Morning Brief, Thursday, February 1

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2008

Whoops. On the day he formally announced his candidacy for president, garrulous Democratic Senator Joseph Biden dubbed competitor Barack Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." (There are questions about the exact quote, and Biden has since apologized, but I'd say his bid is essentially over.)

Comedian Al Franken is running for Senate in Minnesota. 

Iraq and Midde East

January saw record civilian deaths from terrorism in Iraq.

The disputed Iraq city of Kirkuk is going to get ugly this year, the Los Angeles Times reports. And the Turks could mix it up with a cross-border attack on anti-Turkish Kurdish guerrillas.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns warns Iran to stop "giving very sophisticated explosive technology to Shia insurgent groups" in Iraq. Some U.S. officials are worried that the current escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran could lead to war.

Washington 

A revised Senate resolution on Iraq would express opposition to the surge, but safeguard funding for soldiers and Marines. It's not even clear whether Congress could cut off funding for Iraq, even if it chose to try.

In an attempt to save the Doha round of trade talks, the Bush administration will try to cap annual handouts to U.S. farmers to a mere $360,000 each, but the powerful farm lobby is, naturally, opposed. Much more here on agricultural subsidies from the Washington Post.

Europe

France's Jacques Chirac strayed from French policy when he questioned whether a nuclear Iran would in fact be "very dangerous" (though headded that Tehran would be "razed" if Iran nuked Israel). He later retracted his remarks, but the New York Times has the original transcript.

The flirtatious Silvio Berlusconi, ex-PM of Italy, is in big trouble with his wife. She's taken their fight to the front page of his least-favorite newspaper.

Tony Blair is being questioned by British police.