Daily Briefing: We Begin Bombing In Five Minutes

•Still not sure why this is considered news: Bushhas "constructive and friendly" talk withPutinabout democracy in Russia: "Vladimirheard me loud and clear."Putinwinks atBush: "I believe that some of his ideas could be taken into account in my work, and I will pay due attention to them, for sure." Fer shur! [ WP , NYT , NYT , USAT , WT ]

• Bushheads home with many strings untied: global warming, agreement over Iran, democracy in Russia. . . [ USAT ]

•Interest in White House press briefings no longer limited to wonks; bloggers and C-SPAN viewers rattle the club. [ WSJ ]

• Specterblames both parties for stalemate over judicial nominations. [ WP , WSJ , NYT , WT ]

•Democrats fault Social Security Administration official for appearing at Republican events.Lautenberg: "The administration is running one of the most sophisticated grassroots lobbying strategies in history, and they are using federal employees and taxpayer dollars to do it." [ NYT ]

• Specter's moderate views and attacks on both parties leave him alone in the center. [ WP ]

• Nader: "The organized antiwar movement took the year off in 2004 out of deference toJohn Kerry. It didn't want to upset his freedom to mimicBush, as he became more of a hawk on the Iraq war." [ WP ]