AWOL Story Won't Die
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004; 10:29 AM

It's a busy little blog today. Here's a summary of what you'll get when you scroll:

• AWOL Watch: The Boston Globe, which in 2000 was the first paper to report on President Bush's spotty record as a National Guardsman, returns to the issue this morning and finds once again that Bush did not report for required Guard duty for a full year at the height of the Vietnam War. Reporter Walter V. Robinson tells Salon he thinks some documents have been removed and inserted from Bush's military file. Howard Dean says the questions are "fair game." And the blogosphere wants to see Bush come clean with his records.

• Scalia Watch: The Los Angeles Times has another twist in the story of how Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia won't recuse himself after going duck-hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, who is a named party in a case pending before the court. Today, the paper reports Scalia actually flew in on Air Force Two as Cheney's guest.

• Gay Marriage: In the wake of the same-sex marriage ruling by the Massachusetts court, the New York Times reports that White House political guru Karl Rove told at least one conservative Christian group recently that the president will soon endorse an amendment to the United States Constitution that defines marriage to be between a man and a woman.

• Halliburton Watch: Newsweek reports that the Justice Department is looking into whether Halliburton Co. was getting kickbacks in Nigeria in the late 1990s when Cheney was chairman of the company.

• Commission Watch: The Washington Post reports that the White House reversed itself and agreed to a two-month extension of the deadline for completion of an independent investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack -- but only after receiving assurances that the final report won't be too hard on Bush.

• Plame Watch: The Talking Points blog posted a letter from the CIA which suggests it took the Justice Department two months to agree to investigate the White House's leak of a CIA operative's identity.

And there's more. Bush compared to Winston Churchill. Bush traveling to South Carolina in the wake of the Democratic primary. Bush not being told immediately about the ricin sent to the White House. Your suggestions on where Bush should go shopping today. And this final headline: "White House to Press Corps: Clean Up Your Act."

goto: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/