ADMINISTRATION -- WHITE HOUSE REVEALS BUSH WAS TOLD IN AUGUST IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM 'MAY BE SUSPENDED': On Tuesday, President Bush said he was never forewarned by the intelligence community that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. "Mike McConnell came in and said, 'We have some new information.' He didn't tell me what the information was," said Bush. In fact, Bush did know what the information was. "President Bush was told in August that Iran's nuclear weapons program 'may be suspended,'" the White House said. The White House statement released by press secretary Dana Perino last night states that McConnell told Bush "the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran's covert nuclear program." On Tuesday, Bush said that "nobody ever told me" to back down from hawkish rhetoric on Iran. Whether or not that statement is true, Bush knew Iran "may have suspended" its nuclear weapons program and that the intelligence community was in the process of "changing its assessment." Nevertheless, he continued to warn of "World War III" because nobody told him specifically to stop. 

IRAQ -- CHENEY PREDICTS IRAQ WILL BE 'DEMOCRACY IN HEART OF MIDDLE EAST' BY JAN. 2009: In an interview with the Politico yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney said that by Jan. 2009, he is "confident" Iraq will be in "good" enough shape that the White House will be able to look back and say, "That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq." By 2009, it would be clear "we have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that's capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East." Cheney has been pledging such a development for the past five years. In June 2005, he asserted, "We will succeed in Iraq. ...We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution...it will be an enormous success story." Cheney also promised, "The victory of freedom in Iraq will inspire democratic reformers in other lands." Despite Cheney's assurances, the White House is quietly scaling back its "expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country," and in July, Gen. David Petraeus warned that the fight against insurgents in Iraq could take "decades."

IRAN -- THOMPSON'S NIE CONSPIRACY: IRAN MAY HAVE 'LEAKED' INTEL TO U.S.: Since the intelligence community released its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that concluded Iran had halted its nuclear program in 2003, conservatives have generated a host of conspiracy theories. On PBS's Charlie Rose, former senator Fred Thompson added his own to the mix. "We're just going to have to wait and see, why they would start it up and they would move away without telling anybody. Unless of course they have leaked this themselves" to "divert our attention a little bit," he said. Thompson expanded on his disdain for the NIE later, stating, "The accuracy of the latest NIE on Iran should be received with a good deal of skepticism. ... It's awfully convenient for a lot of people." Thompson's reaction echoes that of administration officials, who in July, "expressed skepticism" about an intercept from "a senior Iranian military official" complaining "that the nuclear program had been shuttered," believing it was "part of a clever Iranian deception campaign."

Today, President Bush will announce a freeze on some subprime mortgages in an effort to stop a wave of foreclosures. Bloomberg writes, "Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's success in crafting an agreement on a five-year fix of subprime mortgage rates owes a debt to an unlikely source: congressional Democrats."

The National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program came about after intelligence agencies obtained notes last summer of Iranian military officials complaining "bitterly" about the decision by their superiors in late 2003 to shut down a central part of the program.

In the ongoing Guantanamo Bay case, Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court may "finally bring an end to the disastrous six-year military commission experiment that has so far brought about only one plea-bargained conviction," writes Michael Hoffman and Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress.

One in three Americans "want to deny social services, including public schooling and emergency room healthcare," to undocumented immigrants, according to a LAT/Bloomberg poll. However, 60 percent still favor creating a pathway to citizenship for law-abiding individuals.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) yesterday took offense at being described as a "puppet" of President Bush by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Jim Manley, a Reid spokesman, "said it's understandable that Republicans are sensitive about being associated with Bush."

"President Bush has sent North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il a personal letter, Pyongyang revealed on Thursday, as it faces uncertainty over when and how it will meet nuclear disarmament steps agreed with Washington."

"Car bombs in Baghdad and three northern Iraqi cities killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 60 others on Wednesday, as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived for an unannounced visit with senior Iraqi officials." The wave of killings accounted for the highest daily death toll in several weeks."

Gates has "decided against a proposal to shift Marine Corps forces from Iraq to take the lead in American operations in Afghanistan." Gates told Marine officials that Iraq "remained too volatile to contemplate such a significant change."

The White House formally nominated Mark Filip, a federal judge in Chicago, for the Justice Department's No. 2 job on Wednesday, a day after the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman threatened to postpone confirmation hearings until next year.

And finally: Conservatives dream of Reagan on Mount Rushmore. Former ambassador Fred J. Eckert, a staunchly conservative former Republican congressman from New York, has worked to create an image of what Rushmore would look like with Reagan carved into it. The result can be viewed at ReaganRushmore.com. Eckert claims that, "in time," his fantasy will become reality.