Update added at bottom of post.
President Bush is taking questions from the White House press corps about the Iraq report. I'll be live-blogging it. Hit refresh for updates. We may post some video later with highlights (or is it lowlights?). All times below are Eastern.
Helen Thomas, Hearst newspapers columnist, 10:45: Presses Bush on bringing in UN peacekeepers to Iraq. "Don't you understand, you have brought al Qaeda into Iraq," she insisted.
unidentified reporter, 10:48: "Mr. President, you're facing a rebellion from Republican senators" on Iraq.
unidentified female reporter, 10:50 on changing course on the Iraq war: "why are you so resistant to that idea, and how much longer" will the President continue with the surge before changing course.
Martha Raddatz, ABC News, 10:54: "Are you willing to keep the surge going, no matter what Gen. Petraeus says, if there's not substantial Iraqi political progress by September.
[Bush]
Raddatz, whining: "But there's been no substantial political progress..."
Jim Axelrod , CBS News, 10:56: "Have you ever entertained the idea that at some point" Congress could take away the president's powers as commander in chief.
Axelrod, 10:56 follows up with hypothetical about what Bush would do if Congress passes such legislation to limit his powers.
David Gregory, NBC 10:57: asks why the American people shouldn't conclude President Bush has been "stubborn" or "in denial" about Iraq?
Gregory follows up question by rephrasing his question, 11:00
female reporter, 11:03: "What evidence can you present to the American people" that the "same people" responsible for 9/11 are working in Iraq.
female reporter, 11:04: Asks if Bush still believes the Iraq prime minister is still the right man for the job.
male reporter on Scooter Libby case, 11:06: asks about the morality of "leaking" Plame's name and if he spent time talking with his aides about it, now that the legal proceedings are concluded.
Wendell Goler, Fox News, 11:07: "why should the American people feel you have the vision for victory in Iraq, sir?"
male reporter, 11:13: "why can't we counter those messages and obviously not withdrawal precipitiously but begin a gradual withdrawal...?"
male reporter, 11:15, on Chertoff's "gut feeling" in the face of no solid evidence of imminent attack: "Sir, what is your gut telling you?" about terror threats this summer.
Ed Chen, LA Times, 11:20: "has the U.S. military deployment to Iraq reached the ceiling" or would the President consider adding more troops.
Chen, 11:22: "how hard is it for you to conduct the war without popular support?"
Raddatz, 11:27 presses Bush on report saying al Qaeda is as strong as it has been since pre-9/11/2001.
[Bush emphasizes report says stronger than anytime since 2001 but that al Qaeda is not as much as threat as it was on Sept. 10, 2001, and that it is not stronger than it was pre-9/11]
# # # End news conference at 11:30 EDT # # #
Update (12:30 EDT): I first saw this on Time's "Swampland" blog, but apparently President Bush demurred on a joke about the Washington press corps when he opened the newly renovated Brady briefing room yesterday. The New York Times' "The Caucus" blog carried a photo of the prepared remarks resting on the podium with the joke crossed out. It read:
“And there’s no truth to the rumor some of those new seats can be ejected by pressing a button at Tony’s podium.”
I wouldn't have joked about that either. I'd have joked about trap doors to a piranha tank.
