GOP Contenders Not Sold On Surge

The Skinny: Giuliani, Romney, Thompson Start Distancing Themselves From Bush On Iraq

(CBS)  The Skinny is Joel Roberts' take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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It's not just Republican senators who are wavering in their support of President Bush's Iraq policy. Some top GOP presidential candidates are also beginning to question Mr. Bush's troop surge strategy, the Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday.

Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson – characterized by the Times as "the three leading Republican presidential contenders" in a clear slight of "former front-runner" John McCain – are quietly backing away from any promise to continue the buildup.

All three candidates "have made it clear that their original support for the escalation does not mean they are signed on to keeping the current 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq."

While Romney has been the most outspoken in expressing doubts about the president's plan, the Times says Giuliani and Thompson also "have left themselves room to maneuver."

The shifts by the top three Republicans reflect the president's growing isolation on Iraq, as well as McCain's. While Mr. Bush traveled to Ohio Tuesday to urge continued patience with his strategy, McCain reaffirmed his commitment to the troop surge in a speech on the Senate floor, even as a shakeup of his campaign staff "raised new doubts about his ability to continue in the race," according to The New York Times.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports an attempt by Republican Senate leaders to block bipartisan efforts to change course in Iraq may be backfiring.

The Post says the GOP leadership's use of a parliamentary tactic to require at least 60 votes to pass any new legislation on the war "only encouraged the growing number of Republican dissenters to rally and seek new ways to force President Bush's hand."

The GOP dissenters are considering various proposals that would change the U.S. mission "from combat to counterterrorism, border protection and the training of Iraqi security forces."


Harry Potter's Magic Debunked!

Among his many powers, the one that's made parents and teachers truly wild about Harry Potter is his supposed ability to turn children into avid readers.

The New York Times reports it's become "near mythology" that the enormously popular J.K. Rowling series has inspired a generation of kids hooked on video games to start seeking out books for the sheer pleasure of reading.

Alas, The Times says, Harry's magic may be an illusion.

As Ms. Rowling gets ready to close the book on her young wizard, federal statistics show that the number of kids who read for fun continues to drop off appreciably as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before the Harry Potter books were published.

For all his magic, researchers and educators say, in the end, Harry's powers were not strong enough to permanently tempt children "to put down their Game Boys and curl up with a book instead."


Going Batty Over Bat Shortage

The NYT also reports on how a staple of America's national pastime is coming under attack.

The Times says the future of the white ash tree, used for years to make the finest baseball bats, is being threatened by a killer beetle and a warming climate.

Baseball bat factories in northwestern Pennsylvania, where most of the ash used to make bats comes from, have drawn up emergency plans to deal with potential shortages.

Federal officials are so alarmed that they plan to set loose Asian wasps to kill the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle accused of killing 25 million ash trees across the U.S. since it was first spotted five years ago.

And major league baseball players, who often have very personal relationships with their bats, are worried.

Chicago White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe confirms he talks to his bats. "I tell them: 'Do your job and if you don’t do your job, I’m going to have to go back to the Dominican Republic. ... Sometimes they listen; sometimes they don’t."


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