All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.

Save it for 2050.

It also exposes a very strong weakness for him—his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited.

I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values. He told the people of NH yesterday he has a Kansas accent because his mother was from there. His mother lived in many states as far as we can tell—but this is an example of the nonsense he uses to cover this up.

How we could give some life to this contrast without turning negative:

Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle of America to the middle class in the middle of the last century. And talk about the basic bargain as about the deeply American values you grew up with, learned as a child and that drive you today. Values of fairness, compassion, responsibility, giving back.

Let’s explicitly own ‘American’ in our programs, the speeches and the values. He doesn’t. Make this a new American Century, the American Strategic Energy Fund. Let’s use our logo to make some flags we can give out. Let’s add flag symbols to the backgrounds.

“In the eyes of the mankind Russian troops are perpetrating ethnic cleansing, brutally mercilessly in my country and we can not do anything about it,” President Saakashvili said at a late-night press conference for foreign journalists on August 14.

He said not only the Georgian villages of the South Ossetian conflict zone, as well as of the Gori distinct have been “cleansed,” but upper Kodori Gorge as well.

“What Russia did by this [military] intervention is that they came in and ethnically purified, ethnically cleansed two areas of Georgia – totally cleansed Upper Abkhazia [areas in breakaway Abkhazia that were under the Tbilisi control before August 12] and totally cleansed South Ossetia,” Saakashvili said.

“I accuse the government of Russia of deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing and I can prove it with international organization already bringing testimony to what I am saying. We’ve received 1,400 reports of brutal attacks, slaughters and rapes.”

He said this “barbaric” behavior should be stopped.

Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claiming Russia, through the separatist authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, violated a convention meant to eliminate racism in a period between 1990 and August, 2008.

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 14 Aug.'08 / 21:14

• Gates: Russia wanted to punish Georgia;
• Standard package of humanitarian aid ongoing;
• Gen. Cartwright: Russia “generally complying” with ceasefire.

“I do not see any prospect for use of military force by the United States in this situation,” U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said at a special news conference about situation in Georgia on August 14.

The press conference was held jointly with Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright.

U.S. cargo aircraft C-17 with humanitarian supplies started to arrive in Tbilisi and Washington said it would also use its naval forces to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies.

“This is a humanitarian relief mission and that is our focus at this point,” Gates said.

“The United States government will then turn to the questions both of economic reconstruction and also what to do to help the Georgian security forces looking to the longer term future… Right now the only people we will have on the ground are those that are required to deliver humanitarian mission.”

Gen. Cartwright said that the U.S. military was doing a “standard package of humanitarian aid,” involving identifying where the help is needed, what kind of help is needed; is it medical, is it communications rebuilding etc.

Two shipments of humanitarian supplies with worth of USD 2 million, have been delivered to Georgia so far, the U.S. Air Force said.

Secretary Gates said that Russia's attack on Georgia was not just about South Ossetia or Abkhazia.

He said he thought that Russia wanted “to punish Georgia for daring to try to integrate with the west.”

“If Russia does not step back from its aggressive posture and actions in Georgia, the U.S.-Russian relationship could be adversely affected for years to come,” he warned.

When asked what he thought Russia’s intentions were, Gates responded: “My view is that Russians – and I would say – principally PM Putin is interested in reasserting not only Russia’s superpower status, but in reasserting Russia’s traditional sphere of influence. I think that there is an effort to try redress what they regard as many of the concessions they feel were forced upon them in 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

On 14 August 2008 Russian occupation forces once again violated the ceasefire agreement and did not let Georgian police units into the town of Gori.

According to the available information, armoured vehicles have been introduced into Gori again and the town is being mined. Peaceful citizens of Georgia and foreign journalists trapped in Gori face a real threat, as Russian servicemen do not let them out of the town. Several buildings in the town are burning. Real humanitarian catastrophe is looming as a result of Russian aggression.

Furthermore, Russian occupation forces returned to Senaki and Poti. They are looting Senaki military base and Poti military port, destroying the property of the Georgian state.

Such actions of Russian invaders once again point to the urgent necessity of the international community’s interference in order to stop Russian military aggression in Georgia.

15:30 Russian troops are marauding in the village Debisi of Gori district.

14:40 Local residents report, Russian troops have entered village Mejvriskhevi, Gori district.

14:15 Russian troops enter the villages of Ruisi and Tsveri, Kareli district.

14:00 Russian troops are entering Gori again. Georgian police have no control over the city.

12:00 Russian troops entered Poti port again. They occupied building of Coastal Guard. They are destroying vessels of Costal Guard of Georgia.

12:00 Additional Russian troops entered Zugdidi. Russians remain present in Senaki as well. Russian troops still block the entrances to Gori and there is no sign of leaving their positions as agreed before.

11:00 Russian troops are moving in the city of Senaki West of the capital Tbilisi 230 kms, destroying Georgian military installations.

According to the recent information received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the appropriate authorities of Georgia, on 13 August 2008, the Russian military have established an illegal checkpoint on the main highway at the city of Gori. All cargo vehicles passing through this checkpoint are being stopped and thoroughly searched by the Russian military, and being allowed the free passage only under condition of payment of ransom.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assessing this act as a grave violation of international law and sovereignty of Georgia.

By introducing illegal armed formations and groups of bandits who are now blocking Georgian highways, looting peaceful population and disrupting trade, the Russian Federation again clearly demonstrates that its aim is the full occupation of Georgia.

Researchers from the Human Rights Watch said they witnessed “terrifying scenes of destruction” and looting by the South Ossetian militias in the Georgian villages of the region.

HRW said on August 13 that its researchers, while moving from Java to Tskhinvali a day before, saw that numerous houses in the Georgian villages of Kekhvi, Kvemo Achabeti, Zemo Achabeti and Tamarasheni.

“Human Rights Watch researchers also saw armed Ossetian militia members in camouflage fatigues taking household items – furniture, television sets, heaters, suitcases, carpets, and blankets – out of houses in the village of Nizhniy [Kvemo] Achabeti and loading them into their trucks. Explaining the looters’ actions, an Ossetian man told Human Rights Watch, “Of course, they are entitled to take things from Georgians now – because they lost their own property in Tskhinvali and other places,” HRW said.

The villages were virtually deserted, with the exception of a few elderly and incapacitated people who stayed behind either because they were unable to flee or because they were trying to save their belongings and cattle, it said.

“The remaining residents of these destroyed ethnic Georgian villages are facing desperate conditions, with no means of survival, no help, no protection, and nowhere to go,” Tanya Lokshina at Human Rights Watch said.

HRW has also interviewed a women from the Ossetian villages and one of them said that the Georgian soldiers stole whatever money she kept at the house. While another woman said, according to HRW, that the Georgian forces told them not to be afraid and said that they would not shoot if they were not attacked.

Meanwhile, Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who is leading a team investigating the humanitarian damage in South Ossetia, told the Guardian that Russian estimates of 2,000 dead in the conflict were “suspicious.” Russia accuses Georgia of “genocide” of the Ossetians.

“The figure of 2,000 people killed is very doubtful,” Neistat said. “Our findings so far do not in any way confirm the Russian statistics. On the contrary, they suggest the numbers are exaggerated.”

She said that Russia’s propaganda of deliberately exaggerating number of death toll was triggering revenge against ethnic Georgians in the region.

Ukraine threatened to blockade the Russian Black Sea Fleet yesterday in an act of solidarity with Georgia that risked escalating the conflict. 

After flying to Tbilisi to assure Georgians of his country’s support, President Yushchenko signed an order imposing tough restrictions on the Russian fleet, which is based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. Mr Yushchenko’s decree instructs Russia to give 72 hours’ notice of any movement of ships, aircraft or personnel in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities were given the power to alter those plans.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had already warned Russia that it will bar ships from returning to Sevastopol if they take part in military action against Georgia. Moscow responded furiously, accusing Ukraine of a “serious new antiRussian step”.

Like Georgia, Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership is seeking membership of Nato in December. The democratic Orange Revolution that swept Mr Yushchenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister, to power in 2004 has long been loathed by Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister.

The Ukrainian Security Council issued a statement yesterday declaring that the presence of foreign warships in its waters “poses a potential threat to Ukraine’s national security, particularly if parts of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet are used against third countries”.

Russia and Ukraine are already at loggerheads over the future of the Crimean base, which Russia must vacate in 2017 under a 20-year lease agreement signed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of Crimea’s population consider themselves to be Russians and are strongly pro-Moscow. Tensions have mounted over calls by politicians in Moscow not to surrender control of the territory, regardless of Ukraine’s wishes. Mr Yushchenko insists that the Black Sea Fleet must leave on time and that there is no prospect of extending the lease.

Ukraine’s ambition for Nato membership has raised tensions still further. Russia is opposed to the Western military alliance replacing it in Crimea and Mr Putin has threatened to target nuclear missiles at Ukraine if it joins Nato.Unlike tiny Georgia, Ukraine is a country of 47 million people and any confrontation with Russia could quickly escalate into a broader European conflict. Vital Russian gas pipelines cross Ukraine to supply the European Union.

President Bush dispatched US military hardware to the heart of the Caucasus yesterday and warned Russia that it could be frozen out of international bodies as punishment for its aggression in Georgia.

In his toughest criticism of Russia since becoming President, Mr Bush accused it of breaching the provisional ceasefire agreed with Georgia only 24 hours earlier.

He cited intelligence showing that Russian troops had again taken the town of Gori and could threaten the capital, Tbilisi. He insisted that Moscow respect the former Soviet republic’s territorial integrity. There were also reports of Russian-backed militia in South Ossetia looting ethnic Georgian villages and killing inhabitants.

“To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis,” Mr Bush said.

The US is in talks with allies about whether to suspend Russia’s membership of the G8 club of industrialised nations. There is a growing clamour to block Russia’s membership of the World Trade Organisation and to rescind an invitation for it to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Mr Bush’s statement, delivered in stern tones outside the White House, was stronger than his cautious comments last week, which reflected the State Department’s unhappiness with Georgia’s use of force against pro-Russian separatist rebels in South Ossetia.

Although direct military intervention is not being considered, Pentagon sources have hinted that a limited number of troops could be deployed to support what Mr Bush described as a vigorous and continuing humanitarian mission headed by the US military.

The first US air force transport aircraft arrived last night, and the navy was heading to the Black Sea – which is controlled by Russian warships – to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies direct to Georgian ports. “We expect Russia to honour its commitment to let in all forms of humanitarian assistance,” Mr Bush said.

President Saakashvili of Georgia seized on the announcement to say that Tbilisi airport and Poti port would be placed under US military control, a claim the Pentagon swiftly denied.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, flew to France last night to meet President Sarkozy before heading to Tbilisi. Sergei Lavrov, her Russian counterpart, said that the US must choose between supporting the Georgian leadership and maintaining a partnership with Russia on international issues. Dr Rice said: “This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbours, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed.”

The Georgian President had accused the US of squandering its support among former Soviet republics. Diplomats say that they have little leverage against a Kremlin in which the strings are still being pulled by Vladimir Putin, the former President. The most likely sanctions are those that would damage Russia’s prestige.

Mr Bush said: “Russia has sought to integrate into the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century. Now Russia is putting its aspirations at risk by taking actions in Georgia that are inconsistent with the principles of those institutions.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that the EU should reassess plans for a partnership agreement with Russia. For the time being, measures being taken have been limited to a US boycott of a Nato meeting with a Russian delegation and the likely cancellation of a joint naval exercise.

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 13 Aug.'08 / 22:02

• U.S. military aircraft with aid landed in Tbilisi;
• U.S. sends navy to bring humanitarian aid;
• Russia says navy not the best way for that;
• Bush to send Rice to France then to Georgia;

President Bush reiterated the U.S. “unwavering support” to Georgia and said Russia’s actions were not consistent with its commitment on provisional ceasefire.

In a special statement made on August 13 in the presence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Bush said the U.S. “stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia” and “insist[s] that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected.”

He said that the United States would launch a massive humanitarian aid with a U.S. cargo aircraft C-17 with humanitarian supplies. The first C-17 cargo aircraft already landed in Tbilisi late on August 13.

In what appeared to be a pre-arranged greeting to the U.S. military accompanying the humanitarian aid, a group of young Georgians with the national flags chanting “America; America” welcomed the C-17 crew in the airport.

Bush also said that the U.S. would use its naval forces as well, to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies.

“We expect Russia to honor its commitment to let in all forms of humanitarian assistance. We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communication and transport, including seaports, airports, roads, and airspace, remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit.”

Shortly after that announcement, Andrei Nesterenko, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, told CNN that he did not think the navy was “the best way” to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia.

In the statement Bush also pointed out that Russia has assured it did not seek change of government in Georgia. “The United States and the world expect Russia to honor that commitment,” he said.

He also said that the Russian forces’ most recent moves – involving taking up positions on the major highway outside Gori, blocking the road; blowing up Georgian vessels in the port city of Poti – were inconsistence with the commitment to provisional ceasefire.

“Unfortunately, we're receiving reports of Russian actions that are inconsistent with these statements,” he went on saying and added: “We're concerned about reports that Georgian citizens of all ethnic origins are not being protected. All forces, including Russian forces, have an obligation to protect innocent civilians from attack.”

There have been widespread reports from the South Ossetian conflict zone of looting and violence in the Georgian villages in the region.

Bush said that as part of the U.S. efforts to show its solidarity with Georgia, he was sending Secretary Rice first to France – the French President Nikola Sarkozy has brokered ceasefire provisional agreement between the sides – and then to Tbilisi, where “she will personally convey America's unwavering support for Georgia's democratic government.”

“As I have made clear, Russia's ongoing actions raise serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region. In recent years, Russia has sought to integrate into the diplomatic, political, economic, and security structures of the 21st century. The United States has supported those efforts. Now Russia is putting its aspirations at risk by taking actions in Georgia that are inconsistent with the principles of those institutions,” Bush said.

“To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis.”

President Saakashvili has welcomed Bush’s statement as “very important” for defusing tensions.

Russia reacted harshly with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying President Bush needs to change his speechwriters.

“Russia has warned the United States that it was playing a dangerous game.”

He added that Moscow was warning Washington against arming Georgia, which, Lavrov, said was considering a military adventurism.

“My name’s Shrek,” said the soldier, his eyes glazed and staring as he cradled his Kalashnikov rifle.

The nickname given by his comrades to the bald, pug-eared soldier was the only moment of light relief during a day of tense drama in which The Times witnessed Russia breaching the ceasefire agreement over South Ossetia at will.

At a checkpoint set up by the Russian Army on the approach to the city of Gori from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, an armoured personnel carrier blocked the road and riflemen had fanned out in the surrounding bushes, their weapons trained on anyone who approached.
All were ethnic Chechens, whose reputation for pitiless brutality in war made them feared throughout the Caucasus.

The checkpoint was the first evidence that the deal brokered hours earlier by President Sarkozy of France was being ignored. Shortly after President Saakashvili had signed the agreement, Russian tanks and troops rolled into Gori.

The ceasefire had specified that both the Georgian and Russian armies should withdraw after the five days of bitter fighting. But the Russians had moved up to twenty tanks, armoured personnel carriers and hundreds of soldiers miles into Georgia to occupy Gori and take control of the road leading to Tbilisi.

One soldier, Yuri, said that his unit, part of the 42nd Chechen Division, had fought for the whole five-day campaign to wrest South Ossetia from Georgian control. Asked why they had taken Gori now, he said: “We were given an order and we are following it. We don’t know how long we will be here.”

Smoke rose behind him as buildings burnt in the villages surrounding Gori. There were also prolonged bursts of automatic gunfire, although Georgian troops had abandoned the city in a panic on Monday night.

A stream of Georgians fled the area in cars, tractors and lorries, taking what belongings they could. A black Volga car crammed with passengers carried two more escapers on its roof.

One elderly couple were walking, the woman clearly in shock, her face swollen and one eye badly damaged. She pointed backwards and said: “They are killing people there, the Chechens and the Ossetians.”

Irregular soldiers from South Ossetia were being accused yesterday of killing and looting, acts of revenge for the Georgian incursion on Friday that the Russians say cost 2,000 lives. The irregulars, mostly young, twitchy and armed by the Russians, were identified by white bandage strips tied around their sleeves. Some wore black balaclavas.

Then, suddenly, a convoy of about seventy Russian military vehicles – some carrying antiaircraft guns and all loaded with soldiers and irregulars – began to pour out of Gori and head towards the capital.

Russian flags flew from several of the vehicles. Some irregulars shouted that they were on their way to Tbilisi.

The convoy continued south for almost ten miles, unchallenged by the Georgian forces, which had withdrawn from Gori to Tbilisi. Just as it seemed that they might really be intent on reaching the capital, the vehicles turned left towards the village of Orjosani.

Irregulars jumped out to form a security cordon. Asked what their mission was, they said only that they had been ordered to advance to the village and await instructions.

Tengiz, a 23-year-old South Ossetian, brandished his gun and said: “If I had the chance I would go all the way to Tbilisi now, but there is a peace agreement so they don’t let us.”

Several army trucks had become detached from the main convoy and arrived after it had turned into the wooded lane leading to Orjosani. Oblivious, they ploughed on towards Tbilisi, now only a little over 30 miles away, before realising their error and making a sharp U-turn.

Six or seven miles up the road, and no more than twenty-five miles from Tbilisi, Georgian soldiers were scrambling to establish artillery positions. They had been caught out by the unexpected Russian movement and they had been scrambled from the capital to set up a defensive line.

“We have instructions not to allow the Russians to come any closer to Tbilisi,” one soldier said. “If they come here, we will shoot.”

Another soldier, kitted out in American fatigues, said: “If we don’t wait for them here, they will come straight to Tbilisi. We have no other choice. We are ready to fight.”

The ceasefire – less than a day old – was already hanging by a thread, and Russian troops had advanced farther into Georgian territory than at any point during the war. Already victorious militarily, the Russian Army appeared determined to humiliate Georgia by demonstrating that it alone would decide where to go and when.

Yesterday’s events also raised deeper questions about the value of the Russian President’s word. Dmitri Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement but was clearly failing to enforce it.

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are poised to shut down the government if they are not allowed a vote on new oil drilling legislation.

This comes even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated she could budge on allowing a drilling vote, which so far she and her Senate counterpart have blocked from seeing daylight in Congress.

Current bans on the Outer Continental Shelf and oil shale drilling expire on the first day of the coming fiscal year: Oct. 1. Now, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is leading a group of GOP senators celebrating the day, which they have dubbed "American Energy Freedom Day."

"The overwhelming majority of Republican Senators have pledged to protect October 1 as American Energy Freedom Day so we can reduce dependence on foreign oil and lower the cost of gas at the pump," DeMint said, according to a release from his office.

"Many people aren’t aware that the bans on drilling must be renewed every year, and all we have to do is allow these prohibitions to expire on October 1. In just 50 days, Americans will have the freedom to pursue their own energy resources here at home. Our letter is very straightforward: we will actively oppose any effort to extend the bans on offshore drilling and oil shale," DeMint said.

This is setting the stage for a showdown in September with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and most other Demorats who oppose this drilling.

In response to DeMint, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said: "Isn't this the same day that Republicans would be endangering the delivery of Social Security checks because of their misguided attempts to promote energy policies that will do nothing to deal with the short term problems facing the country?"

Reid and Pelosi have avoided holding votes on drilling because of growing support among their own ranks for such legislation amid rising energy prices. Democratic leadership maintains new drilling won't change prices in the near term.

Reid and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., even cancelled markups of spending bills that renewed the moratoria, a move that was a tacit admission that there were enough votes to override Democratic opposition to drilling.

Reid has said he intends to try to renew the bans when Congress returns in September through a continuing spending resolution -- a measure used to bypass the annual spending bills, and adopt the current spending levels until the new Congress takes its seat. But to pass his version, Reid will need a filibuster-breaking 60 votes, which could prove difficult.

In a letter from DeMint to Reid, DeMint indicates the GOP has the votes to sustain any veto of a continuing resolution that might get 60 votes.

But if Congress can't agree to a continuing resolution before Oct. 1, the government shuts down.

Pelosi, speaking Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live," said "We can do that. We can have a vote on (oil drilling)."

The Hill newspaper reported she indicated that a vote would be part of a larger package that included one of her pet projects, releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. She says she believes that would reduce gasoline prices immediately, whereas, she says, oil drilling might never reduce prices.

"But it has to be part of something that says we want to bring immediate relief to the public and is not just a hoax on them,” Pelosi said.

She even indicated that she might support a package that includes drilling, according to The Hill.

“It’s not excluded, let’s put it that way,” Pelosi said.

But Republicans who have been protesting Democrats' anti-drilling stance said they are not impressed with Pelosi's apparent change of heart. Lawmakers told reporters Tueday morning her comments don't go far enough, and they still want a vote.

Pelosi's apparent change in heart comes as Republicans on Capitol Hill have taken the diminished bully pulpit to decry Democrats' actions over energy prices. Although the House is officially out of session, House Republicans have stayed in Washington grab whoever they can, whether its reporters or tourists, to criticize Democrats, they say, for not holding a vote on drilling.

Republicans believe that lifting a ban on offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf not only would increase long-term domestic fuel capacity, but drop prices immediately by sending a signal to the oil markets.

Democrats instead have sought more market controls, the release from the petroleum reserve, and a requirement that federal lands already under lease be explored before more federal land, like the OCS, is doled out to oil companies.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House.

Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a “hoax.” But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote.

“They have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas,” Pelosi said. “We can do that. We can have a vote on that.”

She indicated such a vote would have to be part of a larger package that included other policies, like releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which she said could bring down prices in a matter of days.

“But it has to be part of something that says we want to bring immediate relief to the public and is not just a hoax on them,” Pelosi continued.

She even indicated that she might support a package that includes drilling. She said her decision on whether to support such legislation would depend on how the policies are packaged.

“It’s not excluded, let’s put it that way,” Pelosi said.

In a year in which Republicans expected to take a beating at the polls, their support for drilling in protected areas has been a sudden bright spot. They have relentlessly demanded a vote on drilling as Democrats rearranged House business to avoid such a vote.

But the pressure has only grown. Republicans demanded a drilling vote before the House went home for the summer recess, and when that didn’t happen, some stayed behind in the chamber to protest.

A bipartisan group in the Senate came up with a plan that would include drilling, and Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has said he’s “willing to consider” it.

And Democrats realize that it will be difficult to end their legislative year in September without a vote because the offshore drilling moratorium must be renewed every year.

Pelosi had previously said she would allow a vote on drilling and then backed off. On July 30, the last day Congress was in before the August recess, she was interviewed by the Capitol Hill press corps. She was asked if she could envision a vote on drilling in new areas this year, and she answered, “Of course.”

But her aides later released a statement saying she was not announcing a change in her stance on a drilling vote.

Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide.

"I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," former Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told ABCNews.com.

Clinton finished third in the Iowa caucuses barely behind Edwards in second place and Obama in first. The momentum of the insurgent Obama campaign beating two better-known candidates -- not to mention an African-American winning in such an overwhelmingly white state -- changed the dynamics of the race forever.

Obama won 37.6 per cent of the vote. Edwards won 29.7 per cent and Clinton won 29.5 per cent, according to results posted by the Iowa Democratic Party.

"Our voters and Edwards' voters were the same people," Wolfson said the Clinton polls showed. "They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama."

Two months earlier, Edwards had vociferously, but falsely, denied a story in the National Enquirer about the alleged affair last October, and few in the mainstream media even reported the denial.

 

The lie "certainly had an impact on the election," Wolfson said.

Former Clinton adviser James Carville told "Good Morning America" that Wolfson's comments are just speculation.

"My instinct tells me she probably would have done better if Senator Edwards wouldn't have been on the ballot," said Carville. "But that wasn't the circustances at the time. I think Howard is fine in engaging in this kind of speculation, but it doesn't really mean very much."

Wolfson said the Clinton campaign was aware of the issue, but did not try to fan the flames.

"Any of the campaigns that would have tried to push that would have been burned by it," said Wolfson.

But he says he is mystified about the failure of the national media to pursue the story as it has allegations of other candidates' affairs.

"I can't say I understand the rules of the media and I'm not sure they do either," he said.

Wolfson's suggestion comes at a delicate time in negotiations between the Clinton and Obama camps, as the Obama campaign decides whether the convention later this month should feature a roll call vote allowing Clinton's delegates to voice their enthusiasm for their candidate. Many Clinton supporters are already resentful of Obama, whom they see as having only won the nomination with the support of a sexist media and Democratic establishment. Wolfson's argument that these same players helped keep Edwards in the race, thus hurting Clinton -- a highly debatable contention -- will likely only fan the flames of Democratic division.

The Russian tank columns rumbling into Georgia reveal the anger of a tiger finally swatting the mouse that has teased it for years. South Ossetia may seem as distant, trivial and complicated as the 19th-century Schleswig-Holstein question but Russia's fury is about much more than the Ossetians. The Caucasus matters greatly to the Russians for all sorts of reasons, none greater than the fact that it now also matters to us.

The troubles in Georgia are not the equivalent of an assassinated archduke in Sarajevo. But historians may well point to this little war, beside the spectacular Olympic launch of resurgent China, as the start of the twilight of America's sole world hegemony. If the new Great Game is for the oil of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the West may be in the process of losing it.

I've been visiting Georgia since the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991. I've known all three Georgian presidents since independence, and witnessed the wars and revolutions of the Caucasian tinderbox. In 1991 the chief of the Georgian partisans in the first Ossetian war, a dentist turned warlord, drove me up to villages around Tskhinvali, highlands of lusciously green beauty, where a vicious war between Georgian and Ossetian farmers was being waged with the ferocity of intimate neighbours, using comically armoured tractors instead of tanks.

My Georgian hosts leant their guns against a tree and took me to an open-air feast at a table stacked with delicacies in honour of a local boy killed that day. During the long drunken banquet I asked where the boy was buried. “He hasn't been buried,” replied my host, “he's under your feet.” Paling, I looked and there he lay, stretched out under the table, cradled with bouquets of flowers.

To understand this week's events, we must travel back a thousand years: long before Russia existed, Georgia was a Christian-warrior kingdom. The Caucasus was the natural borderland of the three great empires of the Near East: the battlefield between Orthodox Russia, the Islamic Ottomans and Persians. In 1783 the embattled King Eralke II was forced to claim the protection of Prince Potemkin, Catherine the Great's partner-in-power. Between 1801 and 1810 Russia swallowed the last Georgian principalities. In 1918 Georgia enjoyed independence for three years before Stalin seized it back for Moscow.

No one understood its ethnic complexity and strategic significance like Stalin, that Georgian romantic turned Russian imperialist, who had been born in Gori, the town that has been overrun by Russian forces and where a marble temple now stands over the hut where he was born. The Ossetians who straddled the border had early sought Russian alliance, earning Georgian disdain. Hence Stalin was accused by his enemies of being an Ossetian: his father was of Ossetian descent, though long since Georgianised. Stalin drew the borders of the Soviet republics to ensure Georgia contained autonomous ethnic entities, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Adzharia, through which Moscow could keep Georgia in order.

When that proud, cocky bantam, Georgia, became independent in 1991, the Russian double-headed eagle was humiliated. Ever since, Russian interference and skulduggery has bedevilled Georgia. Russia encouraged southern Ossetia to establish a statelet within Georgia, whose inept, insane first President, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, had inflamed ethnic tensions. As Ossetians fought Georgians who themselves rebelled against Gamsakhurdia, I sat in his office: he was a Shakespearean scholar and quoted King Lear to me.

Gamsakhurdia was either murdered or committed suicide. In 1993, his successor Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet Foreign Minister and Politburo member, lost Abkhazia in another bloody Russian-orchestrated war. But Shevardnadze won the peace. Georgia, which had longed to be part of Europe, embraced Western democracy and US friendship. Yet Shevardnadze recognised the limits of Georgian defiance, once telling me as we flew in 1993 in his plane to make peace with the Kremlin: “The destiny of Russia is reflected in the Caucasus like the rays of the sun are reflected in a drop of water.”

Old, autocratic Shevardnadze was toppled in the Rose Revolution of 2003 by an energetic and decent if impulsive US-educated lawyer, Mikhail Saakashvili, who hoped to escape Moscow for ever by joining the EU and Nato - as did Russia's huge neighbour, Ukraine. This prospect of encirclement by triumphant America infuriated Russia. Imagine if newly independent Wales cockily joined the Warsaw Pact.

Russia is no longer the spineless giant of the Nineties: Vladimir Putin's musclebound, oil-fuelled authoritarian regime has aggressively reinvigorated Russia. He had already shown his ruthless determination to master the Caucasus by crushing Chechnya. Nato in Georgia would have made that meaningless. The Kremlin has used its clients, Abkhazia and Ossetia, as Trojan Horses to ruin Tbilisi's independence - recently raising the tension by offering Russian passports to all Ossetians and testing Georgian resolve with cross-border skirmishing: the trap of a practised imperial power.

Georgia is not guiltless: most Georgians I know care little about Ossetia even though it is part of sovereign Georgia. But in order to join Nato, President Saakashvili wanted to settle Georgia's instability by reclaiming Ossetia and Abkhazia. By seizing Tskhinvali, he took one hell of a gamble that Russia wouldn't intervene. Georgia is paying a high price for this. To finish this vicious circle, Russian attacks show how badly Georgia needs EU/Nato protection, yet Georgia will never get it while embroiled in fighting.

The retaking of Ossetia is a minor part of the Russian campaign. More significant is the attack on Georgia proper, which reasserts Russia's hegemony over the Caucasus, assuages the humiliations of the past 20 years, subverts Georgian democracy - and defies and defangs American superpowerdom. The swaggering arrival of Vladimir Putin, now the Prime Minister, across the border, macho in his tight jeans and white leather jacket, shows he, not President Medvedev, remains Russia's paramount leader.

This war is really a celebration of ferocious force in the realm of international power, a dangerous precedent. The West must protest with unified resolve; Russia both despises Western hypocrisy and craves Western approval. Georgian democracy and sovereignty matter. So do our oil supplies: the West built a pipeline to bring oil from Azerbaijan and Central Asian across Georgia to Turkey, free of Russian interference.

Russia's clumsy ferocity could ignite a Caucasian tinderbox that even Moscow cannot extinguish. But faced with Western outrage, the Kremlin might toss Stalin's words back at President Bush: “How many divisions has the Pope?” None: Washington and London are not sending the 101st Airborne or the SAS.

Russia, which appears to be pushing its tanks into Georgia to overthrow its democratically elected president, has demonstrated gleefully the limits of US power and Moscow's historic destiny as regional hegemon and restored 21st-century superpower. The Empire has struck back and shaken the order of the world.

Simon Sebag Montefiore is the author of Young Stalin. His latest book is a novel, Sashenka

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the arrival of the three new American flotillas will raise to five the number of US strike forces in Middle East waters – an unprecedented build-up since the crisis erupted over Iran’s nuclear program.

This vast naval and air strength consists of more than 40 carriers, warships and submarines, some of the last nuclear-armed, opposite the Islamic Republic, a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Our military sources postulate five objects of this show of American muscle:

1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products. This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands.

2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade.

3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

4. A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis.

5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia. While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East.

DEBKAfile’s military sources name the three US strike forces en route to the Gulf as the USS Theodore Roosevelt , the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Iwo Jima . Already in place are the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea opposite Iranian shores and the USS Peleliu which is cruising in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.