Daily Briefing: Busting Some Heads
•Turf wars blamed for snooping provision, which will be repealed Dec. 6; Democrats cry "massacre on Americans' privacy."McCain: "We've reached the bizarre point where we approve hundreds of billions of dollars of bills without anyone seeing them, and then we're shocked - shocked! - that a provision should sneak in which is onerous." [ WP , NYT , WSJ , NYT , USAT ]
•White House stance on intelligence bill uncertain;Rumsfelddenies lobbying against it. [ WP , NYT , WT , USAT , BG ]
•Administration carefully backing protesters in Ukraine while trying not to disturb relations withPutin. [ WP ]
•GAO will investigate election day voting irregularities: "This is something of broad national interest." [ BG ]
• Bushorders hiring of thousands of new officers for CIA. [ WP ]
• Bushwants to widen clandestine operations by Pentagon, specifically in the Middle East and Asia. [ WSJ ]
•Second term agenda has been prepared for months after rigorous study of history. Scholar: "Whatever you think of their agenda, you have to admire their effectiveness. They know they have a year, a year and a half max." [ USAT ]
•Tax reform veterans sayBushneeds to outline goals and move quickly: "The president can get much of what he wants, but he has to use much of this capital he's talked about. He cannot delegate this one. . . He has to bust some heads here." [ WP ]
• Mehlmanwants RNC to "institutionalize this grass-roots focus": "We really are at a very unique moment that we now have, in my opinion, an obligation and an opportunity to seize." [ WT ]
•Senior economic advisor resigns, as expected. [ WP , WSJ , NYT , USAT ]
•NASA takes budgetary win as endorsement of plans. [ NYT ]