Day: July 31, 2006

By DAN K. THOMASSON

By BONNIE ERBE

At the urging of Democrats, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put off a vote until September on whether to keep John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, committee aides said on Monday.

By DALE McFEATTERS

President Bush’s forays out of Washington have followed a clear pattern.

A mid-morning departure on Air Force One; brisk handshakes with dignitaries on arrival; a speeding motorcade into town; a quick grip-and-grin session with local pols and fat cats; a speech, generally less than 30 minutes, before a screened audience that the White House likes to call a "conversation"; and back to Washington in plenty of time for dinner.

By THOMAS WAGNER and KATHY GANNO

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, hours after agreeing to temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed nearly 60 Lebanese civilians, mostly women and children seeking shelter.

President George W. Bush’s attempt to recast himself as "just a regular guy" is falling flat with just about everyone except the White House cheering section.

The controversial war in Iraq has split the nation even more than Vietnam and politicians on both sides of the political aisle agree the differences go so deep that the wounds make take longer to heal, if in fact they ever do.

With violence escalating in the Mideast and the Iraq quagmire deepening day-by-day, security may once again be the issue on voters’ minds when they head into the polling place for the midterm elections in November.