Seventy House Members To Bush: No More Money For Your War
A group of around 70 House Democrats wrote a toughly-worded letter to President Bush today informing him that they would no longer vote for funding of the troops in any form save if the money were spent exclusively on withdrawing them from Iraq. Here's what this means: A quarter of the majority party is now for cutting off funding for the troops if they're staying. This could complicate Congress' efforts to pass another war-spending bill this fall that represents anything short of a quick exit from Iraq. The full letter after the jump below. --Greg Sargent

Romney Declares War On "The Pop-Ups"
Mitt Romney is tired of his computer giving him pop-ups and recently said he is about to announce a new plan to attack the "the unrequested pornography that comes into your computer — the pop-ups." Romney has recently been on a moral values roll, releasing a new ad attacking popular culture as a "cesspool of violence, and sex, and drugs, and indolence and perversions," as well as a document highlighting where he stands on sex education for kindergartners — a political attack on Barack Obama. This most recent offensive on television and internet pornography seems to stem from the candidate's own experiences. "Type in a wrong letter and bingo, you get all sorts of stuff you didn't want," Romney said.

Durbin And Murray: We Were Not Sufficiently Informed Of Petraeus Briefing
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Democratic Caucus Secretary Patty Murray (D-WA) say their offices were not informed prominently about a briefing today by General David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. Instead, they say they simply received faxes about the event, which got lost among the thousands of messages they receive from constituents. "I’m just going to write it off as poor staff work," Durbin told The Hill. "I’m not going to make it more sinister than that." Other high-ranking Dems did make the meeting, including Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein.

Bill Defends Hillary On Women's Issues
Bill Clinton jumped to his wife's defense this morning on national television a day after a Salon.com published an interview with Elizabeth Edwards attacking Hillary's femininity. "If you look at the record on women’s issues," Clinton said, "I defy you to find anybody who has run for office in recent history whose got a longer history of working for women, for families and children than Hillary does."

Fox News: Clinton And Obama Beating Top Republicans
The latest Fox News poll shows Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both enjoying leads over Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. In the closest match-up, Hillary tops McCain 45%-42%, while Obama beats Thompson 48%-32% in the widest contest. John Edwards was not tested, nor was Obama pitted against Romney.

Pelosi To Publish Memoirs In 2008
Nancy Pelosi has signed on with Doubleday to publish a political memoir — written along with a collaborator/ghost writer — detailing her political rise and historical accomplishment in becoming the first female Speaker of the House. The book will be published in the Summer of 2008.

Poll: Solid Majority Think Hillary Is Positive Role Model For Women
A new New York Times/CBS News poll shows 68 percent of Americans think Hillary Clinton is a good role model for women. There is a gender split on the numbers, with 66 percent of men and 70 percent of women agreeing to the question, but more prominently a partisan one: 9 in 10 Democrats agree, compared to 7 in 10 independents and just 4 in 10 Republicans.

McCain Camp Plots A New Rise
Jonathan Martin has obtained an outline of John McCain's strategy to come back in the presidential field. The plan is to emphasize that, despite some activists' distrust of him, his long-standing conservative credentials and his overall experience and stature — qualities none of the other Republicans have so far demonstrated they hold in combination. The document also lists McCain's high-profile endorsements in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, with endorsers like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) able to mobilize their own organizations on his behalf.

Here's the full letter from 70-odd House members to Bush saying, in effect, no more money for your war:

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to inform you that we will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of all our troops out of Iraq before you leave office.

More than 3,600 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 26,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisors gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues.

We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA); Rep. Barbara Lee (CA); Rep. Maxine Waters (CA); Rep. Ellen Tauscher (CA); Rep. Rush Holt (NJ); Rep. Maurice Hinchey (NY); Rep. Diane Watson (CA); Rep. Ed Pastor (AZ); Rep. Barney Frank (MA); Rep. Danny Davis (IL); Rep. John Conyers (MI); Rep. John Hall (NY); Rep. Bob Filner (CA); Rep. Nydia Velazquez (NY); Rep. Bobby Rush (IL); Rep. Charles Rangel (NY); Rep. Ed Towns (NY); Rep. Paul Hodes (NH); Rep. William Lacy Clay (MO); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR); Rep. Albert Wynn (MD); Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA); Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Rep. G. K. Butterfield (NC); Rep. Hilda Solis (CA); Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY); Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY); Rep. Michael Honda (CA); Rep. Steve Cohen (TN); Rep. Phil Hare (IL); Rep. Grace Flores Napolitano (CA); Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL); Rep. James McGovern (MA); Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL); Rep. Julia Carson (IN); Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA); Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ); Rep. John Olver (MA); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX); Rep. Jim McDermott (WA); Rep. Ed Markey (MA); Rep. Chaka Fattah (PA); Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ); Rep. Rubin Hinojosa (TX); Rep. Pete Stark (CA); Rep. Bobby Scott (VA); Rep. Jim Moran (VA); Rep. Betty McCollum (MN); Rep. Jim Oberstar (MN); Rep. Diana DeGette (CO); Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA); Rep. Artur Davis (AL); Rep. Hank Johnson (GA); Rep. Donald Payne (NJ); Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (MO); Rep. John Lewis (GA); Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY); Rep. Neil Abercrombie (HI); Rep. Gwen Moore (WI); Rep. Keith Ellison (MN); Rep. Tammy Baldwin (WI); Rep. Donna Christensen (USVI); Rep. David Scott (GA); Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL); Lois Capps (CA); Steve Rothman (NJ); Elijah Cummings (MD); and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).