Daily Briefing: Hey, Big Spender

• Senate passes $109B in emergency spending by vote of 77 to 21; bill is rifled with earmarks that Bush threatened to veto. [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• House approves $7.4B for port security by vote of 421 to 2. [WP]
• Rumsfeld confronted by harsh criticism from audience members. Asked a former CIA analyst, “Why did you lie to get us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?” [AP]
• Administration increases rhetorical push for “democratic reform in Russia”; Cheney’s comments could “reflect a growing impatience with Russia’s unwillingness to back stronger measures, including sanctions, against the Iranians.” [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• Republicans “are struggling to marry a newfound zeal for energy conservation with their traditional loyalty to big cars and Big Oil.” [NYT]
• The proposed $100 gas rebate “offers a window on how Washington sometimes works in a slapdash way” and shows how Sen. Frist “has stumbled at the pinnacle of Senate power.” Sen. Thune: “I never was in favor of that. We all got out there and tried to put our best face on it.” [NYT]

READ MORE: CIA, Democrats, Republicans, big oil, bill first, dick cheney, donald rumsfeld, earmarks, emergency spending bill, gas prices, george w. bush, homeland security, house, iran, john thune, port security, russia, senate, war on terror

Daily Briefing: ‘A Good Deal’

• Ben Bradlee says Richard Armitage probably revealed Valerie Plame’s identity to Bob Woodward. [NYT]
• Sen. Feingold’s call for a censure of Bush has caused a “fierce debate on Capitol Hill that is likely to persist throughout the congressional campaign season.” [WP]
• Fellow Democratic senators refuse to comment on censure resolution; Sens. Clinton and Kerry deflect inquires. [WP]
• Rumsfeld suggests that troop levels in Iraq could temporarily increase to coincide with religious pilgrimage. [NYT]
• Senate Judiciary Committee takes testimony from executives of top oil corporations, this time under oath. [WP, NYT, W$J]
• Bush, on brief tour to tout Medicare, says drug plan is “a good deal” and “makes a lot of sense.” [WP, NYT]
• FBI photographed Pittsburgh antiwar group in 2002. [WP]
• House Republicans support temporary restrictions on lobbying. [NYT]
• Senate Republicans reject new budget rule that would have made fiscal changes harder to pass. [NYT]

READ MORE: Democrats, Republicans, ben bradlee, big oil, bob woodward, budget, censure, civil liberties, donald rumsfeld, fbi, george w. bush, hillary clinton, house, iraq, john kerry, leak investigation, medicare, richard armitage, russ feingold, senate, valerie plame, washington post

Daily Briefing: Cracking Open the Door to Freedom

• Senators, by vote of 79 to 19, pass a resolution marking next year as “a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty… thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq.” Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.): “Staying the course will not do.” Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): “It’s a continuation of the oversight we’ve been conducting for years in the United States Senate.” WP, NYT, WSJ, USAT]
• Senators from both parties “are demanding that the administration show that it has a strategy to turn the conflict over to the Iraqis and eventually bring U.S. troops home.” [WP]
• Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) defends critics of the war: “[T]he Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them… to not question your government is unpatriotic.” [WP]
• Oil executives did meet with Cheney’s energy task force in 2001. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.): “The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force.” [WP]
• Alito tries to downplay conservative remarks from 1985. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Rice reaches deal on access to the Gaza Strip. [WP, NYT, NYT, USAT]
• Lewis Libby plans to “seek testimony from journalists beyond those cited in the indictment and will probably challenge government agreements limiting their grand jury testimony.” [NYT]

READ MORE: Democrats, Republicans, SCOTUS, abortion, ben bernanke, big oil, bill first, china, chuck hagel, condoleezza rice, david safavian, dick cheney, energy task force, george w. bush, harry reid, iraq, israel, leak investigation, lewis libby, palestine, samuel alito, senate, taxes

Daily Briefing: ‘The Red-Carpet Treatment’

• Approval of Bush slips to 37%, a new low in WSJ/NBC polling; 79% believe the leak investigation is “a serious matter” and a majority say Bush “deliberately misled people” to war. [WSJ]
• House Republicans scrap ANWR drilling to ensure passage of budget. Schumer: “If you are a moderate Republican, you are starting to say, ‘I am not going to follow George Bush over the cliff.’” [WP, NYT]
• Republicans fear implications of Tuesday’s elections; Democrats have their own lessons to learn. Pollster: “The waning of enthusiasm for Bush and his presidency is national.” [LAT, WP, WT]
• Senators press top oil executives about their profits; “if the hearing had an air of the theater, the public resentment articulated by the senators was real.” Milbank: “[I]nstead of calling oil executives on the carpet yesterday, senators gave them the red-carpet treatment.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, USAT, WT]
• Bush splits with Republicans over ban of abusive treatment of detainees. [USAT]
• Judith Miller leaves The New York Times. [WP, WP, NYT]
• Chalabi denies misleading the U.S. and offers to testify before Congress. [USAT, WP]
• Senate Judiciary Committee considers televising Supreme Court proceedings. [LAT]

READ MORE: 2004, 2005, 2006, CIA, Democrats, Media, Republicans, SCOTUS, White House, ahmed chalabi, amtrak, anwr, big oil, bill frist, black sites, budget, campaigns, george w. bush, jack abramoff, john edwards, john f. kerry, judith miller, leak investigation, ohio, pat roberts, patriot act, pre-war intelligence, samuel alito, tim kaine, treatment of detainees