News Brief's For Wednesday Morning

WASHINGTON - A small group of Republican senators, led by Virginia's John Warner, is coalescing around legislation that would threaten billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Iraq and make clear American troops will stay only as long as Baghdad lives up to its promises.

  "The United States strategy in Iraq, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting benchmarks," a draft of the proposal says. 

GOP Sen's. Susan Collins  and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Norm Coleman  of Minnesota also were working with Warner, former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, to draft the legislation and were expected to support it.

Under the proposal, the president would have to certify that Baghdad was making "satisfactory progress" on political and security reforms or cut off U.S. aid. However, the president would be allowed to waive the restriction. Bush requested about $2 billion in economic assistance for Iraq through September.     Yahoo News

   Nothing but the GOP attempting to avoid their own massacre in 2008.

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   MLK's daughter,Yolanda King, dies at 51

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Yolanda Denise King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through acting and motivational speaking, has died. She was 51.

King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, California, said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.    CNN

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White House Support for Wolfowitz Wavers

The Bush administration softened its support for World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday, signaling a willingness to replace him if the bank's executive board resolves an ethics controversy without firing him.

"All options are on the table," said White House spokesman Tony Snow, addressing reporters at a morning briefing. "Members of the board, Mr. Wolfowitz, need to sit down and figure out what is in fact going to be best for this bank. . . ."           Washington Post

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Ashcroft almost quit over eavesdropping

WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft nearly resigned after the White House recertified an anti-terrorism program, another former official told Congress.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified before the Senate

Judiciary Committee that he, Ashcroft and other officials were poised to resign when the White House went ahead with a counter-terrorism program that Ashcroft had refused to approve, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Tags: John Ashcroft Paul Wolfowitz World Bank White House GOP John Warner