First U.S. diplomat resigns over Afghanistan, sending ripples through Obama White House

He is a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, a former uniformed officer at the Pentagon, a civilian in Iraq who joined the Foreign Service to make a difference.

Now, Matthew Hoh has resigned, the first official protest resignation over the Afghanistan War. In a letter to the State Department's personnel office last month, the 36-year-old diplomat wrote:

I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan...To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.

The Atlantic has an embedded copy of the resignation here.

According to the Washington Post, which broke the story this morning, senior officials reacted quickly to the defection. The U.S. ambassdor to Afghanistan offered Hoh a job. He declined. Then Richard Holbrooke, the administration's go-to guy on the region, sat Hoh down for a chat, and offered him a job on his staff in D.C.

"We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer," Holbrooke told the Post. "We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to him."

First Hoh accepted the job, then changed his mind. "I recognize the career implications, but it wasn't the right thing to do," he told the Post in an interview Friday, two days after his resignation became final. "I'm not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love," he added, calling Afghanistan essentially a far-away civil war.

President Obama meanwhile continues to weigh Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for more troops. Addressing 3,500 military personnel and their families in a naval air hangar in Florida yesterday, Obama seemed to answer critics of his deliberative process, saying:

I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: A Marine points orders Afghan men to show they're not carrying explosives. Credit: David Furst / AFP / Getty Images.

Texas superintendent denies students a chance to see the president -- twice

A recent string of decisions made by officials at the Arlington Independent School District in Texas has ensured that there will be no politics in the classroom there. And, apparently, there will be no fun, either.

It all began last week, when district Superintendent Jerry McCullough denied students a chance to watch President  Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren about the importance of education. McCullough banned the address because, he said, it might interfere with lesson plans and cause a distraction.

But then word leaked that McCullough had approved a Sept. 21 field trip for 600 fifth-graders to the Cowboys Stadium for a Super Bowl XLV kickoff event. Among the speakers scheduled for the event: former President George W. Bush.

Some parents complained. And the local and national media pounced. The superintendent, they charged, was clearly partisan.

So McCullough canceled the Bush event, too.

In a statement released Monday, McCullough said the decision was made "in order to maintain our focus on instruction."

But the students got the worst of it. They missed out on a political education -- and a field trip.

-- Kate Linthicum

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To Pelosi, healthcare protests are 'display of the democratic process'

We’ve all heard about those noisy protests greeting Democratic lawmakers trying to drum up support for President Obama’s health plan. One might assume all the noise is coming from opponents of the plan. As it turns out, that’s not the case.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats toured a homeless clinic in Colorado this week, supporters of the plan matched the opponents shout for shout, sign for sign, hollering their own slogans at the afternoon traffic passing the Stout Street Clinic in downtown Denver.

Barred from entering the center where Pelosi addressed the news media and homeless advocates Thursday, the protesters on both sides of the debate mingled on the sidewalk. And here’s the interesting thing: They did so with relatively little of the hostility with which crowds have met Democrats making similar pitches at town hall meetings around the country.

One supporter, Vicki Rottman, found herself standing among opponents on the crowded sidewalk.
“I was able to talk to people whose views were different than mine. They seemed passionate, but willing to listen,” said Rottman, 63, a Denver artist who carried a sign reading, “Everybody In, Nobody Out.”

Over the din of the crowd, she said her insurance, which she buys for herself, has grown increasingly expensive. Since a battle with breast cancer, she said, she doubts another company would accept her.

Down the block, Dan Davidson, 56, hoisted a sign featuring ...

Susan Boyle trumps Barack Obama on network TV [Updated]

You know the president's political clout is declining when the networks balk at showing a prime-time news conference on a hot-button issue like healthcare.

The Fox network has said no outright, directing viewers interested in what President Obama has to say to Fox News Channel, while Fox goes with "So You Think You Can Dance."

And NBC initially balked when the White House announced that the news conference would be at 9 p.m., because it had put a lot of promotion behind a special episode of "America's Got Talent" featuring an interview with that surprise British singing star, Susan Boyle. Boyle, who tells NBC that her sudden fame felt like "a demolition ball," became an international sensation when her stunning performance on Britain's version of the program reached the world via the Internet.

So Obama, in what New York magazine called "a stare-down with an ephemeral reality-show star," actually bowed to network priorities and the White House rescheduled the thing for 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT). [Updated at 9:14 a.m.: As one White House official told The Times' White House correspondent Peter Nicholas, the switch was made to "make it more likely that everyone would air it -- networks and cable."]

Not as convenient for West Coast viewers who might be, just a guess, caught in traffic at that hour. But hey, you can't have a televised presidential news conference without television.

True, presidential news conferences are hardly good lead-ins to boost ratings. Also true, as Time magazine pointed out, networks give up millions in advertising dollars to carry prime-time news conferences commercial-free.

Even more telling, the network reaction gives some hint of how Obama's star has dimmed as a magnetic television presence in the six months since he's been in office. Or maybe it just suggests that in the future, presidential news conferences will be carried live only by cable news networks that thrive on political fodder, leaving the networks to make money with reality TV shows.

But the thing of it is, what would Walter Chronkite say?

-- Johanna Neuman

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Iraqis dance in streets as U.S. troops pull back -- Americans like it too

Iraqis danced in the streets today as American soldiers pulled back from towns and cities (including  Basra, above) to the stronghold of U.S. bases. A countdown clock on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as midnight approached. Fireworks lit up the skies over Baghdad.

Some voiced fears about renewed violence. And some 200,000 U.S. soldiers remain in the country -- four tragically killed just last night during the transition, joining the more than 4,300 U.S. soldiers who have died in the cause.

Iraq declared a national holiday and Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki proclaimed June 30 Iraq's "National Sovereignty Day." "All of us are happy — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — on this day," Waleed al-Bahadili said to the Associated Press as he celebrated in a Badghad park. "The Americans harmed and insulted us too much."

Americans might be upset to hear that, given that they gave so much of blood and treasure to give Iraq a chance at democracy. But the latest poll by CNN found 73% of Americans favor the withdrawal with surprising unanimity -- 72% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans said yes. And two-thirds said even if violence flares again (which a majority think is likely), U.S. troops should not go back into Iraqi population centers.

Of course, the Big Number is that two-thirds of Americans no longer support the war in Iraq, a rebuke to President Bush's policy -- though his neo-con supporters hope he will be vindicated by history's more long-range endorsement -- and an explanation for President Obama's decision to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31 of next year.

But for today, the news was not in the Oval Office but in the streets of Iraq. Here are more photos:

-- Johanna Neuman

In Ramadi, as Iraqi forces take charge of patrols in the city.

In Basra, Iraqi police officers celebrate.

At a cafe in Baghdad.

In Baghdad's Green Zone, a parade of Iraqi security forces.

Spc. Charles Lewis of the 10th Combat Support Hospital prepared to leave Baghdad.

Photo credits, from top: Khalid Mohammed / Associated Press; Karim Kadin / Associated Press; Haider Al-Assadee / European Pressphoto Agency; Khalil al-Murshidi / AFP/Getty Images; Ali al-Saadi / AFP/Getty Images; Daniel C. Britt / Reuters

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Bush breaks silence, says economy won't need Obama intervention

For 150 days, he was a model citizen, and certainly an admirable former president, a member of the Golden Rule of the elite Ex-Presidents' Club.

Unlike his vice president, the chatty Dick Cheney (or, to be fair, the Democrats' oft-quoted former President Carter), former President George W. Bush promised not to throw spitballs at the new administration. "I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said.

But last night, speaking in Erie, Pa., at the Manufacturer & Business Assn.'s annual meeting, Bush allowed as how Barack Obama might be a socialist.

According to the Washington Times, Bush told a cheering crowd, "I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in. You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money." As for the president's healthcare reform ideas, Bush said he didn't like them. "I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for healthcare," he said.

And asked whether he considered Obama a socialist, Bush said, "We'll see."

The former president also defended his administration's handling of terrorism suspects, like waterboarding, a torture technique that Obama has banned, and the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which Obama is working to close.

"There are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work," Bush said. "Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

So much for silence.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo credit: Associated Press

What Sen. Obama said was important in Supreme Court nominees

One of the most interesting aspects of any Supreme Court nomination is trying to read into the choice revelations of what the president is thinking, his values and goals.

We've got two revealing videos below that help do that.

With the recent nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the top court -- she began her confirmation campaign courtesy calls on top senators Tuesday -- President Obama began his sales pitch to the nation and Congress by describing her important character as the finest, tried and true. And he described her rise from the public housing projects of the Bronx as an ultimate American success story.

Republicans wisely hailed that too. Who can oppose the evergreen American hero Horatio Alger, even if he's a she?

Although Sotomayor's eventual Senate confirmation is hardly in doubt as of today, the GOP will probably focus its examination and any possible political assault on Sotomayor's allegedly activist judicial views and decisions. In coming weeks they'll be poring over her hundreds of decisions, seeking telltale clues.

But perhaps more importantly for the long term, what does her selection say about the man in the White House, the man who wants this confirmation process to move along quickly?

Here, from the riches of C-SPAN's video archives are two wonderful clips. Both are of then-Sen. Obama on the Senate floor opposing, first, Judge John Roberts' nomination as chief justice and then Judge Samuel Alito as a justice.

They are both revealing videos. They show the freshman senator (with speech text on ... 

Liz Cheney: My father would rather be fishing

For those who have been wondering why former Vice President Dick Cheney doesn't just go gently into the night -- or at least park himself at that undisclosed location for a while -- now comes the answer. Apparently he really cares.

Liz Cheney, the vice presidential daughter who got a plum job at the State Department during George W. Bush's administration, has taken to the airwaves to defend her father's rants. Ever since Barack Obama started initiating new policies -- closing Gitmo, ending torture -- Cheney has made the oft-repeated and truly incendiary assertion that Obama's policies are making the country less safe from terrorism.

Today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Liz Cheney said her father would "rather be fishing in Wyoming" but felt compelled to tear down the Obama administration instead.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Her basic argument: Waterboarding was not only effective, it was legal, since the Bush administration had the legal documents that said so -- despite international conventions to the contrary.

Liz Cheney also accused the media of a double standard in criticizing her father over his outspoken views, noting that the media embraces former Vice President Al Gore when he speaks about global climate change. "You want him [Cheney] to shut up because you disagree with what he's saying," she told the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, whose column this morning called Cheney "an Old Faithful of self-serving nonsense."

The Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist also asked this question:

Can't we send Dick Cheney back to Wyoming? Shouldn't we chip in and buy him a home where the buffalo roam and there's always room for one more crazy old coot down at the general store?

Others in key policy roles in the Bush administration -- former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, even former President Bush -- have maintained a respectful....

Rep. Virginia Foxx retracts word 'hoax' in Matthew Shepard murder

Here's what Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said on the floor of the House of Representatives this week about Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming gay man brutally murdered in 1998:

"We know that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate-crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

See her House floor video below, courtesy of C-SPAN.

Foxx, who's not related to the TV network, is a 65-year-old former state senator in her third term in Washington. She was speaking against an expansion of hate-crimes legislation.

Foxx now says that although she said those words, her words did not convey what she really meant to say. What she really meant to say, which she is now saying but didn't say in the first place, is:

"The term 'hoax' was a poor choice of words used in the discussion of the hate-crimes bill. Mr. Shepard's death was nothing less than a tragedy, and those responsible for his death certainly deserved the punishment they received."

The beating and killing of the 22-year-old University of Wyoming student, allegedly for his openly gay lifestyle, quickly became a national rallying point for gays and lesbians. Now, Foxx's uninformed comments have done the same again.

Two men were found guilty of the slaying, in which Shepard was beaten and left to die, strung up on a range fence outside of town. They are serving life sentences. But the court never ruled on the motive -- robbery, drugs or anti-gay hatred.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

A James Stockdale, named for Ross Perot's VP, back on Navy duty

James B. Stockdale goes to sea again.

The Navy flier was the highest-ranking naval officer held as a POW in the Vietnam War. He was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 and had his shoulders, arms and a leg virtually crippled during seven-plus years of torture. Though unable to fly, he was kept on active duty after his release and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his combat duty and leadership of American POWs.

In a 1992 "Saturday Night Live" skit Stockdale was brutally mocked for his televised debate performance as independent Ross Perot's running mate against Democrat Al Gore and Republican Dan Quayle.

It seems Stockdale's hearing aid had malfunctioned, but it wasn't the last time the late-night caricaturers would successfully damage a politician. The image of an ancient slow-witted bumbler stuck for the remainder of the campaign and beyond.

Stockdale died in 2005 at 81.

But this Saturday a brand new James Stockdale goes back on U.S. military duty. (Don't wait for that news on "SNL's" update.)

In Port Hueneme on California's coast, the Navy will officially commission DDG 106 Stockdale, the 56th of 62 planned Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Vice Adm. Stockdale's widow, Sybil, will officiate.

Cmdr. Fred W. Kacher, of Oakton, Va., will be the guided-missile destroyer's first commanding officer, overseeing a crew of 276 officers and enlisted personnel. The 9,200-ton Stockdale was built by Bath Iron Works, a General Dynamics Co. She is 509 feet long with a waterline beam of 59 feet and a navigational draft of 31 feet.

The ship can exceed speeds of  30 knots.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Naval pilot James Stockdale exiting his A-10 Skyhawk in 1965 one week before being shot down over North Vietnam and beginning seven-plus years as a POW. Credit: Associated Press. The guided-missile destroyer Stockdale at its 2008 christening in Maine. It will enter naval service Saturday at Port Hueneme, Calif. Credit: Associated Press