International:

U.S. missile defense maturing, latest test a success

Within a year, the U.S. missile defense system should be able to guard against enemy attacks, while testing new technologies, the deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Monday.

The United States activated the ground-based system last summer when North Korea launched one long-range and six short-range missiles. More here

Bush Warns U.S. 'Will Respond Firmly' to Iranian Military Actions in Iraq

Deeply distrustful of Iran, President Bush said Monday "we will respond firmly" if Tehran escalates its military actions in Iraq and threatens American forces or Iraqi citizens.

Bush's warning was the latest move in a bitter and more public standoff between the United States and

Iran. The White House expressed skepticism about Iran's plans to greatly expand its economic and military ties with Iraq. The United States accuses Iran of supporting terrorism in Iraq and supplying weapons to kill American forces.

"If Iran escalates its military actions in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and -- or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly," Bush said in an interview with National Public Radio. Read it here

Cheney: Bush Has 'Shored Up His [political] Position...Specifically On Iraq':

In an interview with Newsweek, Vice President Dick Cheney falsely claims that President Bush’s Iraq escalation speech delivered on Jan. 10 “shored up his position…specifically on Iraq.” Cheney said, "My sense of it is that what’s happened here now over the last few weeks is that the president has shored up his position with the speech he made a couple of weeks ago, specifically on Iraq." But polls taken after the Iraq escalation address indicate that public support for the Iraq war and for Bush’s strategy continue to fall. For example, in the week after Bush's speech, USA Today reported, “Poll: Bush’s new Iraq strategy fails to rally public support.” Similarly, the Washington Post reported, “Poll: Bush’s new Iraq strategy fails to rally public support,” and CBS noted, “Poll: Americans Not Swayed By Iraq Plan.” Bush’s job approval ratings have taken a hit as well. In December, both CNN and Washington Post polls reported he had a 36 percent rating. In their most recent polls, Bush has fallen to 34 and 33 percent respectively.

John Bolton: ‘U.S. Has No Strategic Interest’ In A United Iraq

National:

GOP getaway focuses on return to roots

House Republicans spent most of their 48 hours at last week's retreat here examining why they lost the congressional majority and trying to formulate a winning way forward. "If we continue to work together as a team, we will in fact earn our way back to majority status," Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio said as members gathered at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay. More here

NBC's Tim Russert Says He Didn't Tell Libby Valerie Plame Worked at CIA

NBC News reporter Tim Russert said that he did not tell vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that a prominent war critic's wife worked at the CIA, as Libby has claimed.

Russert, who spoke Monday in Tulsa and Oklahoma City at functions sponsored by Oklahoma State University's Spears School of Business, said he expects to be called to testify in Libby's federal perjury and obstruction trial in Washington. More info at this link

Snow On Weekend Protests

“I don’t think he really thought a lot about it,” said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow today when asked about President Bush’s reaction to the weekend’s march on Washington. Approximately 100,000 people from around the country converged on the National Mall on Saturday to protest Bush’s escalation in Iraq. Nearly 70 percent of the American public opposes President Bush’s plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq.

NYT LEAD TUESDAY:

Bush executive order gives president much greater control over rules to regulate public health, safety, environment, civil rights, privacy, other issues... In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee

Hillary On Evil Men (spoof on Bill)

In Other News...

146 levees nationwide is what the Army Corps of Engineers "says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood."

Iran's ambassador yesterday "

outlined an ambitious plan on Sunday to greatly expand its economic and military ties with Iraq," including assuming major responsibility for Iraq's reconstruction, "an area of failure on the part of the United States."

From The Right: Paul Greenberg: By The Book: What's Next In Iraq? Month after month, official Washington downplayed the trickle and then constant stream of bad news out of Iraq, content to advertise hopeful signs like free elections. But even this president finally had to face the bloody facts and draw the obvious conclusion: The coalition of the ever less willing in Iraq was losing the war. And to leave the conduct of this war to the same generals with the same minimal strategy would lead to the same defeat.

From The Left: NBC News: Fleischer: Libby Discussed CIA Officer at Lunch

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday that then-colleague I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told him over lunch that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA.

Fleischer said the conversation happened on Monday, July 7, 2003, the day after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's op-ed article appeared in the New York Times, and he was a guest on "Meet the Press," accusing the administration of "twisting" intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs. Libby - according to prosecutors - told Fleischer at lunch at the White House that the information that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA was "hush-hush."

Quote Of The Day:

"Cheney Is A ‘Half-Glass-Full’ Kinda Guy G. W. Bush listen here

(Sources: FOXNews, CenterForAmericanProgress, MSNBC, Whitehouse website, USAToday, TownHall, WashingtonPost, CBS, PollingReport.com, SFChronicle, WashingtonTimes, NYT, PRNews, Reuters, ThinkProgress, NYPost, PoliticalCartoons.com)