• Administration likely to get its way on the renewal of the Patriot Act. [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT]

•Libby's attorneys plan "to use Woodward's testimony to try to show that Libby was not obsessed with unmasking Plame and to raise questions about the prosecutor's full understanding of events." [WP, WP, USAT]

• Revelation of Woodward's knowledge of Plame extends life-span of the leak scandal. [NYT, USAT]

•Woodward's "handling of the matter has now raised questions about his paper's credibility and has roiled The Post's newsroom." [NYT]

•Alito's 1985 memo fuels partisan fire. Schumer: "Anyone who thinks that this nomination is a foregone conclusion is sadly mistaken." [NYT, WT]

•Cheney attacks critics of the Iraq war at a conservative gathering: "The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to sit back and let them rewrite history." [WP, NYT, LAT]

• Administration strategy attacks Democrats critics and courts congressional Republicans. Nicolle Wallace: "Our strategy has to include hitting back. . . and calling them out for what are actually lies." [USAT]

• Democrats want to quiz oil executives under oath about energy task force meetings. [LAT]

• Prosecutors subpoena additional documents from political action committees of DeLay and Blunt. [NYT]

• Watchdog finds "exceedingly well-timed transactions" from Bill Frist regarding his health stock. [NYT]

• Alaskan bridge projects are dumped from the budget in a symbolic move. [WP, NYT]

•Bill Clinton: "Saddam [Hussein] is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done." [USAT]