Daily Briefing: The Roberts 'Sideshow'
•Republican leaders will delay plans to cut more taxes. [ WSJ ]
• Bush's approval rating dips to 42% in WP-ABC poll; 6 in 10 do not want tax cuts in the near future and racial divide is registered in public's response to Katrina.Bush: "When those Coast Guard choppers, many of who were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn't check the color of a person's skin, they wanted to save lives." [ WP , USAT , WT ]
•Confirmation hearings forJudge Robertsbegin.Roberts: "Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. I come before the committee with no agenda. I have no platform." [ WP , NYT , WSJ , WP , NYT , LAT , WT , USAT ]
•Hearings became "sideshow" onceMichael Brownresigned from FEMA. [ WP , NYT , USAT ]
•Documents show broad failures on part of FEMA and DHS. [ WSJ ]
•Democrats, largely reserved with criticism ofRoberts, seek additional documents from the White House. [ WP , NYT , LAT ]
• Rice: "I find it very strange to think that people would think that the president of the United States would sit deciding who ought to be helped on the basis of color, most especially this president. . . I know about the soft bigotry of low expectations. And it's not in this president. It is, however, deeply ingrained in our system, and we're going to have to do something about it."Edwards: "Their rhetoric does not match the reality of what they have done." [ NYT , LAT ]
• Robertsis considered a conservative on civil rights and civil liberties with a "liberal streak on economic regulation and labor issues." [ WP ]
•Stress, uncertainty, and high legal fees greet White Hosue staffers who are called to testify before a grand jury. [ WP ]