The White House is losing control

Indubitably, the top headline tomorrow will be this NYTimes piece revealing internal White House discussions about some sort of redeployment in Iraq. (Read it carefully, because it's not really talking withdrawal, but "gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.")

White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.

This is mainly a political piece describing the White House trying to get out in front of the crumbling Republican support for the President's policy.

One more observation: This is the second example in a few weeks of very "internal deliberations" being leaked. (Deliberations over closing Guantanamo were leaked to the AP.)

The balance of power has shifted with the addition of a Washington savvy Sec Def Gates in place of Rumsfeld and a diminishing Cheney. The power squabbles are now more intense and bubbling out into the press.

Later: Within the context of these White House divisions, was the Libby commutation a sop to Cheney?

Isikoff: "I'm not sure Bush had a choice," says one of the advisers. "If he didn't act, it would have caused a fracture with the vice president."