Rai seeks help of Vatican, France to end vacuum

BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai has pleaded with France and the Vatican to help in the election of a new Lebanese president, officials said Tuesday, in the latest attempt by the influential Maronite Church to end the 9-month-old vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.

Rai made the plea during a two-hour meeting with French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault in Rome Monday. The meeting was also attended by the Vatican Foreign Minister Monsignor Paul Gallagher, reflecting the Vatican’s concern over the lingering presidential deadlock in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri said he would meet with Prime Minister Tammam Salam soon to discuss the mechanism in taking the Cabinet’s decisions, in addition to the issue of opening an extraordinary session for Parliament.

“The Constitution’s provisions are clear with regard to the mechanism in taking decisions in the Cabinet in the absence or presence of the president. The solution lies in abiding by these provisions,” Berri was quoted as telling visitors to his Ain al-Tineh residence.

While the presidency seat remains vacant, the Cabinet has adopted a mechanism under which all decisions should be made unanimously and decrees signed by all 24 ministers.

Berri, according to visitors, also ruled out a new round of talks this week between the Future Movement and Hezbollah. He said the two rival parties might discuss the presidential election issue if they deemed this appropriate.

During his talks with Girault, “Patriarch Rai thanked the influential countries, namely France and the Vatican, and asked them to help in facilitating the election of a new president in Lebanon,” Walid Ghayyad, a spokesman for Rai, told The Daily Star by phone from Rome.

Describing the meeting as “good and positive,” Ghayyad said Girault briefed Rai on the outcome of his talks on the presidential election during his second tour in the Middle East. In addition to Lebanon, Girault had visited Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Vatican for talks focusing mainly on ways to end the presidential vacancy. The French envoy discussed with Rai the “possible means to resolve the presidential vacuum crisis in Lebanon and the needed moves in Lebanon and the role that should be played by friendly states, at the forefront of which is the Holy See and France,” Ghayyad said.

He added that it was agreed during the meeting that Girault would continue his efforts as part of a French initiative to break the presidential deadlock.

After examining the crises in the region, the French envoy and the patriarch “agreed on the importance of maintaining Lebanon’s great role, which constitutes a unique example and a main factor of stability in the Middle East through its distinctive system and Christian-Muslim coexistence based on equality, especially since Lebanon is the only country in the region whose presidency is headed by a Christian,” said a statement released by the Maronite patriarch’s media office.

A senior source close to Rai in Beirut said the Vatican was upset with the lingering vacancy in the presidency. “The Vatican demands the election of a Lebanese president as soon as possible,” the source told The Daily Star.

Rai had discussed the presidential crisis and the status of Christians in the Middle East during a meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican last week.

The Rai-Girault meeting came days after the French envoy visited Beirut last week, apparently without making any headway in the presidential crisis in his talks with rival Lebanese leaders as the March 8 and March 14 parties upheld their support for opposing candidates.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun is supported by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies for the presidency, against the March 14 coalition-backed candidate, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

Parliament has since last April failed in 18 attempts to elect a president due to a lack of quorum as the feuding parties remain at odds over a consensus candidate. A new election session is set for Feb. 18.

Rival Lebanese leaders have argued that a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement is essential to facilitate the election of a president.

A senior source close to Rai said the Maronite patriarch supported the ongoing dialogue between the FPM and LF, hoping it would help break the presidential impasse. “The patriarch considers the LF-FPM dialogue to be a main gateway to facilitate the election of a president,” the source told The Daily Star.

Although Rai had in his previous sermons blamed foreign factors, mainly the Sunni-Shiite tensions in the region and the strained Saudi-Iranian ties, for delaying the presidential vote, the source said: “The patriarch fully holds the Lebanese responsible for the failure to elect a president.”

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour warned that the presidential vacuum has been turned into a constitutional crisis.

“The presidential vacuum should come to an end. It’s time for this vacuum to end and for the Lebanese political parties across the country to reach unanimity over a new president, who would be the gateway to regular constitutional and political life,” Abu Faour told reporters after meeting Salam at the Grand Serail. “We don’t know where this presidential vacuum, which has been long and turned from a political crisis into a constitutional crisis, might lead.”

Lebanese-U.S. Marine faces desertion trial

CAMP LEJEUNE, United States: A U.S. Marine who vanished from his post in Iraq a decade ago and later wound up in Lebanon chose Monday to have his case decided by a military judge instead of a jury.

Opening statements were made Tuesday in Cpl. Wassef Hassoun’s trial on charges of desertion, larceny and destruction of property before the judge, Marine Maj. Nicholas Martz.

Hassoun also formally conceded that his second disappearance began with an unauthorized absence, entering a guilty plea to the lesser offense.

Prosecutors will still seek to prove the more serious desertion accusations against Hassoun and that he stole a pistol that was later lost. They have dropped an accusation related to a military vehicle that went missing.

Defense attorneys maintain Hassoun was kidnapped in 2004 by insurgents and later became tangled up in Lebanese courts. Prosecutors allege Hassoun fled his post because he was unhappy with his deployment and the treatment of Iraqis by U.S. troops.

Hassoun, a 35-year-old native of Lebanon and a naturalized American citizen, faces a maximum sentence of 27 years in prison if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Haytham Faraj said the plea on the lesser charge will simplify the debate about Hassoun’s decision to go to Lebanon in early 2005 after briefly returning to the U.S. The lawyer says Hassoun didn’t intend to stay away permanently – a component of the desertion charge – but had his passport taken by Lebanese authorities.

Hassoun’s case began in June 2004, when he disappeared from a base in Fallujah, Iraq. Days later, he appeared blindfolded and with a sword poised above his head in an image purportedly taken by insurgents. An extremist group claimed to be holding him captive.

Not long after that, Hassoun turned up unharmed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, saying he’d been kidnapped.

But officials were suspicious, and he was brought back to Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, in 2004 while the military considered charging him.

After his return, Hassoun was allowed to visit family in Utah. With a military court hearing looming, Hassoun disappeared a second time in early 2005. Hassoun traveled to Lebanon but was arrested by Lebanese authorities after Interpol issued a bulletin triggered by his deserter status, Faraj said. The defense says that court proceedings in Lebanon lasted until 2013, and Hassoun turned himself in after the government there lifted travel restrictions imposed upon him.

Prosecutors have said his whereabouts were unknown for years.

The judge denied a defense motion Monday to prevent prosecutors from calling an Iraq native now living in the United States.

Faraj argued that the witness interacted with his client long before the disappearance and those conversations weren’t relevant.

But the prosecutor, Capt. Chris Nassar, said Hassoun made incriminating comments to the witness, including that he didn’t want to die in Iraq and wanted to leave the Marines.

The judge denied a prosecution motion seeking to bar the defense from referring in opening statements to the video that purportedly shows Hassoun being held by insurgents, nor mention Lebanese government documents related to court proceedings against Hassoun.

The judge allowed the evidence to be mentioned in opening statements, but warned that the defense must later show the trustworthiness of those documents.

Hariri’s ties with Syrians soured post-Hafez

BEIRUT: Rafik Hariri’s relations with Syrian authorities soured after President Bashar Assad assumed the presidency, a childhood friend and confidant of the former Prime Minister told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Tuesday.

Ghaleb al-Shamaa, one of Hariri’s oldest friends and close advisers, told the court that Hariri had maintained a civil if imperfect relationship with Syrian authorities under President Hafez Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971-2000.

“The relationship between the Prime Minister and Hafez al-Assad was an acceptable one. I mean by that there was some kind of understanding on some of the main issues. ... However, the situation changed with the death of Hafez al-Assad,” Shamaa told the U.N.-backed court charged with investigating Hariri’s assassination. After the younger Assad took power, “we saw then a relationship that was more aggressive, more dominant and of greater provocation,” Shamaa explained.

Bashar Assad removed the Syrian officials who had previously liased between Damascus and Hariri, and appointed Rustom Ghazaleh in their stead, according to Shamaa.

“Rustom Ghazaleh was given a free hand and total support by President Bashar Assad,” Shamaa said.

Shamaa testified that he would often accompany Hariri to Damascus when he had meetings with the Syrian President. Hariri hoped to persuade the Syrians to allow Lebanon more political self-determination.

“He was trying to reach an understanding with them gradually, an understanding by which the Syrians would interfere less in Lebanese affairs,” Shamaa told the court.

But after a stormy meeting in August 2004 when President Bashar Assad told Hariri to endorse Lebanon’s Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud for a second term, Hariri appeared out of sorts.

“He looked angry, and distressed,” Shamaa said. When Hariri revealed that Bashar had used a threatening tone, Shamaa suggested he leave Lebanon for his own safety.

“He said he could not leave ... that he preferred to stay in Lebanon” even though he had essentially lost hope that he could sway Syrian policy toward Lebanon.

While Shamaa was not present at Hariri’s meetings with Assad, he said that the former prime minister did not discuss the issue of Hezbollah’s arms with his Syrian colleagues.

“He wanted the Syrians to leave the Lebanese and let them decide and manage their own internal affairs,” Shamaa said.

Shamaa said that Hariri held Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in high esteem. “Nasrallah had lost one of his sons who was defending Lebanon and confronting the Israeli enemy. Mr. Hariri considered that Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is someone who had sacrificed his son for the sake of Lebanon’s independence,” he told the court.

Five Hezbollah members stand accused of plotting the massive explosion which killed Hariri and 21 others on Feb. 14, 2005.

In the months before his assassination, Hariri met with Nasrallah several times. Hariri “wanted to engage in a dialogue and reach an agreement with him that would enable them to take Lebanon out of this kind of deadlock,” Shamaa said.

Machnouk firm on black flag policy despite Tripoli anger

BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk vowed Tuesday not to allow a single black flag with Islamic scripture to be raised in Lebanon, after one banner was removed from Tripoli’s Al-Nour square, leaving the city’s religious figures fuming. “I will make sure there isn’t a single black banner in all of Lebanon because Lebanese soldiers were killed under its name,” the interior minister said during a televised interview with Al-Jadeed, referring to the captive Lebanese servicemen who were executed by ISIS and Nusra militants.

Black flags inscribed with the scripture “There is no God but Allah, Mohammad is the Prophet of Allah,” are commonly used both the extremist groups ISIS and Al-Qaeda, with which Nusra is linked.

When confronted with the fact that the black banner was raised during the time of Prophet Mohammad, Machnouk said it was only raised during periods of war. “But neither Sidon nor Tripoli are currently at war.”

Earlier Tuesday, Salafist Sheikh Salem al-Rafei, who is a member of the Muslim Scholars Committee, urged the authorities not to remove a banner in Tripoli that read, “Enter in peace, safe [and secure],” after Machnouk suggested it be replaced with a more subtle Quranic verse.

“I hope Sheikh Rafei will reconsider his position,” Machnouk told Al-Jadeed.

Tripoli’s Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar said Tuesday that there was no discord between the interior minister’s decisions and the will of the city’s residents.

Shaar voiced his support for the decision to remove black flags since they were being used by ISIS. The Mufti also said that he supported replacing some Quranic verses and slogans with subtler alternatives.

Police last week began removing religious and political signage in Tripoli and across other parts of the country in line with an agreement reached during dialogue sessions between the Future Movement and Hezbollah to defuse sectarian tensions in the country.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, police removed black banners and Islamist slogans from Tripoli’s Al-Nour Square, prompting a wave of protests by the city’s officials, residents and spiritual leaders.

At 1 a.m. Sunday, Salafist-inspired MP Khaled Daher, the Muslim Scholars Committee and the city’s religious leaders flocked to Tripoli’s main square, where they claimed that the removal of Islamic banners served as an offense to Islamic symbols that have decorated the city since the 1980s.

At the protest, Daher told his followers that Christians should be the first to remove their religious emblems from public spaces, after black banners were removed from Tripoli’s main square.

“If they want to remove [religious banners] let them start with the Christ the King statue and posters of [Christian] saints,” Daher said from Tripoli’s Nour Square Sunday.

Daher also described the measures as a campaign against Sunnis.

The comments kicked off a firestorm of criticism, with harsh reactions coming in from his political allies and rivals alike.

Deputy Kataeb Party leader and Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi called for Daher to be ousted from the March 14 bloc. “How can a deputy who attends Future Movement meetings, and even March 14 meetings, make such sectarian and offensive remarks against Christians?” Azzi, who is also a part of the March 14 coalition, said in comments published by local newspaper Ad-Diyar.

Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat also tried to distance his party from the Daher, saying that the lawmaker “is a member of the March 14 coalition, but not a member of the Future Movement.”

“There is always a problem when Daher makes remarks,” Fatfat told a radio station Monday morning.

Monday the controversial MP apologized, saying he didn’t mean to offend Christians. “What I meant was that if religious symbols were to be taken down then that should apply to both Christian and Muslim symbols,” Daher said.

However, criticism against the MP continued to pile up.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, a Future Movement member, was not convinced by the MP’s apology, and said, “such issues must not be addressed during this critical phase.”

Tuesday, Free Patriotic Movement MP Alain Aoun called on him to hand in his resignation.

FPM activist Fouad Chehab filed a complaint against Daher, accusing him of inciting sectarian tensions, harming national unity and offending religious beliefs.

Progress made on changing mechanism governing Cabinet’s work

BEIRUT: The majority of ministers have expressed to Prime Minister Tammam Salam their support for changing the controversial decision-making mechanism adopted by the government when the presidential seat became vacant, ministerial sources close to the premier said.

Speaking to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity Tuesday, the sources said that Salam’s efforts to secure consensus over changing the mechanism have achieved progress.

Most Cabinet ministers have voiced their support for the change, and ministers loyal to former President Michel Sleiman are expected to inform Salam about their position on the issue during Thursday’s Cabinet session, the sources said.

They added that reports that Kataeb Party ministers opposed any modification to the mechanism were no longer accurate.

In line with the Constitution, the powers of the president were transferred to the government when the presidential vacuum began last May.

Cabinet parties agreed that starting that date, all government decisions should win unanimous backing from the 24 ministers. Cabinet decrees should also be signed by all of the ministers.

But this mechanism violates the Constitution which does not stipulate that the Cabinet’s decision-making process changes after it starts exercising the powers of the president.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed his reservations over the Cabinet’s new mechanism.

According to the Constitution, the government convenes with a two-thirds quorum and its decisions are made by consensus. In case consensus was hard to achieve, then regular draft laws are passed with a simple majority vote and crucial decisions need to be approved by two-third of the government’s members.

Listed in Article 65 of the Constitution, crucial decisions include amending the Constitution, the decision of war and peace and declaring a state of emergency among others.

The new mechanism, which allows every single minister to veto any decision, has significantly reduced the productivity of Salam’s government, which has been unable to make unanimous decisions on crucial issues over the past few months due to internal disagreements.

This situation prompted Salam to regularly complain over the matter and start contacting all Cabinet groups in order to win their backing for changing the mechanism.

The latest example of the disruption to the government’s work caused by the mechanism appeared in Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas’ remarks Tuesday, in which he said that he would no longer sign any Cabinet decree unless the government appoints a board of directors for Tripoli’s economic zone.

“Since the state cannot salvage Tripoli, then Tripoli will paralyze the state,” Derbas, who hails from Tripoli, was quoted as saying.

The government of Fouad Siniora adopted the mechanism of unanimous voting during the six-month presidential vacuum which plagued Lebanon when Emile Lahoud’s term expired in November 2007.

But during that period, the government did not face major problems in making unanimous decisions, as it comprised March 14 ministers only, after ministers loyal to Hezbollah, Amal and Lahoud resigned in November 2006.

But Salam’s government has brought together rival March 8 and March 14 factions and in some cases, disagreements emerge between ministers within the same group.

Observers wonder whether Salam will be able to convince all Cabinet ministers to back a change in the government’s decision-making mechanism or whether he will continue to suffer from it until his government resigns once a new president is elected, an event which is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Ministers, MPs and politicians from various factions agree that signs on the local and external levels did not indicate that the presidential vacuum will end anytime soon.

Separately, the government should issue a decree to open a special round for Parliament so that the legislature can endorse a number of crucial draft laws, including one on food safety, the draft 2015 budget, a new salary scale among others.

But the issue could prove to be controversial, particularly that some Cabinet parties argue that Parliament should not legislate before the election of a president.

The Saba family, capturing yesterday's Tripoli today

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Tripoli is known not only as a city of scholarship and for the occasional spate of violence, but also as a hub for artistic expression. The Saba family, who moved from the rural village of Rahbeh to the city decades ago, exemplifies this hidden facet of the country’s second city. The city is a source of inspiration for today’s painters and designers, who are often drawn to its gorgeous architectural and cultural heritage. But the work of Ghassan Saba, and his late brother Mario, represents the Tripoli of yesterday that only he is able to invoke – by molding, melting and sculpting – because he lived through it.

Saba’s art pieces might seem unconventional in Tripoli’s traditional context.

Ghassan’s work was largely a continuation of his brother Mario’s, who died aged 49. Inspired by Tripoli’s history and its artistic heritage, Ghassan is known for his statue called “The Tornado,” located in Al-Mina. The work is made of old computer parts piled up to resemble a tornado.

Ghassan came from an artistic family: His father Christo, a leftist, was known for his wild imagination and was a noted painter and sculptor. His uncle Antoine was a gifted musician, remembered for his talent playing the oud and nay.

The Saba family had set the standard for modern art in Tripoli. But their dreams would be dashed with the onset of the Lebanese Civil War.

Mario left Lebanon for the Soviet Union in 1980 and was pressured by the family to study art. Ghassan continued his studies at Tripoli’s Malaab High School. However, because of the war, Lebanese children rarely attended schools. While some of his classmates joined local militias, Ghassan preferred to fish. During that time, armed gangs destroyed much of Tripoli’s architectural heritage.

At the time of the Israeli occupation of 1982, Ghassan was 18 years old. One day his father told him he no longer could remain in Lebanon, he had to study abroad. Ghassan left for what was then East Germany within a week of their conversation. The majors available at universities there at that time included engineering, medicine, printing press or dentistry.

Ghassan chose dentistry, thinking the career would afford him the ability to practice freely. He returned to Lebanon to put his degree to use. Mario’s death later prompted Ghassan to return to art and carry on his brother’s legacy.

Those who know him said Ghassan was a natural rebel with a strong desire to change society for the better and who longed to break the rules of convention.

Ghassan listens to music when working. Steel, he said, is his material of choice becauseit is both durable and pliant when melted. As for wood, Ghassan said it’s like “a sexy woman as it needs constant care to soften.”

“I prefer the toughness of steel,” the artist said, “it’s like a woman on a motorcycle who does not care about her looks.”

Ghassan’s latest piece depicts a coffee house where “cultured people” come together, inspired by scenes from his childhood in Tripoli. He said being a child of Tripoli has endowed him with a wealth of history to draw upon again and again for his artistic work.

The scenes depicted in his artwork, Ghassan said, draw on Tripoli’s past. “I want to live the rest of my life doing what I like most in the city that I love,” he said.

Apart from creating work, Ghassan also finds the time to teach. His pupil, Sahar Younes, has been influenced by his work since taking one of his courses in college.

A shy student, Younes said she wants to start her own business, and opened her own workshop two months ago with Ghassan’s support and guidance. She uses mostly glass, clay and wax in her pieces.

“Tripolitans are used to the idea that red clay is only used to make pots, but I think it has many other uses, and I am working hard to transform this substance into many creative pieces.”

Younes said she hopes one day to work in Beirut, but acknowledged no matter where she goes her heart will remain in Tripoli.

“In any other city I’d be lost, but here I’m constantly inspired.”

Failing Bridges Taking A Toll; Some States Move To Raise Gas Tax

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The James C. Nance Memorial Bridge, which connects Purcell and Lexington, Okla., is closed for repair in March 2014. A handful of states have raised their gas taxes in part to fund transportation projects like bridge and road repairs. Sue Ogrocki/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Sue Ogrocki/AP

The James C. Nance Memorial Bridge, which connects Purcell and Lexington, Okla., is closed for repair in March 2014. A handful of states have raised their gas taxes in part to fund transportation projects like bridge and road repairs.

Sue Ogrocki/AP

A dozen states are considering something that was rarely discussed a few years ago: raising gas taxes. Low prices at the pump have emboldened state officials to think about raising new revenue to repair crumbling roads and bridges.

It's a scene that's all too familiar in much of the country — construction workers performing emergency repairs on a bridge. In Franklin Township, N.J., one bridge closed abruptly last month when it was deemed unsafe.

"It's living proof that what we've been saying is correct," says Tom Bracken, head of New Jersey's Chamber of Commerce. Of about 600 "structurally deficient bridges in New Jersey, there are some that, right now, are very dangerous," he says.

Bracken is leading a coalition of business groups pushing for greater transportation spending.

"Every day we wait becomes more of a crisis because we run the risk of more bridges closing," he says. "It is absolutely a crisis — the number one issue facing the state of New Jersey — and it needs to be resolved."

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New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox says it's time to raise the state's gas tax, with gas prices low and critical transportation projects mounting. Mel Evans/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Mel Evans/AP

New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox says it's time to raise the state's gas tax, with gas prices low and critical transportation projects mounting.

Mel Evans/AP

New Jersey has a long backlog of bridge and road projects — and no money to do them. New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox talked to a state planning agency last month about this issue:

"Now is the time. Gas prices are low. The money has run out. The projects are accumulating," Fox said. "We've got potholes up and down the state. We've got bridges falling apart."

Those are problems for many states. But they're especially acute in New Jersey, which has the second-lowest gas tax in the country after Alaska. It hasn't been raised in over 20 years. In that time, the price of everything else has gone up.

"Asphalt costs are higher, machinery costs are higher. Construction workers' wages are usually higher," says Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. "So the revenues that we're chipping in aren't keeping pace with the costs that we have."

Davis says the federal government can borrow money to fund transportation projects. But states don't have that luxury. So a growing number are turning to gas taxes.

He says the trend started in states like Maryland and Pennsylvania. Now he says at least a dozen states are talking about raising gas taxes — including some you might not expect.

"Iowa, South Carolina, Tennessee — these states haven't seen their gas tax rate go up in over a quarter century," Davis says.

"Roads and bridges — it's not a politically divisive issue," he adds. "These are things that need to be maintained if the economy is going to work."

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says it's time to rethink the state's gas tax.

"Nobody wants to raise a tax," Herbert said on C-SPAN last month. "My gosh, that's the worst thing you can do as a politician. But the practical realities are, we've got to do something."

Herbert isn't the only Republican governor who's reached that conclusion. In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley has proposed raising the gas tax — but only if she also gets big cuts to the state's income tax.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie has said all options are on the table to deal with the state's transportation woes. But it's clear that a gas tax will be a tough sell with voters.

"I think it's totally ridiculous. The taxes in this state are high enough the way it is," Blairstown, N.J., resident Pat Johnson says.

Johnson says she'll go out of her way to buy gas in New Jersey because it's so much cheaper here than in neighboring states.

"Quite often that is coming back to New Jersey on a very low tank of gas, and filling up the last gas station before I get out of New Jersey," she says.

It's All Politics

Kicking The Can Down The Road: A Habit That's Hard To Kick

It's All Politics

Some States Hike Gas Tax; Va. Tries New Route To Fund Roads

Obama Reluctant To Raise Federal Gas Tax

Gas station owners in New Jersey are worried that business will drop if the state raises its gas tax. Sonny Rasaq manages a Shell station in Phillipsburg, N.J., right across the border from Pennsylvania.

Rasaq says increased gas tax will hurt the business, "especially on the weekends. Like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we get a lot of business from Pennsylvania ... I don't think people will come here if the price is the same."

But some of Rasaq's customers say they might be willing to pay a little bit more for gas.

Megan McGuire from Stewartsville, N.J., says, "I guess it depends on how much, really. I would probably do it, just because the roads around here suck."

That's a sentiment a lot of drivers around the country might share. But that doesn't mean they're eager to pay more at the pump.

FEC Invites Comment On Campaign Finance Laws At First Public Hearing

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

More than 32,000 Americans recently filed comments with the Federal Election Commission, telling the agency what's wrong with political money and how it's regulated. Now the FEC is about to have a public hearing — the first time in the agency's 39-year history that it's invited ordinary citizens to speak on these big issues.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

New Government Agency Designed To Tackle Cyber Threats More Effectively

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

The Obama administration is creating a new agency to gather and distribute intelligence on cyber threats more quickly. The agency is modeled after the National Counter Terrorism Center, created after Sept. 11 to improve information sharing across the U.S. government.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

New Illinois Governor Has Unions Bristling Less Than A Month Into The Job

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

Illinois' new Republican governor is taking a page in politics from other Midwestern states. Bruce Rauner is setting policies that have government labor unions bristling and he hasn't even been on the job for a month.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

What We Learned From Jeb Bush's E-Book

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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at an Economic Club of Detroit meeting on Feb. 4. Paul Sancya/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Paul Sancya/AP

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at an Economic Club of Detroit meeting on Feb. 4.

Paul Sancya/AP

Not-quite-yet presidential candidate Jeb Bush posted the first chapter of an e-book about his two terms as Florida governor online Monday, along with six massive files containing a quarter-million of his emails.

This was something Bush said he would do back when he announced he was "actively exploring the possibility" of running for president. (He's since explained the phrase is legalese he is using for now; the lack of an actual candidacy allows him to raise unlimited donations for a super PAC supporting him — something that will be impossible once he is a candidate.)

In his introduction, Bush explains that he made a point of making sure average Floridians had access to him via email, and he estimates he spent an average of 30 hours per week reading and responding to it. At least some Floridians had trouble believing he was actually doing this.

One woman wrote to complain about tractor trailers on Interstate 75, but then added: "By the way, are you really Jeb or a staff member? Just curious."

Bush responded: "I am jeb." And then referred her to the Department of Transportation.

Here are five things we learned from the chapter — and the emailing habits of the man who refers to himself as Florida's "eGovernor:"

1) Bush loved his job.

The two-term GOP governor starts out his ebook saying so:

"I loved being the governor of Florida," he wrote. "It was my dream job, and that feeling never changed, not in eight years. Not through the hurricanes, budget debates, or even hanging chads."

Read even a few pages of his correspondence, and the time and attention he paid to any number of issues, big and small, quickly become clear. A Jan. 15, 1999, email at 8:36 pm to chief of staff Sally Bradshaw, for instance, sets out an agenda for a coming staff meeting:

• Pharmacy formulary


• Tobacco endowment rollout


• Dev. Disability rollout


• Mentor initiative"

In layman's terms: Medicaid prescription drug purchasing; the creation of an endowment fund with money collected from the state's successful lawsuit against the tobacco industry; a revamping of state services for children with developmental disabilities a new program to mentor at-risk children.

All but the last were highly technical in nature, and Bush was right at home down in the policy weeds.

2) No, it's not his White House agenda.

Those hoping for an outline of what he might do were he elected president will be disappointed. Bush's e-book is less a narrative than a series of brief explanations of a topic followed by emails about that topic. The chapter released Tuesday covers his first month in office. The rest of the book will be released by the end of this year.

3) Some transparency about Bush's transparency

Although Bush cites the "spirit of transparency" as the reason to release all these emails, there is also the fact that he had no choice. Florida has one of the most comprehensive public records laws in the country, and emails by a public official pertaining to public business are (with some specific exceptions, such as the privacy of children) open to public inspection.

The emails Bush posted today were public from the instant they were sent or received. Many reporters requested and received them (with varying degrees of bureaucratic and cost hurdles) in real time, and several news organizations, including NPR, requested and received the entire set from the Florida State Archives. In other words, Bush's use of them for his own book can be seen as taking a potential liability and turning it into an asset – making political lemonade from the lemons Florida law saddled him with.

4) A limited level of candor

Those looking for complete candor about the functioning of Bush's governor's office will also be disappointed. Within a month of officially taking office, Bush and his staff were keenly aware their correspondence was serving as news coverage fodder. When his staff began debating later that year whether the amount of vacation time they were getting was appropriate, Bush advised they take their discussion offline. "I suggest that you guys have a verbal conversation about it rather than create a public document." He did, however, finish the thought with a smiley face.

5) The governor's competitive streak

Despite knowing that everything he was typing would someday become public, Bush sometimes hit the send button even when perhaps he shouldn't have. In a May 2002 email, he reveals both the competitive streak and flash of temper that were well known inside the Capitol building. A Democratic voter sent him an email with the subject line "Shame, shame, shame..." to criticize his education plan and vowed to boot him from office come November. Bush responded by defending his record and then finished: "Give it your best shot," and "Have a wonderful day."

Bush won his re-election easily.

David Axelrod Recounts His Years As Obama's Adviser And 'Believer'

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President Barack Obama talks with senior adviser David Axelrod at the airport in New Orleans following a meeting on the response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Pete Souza/The White House hide caption

itoggle caption Pete Souza/The White House

President Barack Obama talks with senior adviser David Axelrod at the airport in New Orleans following a meeting on the response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Pete Souza/The White House

David Axelrod recalls the first time he met Barack Obama in 1992 when they had lunch: "I was really impressed by him," he says.

The veteran political consultant was struck that the president, who had been the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and was highly sought after by big law firms, instead decided to put together a voter registration drive and practice civil rights law at a little firm in Chicago.

The world of candidates, Axelrod tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies, divides into two candidates: "People who run for office because they want to be something, which is the more numerous category, and people who run for office because they want to do something," he says. "That is the smaller and more admirable group that I love to work with and for. It was clear he was going to be that kind of a person."

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Chief campaign strategist David Axelrod (left) and communications director Robert Gibbs talk to members of the traveling press corps during a flight leading up to the Pennsylvania primary in 2008. Scout Tufankjian/Polaris hide caption

itoggle caption Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

Chief campaign strategist David Axelrod (left) and communications director Robert Gibbs talk to members of the traveling press corps during a flight leading up to the Pennsylvania primary in 2008.

Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

Axelrod ended up crafting the media strategy for Obama's two presidential campaigns and spent two years in the White House as a senior adviser to the president. He gives stories and insights about his years with Obama in his new memoir Believer: My Forty Years in Politics offers plenty of stories and insights from his years with Obama.

Specifically, Axelrod recalls the moment in the 2008 campaign when he interrupted Obama and running-mate Joe Biden on a flight to tell them Sarah Palin was the Republican vice presidential nominee, which prompted Biden to say, "Who's Sarah Palin?"

Axelrod's book also recounts his early years as a political reporter and his work with other candidates, including presidential contender John Edwards (not a good experience) and plenty of rogues and colorful characters from his home base in Chicago, among them Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor, and Rod Blagojevich, who eventually became governor and went to jail in part for trying to sell Obama's former U.S. Senate seat.

Axelrod is now director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, which he says he founded to inspire young Americans to consider participating in American politics.

Believer

My Forty Years in Politics

by David Axelrod

Hardcover, 509 pages | purchase

• Politics & Public Affairs


• Nonfiction


• History & Society


• Biography & Memoir

More on this book:

• NPR reviews, interviews and more

Interview Highlights

On the transition from being a journalist to a political adviser

The first time I was at a rally with [Paul] Simon after I made the switch and realized that I could applaud, it was kind of a shock to my system because I was so used to maintaining at least the veneer of objectivity. I think every reporter has views, but you try to be as objective as you can.

On whether he believed in every candidate he represented

I always went through a process of trying to sell myself before I tried to sell anybody else, and I would get emotionally wrapped up in my campaigns and sometimes on behalf of candidates who weren't worthy of that.

On President Obama's first debate with Mitt Romney in 2012 for his re-election

We were always worried about the first debate because it historically is a killing field for presidents. Presidents aren't used to debating. Their opponents have generally been debating in primaries; presidents aren't used to being challenged by someone standing four feet away from them, being treated as a peer.

So presidents generally do badly in the first debate and we tried mightily to avoid that. But the prep sessions didn't go very well. There were a lot of testy exchanges with John Kerry who was playing Mitt Romney. We actually cautioned the president against engaging too much, which may have been a mistake, because we were worried about the testiness of those exchanges.

It drives my wife crazy. She hates the caricature of the rumpled, sloppy, food-stained political warrior — but that's the cartoon and I've come to live with it. Maybe I've come to represent it, I don't know.

- David Axelrod

We had a last prep session before the first debate in Denver, which we all thought was pretty appalling. ... I had the dubious honor of going in and talking to him for the group after the session and he said, "Well, I think that went pretty well." And I said, "Well, actually there are some things we need to work on yet." He didn't receive that news well and used a word that he has never used before or since and that I won't use here, but made clear how he felt about me at that moment, and he bolted out of the room and I didn't see him until the next morning.

I was kind of stunned by it because we'd known each other for so long, but I also knew that he really wasn't directing it at me so much as at his own frustration, because he knew we weren't where we needed to be. I think every single one of us, including the president, knew we weren't headed into Denver in good shape — and that, of course, turned out to be true.

On following the many different media platforms

Yes, you follow Twitter and you're aware that any little event somewhere could hijack a day's news, sometimes a week's news, or several weeks' news. It makes [for] a really, really difficult environment. It also means that if you're president — we used to talk about the "bully pulpit" — but you have to assemble your bully pulpit each time you want to communicate something because Americans aren't watching the same thing or aren't getting their news from the same place as they once did. So you have to speak through many different platforms.

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As Obama steps up his campaigning during his first presidential bid, his chief campaign strategist David Axelrod talks with a reporter in Malvern, Pa. Scout Tufankjian/Polaris hide caption

itoggle caption Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

As Obama steps up his campaigning during his first presidential bid, his chief campaign strategist David Axelrod talks with a reporter in Malvern, Pa.

Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

I mean, who would've thought that the president of the United States would be on a show called Between Two Ferns to promote his health care plan? But the fact is he hit 10 million people with that appearance — many of whom were the target for younger people who we needed to sign up for that health care plan. So it's a far more complex and challenging environment than past presidents and past generations have faced.

On how Axelrod restrained himself while on Meet the Press and other shows

It was hard, but you know, when you're speaking for the president of the United States, you know that one misstatement can send armies marching and markets tumbling — and that is a very sobering realization.

So yes, I felt constrained when I was on those programs to color within the lines and not to be too venturesome because I knew some off-handed remark could have real consequences. ... It was a discipline that was hard for me because I'm a congenital smart aleck and I love tossing off good lines — and this was decidedly not the place to do it.

On what he's been called in the media, including Axelfraud, Streetfighter, Message Maven, Political Protector, Marxist Mentor and Lefty Lumberjack

The "Axelfraud" thing sticks in my mind because those guys were shouting it at me when I was on the steps of the capitol in Massachusetts. I hadn't heard Lefty Lumberjack, it seems like an oxymoron to me. But I'm surprised though that on your list there aren't [other descriptive words]. "Rumpled" almost always comes up and "stained" is another one because generally you can find remnants of my last meal somewhere on me. The president loves that. He's always inspecting me so he can ask me what it was that I had that he's looking at. So those are the ones that are most prominent in my mind. It drives my wife crazy. She hates the caricature of the rumpled, sloppy, food-stained political warrior — but that's the cartoon and I've come to live with it. Maybe I've come to represent it, I don't know.

On leaving politics to direct the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago

I really am happy to be where I am today and I think my family is happy that I am where I am today. I asked them to make so many sacrifices — and I want to spend the rest of my life trying to inspire these kids and spend time with my family.

If people call me and ask me for advice, of course I'll give it to them, but I'm not going to get on that carousel again. I had such a singularly great experience with Obama. I had a relationship with him that I'll never have with anyone else, and I'd rather go out on top and move on.

In Ferguson — and All of Our Communities — Education Can Be the Great Equalizer

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on The Root. See the original post here.

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Following Michael Brown’s tragic death, people across the country — and the world — have grieved together and engaged in critical conversations about race and community relationships. When President Barack Obama hosted a dialogue in December with young people on the issues in Ferguson, Missouri, I asked the youngest members of the Ferguson commission how I could be helpful. They asked me to visit Ferguson — to listen to the stories of the people who live there — because youth, in particular, were hurting.

I listened. Recently, I traveled to Ferguson. I visited the Clyde C. Miller Career Academy High School, Grandview High School, Ferguson library and the Greater St. Mark Family Church to meet with students, educators and community leaders to hear their thoughts on race, equity and trust since Brown’s death.

read more

The Faces of Health Care: Naomi R.

"I had no health insurance. I visited our local doctor but could not afford x-rays, much less any type of surgery. The affordable solution was pain medication. … Then the ACA happened."

Naomi is a 62-year-old organic farmer living in rural Georgia. She has had Rheumatoid Arthritis -- diagnosed when she was in high school -- nearly her entire life, managing it on her own, without health insurance, with a proper diet and exercise.

Then, about three years ago, she found she could no longer climb onto her tractor, bend down to pull weeds, or harvest her crops.

read more

Israel's Qunaitra attack targeted STL suspect: report

BEIRUT: One of the five Hezbollah members being tried in absentia over the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was the target behind a Jan. 18 Israeli airstrike in Syria's Golan Heights, The New York Times said Tuesday.

According to a report authored by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, Hezbollah operative Mustafa Amine Badreddine was supposed to be in the convoy that was targeted in an Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah members and an Iranian general. But Badreddine's life was spared because he “dropped out of the gathering at the last minute,” the report alleged.

It did not cite sources.

It also said that six out of the seven men in the convoy were killed. But Hezbollah buried its six members in the week after the Qunaitra attack, and Iran's Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that one of its commanders was killed.

The faces of the seven were displayed on banners in a stadium during a Jan. 30 speech by Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah to commemorate their deaths.

It was unclear if the report made a counting error, or if the author is suggesting that one of the men survived the attack.

Among those killed were Jihad Mughniyeh, son of late-Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, and field commander Mohammad Issa. The older Mughniyeh was killed when Israeli agents detonated a bomb in his car in Syria in 2008.

The report said that Badreddine took over many of Mughniyeh's duties after his 2008 assassination. It also cited an "intelligence operative in the region" as saying that Badreddine was involved in launching attacks against Israel from Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Badreddine is married to the sister of the older Mughniyeh. He was reportedly seen receiving condolences at the younger Mughniyeh’s funeral last month.

Prosecutors in the Hariri trial accuse Badreddine of being the mastermind of a 5-man cell alleged to have been behind the Feb. 14, 2005 attack that killed Hariri and 21 others in Downtown Beirut.

Lebanon to enhance ski safety after teen death

Arsal and Tripoli wounded face violence

Using intimidation and force, armed groups in Lebanon are delaying or preventing the movement of wounded patients for...

Turkey detains 2 Lebanese journalists filming Kobani

BEIRUT: Turkish authorities detained two Lebanese journalists Tuesday who were finalizing a documentary in the Syrian border town of Kobani, a friend of one of them said.

LBC reporter Firas Hatoum and freelancer Rony Rmeiti were taken into custody by Turkish authorities after reentering the country from Kobani, Al-Jadeed journalist Bassel Aridi told The Daily Star.

Aridi, who received the information from sources close to Hatoum, could not verify the exact cause behind the arrest.

“There was a problem with the way they entered Kobani and the way they left it,” he said, without disclosing more details.

The two journalists were supposed to leave Kobani Sunday, but bad weather conditions delayed their departure. Kobani witnessed months of fierce clashes between Kurdish groups, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, and ISIS until the jihadi group retreated earlier this month.

Ankara jails more journalists than any other country in the world, according to monitoring groups. The Committee to Protect Journalists counted 221 journalists behind bars in Turkey in 2014.

It is not the first time that Hatoum was taken into custody as a result of his work.

In 2006, Hatoum was charged with tampering with criminal evidence after he allegedly broke into the house of Mohammad Zuheir Siddiq, a former witness involved in the ongoing investigation into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s murder.

Siddiq is accused of providing false testimony to tribunal investigators which implicated four Lebanese generals in Hariri’s death.

The generals were arrested in 2005 and jailed for four years until their release in 2009 after it emerged that the evidence against them was cooked.

In White House Memory, A-U-M-F Translates to B-U-S-H

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President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, vowing to tap "every resource" to fight terrorism. Two days before the speech, he had signed an Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by Congress. WIN MACNAMEE/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption WIN MACNAMEE/AFP/Getty Images

President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, vowing to tap "every resource" to fight terrorism. Two days before the speech, he had signed an Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by Congress.

WIN MACNAMEE/AFP/Getty Images

This week, President Obama will propose legislative language, pre-negotiated with Congress, granting him specific permission to make war on the group calling itself the Islamic State.

If approved by the House and Senate, that language will formalize the struggle against the Sunni extremists who are also known as ISIS or ISIL — and best known for such actions as the torture killing of a captive Jordanian pilot and the beheading of other hostages from around the world.

The anti-ISIS struggle has already been underway for six months, with President Obama ordering airstrikes against thousands of ISIS targets and supplying military aid to anti-ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria.

Why has the president not sought formal permission for any of this up to now? Why has Congress not focused on a firm insistence that he do?

The answers are both legal and political. The White House cited previous okays from Congress in the region, and for a time no one wanted to elevate the ISIS threat, or seem unprepared to deal with it. Both parties were also dealing with the complex calculus of last November's midterm elections.

The Obama administration also might have preferred not to have its actions framed by a formal Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). This was, after all, the instrument by which previous wars in the region were prosecuted by the Bush administrations — both of them with the approval of Congress in 1991, 2001 and 2002.

Surely it is not a welcome thought for the current White House that their moves in the Islamic world will now be accompanied by the phrase "...just like President Bush."

But the ISIS crisis has deepened, becoming the salient challenge posed by radical Islam in all its forms at this moment in time. The torture and beheadings and terror attacks in Paris blur into a single provocation — even when they are carried out by unconnected cells of militant Islamist radicals. A heightened period of military engagement is coming, and a clearer legal justification is needed for what will come next.

So how should the commander in chief be governed in pursuing this new war? We no longer contemplate outright declarations of war. In the nuclear age, and in the era of asymmetrical wars between great powers and guerrilla movements, war has long since been redefined. Beginning with the Korean conflict of the early 1950s, the U.S. has made war by other names — including "police action" and "peace-keeping." The Vietnam War dragged on for a decade under the congressional authority of the open-ended 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

In more recent decades, the superannuated declaration of war has been superseded by the sleek and facilitating AUMF.

An AUMF was approved by Congress in January 1991, responding to a request from President George H.W. Bush. The provocation was Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of his oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait, on the Persian Gulf. The first President Bush wanted to send something like 250,000 troops to liberate Kuwait and he had lined up the support of dozens of other countries — many of them Arab or Islamic.

Congress was restive at first, complaining and hectoring throughout the fall of 1990 (another midterm election year). But as the troop build-up in the Gulf continued, the leaders of the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate insisted on a showdown with the president.

Days of reasonably serious and substantive debate ensued in both chambers, and in the end Bush got his AUMF. The vote in the Senate was a stunningly close 52-47. The House was more easily persuaded, approving 250-183.

The result was then known as the Persian Gulf War, an immediate victory for the U.S. and its allies. The Iraqi Army was expelled from Kuwait with heavy casualties. But President Bush decided to settle for the basic objective and ended the hostilities with much of the Iraqi military and political power structure still intact. Saddam Hussein had lost his prize but retained his pride, claiming he had fought the U.S. to a standstill.

The second AUMF was associated with the second President Bush. It was approved by Congress in 2001 just one week after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, the House was controlled by Republicans, most of them eager to grant the second President Bush extraordinary powers to pursue the perpetrators of the attacks and terrorism in general.

The Senate, narrowly controlled by Democrats, had more misgivings about a blanket authority. Some senior senators remembered their regrets from the Gulf of Tonkin tragedy. In the end, however, that chamber went along as well.

A year later, after a far more spirited debate, the Congress approved a new AUMF directed at the regime of Saddam Hussein. Although no link between Baghdad and the Sept. 11 plotters was ever proven (nor even explicitly alleged), the second Bush administration was committed to revisiting the unfinished business of the first. It was enough that Saddam Hussein had rejoiced in the success of the Sept. 11 attacks, and that he had supposedly defied the world community by pursuing "weapons of mass destruction."

No such weapons were found after the AUMF of that fall was used to justify an invasion of Iraq in March 2003. But the U.S. forces once again easily vanquished the official military of Iraq, this time marching on to Baghdad and eventually capturing Hussein himself hiding in a "spider hole."

There followed, however, years of insurrection and sectarian warfare in Iraq, amid floundering efforts to establish a pluralistic government. That effort continues today, and its travails have left the countryside vulnerable to ISIS — among other sorrows.

Each of these AUMF votes has proven politically contentious in some measure. The 1991 votes reflected the misgivings left over from Vietnam. The 2001 vote, along with the Patriot Act, ushered in the War on Terror that would dominate American foreign policy for a decade and more.

And a yes vote on the 2002 AUMF, which seemed quite mainstream at the time, would come back five years later to haunt the presidential candidacy of then New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Without that pro-war vote, and all the sorrows that followed on that invasion, there would have been far less daylight in 2007 and 2008 for Clinton's upstart challenger, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Unintended consequences, in both the international arena and the realm of domestic politics, have followed upon each of these AUMF votes. They are, in many ways, the most remembered legacy of the two Bush presidencies.