* Dubai Port World will sell U.S. ports; the company "announced its decision after the White House appeared to signal that Mr. Bush wanted a face-saving way out of the shift by declining to repeat his veto threat." [WP, NYT, W$J]

* Port saga upended Republican strategy for midterm elections. GOP pollster: "[Bush] has no political capital. Slowly but surely it's been unraveling. There's been a direct correlation between the trajectory of his approval numbers and the -- I don't want to call it disloyalty -- the independence on the part of the Republicans in Congress." [WP]

* Dubai Port World --and Bush-- came to see the "political reality." [NYT]

* Tribe chief secured meeting with Bush after donating $25,000 to Grover Norquist group at the advice of Jack Abramoff. [NYT]

* Senate panel receives its first White House briefing about NSA eavesdropping. [WP]

* Pentagon will let Iraqi forces deal with civil war, Rumsfeld says. [WP]

* Some fear the U.S. is becoming more protectionist and isolationist. [NYT, WP]

* Bush seeks more faith-based funds. [NYT, WP]

* Abramoff's BMW had $48,000 worth of custom work. [NYT]