The Morning News: As the President Spoke ...

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Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

LAST NIGHT AT THE HAY-ADAMS HOTEL, just across Lafayette Square from the White House, a sizable crowd of political types, gadflies and others filled the basement bar Off the Record. It wasn't packed to the gills, but sufficiently crowded. As the prime-time news coverage turned to President Bush's nationwide address on his new strategy for Iraq war — which is tied to an increase in 21,500 troops on the ground — the bar grew quiet as the bar television's volume was increased.

If the reaction from patrons serves as any decent measure of the speech's success or failure, chatter started to pop up around the 13-minute mark. At one point, one woman seated across the way from us remarked to a male companion, "I like that line." But a minute or two later, she scoffed slightly, putting her hand on her head, dumbfounded when Bush said:

Acting on the good advice of Senator Joe Lieberman and other key members of Congress, we will form a new, bipartisan working group that will help us come together across party lines to win the war on terror. This group will meet regularly with me and my administration. It will help strengthen our relationship with Congress.

When the 20-minute speech concluded, there were no boos, no cheers, no vocalized affirmation of the new strategy. In our city, such outbursts are out of place. Soon enough the bar went back to drinking, networking and conversation. Washington went back to business. The protests were left to those who had gathered outside the White House gates, and as this writer went off for a late dinner, the shouts and anti-war slogans faded off in the darkness. In Washington, the war is something very nearby, but yet so incredibly distant.

» "Transcript of President Bush’s Address to Nation on U.S. Policy in Iraq" [NYT]
» "Bush to Add 20,000 Troops In an Effort to Stabilize Iraq" [WaPo]
» "Democrats Aim to Block Funds for Plan" [WaPo]
» "Intensified Combat on Streets Likely" [WaPo]

What else is making news on this Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007? Let's get to it.

» WILSON BUILDING: "For His First 100 Days, Fenty Outlines 200 Goals" [WaPo]
» JUDICIARY SQUARE: "Ex-D.C. Workers Sued After Paycheck Gaffes" [WT]
» SHIRLINGTON: "A Signature Space to Match Its Reputation" [WaPo]
» ANNAPOLIS: "Curtain Rises on '07 Session" [Baltimore Sun]
» RICHMOND: "Kaine Presses GOP for Deal On Transportation Funding" [WaPo]
» ST. ELIZABETHS: "D.C. Will Investigate Patient's Death" [WaPo]
» PENN QUARTER/JUDICIARY SQUARE: "Unclothed Worker Dies After Four-Story Plunge" [WaPo]

Photo of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post

» MORE NEWS AND VIEWS, as always, are available at washingtonpost.com, Washington Post Radio and Slate.

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