Category: disaster response

Daily Briefing: The 'Cool' Governor

• Bush, visiting New Orleans, fields complaints about government's response. [WP, NYT]
• White House dismisses doubts about Miers. Thune: "It has been my expectation that President Bush would nominate someone in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas and it is my hope that Harriet Miers will prove to be such a person." [WT]
• Michael Leavitt outlines flu pandemic fears: "What if it weren't just New Orleans. What if it were Seattle, San Diego, Corpus Christi, Denver, Chicago, New York? Make your own list." [USAT]
• Documents related to Miers from 1995-2000 released by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission "provide a glimpse into her views on the proper separation of powers and the debate over making the civil justice system more fair and predictable." Miers considered Bush to be "cool" and "the best governor ever." [WP, NYT]
• Fitzgerald considered relentless, aggressive, and apolitical. [USAT]
• Military considers special force for natural disaster relief. [NYT]

• Cuts in programs proposed by Republicans will likely to be scaled back due to Katrina and rising energy prices. [WP]
• Liberals worried the window of opportunity to tackle issues of health care, housing, jobs, and poverty has closed with conservatives winning out. [NYT]
• Angela Merkel to become first female chancellor of Germany. [USAT, FT]
• Rice calls for "elections that are free and fair" in Central Asia. [NYT]
• FBI may loosen hiring standards to accept applicants who used marijuana in their youth. [WP]
• Lawmakers take up blogging. [WP]
• McCain stumps for Schwarzenegger. [LAT]
• Medicare Q&A. [NYT]

READ MORE: Democrats , Republicans , Rita , SCOTUS , White House , angela merkel , arnold schwarzenegger , asia , avian flu , blogging , condoleezza rice , disaster response , fbi , george w. bush , germany , harriet miers , john mccain , john thune , katrina , leak investigation , marijuana , michael leavitt , military , new orleans , patrick fitzgerald , texas

Daily Briefing: Scrap the News Cycle

• Bush nominates White House counsel Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. [CNN, AP]
• Fitzgerald may seek criminal conspiracy charge from leak investigation. "Scooter" Libby discussed Valerie Plame with at least two reporters but maintains he did not say her name or unveil her covert status; testimony of Libby and Karl Rove appears to contradict early White House statements. [WP]
• Tom DeLay: "I think it will be over and be over very, very soon, and I think I will go back and be majority leader." Christopher Shays (R-Conn.): "We got elected basically by saying we would live by a higher moral standard, and I don't think recently we have." [LAT, USAT, WP, WT]
• Majority of governors want states, not the Pentagon, to oversee responses to national disasters. [USAT]

• Gen. John P. Abizaid is "certainly confident" about Iraq, says security is "very much on track." [WP]
• DeLay "changed how power is amassed and used on Capitol Hill and well beyond." [WP]
• West Wing thermostats set to 72 degrees; bicycle racks may be added to White House. [NYT]
• Democrats want to diversify calendar of early primary states. [USAT]
• Armstrong Williams tries to return some of his fees to the Department of Education. [USAT]

READ MORE: 2008 , Democrats , Pentagon , Republicans , SCOTUS , White House , armstrong williams , christopher shays , congress , disaster response , george w. bush , governors , harriet miers , iraq , john p. abizaid , karl rove , leak investigation , lewis libby , patrick fitzgerald , sandra day o'connor , tom delay , valerie plame

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