Daily Briefing: 'Anal-Retentive Chowderhead'
•Administration to propose major shift in nuclear energy strategy; program would import spent fuel for "recycling." [ WP ]
•Expansion of Health Savings Accounts will be tenet of State of the Union address,Bushsays. [ WSJ , NYT ]
•Democrats seek even more documents related to Katrina. Rep.Gene Taylor(D-Miss.): "What do they have to hide? Why don't they just come forward and say, 'This is what we knew, when we knew, and this is how we reacted?'" [ NYT ]
•Partisan divide over eavesdropping widens asBushvisits the NSA and Sen.Hillary Clintoncalls his justification "strange" and "far-fetched."Ken Mehlman: "Not only are the Democrats not learning from costly policy mistakes, they are not learning what happened from the political mistakes of 2002 and 2004." [ WP , NYT , WT ]
•Administration rejected 2002 proposal by Sen.Mike DeWine(R-Ohio) to lower the standards for getting wiretaps of non-citizens approved. [ WP ]
• Bush"seems unlikely to reshape the political landscape with his speech"; no major initiatives expected. [ NYT ]
• Samuel Alitomakes "victory lap" on Capitol Hill;BushrenominatesBrett Kavanaughto U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. [ WP ]
•Debate onAlitocenters on executive power and eavesdropping. [ LAT ]
•On lobbying reform, there is a "yawning disconnect between the problem and the proposed remedies." [ WP , NYT , USAT ]
•Rep.Roy BluntandJohn Boehnerhave op-ed off. [ USAT , USAT ]
• Donald Rumsfeld: "The force is not broken. I just can't imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they're close to breaking. That's just not the case." [ WP , WT , USAT ]
•Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America PAC wants "to raise as much as $10 million this year to support veterans seeking House and Senate seats on platforms promoting a change of strategy in Iraq." [ WP ]
•Liberals disappointed by selection of Virginia Gov.Tim Kainefor State of the Union rebuttal. [ USAT ]
•Republicans end K Street job listings. [ WP ]
• Margaret Spellings' daughters call her "an anal-retentive chowderhead." [ WP ]
• Al Gore's environmental film receives a standing ovation at Sundance screening; "he is wearing earth tones again." [ WP ]