The Cabinet comes out swinging.

Energy

Bush vowed to fund research into better batteries for hybrid vehicles and more production of the alternative fuel ethanol, setting a goal of replacing "more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025."

He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

Yesterday, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said: "This was purely an example."

"Yeah, you know that fifty-minute speech the President gave last night? You weren't supposed to, like, take that literally."

Defense

Reporter: One clarification on "the long war." Is Iraq going to be a long war?
Rumsfeld: No, I don't believe it is. We're training up these folks and passing over responsibility every day. Another piece of real estate was passed over yesterday and -
Reporter: Didn't you say -
Admiral Edmund Giambastiani¹: The size of Kentucky - the size of Kentucky -
Rumsfeld: Was passed over? Is that right?
Giambastiani: On the 26th of January.
Reporter: Say that again.
Giambastiani: On the 26th of January, two areas - one, Diwaniyah and the other one called - I don't know if I have the pronunciation correct - Wasit - W-A-S-I-T in English. They're about the size of the state of Kentucky, were passed over to the Iraqi 8th Army.

"Long war? Iraq? I don't think you're fully comprehending the significance of the Kentucky-sized pieces. There's, uh, Diwaniyah. That's one. One Kentucky. And Whatsit? Whosit? Something else, that's two Kentuckys. You see what I'm saying? Two Kentuckys, people. Christ, it's like pulling teeth."

1 - Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs