The On-Camera Eyebrow Raise

Since we can all either read the speech in full or watched it happen on television last night, the only fun recap can be the roundup of the goings on in the audience of the House chamber. The New York Times' front page has a nice helping of that. (Otherwise, the front page articles summarizing the speech and the Democratic response are here, here, here, and here.)

For the most part, we learn in the NYT's story that being a decorous member of Congress is a lot like navigating the social politics of a seventh grade cafeteria.

For example, facial expressions are taken seriously. For her part, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff "coached" her to control hers, as "any raised eyebrow or pursed lip would be captured by the cameras trained on the president."

And everyone takes cues from the leader of the pack. "Lawmakers were advised to take their cues on when to stand, sit down and applaud from Ms. Pelosi."

Body language is also not to be ignored. When the president discussed his Iraq plan, the most contentious issue of the day, "(m)ost Democrats remained seated as the president urged the chamber to 'find our resolve.' " Those who did stand (Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman) got a "disapproving eye" from Sen. Chuck Schumer. Rep. Charles B. Rangel "tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling." As for the clique of Republicans opposing the plan — they "stayed off their feet."

And of course, the right clothes are vital. "Appearances were obviously important to Ms. Pelosi, who changed from the brown suit she had worn earlier in the day to a soft green one, which offered more contrast to her dark leather speaker's chair."

"The Hardest Job In The World."

In the wake of the speech, USA Today takes an extensive look at the potential of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to help carry out President Bush's new plan — a scenario that hinges on him making peace between Shiites and Sunnis in the country.

It's a particularly difficult task for al-Maliki because "for most of his life … he has been persecuted and hunted by the Sunnis who dominated the government of Saddam Hussein," writes the paper. So some critics "accuse him of protecting Shiite allies with blood on their hands."

Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalizad summed up that challenge best this way: "The prime minister has perhaps the hardest job in the world."

The Sacrificial Libby

Now that jury selection for the Scooter Libby trial has ended, papers move on to the extensive drama within the actual trial. Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice and "Until Tuesday, Mr. Libby's defense on perjury and obstruction of justice charges was that he might simply have remembered incorrectly events he had described to a grand jury and to F.B.I. agents," writes the NYT.

But yesterday, his lawyer Theodore V. Wells Jr., told the jury that "Scooter Libby was to be sacrificed" by White House officials to protect political adviser Karl Rove. There was also talk of his head being put in a proverbial meat grinder.

Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald "offered a sharply different portrait of the defendant," writes the LA Times.

He told the jury that Libby had obstructed justice to protect his boss. "Fitzgerald said Libby assiduously gathered information about an outspoken critic of the administration's Iraq policy, former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, and his wife, Valerie Plame, from various officials and then discussed the findings with journalists in a series of conversations." He is charged with lying about those conversations to the FBI and a grand jury.

Libby's testimony to a grand jury "that he simply had forgotten what he knew was implausible," Fitzgerald told the jury. Libby's lawyer "asserted that the vice president's former right-hand man gave investigators his 'good-faith recollection' and that any mistakes in his memory were innocent," writes the Post.

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