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The Hardball Briefing On MSNBC
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Election Day in Iraq has ended. Reports are there was high turnout and low
violence. Hardball will have the latest on what's happening there with a report
from NBC's Richard Engel in Baghdad. Check out more of Engel's reports from the
ground on MSNBC's "Blogging Baghdad": http://baghdadblog.msnbc.com/.
Results of the parliamentary elections won't be known for a couple of weeks,
but, in the meantime, Iraqi and U.S. officials are expressing their
satisfaction with how things have gone so far. President Bush met today with
some Iraqi citizens who voted in the election, saying after their meeting that
the vote was a "major milestone in the march for democracy."
For reaction to how things went today in Iraq, Chris will talk with Sen. Kit
Bond (R-MO), a member of the Select Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Bill
Nelson (D-FL), who sits on both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations
Committees. We'll also have the senators' thoughts on the other big news today
-- the White House cut a deal with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on McCain's proposed
standards for the treatment of detainees. Here's AP's report on the deal:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10480690/.
Washington Post reporter Robin Wright will join Chris to also talk about the
very large turnout by Iraqis and the Bush-McCain detainee deal. Read Wright's
report today on a Guantanamo detainee in limbo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402125.html.
For more on the detainee debate, read Hardblogger All-Star Ron Reagan's take on
torture here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/.
NBC's Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers will be here to run through
the latest developments in her report on a Pentagon information database on
U.S. citizens. Has the Defense Department been amassing information on American
anti-war activists? Catch up on Myers' reporting here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10481600/.
Chris also will welcome Hardbloggers Bob Shrum and Pat Buchanan to talk about
today's voting in Iraq, the president's slightly improving poll numbers, and
the newest nuggets in the CIA leak investigation. By the way, did you hear what
Bob Novak said about the president?
For more on the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, don't miss NBC News'
Political Director Elizabeth Wilner's take on it on Hardblogger:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10284912/#051215a.
All of that will be on Hardball tonight, along with a chat about the military
view from Iraq with Col. Ken Allard (Ret.), the Hardblogger War Council
contributor who just returned from Iraq. Almost 10 days ago, Allard wrote,
"Even in the midst of contradictory calls to deploy more troops (from where?)
or to withdraw them entirely (unlikely), the current commitment to Iraq is
badly straining the Army." (Read it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/.) Does Allard still think that?
Here are some things you might not have read yet today:
--AP has the latest on the voting in Iraq today
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10426494/
--Washington Post's Carol Leonnig presents Bob Novak's declaration that he's
certain President Bush knows who his source is
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10456752/
--Chris vlogs on Hardblogger about presidential coattails in the Keystone
State...and nationwide http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10284912/#051215b
--NBC's First Read (pure dynamite) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3626796/
--First Read-er Mark Murray chews on the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10469950/
--Doonesbury http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html
Brooke Brower compiled the "Hardball Briefing" in Washington, D.C.
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