Daily Briefing: 'Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality'
•New rules for House ethics panel may paralyze functions;Hastertunder pressure from some Republicans.Mollohan: "We cannot organize a bipartisan House ethics committee with a partisan process." [ NYT , WSJ ]
• Boltonkept information on Iran fromPowell, Rice. [ WP ]
•Ties toAbramoffmay biteRalph Reed. Strategist and friend: "Nobody grows up dreaming of being lieutenant governor." [ NYT ]
• Hagelmay opposeBolton: "We need a uniter. We need a builder." [ LAT ]
• DeLayat NRA gathering: "When a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want to have your friends around, preferably armed. So I feel really good." [ WP ]
• LottonDeLay: "I do think the White House needs to remember that people who fight hard for you as a candidate and for your issues as a president ... deserve your support, aggressive support." [ WT ]
• McCainruffles Pentagon's feathers from Armed Services subcommittee. [ WSJ ]
•Administration's slowness on outreach to Islamic world shows "gap between rhetoric and reality";Hughes, Dina Powellwon't start for months and no Muslims are yet involved. [ WP ]
• Brownstein: "This is a miserable moment for centrist senators. They are caught between a president pursuing an aggressive, even crusading, conservative agenda and a Democratic Party fighting ferociously to block it." [ LAT ]
•Democrats head west to build base. Strategist: "Given the closeness of the presidential vote in New Mexico, Nevada and even Colorado, we don't need to make great inroads." [ LAT ]
•Working poor largely uninterested in private accounts for Social Security.Hubbard: "What [Bush] gets most irritated by is when it is suggested, 'Oh the $10-an-hour person isn't sophisticated enough to deal with a personal retirement account.'" [ WP ]
•Baseball as a metaphor forBush's political life, courtesy ofBumiller. [ NYT ]