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DWI is an all too familiar issue in most areas of the world nowadays. The trouble is that not enough people understand, until after the fact, just how ravaging drinking and driving could be. DWI affects both the person that was driving while drunk as well as the people that they strike while doing so.

If you were driving while drunk and you were caught for doing so, you may require a Dallas DWI attorney. If this is your first violation and you didn’t induce any bodily or property damage you might be able to go in front of the judge and apologies for your activities and get away with niggling penalty. If you are a resident of Dallas and you induced bodily or property damage to anybody in Dallas or if this isn’t your first violation chances are you’ll require a Dallas DWI attorney.

A Dallas DWI lawyer could assist you get some compensation for all that you’ve suffered. They could also help you ensure that the individual who was driving while drunk gets the utmost penalization for their violation. Without a Dallas DWI lawyer on the side of the victim, they’re most of the time left suffering long after the crash has happened.

Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaskan income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle.

Add up the couple’s 2007 income and the estimated value of their property and investments and they appear to be worth at least $1.2 million. That would make the Palins, like Democratic vice presidential rival Joe Biden and his wife Jill, well-off but not nearly as wealthy as multimillionaire couples John and Cindy McCain and, to a lesser extent, Barack and Michelle Obama.

One measure of financial health: While there is a home loan, Palin reported no personal credit card debt on her most recent financial report as Alaska governor. That compares to average household credit card debt among Americans of $9,840 last year.

A more complete picture will come when Sarah Palin outlines her personal finances in federal paperwork in coming days. It will include details of any mortgage debt and at least rough dollar totals for bank accounts and investments.

Palin this week characterized herself as “an everyday, working-class American” who knows how it feels when the stock market takes a hit.

The Palins’ total income last year was split almost evenly between Sarah Palin’s white-collar job and her husband’s blue-collar work. Sarah Palin’s salary as governor was $125,000; Todd Palin took in $46,790 as a part-time oil production operator for BP Alaska in Prudhoe Bay, plus $46,265 in commercial fishing income and $10,500 in Iron Dog snowmachine race winnings. These figures do not include nearly $17,000 in per diem payments Palin received for 312 nights spent in her own home since she was elected governor; she also has received $43,490 to cover travel costs for her husband and children.

In addition, each member of the Palin family received $1,654 in state oil royalties paid to all Alaskans.

The Palins’ assets seem enviable: a half-million-dollar home on a lake with a float-plane at the dock, two vacation retreats, commercial-fishing rights worth an estimated $50,000 or more and an income last year of at least $230,000. That compares to a median income of $64,333 for Alaskans and $50,740 for Americans in 2007, according to the Census Bureau.

But in Alaska, scarce roads make private planes commonplace, it’s typical to spend a month or two fishing commercially, and wilderness acreage is so plentiful the state has sold loads’ worth stake-your-claim style. So, it’s often the finer points that matter: How old is the airplane? Where exactly is the fishing spot? Is the house on a paved road?

Land itself doesn’t necessarily translate to wealth, said Tom Hawkins of Anchorage, who paid about $2,000 for a five-acre parcel miles from the nearest road, best reached by snowmachine.

“I’ve got a stunning parcel overlooking a river,” Hawkins said. “I took my wife to it. And she stood up and looked out at the stunning view and said, ‘Dear, what are we going to do with it?’”

The Palins’ main residence, a large two-story house on Lake Lucille in Wasilla, draws much of its value from its prime position along a paved road and float-plane accessible lake, said Darcie Salmon, a local real estate agent. He said lakefront land is plentiful in Alaska, but lakefront land along paved roads isn’t.

The Palins’ home, tucked behind a wooded field, is off Wasilla’s main road, Parks Highway, a mostly four-lane road cluttered with restaurants, bars, retail stores, offices, grocery stores and big-box outlets such as Target. A store-bought “no trespassing” sign is posted near the entry to an unmarked, private gravel drive that winds about 100 yards to the lakefront home. A neighbor’s property has an old metal gate at its entrance with a sign warning, “Enter at your own risk.”

The Palins’ four-bedroom, four-bath house, nearly 3,500 square feet, sits on just over two acres behind a tall wood-plank privacy fence that runs along one side of the property. It’s one of the newest homes in the Snider subdivision lining Lake Lucille and is assessed at $552,000 — more than twice the value of a neighboring two-acre lot with a much smaller, older wood-frame home.

Todd Palin built the house with friends who were contractors, he said in a recent television interview.

The house is worth substantially more than the Palins’ starter home, a three-bedroom, two-bath house house built in 1984 on the far western boundary of Wasilla. The quiet, wooded neighborhood was developed about three miles from the city center, with half-acre lots and space for young families.

In addition to the Lake Lucille home, the Palins own recreational property in two remote areas accessible by plane, all-terrain vehicle or snowmachine.

The Palins invested in five lots along Safari Lake, an undeveloped area near Denali State Park. They bought the property, once owned by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and valued at $30,000 in assessment records, with friends Scott and Deborah Richter in 2004 and 2005. The Richters have since divorced.

With other friends, the Palins own a cabin on five acres southwest of Wasilla and the Iditarod National Historic Trail. The land and cabin are assessed at $55,000; property records do not show what the Palins paid for their share.

The Palins own snowmachines and an airplane. Todd Palin has a 1958 Piper float plane that he said has been in his family for about 20 years.

Though old, such planes remain in wide use. Palin’s plane would be worth from about $38,000 to $78,000 depending on its condition, said Boyd Newman, owner of West One Aircraft Sales in Caldwell, Idaho.

Other family assets include Todd Palin’s shoreside lease and commercial fishing permit to harvest salmon from Bristol Bay each season. Last year, the Palins took in $46,265 commercial fishing for sockeye salmon over about a month.

Todd Palin said he purchased his permit from his grandfather in the 1970s. A limited number of permits and shoreline leases have been issued, and the rights to them are often passed down through families or sold. Holders pay a fee each year to renew them.

Palin’s is worth about $30,000, a shoreside lease on Coffee Point, where Palin’s set-net site is located, is worth about $20,000, and Palin’s skiff and gear are likely worth another $20,000, according to estimates by Paul Piercey, a broker with Dock Street Brokers in Seattle, which handles sales of fishing permits, boats and shoreside leases.

Palin’s fishing spot is considered good but not great, Piercey said. And the work is backbreaking. Palin has said he expects to earn 68 cents per pound for this summer’s catch.

“When you get up in the morning, your fingers are so swollen that you have to stick them in a bucket of icewater just to get movement back again” and ease the pain, said Hawkins, who fished on Bristol Bay one year.

Hawkins is former chief operating officer of the Bristol Bay Native Corp. and former chief executive of Choggiung Ltd., two native corporations in which Todd Palin, who is part Yup’ik Eskimo, is a shareholder, along with the Palin children. The Palins are among about 8,000 shareholders in BBNC and among about 1,200 shareholders in Choggiung Limited, Hawkins said.

Sarah Palin reported Todd Palin collecting $266 and each child $21 in dividends last year from BBNC, and a total of $16.50 from Choggiung Limited.

Todd Palin is still a BP employee. Company spokesman Steve Rinehart declined to describe Palin’s status beyond confirming his employment. Palin’s schedule is one week on, one week off, Palin said in a recent television interview.

Palin previously left BP in the 1990s to run Valley Polaris, a snowmachine, four-wheeler and watercraft dealership he pursued with a friend and business partner. They sold the business in 1997; public records do not show whether it was at a profit or a loss. At the time, Sarah Palin was earning about $61,000 a year as Wasilla mayor.

The Polaris dealership was among three business ventures the Palins explored; the others never took off. Palin’s financial disclosure reports do not say how much if any money the Palins invested in the business ventures or real estate, or what if any profit they made on sales.

Sarah Palin formed a consulting business called “Rouge Cou” — French for redneck — but didn’t pursue it.

The Palins teamed with another couple, Ray and Carolin Wells of Anchorage, to start a car wash in Anchorage, but it was never built. Carolin Wells described the Palins as silent partners she believes initially paid half the money to buy the land. Around the time Sarah Palin began considering a run for governor, the Palins reduced their stake to 40 percent.

Barely a year into the land ownership, the man lined up to operate the car wash backed out, and since neither couple wanted to run it, they decided to sell the land and move on, Carolin Wells said. She couldn’t recall the purchase or sales prices of the land, but believes she and her husband made a modest profit and the Palins broke even.

The couples let their state paperwork lapse on the venture, Anchorage Car Wash LLC, resulting in a letter threatening to dissolve the corporation. The letterhead carried Gov. Palin’s name on it.

The deal was among several involving undeveloped land the Palins have engaged in over the years.

The Palins purchased a parcel on Beaverhouse Lake in Big Lake in 2003 and sold it in 2004 for an undisclosed amount. The land has been assessed at $14,000 the past three years.

The Palins sold nearly five acres of undeveloped waterfront property on the northeast shore of Wasilla Lake in 2005 to a local developer. The sales price wasn’t disclosed. The land now is subdivided into five parcels, with two waterfront lots, two others behind those, and a commercial lot. Duane Mathes, a local real estate agent showing the property for the owner who bought it from the Palins, said the leveled lots are listed for $149,500 each.

Salmon, who was mayor of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough that includes Wasilla while Palin was Wasilla mayor, recalled that as mayor, Sarah Palin shared many of his pro-development views, and said the Palins’ land acquisitions weren’t unusual.

“A lot of Alaskans own a lot of land,” Salmon said, “and if you’re bright, you buy land in the path of progress.”

Leaders of both parties in the House, but particularly Republicans, were whipping hard to line up votes Monday for a massive financial bailout bill worked out with the Bush administration over the weekend.

Administration officials and the party’s presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, joined in the effort to garner a majority of Republicans behind the plan — as demanded by Democratic leaders who don’t want their own members left vulnerable.

But there was significant push-back from conservative Republicans, especially some in the Republican Study Committee (RSC), who started pushing an alternative proposal.

“No solid whip numbers are out yet. People are talking about each side putting up about half the votes. They are comparing it to a congressional pay raise vote,” a senior GOP aide said Monday morning.

“It’s very hard. Both parties are working as hard they can. It’s not popular. We need 218 votes,” said a senior House Democratic aide, referring to a bare majority of the 435-member House.

Just how hard was evident early Monday. After the House had disposed of its other business and was preparing to tackled the bailout package (HR 3997), Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, forced a vote on a motion to adjourn “so we don’t do this terrible thing to America.”

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, a leading member of the influential Republican Study Committee, on Sunday said in a statement: “Republicans improved this bill but it remains the largest corporate bailout in American history, forever changes the relationship between government and the financial sector, and passes the cost along to the American people. I cannot support it.”

Pence was urging his GOP colleagues, “If you came here because you believe in limited government and the freedom of the American marketplace, vote in accordance with those convictions.”

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who represented his caucus in the marathon weekend negotiations that produced the final bill, said on CNN that Pence’s advice was “not helpful.”

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., said it would be difficult to deliver a majority of the party’s House members for the deal as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had demanded.

But later, as GOP lawmakers were caucusing, aides say Eric Cantor, R-Va., the chief deputy whip, and Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, pushed hard for “yes” votes. “This sucks that we are in this position. But we have to do this to save the free enterprise system,” Ryan told members, according to a participant.

Blunt said he hoped a large number of Republicans would support the measure. “We’ll do everything we can to make sure members of both parties in substantial numbers vote for this bill,” Blunt said.

“Everybody’s unhappy about it,” he told CNN on Monday morning. “I think the alternative is what our members have to think about.”

The White House joined the lobbying campaign with a letter from Budget Director Jim Nussle to House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, down playing the plan’s cost to taxpayers. Boehner’s office released a similar letter from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

“No one knows just how much these assets will sell for, but since 90 percent of mortgages are currently being paid on time and in full, we can expect a substantial payback on our investment,” Nussle wrote. “In some cases, if a mortgage asset is purchased at a deep discount from its face value, the taxpayer may even see a positive return on that investment.”

CBO echoed that view.

“Although it is not currently possible to quantify the net budget impact given the lack of details about how the program would be implemented, CBO has concluded that enacting the bill would likely entail some net budget cost–which would, however, be substantially smaller than $700 billion,” reads the letter from CBO to leaders of the House Budget and Financial Services committees.

Leaning on Republicans More than 180 of the 199 House Republicans attended an unusually long closed-door meeting Sunday — unusual, because only half of the conference normally shows up at the party’s weekly private meetings.

The leaders spoke for almost an hour. According to attendees, Boehner kicked off the program by recounting the fractious White House meeting on the issue Sept. 25, when House Republican leaders, backed by GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, demanded that negotiators consider alternatives to the bailout plan if Congress was going to fork over $700 billion to stave off a financial crisis.

One participant described the tone of the conference as “respectful, but negative.”

Blunt declined to give the results of a survey taken in the caucus meeting. Members filled out white cards bearing their names and five choices: yes, no, lean yes, lean no and undecided. Aides said a more rigorous whip count was continuing.

Boehner said McCain “has been making calls to members in support of this bill.”

A leading Democratic skeptic also suggested problems for the plan on his side of the aisle.

“If this is called for a vote on Monday, it’s very hard to predict,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who drew some 35 Democrats to a meeting of what he dubbed the “Skeptics Caucus.”

But lawmakers belonging to the 49-member Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats said they were pleased the draft legislation included a provision intended to raise money from companies that participate in the program if its full cost is not recouped within five years.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said he plans to vote for the bill, warning that if Congress does not act the consequences for the economy will be dire.

“It’s not everyday you get a chance to save your country,” he said. “This may be one of those chances, nobody knows for sure.”

Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., said he was not sure how the bill would fare, but was not overly concerned about Democratic defections.

“It’s good to be skeptical about this. If anybody was sure about what we were doing, we wouldn’t be having all these discussions,” he said.

RSC Alternative Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the 106-member Republican Study Committee., said, “I am not whipping this bill. But I believe the bulk of our members will be opposing it.”

Pence insisted, “There are alternatives to massive government spending.”

RSC critics of the bailout bill focused on an alternative proposal by William Issac, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. who served during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. Isaac suggested that Congress let the FDIC take the major role in dealing with troubled banks and helping them refinance or get rid of troubled investments.

An email circulated by RSC staff provided highlights of Isaac’s plan. The RSC summary said that Isaac wanted Congress to approve a “net worth certificate” similar to what was enacted in the 1980s for the saving s and loan industry.

The plan would allow the FDIC to purchase net worth certificates in troubled banks it things can be viable if give more time, perhaps five years. At the end of that period the bank would have to repay the notes issued by the FDIC.

The plan also called for suspending mark-to-market accounting rules that require companies to list their assets at current market value, something that is difficult to determine for many mortgage-backed securities.

And it would continue a newly implement Securities and Exchange Commission curb on short-selling of stocks.

President Bush, Barack Obama and John McCain were an unlikely trio at the White House on Thursday mulling a $700 billion bailout to end the U.S. financial market crisis.

Wall Street held its breath. Would the president, a self-described free-market man, confirm that a deal had been made to infuse billions into the markets? Would sparks fly between McCain and Obama, who sat at opposite ends of a shiny, oval table in the West Wing, where each wants to work?

Reporters clicked pens and queued their tape recorders to be ready to witness the historic huddle of the nation’s top political leaders trying to prevent financial calamity. A White House aide, ferrying the president’s dog Barney, wet from the rain, worked his way through the crush of media anxiously waiting outside the Cabinet Room.

Public access to the meeting lasted only one minute.

McCain and Obama let Bush do the talking. Bush’s words were hopeful but not definitive.

“All of us around the table take this issue very seriously and we know we’ve got to get something done as quickly as possible,” Bush said in measured tones. “And this meeting is an attempt to move the process forward. My hope is that we can reach an agreement very shortly.”

That was it. The rest of the meeting was conducted behind closed doors.

White House advisers allowed to sit in said Bush greeted the group with a friendly “Hello, everybody.”

After thanking McCain, Obama and the top congressional leaders for attending, he spoke about the hearings on Capitol Hill and the testimony Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other top economic advisers gave to lawmakers.

“If you think you gave them a grilling, think about the grilling I gave them,” the adviser said Bush, noting the seriousness of the situation, told the lawmakers.

Then he turned to Paulson to give the group an update on the markets, which closed before the meeting began. The president then opened up the discussion to questions and comments from nearly everyone around the table.

According to the adviser, who took notes during the meeting, Bush said: “I asked them (his economic advisers) a lot of tough questions and that’s what you would expect of me. And at the end of the day, I was convinced that we had to take this action. So let’s get after it. Let’s work together and let’s solve the problem.”

Hours before the White House confab, reports from Capitol Hill indicated that key lawmakers had reached an agreement in principal. But Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, left the White House meeting telling reporters the announced deal “is, obviously, no agreement.” He waved five pieces of paper, telling reporters they were filled with top economists’ concerns about the administration’s plan.

At the meeting, Obama, wearing an American flag pin, and McCain, sans lapel adornment, sat with hands folded on the shiny table top. Neither nodded or showed any emotion as the president spoke. McCain smiled widely and nodded to reporters who tried to ask questions. Bush advisers said Vice President Dick Cheney was mum the entire meeting.

Both candidates and their staffs slipped out a side door of the West Wing to do separate rounds of TV interviews, apparently deciding against using the authoritative White House venue as a backdrop for their remarks.

Rescue teams were poised to move in and help tens of thousands of people who decided not to evacuate before Hurricane Ike struck, President Bush said Saturday.

“The storm has yet to pass and I know there are people concerned about their lives,” Bush said from the South Lawn of the White House after he participated in video conference with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Some people didn’t evacuate when asked,” Bush said about the tens of thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana who may have to be rescued. “I’ve been briefed on the rescue teams there in the area. They’re prepared to move as soon as weather conditions permit. Obviously, people on the ground there are sensitive to helping people and are fully prepared to do so.”

Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday, battering the coast with driving rain and high wind. Thousands of homes and government buildings are flooded, roads are washed out, nearly 3 million people lost power and several fires burned unabated.

“As this massive storm moves through the Gulf Coast, people in that area can rest assured that the American people will be praying for them and will be ready to help once this storm moves on,” Bush said.

Though roughly 1 million people fled coastal communities, authorities in four counties alone said roughly 140,000 ignored mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind. Other counties were unable to provide numbers but officials said they were concerned that many decided to brave deadly conditions rather than flee.

Even before Ike hit the coast, the hurricane was sending waves through the U.S. gasoline market.

Wholesale gas prices soared on Friday, reaching around $4.85 on the Gulf Coast amid fears that there will be vast fuel shortages as the hurricane bore down on refineries lining the upper Texas coast. The region accounts for about one-fifth of the nation’s petroleum refining capacity.

The price spike is expected to result in higher prices at gas pumps across broad swaths of the nation as the gasoline makes it way from the wholesale market to retailers.

Bush said that the government has suspended Environmental Protection Agency waivers on some reformulated gasoline to make it easier for foreign imports to reach the U.S. market.

“In the meantime, the Department of Energy and state authorities will be monitoring a gasoline crisis so consumers are not being gouged,” Bush said.

There are many types of cases that personal injury lawyers pursue. They include motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall cases, dog bites, construction accidents, wrongful death, medical negligence and nursing home malpractice cases. They all are processed with similar strategies and techniques. If you or a love one have been seriously injured by the negligence of a third person, you may be eligible for just compensation. If you are an Arizona resident who has suffered such harm, then you shouldn’t hesitate to contact an Arizona personal injury lawyer.

There are a number of different type injuries which can occur in accidents. Among the most serious are closed head injuries which sometimes include brain damage, serious fractures, ruptured or herniated discs, burns, lacerations causing disfigurement and many others. A good attorney can help you find qualified medical help often with physicians who are certified specialists. Some times these specialists are even willing to work on a lient basis. If you are harmed in an accident through the negligence of another person or business, then you are definitely within your rights to make a claim and, if necessary, to pursue a law suit. It doesn’t matter if it is a workplace accident or an injury at your favorite restaurant, a good attorney will evaluate the liability situation and assist you in recovery.. An well-qualified Arizona accident attorney can get you the money you deserve. The money you need to address your medical bills, an amount for pain and suffering, permanent injury and disfigurement and an amount to compensate you for your loss wages and loss of future earning capacity. There are several new sources to check for information. Do your investigation and research on the internet to determine which attorney will best serve your purposes. Find which law firms have informative site and offer free consultations. I’m sure you’ll be able to find an well-qualified Arizona accident lawyer quickly. Then the attorney and you can start work on your case and you’ll be one step closer to getting your life back to track.

Don’t be afraid to conscientious and ask questions while in the hiring process. The quality of the attorney you select will make a big difference in your overall result.

Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, plans to appear Monday night at his party’s national convention.

Kennedy had not been expected to make the trip to the Democratic National Convention, where he was being celebrated with a video tribute.

“Sen. Kennedy is in Denver and plans to attend tonight’s tribute to him,” his spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said in a statement issued Monday. “He’s truly humbled by the outpouring of support and wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world.”

Kennedy doesn’t plan to speak, Cutter said. He might address the convention if he feels up to it, said a senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kennedy arrived Sunday night in Denver and got a checkup at a local hospital as a precaution, said another party official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain prides himself on being gung-ho about pursuing the Iraq war even if it hurts him politically. Recent events in Baghdad threaten to put him still farther out on a limb, however, as the Bush administration works toward a troop withdrawal schedule that is more aggressive than McCain envisions.

Democrat Barack Obama says a McCain presidency would amount to a third term for President Bush, whose popularity approaches historic lows. If the Baghdad negotiations appear headed to fruition while Iraq remains relatively stable — big ifs — some say Obama may be able to push even harder, saying McCain would out-Bush Bush if he had his way.

On the other hand, if Americans believe the war is winding down in an acceptable way, it could significantly reduce the importance of an issue central to Obama’s rise to political prominence.

Iraq and the Bush administration have reached a preliminary agreement to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraqi cities, where most of the fighting has taken place, by next June. It would link troop reductions to achievement of certain undisclosed security milestones. The deal also would require the endorsement of top Iraqi leaders and the Iraqi parliament, which is far from certain.

McCain repeatedly has said that events on the ground in Iraq should dictate any pullout schedule. He once suggested, however, that troops would come home, victorious, by the end of his first term, in early 2013.

Obama has set a goal of removing most U.S. combat troops within 16 months of taking office, or by the spring of 2010. He says he would listen to advice from military leaders before deciding.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters Thursday of the draft proposal, but they offered few specifics. It envisions the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq’s cities by June 30, 2009, according to Iraqi and American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposed deal’s details have not been made public.

Zebari hinted at the proposal’s possible complexity. “This agreement determines the principle provisions, requirements, to regulate the temporary presence and the time horizon, the mission of the U.S. forces,” he said.

Campaigning Thursday in Virginia, Obama said, “They are working on a plan that looks, lo and behold, like the plan that I’ve been advocating. I will encourage the administration to move forward with it.”

McCain campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said, “We’re monitoring closely and will have something to say when an agreement is finalized.”

U.S. political activists seem uncertain how the proposal might affect the Obama-McCain race.

“At this point, Obama looks a little less reckless than he might have a few months ago,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution. O’Hanlon, who once backed Obama, has often criticized him for refusing to acknowledge the achievements of the U.S. “surge” in troop numbers and for sticking to his 16-month withdrawal goal even as events in Iraq have changed.

O’Hanlon said the proposed agreement faces substantial political and military hurdles.

Polls suggest most U.S. voters are much more concerned about the economy than the war. The proposed agreement could make Iraq even less of an issue this fall.

Steve Elmendorf, a Washington lobbyist and former Democratic leadership aide in Congress, thinks that is unlikely, however.

“I don’t think this gets the issue off the table,” he said. “Between now and Election Day, not a lot of troops are going to come home” even if the proposal is enacted.

“Most Americans want this thing to end,” Elmendorf said, and McCain “still talks of continued engagement.” Many Americans, he said, “will vote for who will get us out.”

McCain repeatedly has rebuked Obama on Iraq. Campaigning Wednesday in New Mexico, he said Obama “has made it clear he values withdrawal from Iraq above victory in Iraq.”

Two days earlier in Florida, McCain said, “the hard-won gains of our troops hang in the balance. The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines.”

President Bush, fresh off a CIA briefing about the fighting in Georgia, renewed his call Thursday for a cease-fire to be honored in the former Soviet republic.

Bush also repeated his demand that Russia respect the “territorial integrity” of Georgia.

The president said he looked forward to hearing directly from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his Texas ranch on Saturday. U.S. officials said Rice, who has been in France meeting leaders there, will ask Georgia to sign a French-brokered cease-fire agreement with Russia that includes concessions to Moscow but preserves Georgian borders.

Bush spoke at CIA headquarters after receiving briefings on the war on terror and the grim situation in Georgia, where a tenuous cease-fire is in place after days of violence. The White House did not disclose details of his briefings.

“I call for the territorial integrity of Georgia to be respected and the cease-fire agreement to be honored,” he said. “And we will be working this issue throughout the coming weeks. And people out here at the agency have been incredibly helpful.”

Russian forces entered Georgia last week, and troops and tanks still were there Thursday despite the cease-fire, raising fears that Russia was trying to grab territory. Bush said intelligence officials were analyzing the situation on the ground. He said they briefed him on “different possibilities that could develop in the area and the region.”

Bush, who postponed his vacation in Texas by a day to monitor the fast-changing developments in Georgia, now plans to depart on Friday.

Late Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Dana Perino assessed that “Largely, the violence has died down over the last 24 hours” in Georgia. She cautioned against putting too much stock in a report that a column of Russian tanks and other vehicles was moving deeper into Georgia. All such initial reporting must be checked out, Perino said.

Pressed on Defense Secretary Robert Gates‘ comment that Russia should face consequences for its military strikes against a sovereign state, Perino said there are consequences for Russia’s international reputation.

“Perhaps they don’t care,” she said of Russia’s leaders. As for specific punishments by the United States against Russia, Perino said, “I would not expect anything immediate.”

Bush was supposed to spend 45 minutes having lunch with employees at the CIA, including those who have been with the agency for fewer than five years. Instead, he spent more than two hours with them.

“People here work long and hard hours,” Bush said afterward, standing alongside CIA Director Michael Hayden and CIA Deputy Director Stephen Kappes. “They’re smart, capable, and they deserve the nation’s thanks.”

Bush signed autographs for employees, including a $5 bill one employee handed to him, said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield. He also received a commemorative coin from a CIA analyst who worked on U.S. allegations that a site in a remote part of the Syrian desert, which Israel destroyed last year, was a near-finished plutonium-producing reactor built with North Korean help. The bronze-colored coins, with the words “No core. No war,” were given to employees who worked on the project.

Authorities on Sunday finished collecting badly burned remains from the crash site of a firefighting helicopter in the Northern California wilderness.

A day earlier, helicopters carrying flag-draped stretchers that bore some of the remains were greeted by an honor guard of firefighters at a nearby airstrip.

Accompanied by a fire engine escort, the stretchers were taken to the Shasta County coroner’s office in Redding. Authorities there would probably have to rely on DNA analysis and dental records to identify the bodies, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Tom Kroll said.

Nine people were killed in the crash.

The helicopter was ferrying 10 firefighters, two pilots and a U.S. Forest Service employee back to base camp Tuesday after crews battled a fire about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.

The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had just been refueled when it lifted off from a remote clearing, struck a tree and plummeted into a hillside, according to National Transportation Safety Board officials. The chopper then erupted into flames.

Two of the four men who survived the crash, firefighters Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18, both of Medford, Ore., were discharged from the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Saturday. They suffered facial burns and broken bones.

Brown said Saturday that he couldn’t remember anything about the crash but felt that he was spared because “God had his hand wrapped around me.”

He said he was mourning the loss of friends: “Those guys were brothers to me.”

Pilot William Coultas of Oregon has undergone skin grafting for severe burns. He was in critical condition Sunday, said Martha Alcott, a spokeswoman for UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Crews also worked Sunday to extract the shell of the helicopter from the rugged terrain, said Forest Service spokesman Bernie Pineda. The pieces will be examined by NTSB investigators.

“It will be a long time before they can piece everything together and determine the accident’s cause,” Pineda said.

A cockpit voice-data recorder recovered from the wreckage Thursday was made by a British company and was being sent to Britain for analysis, NTSB officials said.

The 34-square-mile blaze the firefighters had been battling before their helicopter crashed was 20 percent contained Sunday, fire officials said.