President Bush appears before a joint session of Congress Tuesday to deliver his annual State of the Union Address. A year ago, he used the speech to launch his initiative to overhaul Social Security. That effort suffered... and ultimately faded from the scene... as the president's approval ratings sank under the weight of the war in Iraq, scandals in the White House and on Capitol Hill and an economy that stutter-stepped through a year of conflicting indicators.
The president's message this Tuesday is expected to be more modest. He is expected to hail recent elections in Afghanistan and Iraq as indicators of democracy advancing around the world and to offer a spirited defense of authorizing wiretapping without warrants and his administration's conduct of the war in Iraq.
Liane Hansen speaks with two lawmakers who will be in the House Chamber for the speech: Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY).
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