'Informant' once took plea bargain

The federal agent suspected of leaking confidential information used to attack Bill Ritter's plea bargains for illegal immigrants once received a plea deal himself after punching and kicking a man unconscious at a Christmas party.

At a 1996 holiday party in Broomfield, Voorhis was accused of punching Charles Anthony Martinez in the head from behind, knocking him into a wall. As Martinez lay on the ground unconscious, Voorhis allegedly kicked him in the head, then walked away, according to a report by Adams County sheriff's deputies.

Martinez, who was then a 43-year-old backhoe operator, told deputies there had been unspecified bad blood between him and Voorhis for several years.

Two witnesses told investigators they saw Martinez slam into the wall and then his head hit the floor "very hard" before a 6-foot man with brown hair kicked the "knocked out" victim in the head, the report stated.

Voorhis was charged with third- degree assault and disorderly conduct, but in April 1997 he pleaded guilty to the petty offense of disorderly conduct and the assault charge was thrown out. He paid a $168 fine with no jail time.

Voorhis was a federal agent at the time of the attack, but the sheriff's report left his occupation blank and he gave a Henderson body shop as his employer's address. The shop owner, Randy McLain, said Voorhis was a friend and would sometimes help out.

Iraqi Realities Undermine the Pentagon’s Predictions By MICHAEL R. GORDON

The U.S. goal to have the Iraqi military take over primary responsibility for security seems far removed from the violence-plagued streets of Baghdad.

Idle Contractors Add Millions to Iraq Rebuilding By JAMES GLANZ

Overhead costs have consumed more than half the budget of some reconstruction projects in Iraq, according to a government estimate.

Vietnam’s Roaring Economy Is Set for World Stage By KEITH BRADSHER

Since Vietnam has gone from communism to a form of capitalism, it has begun surpassing many of its neighbors.

DENVER -- Gubernatorial hopeful Bob Beauprez, under fire for using information from a confidential criminal database in an attack ad, once voted to make it harder to abuse that same database.

Beauprez, a Republican, last week said the government employee who leaked secret information about a criminal case did the right thing. And the Denver Post last week reported Beauprez said he didn't even know such a database existed before a recent flap over his attack ad.

But Denver's Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reported Monday that during his two terms in Congress, Beauprez voted repeatedly for legislation that prominently mentions the database, called the NCIC. One measure Beauprez voted for was even aimed at making it tougher to abuse the database.

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]

BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]

BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]

BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]

Full transcript (10/22/06, ABC's This Week):

STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he’s looking for something between “cut and run” and “stay the course.”

BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we’ve never been “stay the course,” George. We have been — we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and help achieve the goal, but we’re constantly adjusting to tactics. Constantly.

The generals who told President Bush before the war that Donald Rumsfeld’s shock-and-awe fantasy would not work were not enough to persuade him to change his strategy in Iraq. The rise of the insurgency did not do the trick. Nor did month after month of mounting military and civilian casualties on all sides, the emergence of a near civil war, the collapse of reconstruction efforts or the seeming inability of either Iraqi or American forces to secure contested parts of Iraq, including Baghdad, for any significant period.

So what finally, after all this time, caused Mr. Bush to very publicly consult with his generals to consider a change in tactics in Iraq? The president, who says he never reads political polls, is worried that his party could lose some of its iron grip on power in the Congressional elections next month.

...It is time for the American people to confront all the things that the president never had the guts to tell them about for three and a half years.