Washington News

China Says Chen Can Study In US China has announced that it will allow Chen Guangcheng to study in the US, a move that could help ease tensions between Washington and Beijing following days of intense diplomatic wrangling, reports this morning indicate. The AP calls announcement "a possible step toward resolving a diplomatic standoff with the US over the blind activist, who said he felt increasingly isolated and in danger at a Beijing hospital." On its website, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that Chen "is currently being treated in hospital. ... As a Chinese citizen, if he wants to study abroad he can go through the normal channels to the relevant departments and complete the formalities in accordance with the law like other Chinese citizens."
According to the New York Times , the development signals "a possible breakthrough in a diplomatic crisis that has deeply embarrassed the White House and threatens to sour relations with Beijing." The Wall Street Journal also says the move could defuse the tense diplomatic situation, noting that it follows a string of dramatic events in the weeks-long saga, the latest being Chen's Thursday appeal - via cell phone - to US lawmakers to be escorted out of the country by Secretary of State Clinton.
Chen's plight generated a huge amount of coverage last night and this morning, including almost 12 minutes of combined coverage from the three network newscasts yesterday evening.
While reports from major media organizations are unusually contradictory, the Administration is receiving a great deal of criticism for its handling of the situation. Despite the insistence of the Administration that no US official pressured Chen to leave the US embassy in Beijing, that allegation is widespread. For instance, Bloomberg News reports that Chen told CNN: "The embassy kept lobbying me to leave and promised to be with me at the hospital, but this afternoon soon after we got here, they were all gone. I'm very disappointed at the US government."
Additionally, the Administration is being portrayed as potentially naïve for entrusting Chen's safety to the Chinese authorities as part of the deal that preceded his removal from the US embassy. According to the Washington Post , "Many activists are suggesting that the Americans made the critical mistake of trusting the Chinese government too much, given its history of mistreating the country's dissidents and not enforcing the rule of law."
Similarly, another article in the Washington Post , reports, "Rights activists say the moves to isolate Chen and round up activists who assisted him suggest that Chinese authorities never intended to honor their agreement to treat Chen humanely and allow him to live freely in a new and safe location in China."
The Hill says the Administration is "desperately pushing back against the impression that it had abandoned the blind dissident to Chinese authorities and betrayed American values in the process."
The CBS Evening News reported that Chen has "asked Secretary Clinton to take him out on her plane." NBC Nightly News reported that Chen has put Clinton "in a very tough spot." Andrea Mitchell added that Clinton, "walking a diplomatic tightrope, told China's leaders they need to address human rights," which "was a softer version than her prepared remarks, which included a warning to China not to punish dissidents." According to NBC, US Ambassador to China Gary Locke "said Chen has clearly had a change of heart and they'll visit him again to find out what he really wants."
Locke Says US Officials Snuck Chen Into The US Embassy David Martin, on the CBS Evening News reported that "having escaped from house arrest, Chen was hiding out with fellow dissidents in Beijing, when the US Embassy headed by Ambassador Gary Locke, mounted an operation to bring him in from the cold." Locke: "When we got the word he was in Beijing wanting to talk to us in the wee hours of the morning we went out and contacted him, and then we engineered almost a maneuver out of 'Mission Impossible' to bring him in to the embassy." According to Martin, "The maneuver involved transferring Chen from a van driven by the dissidents to a US government car while evading Chinese surveillance, then spirit him back to the US Embassy, past Chinese guards, whose job is to prevent would-be defectors from reaching the embassy."
Romney Questions The Administration's Treatment Of Chen NBC Nightly News reported that "this rather incredible drama...has ricocheted back here and is now part of the race for President." Mitt Romney "said the Administration was too eager to keep its summit on track and should not have handed Chen over to the Chinese." Romney: "If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and a day of shame for the Obama Administration."
The Los Angeles Times reports Romney said he "was concerned about the circumstances of the negotiations between the US and Chinese governments that led Chen to leave the embassy after assurances that he and his family would be protected if they remained in China."

Issa Circulates Proposed Holder Contempt Resolution News that House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa is circulating a contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Holder over the "Operation Fast & Furious" controversy generated heavy print media coverage this morning, but drew no mention on network newscasts last night.
The Washington Post reports that Issa "circulated a proposal Thursday to hold" Holder "in contempt of Congress, accusing Holder of failing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the botched gun-trafficking operation called Fast and Furious. Justice Department officials disputed the accusations, saying the department has been cooperating fully with the investigation, which was launched by Issa" and Sen. Charles Grassley "a year and a half ago."
The Washington Times , "The 64-page draft resolution and an accompanying 17-page staff briefing paper explain what" Issa "called the 'reckless conduct' of the Fast and Furious investigation and the 'hardships' faced by the family of a US Border Patrol agent killed with a weapon purchased in the probe. The two documents also detail retaliation against agents who blew the whistle on the operation and the 'carnage in Mexico' that Fast and Furious helped fuel. 'This briefing paper and draft contempt report explains the case to both members of the committee and the American people for holding Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress,'" Issa said.
The Hill reports, "Issa has issued two subpoenas to obtain documents from the DOJ, and is arguing that the agency's glacial pace in returning the requested information provides cause for holding Holder in contempt of Congress. 'Congress now faces a moment of decision between exerting its full authority to compel an agency refusing to cooperate with congressional oversight or accepting a dangerous expansion of executive-branch authority and unilateral action allowing agencies to set their own terms for cooperating with congressional oversight,'" the staff memo said.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Deputy Attorney General James Cole released a statement saying that the Justice Department "strongly disputes the contention that we have failed to cooperate with the Committee's review," and added that the disputes over document production "stem not from a lack of cooperation, but from our sincere and unwavering belief that disclosure of materials related to ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions could well jeopardize our core law enforcement mission."

Documents Seized From Bin Laden's Compound Released To The Public NBC Nightly News reported, "Today we learned still more about what Bin Laden was up to in his final months and days in that secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan." Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski added, "The documents seized in last year's raid on Bin Laden's hideout released today revealed Bin Laden was still intent on killing Americans. The documents show Bin Laden had ordered Al Qaeda to assassinate President Obama or General David Petraeus."
On ABC World News, Brian Ross reported, "These documents recovered have proven to be hugely valuable, as an insight into what might be coming next from Al Qaeda. ... Just five days before he was killed, a tantalizing clue, when Bin Laden asked about a plot using poison being planned by one Al Qaeda team. But there are no further details in the documents released."
Bob Orr, on the CBS Evening News, said bin Laden "was frustrated with poorly planned attacks that killed too many Muslims and he worried US drone strikes threatened Al Qaeda's core in Pakistan." Orr added that the letters also "reveal tensions between bin Laden and other top terrorists. He rebuffed pleas from his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, to merge Al Qaeda with Al-Shabaab in Somalia and rejected Anwar al-Awlaki as a proposed leader in Yemen."
The AP , in an article titled "US Uses Bin Laden Letters To Degrade Al-Qaida," reports that the letters were "released by US officials intent on discrediting his terror organization." The AP says they "portray a network weak, inept and under siege -- and its leader seemingly near wit's end about the passing of his global jihad's glory days. The documents, published online Thursday, are a small sample of those seized during the US raid on bin Laden's Pakistan compound," and, "by no accident, they show al-Qaida at its worst."

Campaign News

Obama Has Seven-Point Lead In Virginia in WPost Poll The Washington Post reports a new Post poll shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney in the battleground state of Virginia, 51% to 44%. The Post says Obama "has a key advantage in his bid for reelection: The coalition of Virginians that helped propel him to victory" in the state in 2008 "is largely intact. Yet the survey shows that voters in the state are split on Obama's signature healthcare reform law and that they remain deeply pessimistic about the way things are going in the country, creating a potential opening for Romney."
Politico reports that Virginians "split down the middle on the administration's major policies overall, but tend to credit Obama with doing a good job: The president checks in with a 53 percent approval rating; 44 percent disapprove (it's a narrower 50 to 47 percent among registered voters)."
The AP says Virginia "is becoming the hottest new battleground in this year's race for the White House. Shifting demographics have" Obama "fighting for another win in this Southern state four years after he became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Virginia in more than four decades," while Romney "is banking on buyers' remorse as he works to prove that Obama's unlikely 2008 victory was a fluke."
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch , meanwhile, reports that Romney on Thursday said the 2012 presidential race "could all come down to Virginia." Stumping in Portsmouth, VA, Romney said, "This may well be the state that decides who the next president is."

Bachmann Formally Endorses Romney The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, "After weeks of dropping hints," Rep. Michele Bachmann "came out firmly Thursday for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, granting him a measure of Tea Party backing after criticizing him harshly during her presidential bid." Appearing with Romney in Virginia, Bachmann "called for unity in the Republican ranks to defeat President Obama in November, saying she wanted to 'lend my voice and my endorsement to Mitt Romney to take the country back.'"
NBC Nightly News reported, "While she was still vying for the GOP nomination herself in the heat of the campaign, she called Romney's Massachusetts healthcare package, quote, 'a deal breaker for conservatives' and said he couldn't beat President Obama."
The Washington Post reports that Romney "has spent the past few days on the campaign trail surrounded by women, slamming President Obama's record on the economy and ticking off the economic hardships faced by female entrepreneurs." Yesterday in Virginia, Romney "was joined on stage by" Bachmann, "one of the most high-profile conservative women in the country." And though Bachmann "never addressed the gender gap or the GOP 'war on women,' as Democrats have dubbed some Republican efforts, the context of her appearance with Romney was clear: that the fight for this swing state and a White House victory is all about appealing to women."
McDonnell Makes Case For Romney In Virginia Politico reports "a possible vice-presidential pick," Gov. Bob McDonnell, also joined Romney, and "made his case as the steward of Virginia's strong economy." McDonnell said, "For those of you not from here, welcome to the most business-friendly state in America, the Commonwealth of Virginia. Welcome to the state with the lowest unemployment rate in the Southeast. Now as good as that is, imagine how much better off we're going to be with President Mitt Romney?"
The Hill reported on its website that in his speech, "McDonnell, like Bachmann before him, took time for special criticism of the Obama administration's environmental policies, arguing excessive regulations have prohibited Virginia companies from opening new coal mines and natural gas refineries."

Ancestry Controversy Has Some Doubting Warren's Staying Power Politico writes, "Political candidates facing controversy are often given this advice: Get all the bad news out immediately if you want to take control of the news cycle on a damaging story." However, Elizabeth Warren (D), who's bidding to unseat Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R), "has delivered a series of uneven and confusing responses to revelations that she once listed herself as a minority law teacher, raising questions about whether this is just one blip in a long race or an image-defining moment that undercuts her profile as an authentic populist candidate." Politico adds that "some Democrats" are "privately" wondering if her credibility has been "damaged."
In his Boston Herald column, Joe Battenfeld writes that Warren's "stumbling efforts to douse the firestorm surrounding her claims of being a Native American minority have raised concerns among local and national Democrats who are questioning her campaign's competence." As to Warren's "conflicting explanations about why she listed herself as a minority in university directories," University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said, "This is what happens when candidates don't tell the truth. It's pretty obvious she was using (the minority listing) for career advancement."

I miss multy Joe Biden.

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