports-of-entry to obtain stronger assurance that all animal shipments are inspected."

Mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a disease that attacks a cow's nervous system. Medical researchers also believe that humans who eat meat infected with BSE can contract a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is fatal.

When mad cow was first discovered in Canada in 2003, the USDA cut off all Canadian cattle imports, as did many other countries.

But despite years of precautions, Canada continues to discover cases in which cows have BSE. In June, Canada discovered its 13th BSE case.

Read the full story about the USDA and imported cattle in today's Chicago Tribune.

Over the past decade, as borders and barriers across an increasingly integrated Europe seemingly fell with each passing day, new ones were being constructed around Serbia.

Most Serbs chafed under their deepening isolation, but a sense of national martyrdom and the refusal to turn over two indicted war criminals converged to keep Serbia on Europe's doorstep, a festering trouble spot for the continent.

The European Union made clear that impoverished Serbia would be kept in penury as long as its government refused to make a serious effort to arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic, the men accused of authorizing the executions of thousands of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

But with the dramatic capture of Karadzic, who investigators said Tuesday had hid in plain view for years in Belgrade, the door to Europe may have begun to swing open for Serbia.

When he was grabbed on a Belgrade bus, the 63-year-old Karadzic looked more like a Balkan Santa Claus than the former leader who had become Europe's most wanted man. His trademark shelf of silver hair was gone, replaced by a flowing white beard and long, silvery mane.

Karadzic was arrested in what appears to have been a carefully planned operation. According to Serbian authorities, he had been practicing medicine in Belgrade under a false identity, attending public meetings, appearing on local television and even contributing articles on "spirituality" to a wellness magazine.

He reportedly possessed fake documents and lived under the name Dragan Dabic, a guise that prosecutors said allowed him to walk freely around Belgrade.

"His false identity was very convincing," Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Tuesday in Belgrade about Karadzic's disguise. "Even his landlords were unaware of his identity."

The arrest was hailed across Europe, which had demanded Karadzic and Mladic's arrests as a non-negotiable condition of Serbia's entry to the EU.

Read the full story on the arrests of Karadzic and Mladic in today's Chicago Tribune.

Sen. John McCain, "staking his candidacy entirely on the surge in Iraq,'' has shown "that he does not understand one of the fundamental facts about the surge,'' MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was reporting of the Republican candidate for president last night - "getting the basic timeline and history of the surge entirely wrong.''

The McCain campaign objects to the characterization, and offers some background below on where the senator's critics are misguided.

The commentator's assertion stems from an interview that McCain conducted with CBS News, in which anchor Katie Couric pointed out that Sen. Barack Obama, who has just traveled through Iraq, has maintained that, while the increased deployment of troops there had contributed to security, a Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after the militia also contributed - and that security might have improved even without the surge.

McCain replied: "I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened.'' He noted that a Col. McFarland had been contacted by one of the Sunni sheikhs, and because of that the surge forces were able to go protect that sheikh and others. "And it began the Anbar awakening,'' McCain said. "That's just a matter of history.''

The commander, now-Gen. Sean McFarland, briefed the media on the Anbar awakening on Sept. 29, 2006, months before the surge was even announced by President Bush in January 2007, a point that Olbermann noted in calling McCain "wrong'' on his Countdown broadcast and bloggers have noted as well.

The report goes on to quote McCain as saying that Obama is the one who doesn't understand what's going on in Iraq. It also takes a deep dig at CBS News for not including this segment in the parts of the interview that aired, but rather displaying it on its Website - perhaps not knowing the story it had in its hands?

(See the CBS McCain interview on Iraq here.)

"The colonel in question is now a one-star general, and his name is Sean MacFarland,'' the Washington Independent notes. "He was commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, based in Ramadi in 2006 and early 2007 and is a key figure in embracing the Anbar Awakening before it even had that name. Here he is explaining what was going on to Pam Hess, then of UPI, on September 29, 2006, at least two months before Bush decided upon the surge, and about three before he announced it to the public:''

"With respect to the violence between the Sunnis and the al Qaeda -- actually, I would disagree with the assessment that the al Qaeda have the upper hand,'' MacFarland said in September 2006. "That was true earlier this year when some of the sheikhs began to step forward and some of the insurgent groups began to fight against al Qaeda. The insurgent groups, the nationalist groups, were pretty well beaten by al Qaeda.

"This is a different phenomena that's going on right now. I think that it's not so much the insurgent groups that are fighting al Qaeda, it's the -- well, it used to be the fence-sitters, the tribal leaders, are stepping forward and cooperating with the Iraqi security forces against al Qaeda, and it's had a very different result. I think al Qaeda has been pushed up against the ropes by this, and now they're finding themselves trapped between the coalition and ISF on the one side, and the people on the other.''

See the Defense Department's Iraq briefing here.

The Independent's Spencer Ackerman concludes: "For McCain to say that the Anbar Awakening is the product of the surge is either a lie or professional malpractice for a presidential candidate who is staking his election on his allegedly superior Iraq judgment.''

The Swamp reached out for McCain's reaction. Read on:

"The surge strategy that was supported by John McCain and opposed by Barack Obama was responsible for the reduction in violence we have seen over the last year and a half. Democrats can debate whether the Awakening would have survived without the surge, or whether the Shiite militias would have unilaterally disarmed without US troops and our Iraqi allies disarming them by force, but that is nothing more than a transparent effort to minimize the role of our commanders and our troops in defeating the enemy, because to credit them would be to disparage the judgment of Barack Obama and praise the leadership of John McCain.

"If Barack Obama had had his way,'' Bounds said, "the Awakening would have been crushed at the hands of al Qaeda, and US forces would have already left Iraq in defeat."

And here are some earlier comments to consider from Petraeus and Fred Kagan, architect of the surge:

General Petraeus: The Awakening "Was Very Much Enabled By The Surge Because That Enabled Us To Clear Areas Over Time." GEN. PETRAEUS: "Well, sir, the Sons of Iraq are individuals that -- it really dates all the way back to Anbar province and the first awakening, which, to be fair, took place -- it started before the surge, but then was very much enabled by the surge because that enabled us to clear areas over time. But it started with a sheikh in Anbar province coming to a brigade commander in Ramadi and saying back in October, 2006, would you support us if we turned our weapons on al Qaeda instead of on you? And the brigade commander got that test question right. He pledged support. It took some time to build those forces, to get them going, to get it established. By mid-March, they were ready to clear Baqubah or, I'm sorry, Ramadi." (Gen. Petraeus, U.S. House Armed Services Committee, 4/9/08)

Surge Strategy Architect Fred Kagan: "When Colonel John Charlton's Brigade Relieved MacFarland's In Ramadi And Was Joined By Two Additional Marine Battalions (Part Of The Surge) Elsewhere In Anbar, The 'Awakening' Began To Accelerate Very Rapidly." "The tribal leaders in Anbar began to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq last year, largely due to unspeakable atrocities committed by the terrorists against their own hosts. Many analysts and observers have seized upon this fact to argue that the movement in Anbar had nothing to do with the surge, began before the surge did, and would continue even without the surge. This argument is invalid. Anbari tribal leaders did begin to turn against AQI in their areas last year before the surge began, but not before Colonel Sean MacFarland began to apply in Ramadi the tactics and techniques that are the basis of the current strategy in Baghdad. His soldiers and Marines fought tenaciously to establish a foothold in Anbar's capital, which was then a terrorist stronghold, and thereby demonstrated to the local leaders that they could count on American support as they began to fight their erstwhile allies. Even so, the movement proceeded slowly and fitfully for most of 2006 and, indeed, into 2007. But when Colonel John Charlton's brigade relieved MacFarland's in Ramadi and was joined by two additional Marine battalions (part of the surge) elsewhere in Anbar, the 'awakening' began to accelerate very rapidly." (Frederick W. Kagan, "The Gettysburg Of This War," National Review Online, 9/3/07)

Kagan: The Anbar Awakening And The Surge Are Linked In Bringing Security To Iraq. "Resistance to al-Qaeda in Iraq's presence had been growing steadily throughout 2005 and 2006, and local leaders had begun both developing resistance movements and reaching out to Coalition forces for help before the surge. But al-Qaeda in Iraq had responded with fearsome brutality that greatly slowed and restricted the speed and scope of the movement. American forces in Ramadi in 2006 fought hard to establish the preconditions in the city for a clearing operation that would make possible the dramatic turn of the tribes in 2007, but they were not able to conduct that operation until reinforcements arrived with the surge. The exponential expansion of the Awakening movement -- and particularly its spread to areas outside of Anbar that had shown no inclination to resist al-Qaeda before the surge -- is testimony to the synergy between these two phenomena." (Frederick W. Kagan, "Why Iraq Matters," National Review, 4/7/08)

Kagan: "The Fact Is That Neither The Surge Nor The Turn Of The Tribal Leaders Would In Itself Have Been Enough To Turn Anbar Around -- Both Were Necessary, And Will Remain So For Some Time." "At the start of 2007 there were only a handful of Anbaris in the local security forces. By the summer there were over 14,000. Before the surge, Ramadi was one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq; now it is possible for Americans to walk through its market with limited security details and without body armor. David Kilcullen describes the relationship between the surge and the movement very well in his Small Wars Journal posting, and I have also addressed the issue in detail in a recent Weekly Standard article . The fact is that neither the surge nor the turn of the tribal leaders would in itself have been enough to turn Anbar around -- both were necessary, and will remain so for some time." (Frederick W. Kagan, "The Gettysburg Of This War," National Review Online, 9/3/07)

AMMAN, Jordan -- Barack Obama has three months to go before voters decide whether he will become president, but on Tuesday he adopted much of the pageantry of a leader on the world stage as he completed an official visit of war zones and met up with the considerable media entourage waiting to accompany him on a tour of foreign capitals.

Obama's trip put him among ancient ruins on a hilltop, fielding questions on international issues in an outdoor news conference with the backdrop a majestic view of Jordan's capital.

He dined with King Abdullah II of Jordan at his palace and was chauffeured to his departing plane by the king, who drove Obama to the jet's stairs in his Mercedes 600.

Campaign aides tried to anonymously brief reporters on the meeting with the king, justifying it as standard practice on White House trips abroad, a rationale that provoked a revolt among reporters and cancellation of the briefing.

The day's events provided the imagery of a candidate appearing poised and confident in the international arena, with no major gaffes to further a story line of inexperience.

Obama moves next to one of the world's most politically sensitive conflicts, the Israeli-Palestinian divide. He arrived Tuesday night in Jerusalem and is scheduled for a round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday.

Since winning a nomination contest in which Jewish voters supported Hillary Clinton, Obama has sought to provide reassurance of his support for Israel.

Read the full story about Obama in the Middle East in today's Chicago Tribune.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Wednesday, July 23.

President Bush is attending a Defense Department briefing at the Pentagon.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is holding a hearing on Defense Department waste and fraud involving contracts for activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The House Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee is holding a hearing on deploying oil from the strategic petroleum reserve.