Category: black sites

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]

• Congress expected to curtail Patriot Act. [WP]
• Kaine campaign is praised. [WP]
• Senate Select Committee on Intelligence outlines inquiry of pre-war intelligence. [WP]
• Roberts asks Frist to postpone congressional investigation of leak to the Washington Post until the Justice Department has concluded theirs. [WP]
• Ethics are likely to come up during Alito's confirmation hearing; Democrats expect him to be confirmed. [WP, LAT, WT]
• Jack Abramoff priced a meeting with Bush at $9m for the president of Gabon. [NYT]
• President of Amtrak claims he was dismissed for ideological reasons. [NYT]
• John Edwards says his vote for the war in Iraq was a mistake. [WP]
• 50% think the press are not fair to Bush, according to Pew survey. [WT]
• Documentary about 2004 election in Ohio shows "that the Bush campaign was run by major-league professionals and the Kerry campaign by bush-league amateurs." [NYT]

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

Daily Briefing: Refresher Courses for White House Staff

• Kaine and Corzine win gubernatorial races in Virginia and NJ; Texas approves ban gay marriage. [WP, WP, NYT, USAT]
• Frist and Hastert seek investigation into the disclosure of CIA's "black sites" to the Washington Post. McClellan: "The leaking of classified information is a serious matter and ought to be taken seriously." [WP, NYT, WT]
• Alito "has signaled he would be highly reluctant to overturn long-standing precedents" such as Rove v. Wade. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine): "At this point, I see no basis for invoking 'extraordinary circumstances' and for anyone to mount a filibuster." [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Schwarzenegger's initiatives are rejected; his "celebrity may not be the tonic it once was." [LAT, LAT, USAT]
• Election came at a sensitive time for both parties, especially the GOP. [NYT, WSJ, LAT, USAT]
• House to decide fate of ANWR; Senate approves drilling by vote of 51 to 48. [WP]
• Grassley (R-Iowa) proposes $70b in tax cuts. [NYT, WSJ]

• Bush has White House staffers take mandatory refresher courses on ethics and the handling of classified information. [WT]
• As professor, Alito prodded his students and kept his opinions to himself. [WP]
• Roberts has found his place after "dizzying" transition. [NYT]
• Negroponte announces creation of a center for the analysis of unclassified information. [NYT]
• Chalabi expected to meet with Cheney. [NYT]
• "The Sissy Six" -- Rockefeller (W.Va), Levin (Mich.), Feinstein (Calif.), Bond and Lott (Miss.), and Roberts (Kan.)-- must muscle-up, Milbank writes. [WP]
• Ads about Alito will hit the airwaves in January. [USAT]
• Libby starts defense fund. [NYT]

READ MORE: 2005 , CIA , California , Democrats , Republicans , White House , abortion , ahmed chalabi , anwr , arnold schwarzenegger , bill frist , black sites , budget , campaigns , charles grassley , dennis hastert , george w. bush , john g. roberts , john negroponte , jon corzine , lewis libby , new jersey , samuel alito , scott mcclellan , sissy six , susan collins , texas , tim kaine , virginia , washington post

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