Bush Press Conference Live Blog

UPDATE (13:45 EDT): The White House transcript is now available online here.

I'm watching the presidential press conference live and will update it and the coverage of CNN in real time as it rolls along. Stay tuned for more coverage this afternoon and evening.

10:15 EDT

* First question about Nancy Pelosi's Syria trip and if its sends mixed signals about U.S. foreign policy.

10:17 EDT

* Second question on British sailors and marines held hostage in Iran.

10:17 EDT

* question from Peter Baker on the role "loyalty" played in Bush's firing of US attorneys

10:19 EDT

* CBS's Bill Plante asks about a failure of the surge in Iraq. "People question the continued sacrifice of U.S. troops to make it work"

10:23 EDT

* Jim Rutenberg, New York Times: "Matthew Dowd... kind of issued a strong critique of you and your administration... were you personally stung"

10:26 EDT

ABC's Martha Raddatz: "have you seen evidence that Iran is accelerating its nuclear program?"

10:27 EDT

Pres. Bush says he won't talk about "any intelligence I've seen one way or the other" on Iran's nuclear program

10:28 EDT

Ken Herman: "Mr. President, are you aware of the current price of gas..." He also asked if there's "any indication" it will come down anytime soon before the summer driving season

Pres. Bush points out that much of price linked to crude oil, and that is linked to Iran's bellicosity, as well as some regulations which mandate various blends of gasoline rather than one nationwide blend.

10:30 EDT

David "dancing man" Gregory, NBC asks if Dems taking reins on foreign policy is what "voters elected them to do" in November 2006.

10:33 EDT

McKinnon (sp?) on the Supreme Court ruling yesterday: "don't you think this makes some kind of broad cap" on "greenhouse gases somewhat inevitable?"

10:35 EDT

Bret Baier, Fox News asks if Bush thinks homosexuality is immoral, as does Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace

10:36 EDT

Bill Sammon, Washington Examiner, asks about the Dems using "power of the purse" to manipulate war strategy on Iraq.

10:40

Ed Henry, CNN: "what do you say to critics" like Bob Novak who say Bush is more "isolated than Nixon" was in his presidency.

10:42

Ed Chen, LA Times: Chen asks "how do they follow us home" of how terrorists would follow a US retreat from Iraq back to the United States. Chen asked Bush if that statement was an indictment of homeland security efforts undertaken by the Bush administration.

<<NB server was a bit slow, apologies>>

10:49 EDT

CNN's Tony Harris asked reporter Andrea Koppel if the troops are being "used as pawns by both sides, here"

10:51 EDT

Barbara Starr, CNN of the Iraq war supplemental: "They're going to get the money, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when," noting that the military wants funding by mid-April or it says it will have to start making cuts in training, etc. statesside to save money for the Iraq operations.