Three months ago, congressional Democrats began pressing President Bush to halt new shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Today, with gasoline prices still climbing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked him to begin drawing the reserve down.

"Deploying a small portion of the resources in the SPR would provide much needed assistance to American consumers facing record prices and help our economy during a serious period of instability," Pelosi wrote to Bush. "I strongly urge you to use every available tool, including deployment of the SPR, to provide timely relief for American consumers and businesses."

Bush initially resisted the calls to stop adding 60,000 barrels of oil each day to the giant undergound caverns in Texas and Louisiana where the reserves are stored, but relented after Congress passed legislation to do so by veto-proof margins.

It's unclear whether Pelosi's current request will garner the same bipartisan support.

"The fact is, the American people expect and deserve far more than what Speaker Pelosi is proposing," House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement. The Ohio Republican did not indicate whether he favored drawing down the reserve.

"With her call for President Bush to release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the speaker is admitting yet again that increasing the supply of oil will help reduce the price of gasoline," Boehner said. "I agree that more supply is necessary, and so do my House Republican colleagues who have been arguing for decades in favor of more American energy production."

Pelosi's letter follows.

Steve Schmidt, the new man in day-to-day charge of the McCain presidential campaign, stoutly defended his lobbying and PR firm's hiring of Tim Griffin, a former prosecutor who figured in the U.S. attorneys firing scandal.

Griffin, a protégé of Karl Rove, went to work for Mercury Public Affairs after quitting as interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark. in June 2007 when it was disclosed that his predecessor, Bud Cummins, had been fired to create an opening for Griffin (pictured at right).

While U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, they typically have not been removed except for ethical or legal lapses.

The removal of Cummins and the dismissal of eight other prosecutors in 2006 may have violated this unwritten rule and triggered an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general into inappropriate politicization of DOJ employment. The uproar over the sackings also was a major factor in the downfall of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The candidates for president have the next 118 days until the election to define themselves before someone else does it for them. Obama has faced scrutiny over patriotism, McCain over similarities to the unpopular Republican president in office.

Polling shows that a common word associated with Obama, the 46-year-old who spent less than four years on the U.S. Senate, is "outsider." For McCain, the 71-year-old Vietnam veteran, a word commonly used to define him is "old."

In campaign ads, speeches and letters to the media, all parties and a slew of independent organizations will try to paint their candidate in the most advantageous light, while playing up the opponents' weaknesses.

Thomas B. Edsall, political editor at the Huffington Post, opines that the campaigns for the White House take place in the "context of the contemporary politics of race."

"On the Democratic side, the drive will be to portray Obama as a success story, an exemplar of deeply-rooted American egalitarian traditions, significantly advancing the national commitment to freedom and justice," Edsall writes.

"On the Republican side, the effort will be, rather, to link Obama to the powerful negative stereotypes of black Americans that were once widely prevalent, triggering bias -- proponents of such ads hope -- and stirring up the kind of race prejudice which underpinned that other American tradition -- slavery and Jim Crow."

Read Edsall's full article in the Huffington Post.

Future presidents should be required by law to consult with senior members of Congress before taking the nation to war, a bipartisan study commission recommended Tuesday.

The commission, headed by former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher, called on Congress to pass legislation next year that would create a new consultation process between the White House and lawmakers that is aimed at avoiding clashes over war powers.

The issue has reached a boil in recent years over the Iraq war, as Democrats in Congress pushed to end the war and set deadlines for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

President Bush has argued that such provisions would infringe on his war-making powers as commander in chief.

Nothing proposed by the National War Powers Commission specifically addresses such policy disputes. But commission members said the legislation they offered promises to ease such tensions by making Congress a more collaborative partner in any future war deliberations.

"We are confident that if this report is followed, it can improve the decision-making when this country decides to go to war," said Baker, who served in the cabinet of the George H.W. Bush administration.

At Sen. John McCain's campaign, se habla espanol.

But they also may be getting carried away with their numbers, according to a critique of a McCain campaign Spanish language radio ad conducted by FactCheck.org. Camp McCain says its numbers are fine, and has a cite for them.

In the ad, Tony Villamil, a Cuban-born Miami banker and former director of tourism, commerce and economic affairs in Florida, touts the benefits of the Colombia Free Trade Act, which McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, supports and President Bush has promoted but failed to win in Congress.

McCain touted this deal in a recent trip to Colombia.

"This is Tony Villamil speaking,'' the Miamian says, in an English translation of the radio ad. "When it comes to a strong economy for our state, commercial trade with Latin America is crucial. Three-quarters of Florida's exports are with Latin America, and the Colombian Free Trade Agreement would create even more opportunity.

"In this election, there are some that talk about revising the Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and oppose the Agreement with Colombia. This would hurt our economic future. Last year Florida's exports to Latin America reached almost $45 billion dollars. Colombia is Florida's third most important export market and this trade agreement would create almost 5,000 new jobs. John McCain supports the Colombian Agreement, knows about our alliances with our hemisphere and understands our economy grows thanks to trade.''

Close, but no Cuban cigar, say the folks at FactCheck.

Right on the money, says camp McCain.

The infamous formaldehyde problems with the FEMA travel trailers weren't the fault of the trailer manufacturers but of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a Republican congressional staff analysis obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune obtained the report in advance of a scheduled Wednesday hearing by the House Government Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) in which trailer manufacturers are expected to be blamed by the majority Democrats for providing trailers, whose interiors allegedly released toxic formaldehyde, to the government which used them to house thousands displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

How do we know the manufacturers are likely to come under fire tomorrow? Here's a snippet of Waxman's letter to one of them, Gulf Stream Coach Inc.

FEMA-supplied travel trailers manufactured by Gulf Stream Coach, Inc., were among those tested by CDC that had "statistically significantly higher levels of formaldehyde" than other travel trailers. The results showed that 56% of the tested Gulf Stream travel trailers had levels of formaldehyde higher than 100 parts per billion (Ppb). This is the level at which the Environmental Protection Agency has stated adverse health effects become apparent. And it is significantly above the 16 ppb level recommended by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health for exposure to formaldehyde in a workplace over an 8-hour period.

At the hearing, you should be prepared to address this CDC report. You should also be
prepared to testify about why elevated levels of formaldehyde were found in the travel trailers your company manufactured.

Barack Obama plans to charge later today that John McCain "abandoned" immigration reform in order to win the Republican party's presidential nomination.

The accusation, contained in a speech text the campaign released in advance of an appearance later this afternoon before the League of United Latin American Citizens, renews a charge that Obama made in late June at a convention of Hispanic elected officials.

The Obama campaign points to a statement McCain made during the Jan. 30 Republican debate at the Reagan library in which McCain said he would not support comprehensive immigration legislation he had previously sponsored in the U.S. Senate. The immigration reform legislation included a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens that was deeply unpopular among the Republican party's political base of social conservatives.

Obama and McCain are now engaged in a struggle to win support from Hispanic voters, which are a key constituency in the general election battleground states of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. McCain recently vowed to a Latino group in Washington that comprehensive immigration reform that includes a route to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would be his "top priority" as president.

But Obama appears determined to remind Hispanic groups of McCain's earlier comments during the primary at every possible turn.

"I know Senator McCain used to buck his party on immigration by fighting for comprehensive reform, and I admired him for it," Obama plans to say today. "But when he was running for his party's nomination, he abandoned his courageous stance, and said that he wouldn't even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote.

After a year and a half of pushing unsuccessfully for a timeable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, congressional Democrats have found an ally in Baghdad.

Iraq's national security adviser told reporters in Najaf today that the U.S.-backed government would not agree to the security deal it is negotiating with Washington unless it included details of a pullout.

"We will not accept any memorandum of understanding if it does not give a specific date for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops," National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said. His comments echoed those made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to Arab diplomats in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The State Department slapped the Iraqi demand down today.

"The U.S. government and the government of Iraq are in agreement that we, the U.S. government, we want to withdraw; we will withdraw," spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters. "However, that decision will be conditions-based."

But the demand has found a willing audience among the congressional majority.

"President Bush refuses to listen to Congress or the American people, but he cannot support Iraqi political reconciliation and security and ignore Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's call for a timetable for the withdrawal," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Last week, Sen. Barack Obama said he would consider campaigning at a NASCAR event, but the folks at Comedy Central took it a little further.

The Indecision 2008 News Desk has come up with a (doctored) photo of Obama decked out in a racing jumpsuit with the Wonder brand. The photo was placed under the headline, "Barack Obama to suddenly care about NASCAR."

Our friends at Top of the Ticket note that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have attended NASCAR events. The crowd has been more accepting to Bush's attendence than Clinton, who was booed.

Obama is not the first politician who has been joked about over NASCAR. A funny one is a Rush Limbaugh online photo of Bush with the caption, "Air Force One flight: $1,000,000, Extra secret service: $200,000, Having the taxpayers foot the cost of your NASCAR campaign stop: Priceless!"

With the Bush White House loath to acknowledge any recession, Republican Sen. John McCain has suggested that Americans know a problem when they see one - call it whatever you like. And today he very publicly and tacitly conceded the debate about are we or aren't we in one.

"I would imagine that, technically, there is some question amongst economists about that, but the fact is Americans are hurting, they are hurting badly,'' McCain said in an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning. "Eighty some percent of the American people think the country is on the wrong track, approval ratings of Congress - I saw one poll, 12 percent, the lowest in 40 years... And meanwhile, what's the answer? Go out on a Fourth of July recess without passing a housing bill.

"If we're technically in a recession or not, I would imagine that we are,'' McCain said. "but the major thing is that Americans are hurting and Americans don't like it and they think America is in the wrong direction.''

McCain has acknowledged before that if it looks like a recession and walks like a recession, it's probably a recession. But the senior senator from Arizona, like the current occupant of the White House, has been reluctant to use the word. It appeared nowhere in his speech on the economy yesterday.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has been talking about it for some time now.

"Now, as most experts agree, our economy is in a recession,'' Obama said in a speech at the Cooper Union in New York on March 27. "To renew our economy - and to ensure that we are not doomed to repeat a cycle of bubble and bust again and again - we need to address not only the immediate crisis in the housing market, we also need to create a 21st Century regulatory framework and pursue a bold opportunity agenda for the American people.''

Another veteran of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is joining up with Barack Obama, and this one comes with the explicit blessing of the New York senator.

Dana Singiser was director of women's outreach for the Clinton campaign, after serving as staff director of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee that Clinton chaired.

For the Obama campaign, Singiser will serve as senior advisor directing efforts to win the women's vote.

"I am thrilled that Dana will continue her work with women voters on behalf of Sen. Obama," Clinton said in the public announcement just released by the Obama campaign. "It is so important that we elect a Democrat to the White House, and women will be critical in that effort. I know that the women who joined my campaign will continue to work with Dana and with me to make sure Barack Obama is the next President of the United States."

The last prominent Clinton advisor to join the Obama campaign was Patti Solis Doyle, who was edged out as Clinton's campaign manager during a shakeup in February. Some people took her hiring as the chief of staff to Obama's eventual running mate as an early sign that Clinton was not a contender to fill that slot.

Sen. John McCain's campaign has a new television ad called "Love," contrasting the hippy-dippy Summer of Love in the U.S. with his imprisonment in Hanoi and refusal to go home early without every other prisoner of war.

The ad is part biographical and part contrast with Sen. Barack Obama, taking swipes at Obama's "Hope" slogan, as well as his talent for speechmaking.

"He believes our world is dangerous, our economy in shambles.
John McCain doesn't always tell us what we "hope" to hear.
Beautiful words cannot make our lives better.
But a man who has always put his country and her people before self, before politics can.
Don't "hope" for a better life. Vote for one."

Barack Obama is proposing some tweaks to bankruptcy laws designed to help people who get behind on bills because of age, military service or events beyond their control.

Obama announced new plans to create a fast track and cut bankruptcy paperwork for military families and to help them keep a greater share of the value of their home after bankruptcy proceedings.

He proposed enlarging the homestead exemption for many homeowners over the age of 62, with an eye toward making it easier for them to keep their homes.

Families struck by natural disasters would benefit from a temporary moratorium, so that they don't have to worry about collectors while they're trying to recover.

Likewise, people who can show they went bankrupt because of medical expenses would get help relieving their debt, under another Obama proposal.

The Democratic candidate unveiled his plans at a town hall meeting this morning in Powder Springs, Ga., in a week in which he and Republican John McCain continue to spar over the economy.

Howard Wolfson, the former spokesman for Hillary Clinton's failed campaign for president, has joined Fox News Channel as a contributor, Fox announced today.

Wolfson is scheduled to go on air tomorrow.

"Howard was part of the inner working circle of Senator Clinton's campaign and has a unique perspective on just how unconventional this election year already is," said John Moody, executive vice president of news editorial for Fox. "He has proven himself on key campaigns throughout the last decade and is recognized as one of the top communications and political thinkers in the Democratic Party."

Wolfson has a lengthy resume in politics. He was Clinton's senior advisor during her 2000 campaign for Senate and the senior communications strategist for the Democratic National Committee in 2004. He worked on other campaigns, including those of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson and U.S. Representatives Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Michael Arcuri (D-NY).

Moody said the network is looking forward to benefiting from his insight during and after the campaign season.

Both of this year's presidential candidates say they are ex-smokers, but recent research suggests that they may face increased health risks from cigarettes for years to come.

Some of the damage that cigarettes inflict on the body subsides quickly, halving the risk of heart disease and stroke within five years after a smoker quits. But the effect of smoking on risks of cancer and other diseases can persist for decades, experts say.

Even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 71, who quit smoking in 1980, still faces some increased risk of cancer from smoking two packs a day for 25 years, studies suggest. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), 46, who says he has struggled to stay off cigarettes since quitting last year, may have less long-term risk because he smoked fewer cigarettes per day.

A major message of the research is that people who quit at a young age are far better off than those who put it off until later. Obama and McCain, both of whom waited until their mid-40s to quit, would have been measurably better off if they had stopped a decade sooner, experts said.

Read the full article in the Chicago Tribune.