President to give final State of Union address tonight

Monday, January 28, 2008

President Bush gives his final State of the Union address tonight.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's last State of the Union address is expected to be heavy on Iraq and the economy, but he also will say he is entering a congressional fray over earmarking taxpayer dollars, administration officials said.

Bush will announce "unprecedented changes" in the way lawmakers earmark money for special projects that benefit their districts or campaign contributors, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in an e-mail.

In the 8 p.m. speech, the President plans to sign an executive order Tuesday "directing agencies to ignore any future earmarks included in report language, but not in the legislation," Fratto said.

The order will not be retroactive, he added. Democrats were quick to point out that almost half of the 11,735 earmarks approved in 2008 were GOP-sponsored and White House-endorsed.

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"The president will say that if these spending items are worthy, Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote," Fratto said. "He will state his commitment to veto any spending bill that does not succeed in cutting earmarks in half from 2008 levels."

The move comes after House Republicans challenged Democrats in a letter Friday to join a bipartisan effort to overhaul earmarks. Republicans are expected to use earmarking as an issue against Democrats in the 2008 elections.

But the majority of Bush's address will focus on revisiting unfinished business.

The president spent Sunday afternoon at the White House rehearsing the address. Senior aides said the speech runs about 42 minutes after a slew of tweaks.

Downplaying expectations, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said last week "it's just not realistic" for the president to present any major new initiatives with less than a year in office.

Bush will try to build on an initial agreement with Democrats on a $150 billion stimulus plan by invoking a "spirit of bipartisanship that we can use to make other deals," a senior administration official said.

Pounding the message

Much of the speech will focus on things Bush already has asked Congress to pass -- an overhaul of federal laws governing electronic surveillance, permanent extensions of his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, administration officials said.

Parties acknowledge finding common ground on many of these issues will be difficult in a divisive election year.

Bush's earlier annual speeches to Congress have been dominated by big projects -- the invasion of Iraq, development of alternative fuels, the partial privatization of Social Security and the expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs. Interactive:

Senior administration officials said the theme of this year's address will be "Trust and Empower." "His address will advocate his philosophy of trusting Americans, empowering them to make good and wise decisions, especially when it comes to keeping more of their hard-earned money, rather than sending it to Washington," Perino said.

In recent days, Bush has restated his demands for a revision of federal wiretapping authority and for the permanent extension of the $1.6 trillion in tax cuts he pushed through Congress. He has said extending those tax cuts will ensure the U.S. economy will "continue to lead the world."

But Democratic congressional leaders are opposed to making the tax cuts permanent. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, on Friday called for a time of "tax fairness," saying not to "make permanent tax cuts for the richest Americans."

Likewise, the South Korea, Colombia and Panama pacts will face uphill battles, with lawmakers raising concerns about U.S. jobs being shipped overseas.

Bush will continue to urge patience with the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war, saying more time is needed for the Iraqi government to reach a political settlement and to lock in security gains made since he dispatched nearly 30,000 additional U.S. troops there a year ago.

No major announcements on bringing more troops home are expected, administration officials said. Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, will deliver his next progress report to Congress in March.

Petraeus on Sunday said the Pentagon wants to bring troops home quickly to reduce the strain on the armed services.

"But we want to do it ... in a way that will allow these gains to be maintained," Petraeus told CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer." "We don't want to jeopardize what we have fought so hard for."

Democrats have tried to wind down the war since taking control of Congress in January 2007, and their leaders continue to make clear their patience has run thin.

"He'll tell us the war has turned a corner and that victory is in sight," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said last week, adding that Americans have heard that refrain many times since Bush's declaration of victory in May 2003.

"Five years, nearly 4,000 deaths and half a trillion dollars later, the mission is still not accomplished," Reid said.

Aides said the president also will spend time touting efforts to forge peace in the Mideast. There is deep skepticism around the world that Bush can pull off such a diplomatic coup, especially given a new spate of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

And a major battle is brewing in the Senate over Bush's no-warrant surveillance program, which aides said will play a prominent role in Monday night's address.

With a permanent revision of federal wiretapping laws being fiercely debated in the Senate, the White House told Reid this weekend that Bush will veto any temporary extension of a law -- set to expire February 1.

White House officials argue there will be an "intelligence gap" when the current law expires, making the nation vulnerable to another terrorist attack.
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"The intelligence community needs a long-term law to carry out its programs to protect the nation, not a patchwork of six-month extensions and 30-day extensions," one administration official said.

Reid has fired back that if there's a terrorist attack, the White House will be to blame.

Tampa police officer to be Bush's guest

TAMPA -- A Tampa police officer injured during her military service in Iraq will be first lady Laura Bush's guest during tonight's State of the Union address.

Diane Lopes, left, a senior Air Force airman, was wounded during a rocket attack at Kirkuk Air Force Base on Sept. 21, just a month into her duty in Iraq, according to a White House news release. She suffered severe injuries, including shrapnel and puncture wounds to her right arm and lower body and hearing loss, and is recovering a Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Lopes, 37, was deployed to Iraq only five months after joining the Tampa police, TPD spokeswoman Andrea Davis said. A reservist with the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Lopes had just completed field training when she learned she would be deployed.

In an interview for a Wing Public Affairs newsletter, Lopes described having an immediate will to live despite substantial injuries. The shrapnel snapped her tibia and fibula in her left leg, slashed through 80 percent of the tendons in her right wrist, collapsed a lung, burned her and and perforated her right eardrum, according to the Nov. 4 article:

"I said, 'Hell no, I'm not dying here today. No way,'" she said.

Lopes entered the Army in 1991 and became a member of the Air Force Reserves in 2003. She has been awarded a Purple Heart.

Information from Bay News 9's partner, the St. Petersburg Times, was used in this report.

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