Daily Briefing: ‘Cry of Concern’

• House Republicans elect Ohio Rep. John Boehner as majority leader, signaling break from status quo. Boehner: “The members wanted to make a big decision, and they did… We must act swiftly to restore the trust between Congress and the American people.” [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT, WT, W$J]
• Election of Boehner heralds his comeback and shows a “cry of concern by an entrenched Republican majority”; Boehner “tapped into members’ election-year anxieties about the GOP’s scandal-scuffed leadership.” [WP, WP, NYT]
• Administration seeks $120b for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Democrats attack Republican rhetoric at hearing on security threats; insist on more oversight. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.V.): “I am deeply troubled by what I see as the administration’s continued effort to selectively release intelligence information that supports its policy or political agenda while withholding equally pertinent information that does not do that.” [WP, WP, NYT, USAT, WT]

• White House requests additional $18b for Gulf Coast reconstruction, but officials and lawmakers are skeptical. [NYT]
• Senate, by vote of 66 to 31, approves $70b in tax cuts over five years. [WP]
• Bush presses for permanent corporate tax breaks to encourage innovation. [NYT, WP]
• Lewis Libby has defense fund of over $2m. [NYT]
• Energy researchers are squeezed out between differing goals of the White House and Congress. [NYT]

READ MORE: 2006, Democrats, Republicans, White House, afghanistan, george w. bush, gulf coast, house, iraq, john boehner, john rockefeller, katrina, lewis libby, national security, senate, tax cuts

Daily Briefing: Different Strokes

• Bush defends eavesdropping program but offers no details: “This is a different era, a different war.” [WP, WP, NYT, USAT, USAT]
• House approves $39.7b in cuts and drilling of ANWR; showdown expected in the Senate. Sen. Kerry: “Let’s be very clear about what’s happening here. Republicans — Senator Stevens in particular — are putting oil companies ahead of our troops.” [WP, WP, WP, NYT, USAT, LAT]
• Approval of Bush rebounds to 47% in WP-ABC poll: “His approval rating on Iraq jumped 10 percentage points since early November, to 46 percent, while his rating on the economy rose 11 points, to 47 percent. A clear majority, 56 percent, said they approve of the way Bush is handling the fight against terrorism.” [WP]
• Bush ” apparently decided that a passionate offense was his best defense”; his mood “was casual and crisp.” [WP]
• ACLU claims the FBI has wrongly monitored antiwar, environmental, and civil rights groups; FBI used secret informants to track PETA for years. [NYT, WP]
• Sen. Rockefeller penned hand-written note to Cheney about civil liberties concerns over eavesdropping. [WP]
• Force reductions expected in Iraq, Afghanistan. [WP, NYT]

• Senators still struggling over renewal of the Patriot Act. [USAT]
• Leak to the Washington Times in 1998 about bin Laden’s communication preferences “made it much more difficult for the National Security Agency to intercept his conversations,” the 9/11 commission found. [NYT]
• Many Republicans welcome resistance from Democrats on security issues to differentiate their positions. [LAT]
• House has frequently held controversial votes in the wee hours of the morning to avoid news cycles. [WP]
• Sen. Baucus (D-Mont.) returns contributions linked to Abramoff. [WP]

READ MORE: Democrats, Republicans, aclu, afghanistan, anwr, civil liberties, dick cheney, eavesdropping, fbi, george w. bush, house, intelligence, iraq, jack abramoff, john f. kerry, john rockefeller, max baucus, national security agency, osama bin laden, patriot act, polls, senate, ted stevens