February 17, 2006
Accord in House to Hold Inquiry on Surveillance
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — Leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that they had agreed to open a Congressional inquiry prompted by the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program. But a dispute immediately broke out among committee Republicans over the scope of the inquiry.

Representative Heather A. Wilson, the New Mexico Republican and committee member who called last week for the investigation, said the review "will have multiple avenues, because we want to completely understand the program and move forward."

But an aide to Representative Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who leads the committee, said the inquiry would be much more limited in scope, focusing on whether federal surveillance laws needed to be changed and not on the eavesdropping program itself.

The agreement to conduct an inquiry came as the Senate Intelligence Committee put off a vote on conducting its own investigation after the White House, reversing course, agreed to open discussions about changing federal surveillance law. Senate Democrats accused Republicans of bowing to White House pressure.

For weeks, the Bush administration has been strongly resisting calls from Democrats and some Republicans for a full review into the National Security Agency's surveillance program, saying such inquiries are unnecessary and risked disclosing national security information that could help Al Qaeda.

Elsewhere on Thursday, a federal judge ordered the administration to begin turning over internal documents on the surveillance program, the Justice Department balked at having John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, and other former department officials testify about it before Congress, and lawyers for a Kentucky man prepared to bring a federal civil rights lawsuit on Friday against President Bush to have the surveillance declared illegal and unconstitutional.

The surveillance, authorized in secret by President Bush soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, has allowed the N.S.A. to eavesdrop on the international phone and e-mail communications of hundreds and perhaps thousands of people within the United States without warrants when the authorities suspect that they might have links to terrorists.

Mr. Hoekstra has been one of the staunchest defenders of the program. But in discussions this week with other Republican and Democratic leaders of the committee, he agreed to have the committee open the inquiry, officials said, after signs that some Republicans on the panel had growing concerns about the operation.

Ms. Wilson said the review would include closed-door briefings by intelligence officials about the operational details of the program, a review of its legality and discussion about whether changes are needed in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which bans eavesdropping in intelligence investigations without a court order.

While the administration agreed under pressure last week to provide limited operational details to the House and Senate intelligence committees, Ms. Wilson said she wanted more information and remained uncertain whether the N.S.A. had the needed safeguards in place to protect against civil rights abuses against Americans.

But Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Mr. Hoekstra, said: "This is not an inquiry into the program. It's a comprehensive review of the FISA statute. " He said Mr. Hoekstra "wants to set up a process to move forward and look at the entire statute and ways to modernize it."

But aides in two other Congressional offices, speaking only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said their understanding of the agreement was that the inquiry would focus in large part on operational details of the surveillance program.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, said the White House had agreed in principle to negotiate on legislation that would give Congress authority to oversee the eavesdropping.

Mr. Roberts used the deal to push off a vote on a plan by Democrats to conduct a full-scale investigation of the program. The senior Democrat on the panel, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, emerged from a closed-door committee meeting fuming and accused Republicans of caving to White House pressure.

"It is apparent to me that the White House has applied heavy pressure in recent weeks to prevent the committee from doing its job," Mr. Rockefeller said. "Although some members of this committee indicate they need more time to decide on what action to take, I believe this is another stalling tactic."

In a sign of the bitter partisan split the potential inquiry has engendered, the Senate panel met behind closed doors for nearly two hours before voting, along party lines, simply to adjourn. Mr. Roberts said that if there was no detailed agreement with the White House by the time of the next committee meeting, on March 7, the panel could take up the issue of an inquiry then.

"The administration is now committed to legislation and has agreed to brief more Intelligence Committee members on the nature of the surveillance program," Mr. Roberts said, adding that "the administration has come a long way in the last month."

Mr. Roberts and other Republicans say they are wary of an investigation into the secret program because providing information to Congress might result in leaks. But Democrats say there is no way to pass legislation involving the program until they have more information about it.

"I don't think it's possible for Congress to produce responsible bipartisan legislation dealing with a program that Congress knows very little about," Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said.

Until now, Mr. Bush has steadfastly resisted the idea of new legislation, arguing that he has the inherent authority to order the wiretaps and that Congress also gave him the power to do so when it authorized him to use military force after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the White House is under increasing pressure from Republicans who are skeptical of that assertion.

Democrats and a growing number of Republicans say the eavesdropping violates the surveillance act, which when it was passed in 1978 created a special intelligence court to oversee domestic wiretapping. They have called for the law to be revamped. On Thursday, Mr. Roberts talked about possible changes in the act without saying what they might be.

The White House is unlikely to agree to bring the wiretapping under the scope of the FISA court, as most Democrats and some Republicans want. Instead, the administration appears interested in a proposal by Senator Mike DeWine, Republican of Ohio, that would explicitly authorize the wiretapping, without court warrants, but create small Congressional subcommittees to oversee it.

Mr. DeWine said that Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, called him Wednesday, on the eve of the expected Intelligence Committee vote, to talk about his legislation, and the White House indicated some support for it.

But the DeWine proposal is unlikely to satisfy other critics of the program, including some Republicans, who say it must be brought within the scope of the intelligence court. Among them is Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who is circulating legislation that would require the court to pass judgment on whether the wiretapping is constitutional.

"Unless they're prepared to have a determination on constitutionality as to their programs, window dressing oversight will not be sufficient," Mr. Specter said.



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Abortion ban rests on Rounds Sioux Falls Argus Leader
The legislation process is over. Now it's up to Gov. Mike Rounds to decide whether he'll sign or veto a bill that would make almost all abortions illegal in South Dakota. The state House of Representatives voted 50-18 on Friday to approve a minor amendment to HB1215, a bill aimed at creating a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. The 50-18 vote came two days after the Senate passed the measure by a 23-12 margin. The bill now goes to Rounds, who vetoed a similar bill two years ago because he feared it would wipe out existing state restrictions on abortion and leave the state with no law while a court battle raged. This time, the Republican governor said he is inclined to sign the bill if he determines that it can save lives. "I've indicated I'm pro-life, and I do believe abortion is wrong, and that we should do everything we can to save lives," Rounds said Friday at a news conference. "If this bill accomplishes that, then I am inclined to sign the bill into law." But Rounds said he doesn't necessarily agree with the "frontal assault" tactic the bill uses in an effort to overturn the decision that legalized abortion. "Personally, I think we will save more lives by continuing to chip away at Roe v. Wade," he said. "Long-term, I think this court is probably more amenable to restricting the impact of Roe v. Wade on a case-by-case basis and an exception-by-exception basis. "But in the meantime, this may satisfy a lot of individuals out there who would like to see if there is one slim chance the court may entertain three years from now a direct assault on Roe v. Wade." A Sioux Falls anti-abortion activist is hopeful that the governor will sign the bill this time, but listening to Rounds' latest statements, she fears a veto could be possible. "Those were all words he used last time," said Leslee Unruh, director of the Alpha Center crisis pregnancy center and president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse.
Background on Roe v. Wade Chicago Tribune
SD Gov. 'Inclined' to Sign Abortion Ban Houston Chronicle
Los Angeles Times - ABC News - New York Times - USA Today - all 1,167 related »

The House's Catholic Democrats Detail Role Religion Plays Washington Post
Still reeling from the attacks on Sen. John F. Kerry's brand of Roman Catholicism during the 2004 presidential race, 55 House Democrats issued a joint statement yesterday on the central role that the Catholic faith plays in their public lives. The signers said they were fed up with being labeled "good Catholics" or "bad Catholics" based on one issue -- abortion. They said their religion infuses their positions on many issues: poverty, war, health care and education. "Some of us are pro-choice and some of us are pro-life," said Rep. William J. Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.). "But we respect each other and we're going to defend each other, because we're all operating in good conscience." The statement stressed that all of the Catholic Democrats share the goal of reducing the incidence of abortion. "We envision a world in which every child belongs to a loving family and agree with the Catholic Church about the value of human life and the undesirability of abortion -- we do not celebrate its practice," the statement said. "Each of us is committed to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and creating an environment with policies that encourage pregnancies to be carried to term." The statement also said that though the Catholic Democrats "seek the Church's guidance and assistance," they "accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas." Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the Catholic Democrats "have decided to stop letting others define us." But Tom McClusky, a Catholic who is acting vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, predicted they would fail. "What is at the core of being Catholic is the life issue, and that's something the pope has never strayed from," he said. "While other issues are important -- such as helping the poor, the death penalty, views on war -- these are things that aren't tenets of the Catholic Church."

Dissatisfaction With Robertson Grows
If evidence is needed that the Rev. Pat Robertson's shoot-from-the-hip approach to world affairs has embarrassed some of his fellow evangelicals, it comes from the recently concluded convention of the National Religious Broadcasters. Robertson, 75, a longtime member of the NRB's board of directors, failed to win reelection despite good odds: He was one of about 36 candidates running for 33 seats, NRB President Frank Wright said. Wright said the elections usually hinge on the relative strength of radio, television and Internet broadcasters, so Robertson might have lost simply because he is a TV guy. But Wright acknowledged that there also was dissatisfaction with Robertson's recent call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his assertion that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was God's punishment for the ceding of land to the Palestinians. "I would say that there was broad dismay with some of Pat's comments and a feeling they were not helpful to Christian broadcasters in general, but by no means was there any broad effort in our association to dissociate ourselves with him," Wright said. Robertson did not reply to calls for comment.

Tammy has three weeks to win John Kerry
Dear Friends,
Tammy Duckworth lost her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down over Iraq. But, she didn't lose an ounce of her courage or her commitment to serve. She knows that it's time for veterans to speak up for a stronger America. That's why Tammy is running for Congress - and her election is right around the corner.

She's seeking the Democratic nomination in the March 21 Illinois primary for the seat being vacated after 32 years by Representative Henry J. Hyde. With your help, Tammy can bring her perspective on Iraq, health care, and other issues to the floor of the Congress. But, you have to act quickly.

Support Iraq war veterans running for Congress
For Tammy and two other Iraq war veterans I will tell you about in a moment, winning won't be easy. You and I both know how Rove-style Republicans treat veterans who speak the truth. They think that men and women who dare to speak up somehow forfeit their right to be honored for their brave service to America. And they've proven time and time again that they won't hesitate to distort a veteran's record, to challenge a veteran's courage, or even to question a veteran's patriotism. I know something firsthand about the Swift Boat-style Republican attack ads of the last election - but you don't have to take my word for it. Just ask John McCain. Ask Max Cleland. Ask Jack Murtha. Your gift today in support of our Keeping America's Promise slate of Iraq war veterans can send a powerful message.

Support Iraq war veterans running for Congress
The other two Iraq war veterans I want you to know about are running in tight congressional races in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania. Patrick Murphy, the working-class son of a police officer, has been deployed twice to serve our nation since 9/11 - first to Bosnia, then to Baghdad. He was a professor at West Point, teaching constitutional law, and we could use his fine intellect and principled character at work in Washington. But, first we have to help him defeat Republican Mike Fitzpatrick, who has been a rubber stamp for George W. Bush and a devoted follower of Tom DeLay.

Support Iraq war veterans running for Congress
Joe Sestak has served America in the White House and on the battlefield. He worked for President Clinton as Director of Defense Policy. And, as a Vice Admiral, he led an Aircraft Carrier Battle Group of 30 ships and 15,000 men and women in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Joe wants to bring the accountability he learned in the military to Congress where it is sorely lacking. You can help him do it by acting right now.

Support Iraq war veterans running for Congress
Tammy Duckworth, Patrick Murphy and Joe Sestak are three brave veterans ready, willing and able to lead America in a new direction if they can count on help from people like you. Tell them that we've got their back. I will do everything I possibly can to make sure they win - and I'm hoping you will do the same.

Support Iraq war veterans running for Congress
Help one of these brave veterans today. Or better still help all three. This isn't just about winning elections - as critical as that is. It's about standing up for people who have stood up for us. And it's about making sure women and men like Tammy, Patrick and Joe know that we'll never forget what they've done for us - and never let them come under attack for daring to speak their mind. I will leave no stone unturned in helping them win. I know you'll do the same.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

Senate GOP Faces Vote to Increase Debt Yahoo! NEWS
Republicans in the Senate face a difficult but necessary vote in coming weeks to allow the Treasury to pad the $8.2 trillion national debt by another $781 billion. The need to increase the legal limit on the debt has Democrats eager to use the debate to blast President Bush and his GOP allies in Congress for their fiscal stewardship. "During this administration, America's debt, that is, the total of the deficits has increased by $3 trillion," said Sen. Max Baucus (news, bio, voting record) of Montana, top Democrat on the Finance Committee. "That's a 40 percent increase in the entire federal debt accrued by our country in its entire history." Treasury officials briefed Senate staff aides Thursday and told them that without an increase in the government's ability to borrow, it would default on obligations for the first time in history sometime during the week of March 20. That is an unthinkable prospect that would roil financial markets and damage the government's credit rating. Although Democrats recognize the need to avoid a default, they aren't likely to provide any votes to increase the borrowing limit. They are not responsible for the fiscal policies that produced it, Democrats argue, especially Bush's landmark $1.4 trillion 2001 tax cut bill. "Every year that passes it becomes more and more apparent what a bankrupt strategy this is," said Sen. Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota, top Democrat on the Budget Committee. Traditionally, when one party controls Congress and the White House, it falls to its members to muster the votes to pass debt limit increases. "It's a vehicle for press releases but at the end of the day everybody knows you've got to do it," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H. "The only other option is to shut the government down, and nobody who's a responsible policy person is going to do that." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has yet to schedule debate on the bill. But if he follows past practice, he'll bring up the bill just before Congress leaves Washington on March 17 for a weeklong recess — when lawmakers are itching to go home and therefore tend to keep their pontificating to a minimum. Conrad, Baucus and Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada wrote Frist on Wednesday, urging him to schedule "a thorough and open public debate" on the debt limit bill. "A substantial increase in the debt burden on American taxpayers is too important a matter to be rushed through the Senate without a complete debate on the current course of U.S. fiscal policy," the Democrats wrote. They vowed to offer a longshot plan to reinstate so-called pay-as-you-go budget rules requiring tax cuts and new benefit programs to be financed by spending cuts or new revenues elsewhere in the budget. Under an obscure House rule, that chamber gets to avoid having to vote on the debt limit if Congress successfully adopts a budget blueprint. So, after passing the budget last April, the House sent the Senate a $781 billion debt limit bill as if it had passed it separately. That bill is the most likely vehicle for the Senate debate, but an alternative measure would be a filibuster-proof bill permitted under fast-track budget rules that limit debate and opportunities to offer amendments. But to go this route would require the House to vote on the bill before it is sent to Bush for his signature, a prospect House GOP leaders are eager to avoid. Frist said he hasn't decided when to schedule the debate other than before the recess begins March 18. The last time Congress voted to increase the debt limit was in November 2004 when it was raised from $7.38 trillion to its current level of $8.18 trillion.
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

Senate Passes Kerry-Snowe Proposal Reversing Some Small Business Cuts Yahoo! NEWS
Today the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan amendment to the budget resolution by Senators
John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Ranking Member and Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, that will add $130 million to the President's budget request for the Small Business Administration (SBA), bringing the agency to a total of $754 million for next year. This compromise amendment was also sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), David Vitter (R-La.), and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Yesterday, Kerry, along with Landrieu and Lieberman, put forward Senate Amendment (No. 3072), that included many of the funding priorities in the compromise and rejected the Bush Administration's proposed cuts to the SBA - which has been slashed by more than 40 percent since President Bush came into office. The Kerry amendment would have increased SBA's budget by $150 million, for a total of $775 million, to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes. The amendment would have prevented the President from raising interest rates on disaster loans, imposing a new fee on loans and venture capital, eliminating microloan programs, and cutting counseling and contracting assistance to women, minorities, veterans, and Native Americans. "There's something wrong in Washington when an Administration that's created record deficits thinks fiscal responsibility means cutting help for small businesses recovering from a disaster," Kerry said. "Small businesses are the engine of our economy, and the SBA's programs routinely generate a return on investment that more than pays for themselves. I am glad my colleagues and I reached a compromise that acknowledges the short-sightedness of the President's budget proposal for small businesses." For the fiscal year 2007 budget, the Kerry-Snowe amendment adds:

• $41 million to prevent the raising of disaster loan interest rates,
• $7 million to prevent imposing an administrative fee on 7a/504/SBIC small business borrowers,
• $2 million to leverage nearly $28 million in program level for Microloans (President Bush eliminated),
• $16.4 million in program level for Microloan Technical Assistance (President Bush eliminated),
• $5 million for PRIME (President Bush eliminated),
• $2.5 million for the New Markets Venture Capital Program (President Bush eliminated),
• $22.9 million to increase funding for SBDC's from $87.1 million to $110 million,
• $4.6 million to increase funding for WBCs from $11.8 million to $16.5 million,
• $1 million to increase funding for the 7(j) Technical Assistance Program from $2 million to $3 million,
• $2.75 million to increase funding for the USEACs from $2.25 million to $5 million,
• $2 million to increase funding for SCORE from $4.95 million to $7 million,
• $1 million for Native American outreach from $1 million to $2 million,
• $10 million for Procurement Center Representatives,
• $750,000 for Veterans Business Development to increase funding from $750,000 to $1.5 million,
• $7.4 million for HUBZones from $2.6 million to $10 million,
• $10,000 for Drug Free Workplace from $990,000 to $1 million, and
• $4 million for SBIR/STTR Technical Assistance (President Bush eliminated).

Kerry fought for more funding in some key programs in his amendment, including $24 million for the New Markets Venture Capital and $15 million for the PRIME programs.

Kerry to Block Bush Pick for Highways Job Yahoo! NEWS
Former presidential candidate John Kerry said Tuesday he will prevent the former head of Boston's $14.6 billion Big Dig, Richard Capka, from becoming head of the Federal Highway Administration. "I'm afraid Richard Capka could be the Brownie of highways," Kerry said, referring to former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, who became the scapegoat for the inept federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Capka, nominated earlier this month by president Bush for the top highway job, was chief executive officer of the Boston highway project from January 2001 to June 2002 until his position was terminated. Though costs rose slightly during his 1 1/2-year tenure, Capka was mostly criticized for his failure to handle the political controversies surrounding the massive project. For example, he approved lucrative severance packages for several Big Dig lawyers. Sen. Kerry, D-Mass., said he will place a hold on Capka's nomination, which would prevent the Senate from considering his nomination. "Why on earth would he get a promotion?" Kerry said. "It looks like the administration is going to repeat a stunning pattern of rewarding people who screw up." Matthew Amorello, chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which manages the still-to-be-completed Big Dig, said Capka had to deal with a difficult political climate in the state. A toll increase to pay for the Big Dig "was dominating public debate here," Amorello said. Kerry remembers the situation differently. "When Capka oversaw Boston's Big Dig, he was fired for massive cost overruns and for giving lucrative severance packages of six months' salary to a bunch of lawyers," Kerry said. Capka later characterized his decision to approve the severance packages for three lawyers as "ill advised." The price tag for the Big Dig was believed to be $14 billion when Capka took the helm, $14.6 billion by the time he left. The project has been plagued by cost overruns, long delays and leaking tunnels. Its cost ballooned from $2.6 billion to $14.6 billion and its completion date moved from 1998 to 2007. Formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project, the Big Dig buried Interstate 93 in tunnels beneath downtown Boston and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport with a third tunnel beneath Boston Harbor. Transportation Department spokesman Robert Johnson said Capka's 30 years of service as a decorated veteran and accomplished civil servant have earned him the praise of Bush and President Clinton. "The issues being raised have been reviewed by the Department of Transportation's inspector general prior to his hiring as deputy administrator at the Federal Highway Administration," Johnson said. "We are certain once Senator Kerry gets the facts he will support Rick Capka's nomination." Capka, a retired brigadier general with the Army Corps of Engineers, became acting administrator of FHWA in August.
On the Net: Federal Highway Administration: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/
By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer
Kerry vows to squash ex-Big Dig boss’ bid for Highway post Boston Herald
Kerry seeks to block Bush's highways nominee CNN
Kerry to block Bush highway pick SouthCoastToday

Congress Boosts Flood Insurance Agency Yahoo! NEWS
Congress has agreed to boost the borrowing power of the federal flood insurance agency, which is fast running out of money needed to meet some 225,000 claims from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The legislation, passed by voice vote in the Senate late Thursday, allows the National Flood Insurance Program to borrow up to $20.8 billion from the Treasury, up from the current ceiling of $18.5 billion. A year ago, before last summer's hurricanes, the borrowing limit was set at $1.5 billion. The measure, approved by the House last month, now goes to the president for his signature. The NFIP, set up in 1968 to help homeowners in flood-vulnerable areas get flood insurance at a reasonable rate, operates within the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It has estimated claims liabilities from Katrina and Rita at $24 billion, more than the total of all claims paid in the history of the program. The agency had said that, without congressional action, it would hit its current borrowing ceiling this month and would have to tell insurance companies that administer claims payments to stop all such payments. The NFIP insures about 4.4 million policyholders in some 20,000 communities across the country. Participating communities must agree to carry out floodplain management and other steps to reduce losses from floods. Also on Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill to improve the financial viability of the NFIP by giving FEMA greater authority to raise rates and increasing fines for non-enforcement of the mandatory purchase requirement. The measure would also increase the program's borrowing authority to $25 billion. The Senate Banking Committee plans to take up a similar measure in the next few weeks. That legislation follows on an act passed by Congress in 2004 to crack down on property owners who file repeated claims for flood damage without relocating or floodproofing their homes.
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

Senate gears up for divisive immigration debate Yahoo! NEWS
U.S. lawmakers begin this week what President George W. Bush says could be a "fractious debate" over border security, his temporary-worker proposal and measures to let some of the 12 million illegal aliens in the United States earn citizenship. The U.S. Senate is expected to take up immigration legislation after lawmakers return from a break. They can expect to be greeted at the Capitol by dozens of clergy wearing handcuffs to protest proposals that will make it a criminal offense to help an illegal alien. At least 200,000 mostly Hispanic demonstrators protested in Los Angeles on Saturday against the proposals, capping a series of smaller demonstrations for immigrant rights in U.S. cities this month. The issue looms large before the November congressional elections and is playing a role in jockeying among potential 2008 presidential candidates. Emotions run high and Americans, including Bush's Republican party, are divided between those who favor curbing illegal immigration through tighter border security and tougher enforcement and those who say it is essential to bring illegal workers out of the shadows with a comprehensive overhaul. "This could be a fractious debate, and I hope it's not," Bush said at a news conference last week. Bush leaves on Wednesday for meetings in Cancun, Mexico with Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has been disappointed by the lack of progress on a U.S. guest-worker program. Immigrant, labor and business groups are pushing comprehensive reform to give some of the illegal aliens who have been living and working in the United States for years a way to legalize their status. "Any immigration reform has to be comprehensive and not mean-spirited," said Jaime Contreras, head of the National Capital Immigration Coalition.

VOTING POWER
Speaking at a news conference with Contreras last week, Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, said, "There are millions of immigrants who have become citizens who are deeply motivated by what is happening to their families and communities and neighbors." "Those immigrants can be expected to vote this November in record numbers," he added. "We can expect them to help turn the tide in this anti-immigrant debate." The Senate Judiciary Committee is rushing to craft comprehensive immigration overhaul that would establish a temporary-worker program and provide a way for illegal immigrants in the country to legalize their status. They are trying to meet a deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and potential presidential contender in 2008. He plans to bring up his own border-security and enforcement legislation this week if the Judiciary Committee fails to produce a compromise. Frist's tough approach mirrors a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Neither includes a guest-worker program or offers a way to legalize the status of illegal workers. Legalizing some of the 12 million undocumented workers is supported by union and business groups. Businesses also back Bush's guest-worker proposal to help fill jobs that Americans do not want or are unable to perform. The Judiciary Committee is set to meet on Monday in hopes of completing legislation that will incorporate elements of a proposal offered by Sens. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, and John McCain, an Arizona Republican who also has presidential ambitions. That compromise would provide a way for some illegal aliens to legalize their status and eventually earn citizenship. Such a bill would anger some conservatives in the House who believe it would reward people for illegal actions. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado joined 70 other House Republicans to oppose a comprehensive approach. In a letter to Senate Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, they said such a bill "would doom any chance" of legislation reaching the president this year.
By Donna Smith

Senate begins key immigration debate Yahoo! NEWS
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday began a pivotal election-year debate on a law to tighten security along the Mexican border and possibly create a path for some of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the country to become citizens. "There are over 11 million people in this country illegally," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, opening the debate. "Congress simply cannot turn a blind eye to this growing number. We need to act." The House of Representatives passed tough legislation last December that defined all illegal aliens and anyone who helped them as felons and provided funds for the construction of 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. "What I think we should do is follow the lead of the House of Representatives," said Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record) of Alabama. "People say that's a harsh bill. It's not a harsh bill. It's a bill designed to make the legal system work." The House bill has awakened fury in the Hispanic community and the opposition of groups as diverse as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Catholic Church. The Senate was expected to center around a bipartisan bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee that included measures to tighten the border but would also create a new guest worker program pushed by President George W. Bush and a way for illegal aliens to eventually become U.S. citizens. With Republicans split between the two approaches, the outcome of the debate, which was expected to last at least until the end of next week, was far from clear. The issue has already split Republicans between those anxious to maintain a flow of cheap labor within the United States and those who would like to reduce both legal and illegal immigration and persuade illegal immigrants already in the country to leave. Senators weighed the issues highly aware that this could be one of the most important votes they cast in the runup to the November mid-term elections and against the backdrop of huge protests across the country by largely Hispanic crowds opposed to the House bill.

ANGRY VOTERS
Many voters, especially in border states, are angry about illegal immigrants who they say are filling their schools, hospitals and prisons. But many sectors of the economy, including agriculture, hotels and restaurants, would collapse without the cheap labor they provide. In an unusual move by Frist, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, senators first turned to the Tennessee Republican's own bill which focuses on tighter border security and ways of stopping illegal immigrants from working but does not include a guest worker program. Senate leaders said the Judiciary Committee's broader reform would be offered during the debate as a substitute to Frist's bill. Hispanic activists and analysts say the Republican split on immigration could sabotage the party's long-range effort to court the country's fastest-growing ethnic group. Democrats generally support the comprehensive bill approved by the Judiciary Committee. But one traditional pro-Democratic group, the AFL-CIO labor federation, opposes the guest worker program. Democrats are counting on labor as they go into next November's congressional elections. "Guest workers programs are a bad idea and harm all workers," AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said in a statement. "They cast workers into a perennial second-class status and unfairly put their fates into their employers' hands, creating a situation ripe for exploitation." Any Senate bill would have to be reconciled with what the House passed and House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested on Wednesday the House could accept a guest worker program to help employers fill jobs Americans do not want or cannot perform. "Our first priority is to protect the border," Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said. "We also know that there's a need in some sectors of the economy for a guest workers' program."
By Donna Smith

Statehouses Take Up Immigration Legislation Yahoo! NEWS
The national push and pull on immigrants' rights is reflected in statehouses from the deep South to northern New England. An avalanche of proposals are under consideration that would cut services to undocumented workers — from education to health care — but some of the most significant recent steps actually help illegal immigrants. So far this year, only one major proposal has passed: Georgia's legislature last week approved what supporters claim would be the nation's toughest anti-immigrant law, limiting state benefits such as non-emergency medical care and unemployment checks to those in the country legally. But recent actions, by law, executive order or court decision, have extended benefits to illegal immigrants in Illinois, New York and Washington state. Even when Arizona voters passed sweeping restrictions on illegal immigrants in 2004, state leaders interpreted the law to scale back the impact. "People talked tough but they did some inclusionary things," said Michael Fix of the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "It seems to me the toxicity is more in the debate than the outcome. But who knows what the future's going to bring." As Congress struggles with how to craft an effective immigration policy, states are in the midst of their own version of the debate. Some of the tougher ideas this year:

• New Hampshire would fine businesses up to $2,500 if they hire workers not authorized to be in the country.
• Arizona would build a wall and spend $50 million on a radar system to track anyone who crosses over from Mexico.
• Georgia would have local police to check the immigration status of everybody they arrest.

Over the past year, other policies have emerged that broaden illegal immigrants' benefits, Fix said. Washington state and Illinois have expanded health care available to poor families, regardless of immigration status. Court decisions in New York extended cash assistance for all the poor. In all, state legislators this year have introduced 368 bills in 42 states tackling immigrant issues, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The majority have sought to make daily life harder for illegal immigrants by limiting access to government-provided services, though some aimed at stopping exploitation. "There's a sense we've lost control of the borders," said Ann Morse, who tracks immigrant legislation at the NCSL. "States are caught in the crossfire between Congress and the public, showing ways they can respond to the problem." In Nebraska, state Sen. Ray Aguilar sponsored a measure to extend in-state tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants who live in Nebraska, and says he has the support to get it passed. Next year, he hopes to pass a law that would let undocumented workers get a driver's certificate — not a license — so they can drive to work. "We try to figure out how to assimilate the people, and when you do that you deal with a lot of the problems," said Aguilar, a Republican and the grandson of Mexican immigrants who, he believes, moved here legally. He is on an interstate committee of legislators studying immigration issues. Earlier this month they visited Nogales, Ariz., to see the challenges on the border first hand. In Arizona, state Rep. Russell Pearce has been a vocal and insistent proponent of laws and rules that would stem the flow of illegal immigrants, pushing for a wall, a radar system and money so that local law enforcement could jail the immigrants they catch. "Enough is enough is enough," said Pearce, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "How can you come to this country and expect to have a right to free stuff? It's just like breaking into my house." His stance is echoed far from the Mexican border, where the New Hampshire Senate targeted businesses that rely on illegal immigrants, approving a measure this month to require companies to register their workers and prove they are legal, with fines for businesses who violate the law. New Hampshire Sen. Dick Green, a Republican sponsor, said that would provide hard numbers — or could also make the state less hospitable to illegal immigrants. "If that has a side effect of them going elsewhere, then other states are going to have to deal with it," he said. "Either is O.K."
On the Web: Migration Policy Institute: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/
National Conference of State Legislatures: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/immig/index.htm
By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer

Bush Pushes Congress to OK Immigrants Yahoo! NEWS
With Mexican President Vicente Fox at his side, President Bush gave Congress a long-distance push Thursday to open the United States to immigrant workers who have been sneaking across the borders to fill low-paying jobs. "We don't want people sneaking into our country that are going to do jobs that Americans won't do," Bush said at the end of a private meeting with Fox, where the issue was on top of the agenda. "We want them coming in in an orderly way, which will take pressure off both our borders." The meeting between the Mexican and U.S. leaders came on the first day of a two-day North American summit that also includes Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper, meeting with Bush for the first time since taking office two months ago with the promise of building stronger ties with Washington, said the two countries are moving past their "tension" over Iraq. Still, he took a combative stance on their long-standing dispute over U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, saying Canada would "pursue all its legal options" if he and Bush can't work out an agreement. But it was the immigration debate, which has dominated the U.S. Senate this week, that took center stage in talks conducted in a beachfront resort surrounded by bikini-clad spring breakers. A new immigration law could affect as many as 6 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States — about half of all those who are estimated to have sneaked in from other countries seeking new opportunities they can't find at home. Bush is pushing for a guest worker program that would let foreigners in low-paying jobs stay temporarily, which Fox says is a good first step toward some form of legal status for all Mexican illegal immigrants. The issue has united the two leaders, whose friendship dates back to Bush's time as Texas governor but was strained over Fox's objections to the war in Iraq. But immigration has divided Bush's Republican party, with business interests who want cheap labor battling conservatives who want a get-tough policy against illegal immigrants. Fox suggested the issue is largely out of their hands now. "The matter is in the Congress of the United States and that is where the decision will be made," Fox said. "It is no longer between President Bush and President Fox." But both leaders were clearly trying to sway the debate. "I told the president there is a legislative process that's going forward," Bush said. "And that it may look cumbersome to some, but that's how our democracy works." Bush added, "I'm optimistic that we can get a bill done." The summit included plenty of time to be neighborly. The three leaders dressed casually in open-collared shirts and strolled together among the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza before sitting down for more intense one-on-one meetings. Fox laid on a lavish dinner for his guests. After spending the morning sightseeing, Bush had a few hours off before the formal meetings began. He used part of the time to work up a sweat in his hotel's gym. There was tight security despite the fun-loving atmosphere generated by college students who have flocked to Cancun for spring break. Gunboats patrolled the turquoise waters off Bush's spa resort, and fencing kept out all but hotel guests. "I'd like to make sure you work more than you play," Bush joked to reporters. The trilateral meeting was expected to be Fox's last, since he is set to leave office this year because of term limits. Bush lauded Fox for stabilizing the Mexican economy and improving the net worth of his people. "That's important for the American economy as well," Bush said. "The more net worth there is in Mexico, the more likely it is the Mexican may be wanting to buy a U.S. product. And vice versa, by the way." In his meeting with Harper, Bush sought to make the newly elected leader look good at home, making it a point to stress how hard the Canadian leader had pressed him on the softwood lumber issue. Harper "made an emphatic case," Bush said. "I appreciate his steely resolve to get something done," the president said. "I appreciate your pushing." But Bush didn't give Harper much of substance, saying only that "my intent is to negotiate in good faith and a timely fashion to resolve this issue."
On the Net:
U.S. Trade Representative: http://www.ustr.gov
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Senate panel set to consider bid to censure Bush Yahoo! NEWS
Former White House counsel John Dean, who helped push President Richard Nixon from office during the Watergate scandal three decades ago, heads to Capitol Hill on Friday to back an uphill attempt to censure President George W. Bush. Dean, author of a book about Bush titled "Worse than Watergate," was to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of a resolution to rebuke Bush for a domestic spying program introduced secretly after the September 11 attacks. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, introduced the resolution earlier this month. He argues that the program, which allows eavesdropping on international telephone calls and e-mails involving Americans when one party is suspected of links with terrorism, violates the law because it is conducted without court warrants. Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, contends there are no grounds for censure, but has agreed to hold the hearing to debate the matter. "I think that there's absolutely no merit in it, and that the hearing will expose it because of the president's broad (constitutional) authority," Specter said. Feingold's censure resolution has rallied the support of a number of liberal groups, but it has also galvanized conservatives in support of the embattled war-time president. Republicans have dismissed the resolution as a political stunt, while many Democrats have distanced themselves from it as they jockey for position for the November congressional elections. So far, just two of Feingold's 43 fellow Senate Democrats, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California, have co-sponsored his resolution. Nixon became the first president to resign from office in August 1974 after a congressional impeachment investigation aided by Dean, who had earlier been his White House counsel. The Judiciary Committee will decide whether to send the censure resolution against Bush to the Republican-led Senate where it seems to have virtually no chance of being approved. The Senate has censured a president, which amounts to a formal rebuke, only once before and that was Andrew Jackson in 1834 in a banking dispute. Dean was one of five witnesses called to testify before the Judiciary Committee -- two by Democrats, three by Republicans.

Immigration debate awakens Latino youth Yahoo! NEWS
U.S. immigration reform may spark political activism among Latino youth in California who see plans to tighten borders as an attack on their identity. Tens of thousands of California Latino high schoolers have cut classes, marched through cities and blocked roads to protest against the reforms. The immigration debate in a divided U.S. Congress and across Latino communities could awaken political activism of Hispanic youth in a region that can tilt the California governor's election this year and the outcome of the 2008 presidential race. "I'm here to represent La Raza (The Race)," said Geraldo Novelo, 16, a junior at Belmont High School who was draped with the Mexican flag as he marched on Los Angeles City Hall. The students were reacting to a bill proposed by Republicans and passed by the House of Representatives last December that tightens border security and makes felons out of the undocumented or those who aid them. It also calls for construction of a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border. An estimated 12 million immigrants are illegal and southern California's healthy economy is a magnet for many of them. "Why are we here protesting? Because it's not fair," said another Belmont junior Laura Lopez. "Americans aren't going to be able to do anything without us. We're the ones who are doing the hard work. We're the farmers. Immigrants are doing the work." The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee passed a competing bipartisan bill that would provide a path to citizenship for immigrants who pay taxes, learn English and abide by the law. That bill should go to the Senate floor next week and will have to be reconciled with the House legislation. Up on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, a student speaker with a bullhorn urged fellow teens to foster change by supporting candidates who agree with them on immigration. In response, the crowd chanted "Si, se puede" (Yes, we can) and waved Mexican flags in the city with the second largest Mexican population behind Mexico City. Yes, they can, but they have a long way to go to become a serious political force, said Louis DeSipio, professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine. "It has the potential to be a foundation for expanded voter turnout and other forms of civic activism but that will require more than just a single weekend or a single week of activism," said DeSipio.

'SLAP IN THE FACE'
At 18, Jefferson High senior Raul Preciado was one of the few students at city hall last Monday old enough to vote. But he cannot. He is not a citizen and neither are his parents, who emigrated from Tijuana when he was 4. "I wish more students were involved," said Preciado, who has applied to six Ivy League schools. "At my high school, students are not that politically active. It seems they don't care. This one issue has brought out a lot of passion in them. It's a slap in the face maybe. It's personal." President George W. Bush, mindful of the growing clout of Hispanic voters, has pushed hard for a guest worker program that would allow immigrants to stay in the country while applying for permanent residency. But many in his Republican party are more hard-line and appear to be undermining years of determined political courtship of Hispanics, the nation's largest minority, numbering more than 40 million. That figure is projected to more than double by 2050. Preciado says that if given the chance to vote one day, he is not sure if he would be a Republican or a Democrat, but if he were registering today, the answer is clear. "On these (immigration) issues, the Republicans are more right wing and say, 'Let's get rid of the immigrants,' so I am more in line with the Democrats."
By Bernie Woodall

DeLay calls it quits Yahoo! NEWS
Republican Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the House of Representatives' fallen majority leader, is calling it quits in face of mounting legal problems and a tough re-election campaign that may have been unwinnable. Twelve years after helping Republicans capture control of the House, DeLay, nicknamed "The Hammer" for his hardball political tactics, is ending his bid for a 12th term and will leave Congress as early as next month, party aides said. While DeLay had predicted he would be cleared of any wrongdoing, his concern about losing his House seat to Democrats in November was a chief reason he decided to step down, aides said. "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with negative personal campaign," DeLay said in a videotaped statement released after he informed House Republican leaders of his decision on Monday. "My love for the Republican Party has played no small part in this decision," he said, adding he wanted a House race in his district based on issues "not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me." "After many weeks of personal, prayerful thinking and analysis, I have come to the conclusion that it's time to close this public service chapter of may life," DeLay said. DeLay's decision highlights the problems faced by
President George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in the scandal-rocked Congress. "Tom DeLay's announcement is just the beginning of the reckoning of the Republican culture of corruption that has gripped Washington for too long," Democratic Party spokeswoman Karen Finney said. DeLay informed his staff and House Republican leaders of his decision on Monday -- at about the same time he discussed his plans in an interview with Time magazine. "I'm very much at peace with it," said DeLay, 58. The magazine said DeLay, who pushed much of Bush's agenda through Congress, also notified the president, who had been one of his most ardent backers.

WIDENING SCANDAL
DeLay, who was rebuked by the House ethics committee on three separate matters in 2004, stepped down as House majority leader in September after being indicted in Texas on campaign finance charges. Separately, a second one of DeLay's former aides pleaded guilty last week in the widening Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. Abramoff has also been cooperating in the probe into whether members of Congress gave his clients favorable treatment in exchange for campaign contributions, Super Bowl tickets and other gifts. Democrats have sought to make DeLay a face of what they call a Republican "culture of corruption" as they seek to win back control of Congress in the November elections. Last month, DeLay beat three Texas Republican primary foes. But he faced what promised to be a tougher challenge in November from Democrat Nick Lampson, a former House member. In an interview with Reuters shortly before the primary, DeLay said, "You never know how well an election will go for an indicted person." "Getting beat up by the national media and the Houston Chronicle has taken its toll," DeLay said. "It's polarized my district, you either love me or hate me. Thank God there are still more that love me." It was not immediately clear if there would be a special election to replace DeLay or if his replacement would be selected in the November contest. DeLay, former owner of a pest control company, came to the House in 1985 and rose quickly through the ranks, earning a reputation as a master vote-counter and prolific fund-raiser. In 1994, DeLay was part of "The Republican Revolution" that saw his party win control of the House for the first time in 40 years. He then got the job of House majority whip, making him the chamber's third ranking Republican. He was elected House majority leader in 2002.
By Thomas Ferraro

DeLay Announces Resignation From House Yahoo! NEWS
Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday he is resigning from Congress, a move that closes out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style. The Texas Republican, first elected in 1984, conceded that he faced a difficult race for re-election. He said was "looking forward to being liberated outside the House, doing whatever I can to unify the conservative cause." Republicans said they expected DeLay to resign later this spring. "He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year. But Democrats said the developments marked more than the end to one man's career in Congress. DeLay called President Bush on Monday and the two talked while the president was flying on Air Force One on his way back from Cincinnati, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday. "The president thanked him for his service and all that he accomplished and wished him all the best," McClellan said. "Congressman DeLay has been a good ally whom the president has worked very closely with." Asked whether Bush tried to talk him out of it, McClellan said, "This is a decision that Congressman DeLay made and we respect his decision." DeLay blamed "liberal Democrats" for making his re-election campaign largely a negative one. "The voters of the 22nd district of Texas deserve a campaign about the vital national issues that they care most about and that affect their lives every day and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me," he said. DeLay denied his decision to give up his re-election bid and leave the House has anything to do with the conviction of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "The Abramoff affair has nothing to do with me," DeLay said on Fox. DeLay relinquished the post as House majority leader last fall after his indictment in Texas as part of an investigation into the allegedly illegal use of funds for state legislative races. He decided in January against trying to get the leadership post back as an election-year corruption scandal staggered Republicans and emboldened minority Democrats. More recently, former DeLay aide Tony Rudy said he had conspired with Abramoff and others to corrupt public officials, and he promised to help the broad federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that already has resulted in three convictions. Neither Rudy, Abramoff nor anyone else connected with the investigation has publicly accused DeLay of breaking the law, but Rudy confessed that he had taken actions while working in the majority leader's office that were illegal. DeLay has consistently denied all wrongdoing, and he capped a triumph in a contested GOP primary earlier this year with a vow to win re-election. "I know that the left has used it to try to brand me with guilt by association, but I have always served honorably and ethically," DeLay said. "I've never broken the law or the spirit of the law or even a House rule." It was not clear whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry would call a special election to fill out the unexpired portion of DeLay's term, or whether the seat would remain vacant until it is filled in November. Either way, DeLay's concern about the potential loss of a Houston-area seat long in Republican hands reflected a deeper worry among GOP strategists. After a dozen years in the majority, they face a strong challenge from Democrats this fall, at a time when President Bush's public support is sagging, and when the Abramoff scandal has helped send congressional approval ratings tumbling. Until scandal sent him to the sidelines, DeLay had held leadership posts since the Republicans won control of the House in a 1994 landslide. At first, he had to muscle his way to the table, defeating then-Speaker Newt Gingrich's handpicked candidate to become whip. But DeLay quickly established himself as a forceful presence — earning a nickname as "The Hammer" — and he easily became majority leader when the spot opened up. And while he was a conservative, he raised millions of dollars for the campaigns of fellow House Republicans regardless of their ideology, earning their gratitude in the process. He supported tax cuts, limits on abortions, looser government regulation of business and other items on the conservative agenda, and he rarely backed down. DeLay was the driving force behind
President Clinton's impeachment in 1999, weeks after Republicans lost seats at the polls in a campaign in which they tried to make an issue of Clinton's personal behavior. His trademark aggressiveness helped trigger his downfall, when he led a drive to redraw Texas' congressional district boundaries to increase the number of seats in GOP hands. The gambit succeeded, but DeLay was soon caught up in an investigation involving the use of corporate funds in the campaigns of legislators who had participated in the redistricting.
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

US should set two deadlines leading to Iraq pullout: John Kerry Yahoo! NEWS
The United States should set a May 15 deadline for Iraqis to form a unity government and then plan to withdraw its troops by year's end, Democratic Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry said in commentary published in The New York Times."If Iraqis aren't willing to build a unity government in the five months since the election, they're probably not willing to build one at all. The civil war will only get worse, and we will have no choice anyway but to leave," Kerry said. Joining a growing chorus criticizing the US-led occupation of Iraq, Kerry said it was "immoral ... to engage in the same delusion" as in Vietnam, where half of the US casualties occurred "after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work." Kerry described the current situation as "the third war in Iraq in as many years. "The first was against Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. The second was against terrorists whom, the administration said, it was better to fight over there than here. Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war." Iraqi leaders so far "have responded only to deadlines -- a deadline to transfer authority to a provisional government, and a deadline to hold three elections," Kerry said. "Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military." "If Iraq's leaders succeed in putting together a government, then we must agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by year's end," Kerry said. To get things rolling, Kerry suggested bringing all the leaders of Iraqi factions together "in a neutral setting" where, working with US allies, the Arab League and the United Nations, they "would be compelled to reach a political agreement." Kerry dismissed the US government's reluctance to put pressure on the Iraqis for fear of making things worse. "In fact, terrible things are happening now because we haven't gotten tough enough. With two deadlines, we can change all that," said the senator from Massachusetts.
Kerry calls for Iraqi pullout; 3 in House GOP urge a debate The Philadelphia Inquirer
US should set two deadlines leading to Iraq pullout: John Kerry Khaleej Times

Senate immigration overhaul in doubt Yahoo! NEWS
A U.S. Senate compromise on an overhaul of immigration law appeared to get bogged down late on Thursday in the face of opposition by some Republicans who say it would give amnesty to lawbreakers. It appeared unlikely the Senate would approve before a two-week congressional break on Friday the radical immigration reform that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance to earn U.S. citizenship. The bill's backers expressed fear that failure to enact the legislation before lawmakers leave for their spring break could hurt its chances in a congressional election year. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada earlier hailed a "breakthrough" on the compromise bill that would include a guest worker program sought by President George W. Bush. But the two leaders were unable to agree on how many amendments to the bill would be allowed. Frist later accused Democrats of trying to block the bill by refusing to allow amendments. Democrats said they wanted to protect the bill from being "gutted" by Republicans opposed the bill. "Republicans are still deeply divided on this issue, and we must protect this from those senators bent on gutting the bill with hostile amendments," said Reid. The congressional debate over how to deal with an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants has sparked large protests in many U.S. cities against a crackdown and more demonstrations are planned in 10 cities on Monday. The Senate is considering a compromise that would allow illegal immigrants who have been in the United States more than five years, about seven to eight million people, a chance to become citizens if they pay a fine, pay their taxes, and meet other requirements such as learning English.

BUSH CALLS FOR QUICK PASSAGE
Bush said earlier he was encouraged by the compromise and urged quick passage of the legislation. The Mexican government in a statement called the agreement "an important step toward to establishing new mechanisms that permit legal, safe and ordered migration which respects human rights." Any Senate bill still has to be merged with a House of Representatives version that focuses on border security and enforcement and makes it a felony, instead of a civil offense, to be in the country illegally. It also calls for constructing a fence along parts of the U.S. border with Mexico. A number of conservative House Republicans also oppose Senate provisions that would give illegal immigrants a chance at legal status and citizenship. "I do not believe a plan of this nature can pass the House," said Rep. Thomas Tancredo, a Colorado Republican. The compromise also drew opposition from the AFL-CIO labor federation which said it would drive down wages for all workers and fail to treat all illegal immigrants equally. The Senate bill would allow some three million illegal immigrants who had been in the United States less than five years but more than two years to apply for a work visa. But they would have to travel to a U.S. port of entry to get it. Illegal immigrants who had lived in the country less than two years, roughly 1.5 million, would have to leave to apply for a visa to re-enter.
By Donna Smith

Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak Yahoo! NEWS
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized Cheney's top aide to launch a counterattack of leaks against administration critics on Iraq by feeding intelligence information to reporters, according to court papers citing the aide's testimony in the CIA leak case. In a court filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stopped short of accusing Cheney of authorizing his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, to leak the CIA identity of Valerie Plame. But the prosecutor, detailing the evidence he has gathered, raised the possibility that the vice president was trying to use Plame's CIA employment to discredit her husband, administration critic Joseph Wilson. Cheney, according to an indictment against Libby, knew that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA as early as June 12, 2003, more than a month before that fact turned up in a column by Robert Novak. Fitzgerald quoted Libby as saying he was authorized to tell New York Times reporter Judith Miller that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium. Fitzgerald said Libby told him it "was the only time he recalled in his government experience when he disclosed a document to a reporter that was effectively declassified by virtue of the president's authorization that it be disclosed." The process was so secretive that other Cabinet-level officials did not know about it, according to the court papers, which point to Bush and Cheney as setting in motion a leak campaign to the press that ended in Plame's blown cover. In 2003, when the public furor erupted over the disclosure of a CIA operative's status, Bush said he wanted to get to the bottom of the affair. "I want to know the truth," he said at the time. Libby's testimony puts the president and the vice president in the awkward position of authorizing leaks. Both men have long said they abhor such practices, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations at their behest to hunt down leakers. The most recent instance is the administration's probe into who disclosed to the Times the existence of the warrantless domestic surveillance program. On Thursday, Democrats criticized the roles of Bush and Cheney. Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House would have no comment on the investigation. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the president has the "inherent authority to decide who should have classified information." Libby faces trial next January on five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about how he learned of the CIA identity of Wilson's wife and what he told reporters about it. The indictment says Cheney told Libby in June 2003 that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. The authorization by Bush and Cheney in July 2003 for disclosing sensitive prewar intelligence assessments came amid a growing public realization that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. The failure to find such weapons undermined the primary rationale Bush and Cheney had used for taking the country to war. According to Fitzgerald's court filing, Cheney, in a conversation with Libby, expressed concerns on whether a CIA-sponsored trip to the African nation of Niger by Wilson "was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife." After Wilson's 2002 trip, the former ambassador said he had concluded that Iraq did not have an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The subsequent embrace of information that Iraq and Niger did have a deal for uranium was evidence that the administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat, Wilson said. Wilson's public criticism on July 6, 2003, "was viewed in the office of vice president as a direct attack on the credibility of the vice president, and the president, on a matter of signal importance: the rationale for the war in Iraq," Fitzgerald stated. In the court filing, drawn in part from Libby's own grand jury testimony before his indictment, Fitzgerald indicated that:

• A July 8, 2003, Libby conversation with the Times' Miller occurred "only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information" from a then-classified intelligence estimate on Iraq. Libby is alleged to have mentioned the CIA status of Wilson's wife in the conversation.
• Cheney's chief of staff at first told the vice president that he could not have the July 8, 2003, conversation with Miller because of the classified nature of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.
• Libby "testified that the vice president later advised him that the president had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions" of the NIE.
• The White House aide testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then counsel to the vice president, "whom defendant considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document."
• Cheney's then-chief of staff "understood that the vice president specifically selected him to talk to the press about the NIE and Mr. Wilson on July 12, 2003." In conversations that day with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and again with Miller, Libby referred to the CIA status of Wilson's wife.

Fitzgerald's court papers are an effort to limit Libby's demand that he be given voluminous amounts of classified information to defend himself in his criminal case.
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

Bush, GOP Approval Ratings Hit New Lows Yahoo! NEWS
President Bush's approval ratings hit a series of new lows in an AP-Ipsos poll that also shows Republicans surrendering their advantage on national security — grim election-year news for a party struggling to stay in power. Democratic leaders predicted they will seize control of one or both chambers of Congress in November. Republicans said they feared the worst unless the political landscape quickly changes. "These numbers are scary. We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said. "The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one." There is more at stake than the careers of GOP lawmakers. A Democratic-led Congress could bury the last vestiges of Bush's legislative agenda and subject the administration to high-profile investigations of the Iraq war, the CIA leak case, warrantless eavesdropping and other matters. In the past two congressional elections, Republicans gained seats on the strength of Bush's popularity and a perception among voters that the GOP was stronger on national security than Democrats. Those advantages are gone, according to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted this week for The Associated Press by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

• Just 36 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, his lowest-ever rating in AP-Ipsos polling. By contrast, the president's job approval rating was 47 percent among likely voters just before Election Day 2004 and a whopping 64 percent among registered voters in October 2002.
• Only 40 percent of the public approves of Bush's performance on foreign policy and the war on terror, another low-water mark for his presidency. That's down 9 points from a year ago. Just before the 2002 election, 64 percent of registered voters backed Bush on terror and foreign policy.
• Just 35 percent of the public approves of Bush's handling of Iraq, his lowest in AP-Ipsos polling.

"He's in over his head," said Diane Heller, 65, a Pleasant Valley, N.Y., real estate broker and independent voter. As bad as Bush's numbers may be, Congress' are worse. Just 30 percent of the public approves of the GOP-led Congress' job performance, and Republicans seem to be shouldering the blame. By a 49-33 margin, the public favors Democrats over Republicans when asked which party should control Congress. That 16-point Democratic advantage is the largest the party has enjoyed in AP-Ipsos polling. On an issue the GOP has dominated for decades, Republicans are now locked in a tie with Democrats — 41 percent each — on the question of which party people trust to protect the country. Democrats made their biggest national security gains among young men, according to the AP-Ipsos poll, which had a 3 percentage point margin of error. The public gives Democrats a slight edge on what party would best handle Iraq, a reversal from Election Day 2004. "We're in an exceptionally challenging electoral environment," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a former GOP strategist. "We start off on a battlefield today that is tilted in their direction, and that's when you have to use the advantages you have." Those include the presidential "bully pulpit" and the "structural, tactical advantages" built into the system, Cole said. One of those advantages is a political map that is gerrymandered to put House incumbents in relatively safe districts, meaning Democrats have relatively few opportunities to pick up the 15 seats they need to gain control. In the Senate, the Democrats need to pick up six seats. "I think we will win the Congress," Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said, breaking the unwritten rule against raising expectations. Strategists in both parties say it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for Democrats to seize control of Congress. First, the elections would need to be nationalized. Democrats hope to do that with a burgeoning ethics scandal focused on relationships between GOP lobbyists and lawmakers. Secondly, the public would need to be in a throw-the-bums-out mood. It's unclear whether that is the case, but 69 percent of Americans believes the nation is headed in the wrong direction — the largest percentage during the Bush presidency and up 13 points from a year ago. Third, staunch GOP voters would need to stay home. Nobody can predict whether that will happen, but a growing number of Republicans disagree with their leaders in Washington about immigration, federal spending and other issues. Bush's approval rating is down 12 points among Republicans since a year ago. Six-in-10 Republicans said they disapproved of the GOP-led Congress.
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

Bush role alleged in leak of Iraq intelligence San Francisco Chronicle
Detailed evidence has emerged for the first time suggesting that President Bush played a direct role in authorizing a selective, surreptitious leak of information from a highly classified national security document to rebut critics of the war in Iraq. Bush has long complained about inappropriate disclosures of sensitive intelligence information, and there is no suggestion that he broke the law, because experts say the president has the legal authority to declassify information. But critics said the disclosures, made public in a court filing in Washington related to the CIA leak case, appear to show Bush doing something he has repeatedly decried: trying to manipulate public opinion by quietly leaking information to the press behind a veil of anonymity. According to the filing, Vice President Dick Cheney told a top aide that Bush had authorized the release of information supporting the administration's claim that Saddam Hussein had sought nuclear weapons materials in the African nation of Niger. "I served for 13 years on the House Intelligence Committee, and I know intelligence must never be classified or declassified for political purposes," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. "One of the constants in the Bush administration's miserable record on Iraq has been the manipulation of intelligence precisely for political purposes. That has caused our intelligence -- which used to be accepted without question around the world -- to be viewed with skepticism by the international community." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said that if the assertions in the filing are accurate, they suggest a deliberate attempt to shore up support for the war not through open public debate, but by clever manipulation of opinion. "It is deeply disturbing to learn that President Bush may have authorized the selective disclosure of our most sensitive intelligence information to the media to help justify a war and discredit critics," Feinstein said in a statement. "We're not commenting on an ongoing legal proceeding," Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, said Thursday. Bush has repeatedly denounced the leaks that are a trademark of inside-the-Beltway politics. In September 2003, for example, he said: "There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch, there's leaks in the legislative branch, there's just too many leaks. I want -- and if there's a leak out of the administration, I want to know who it is. And if a person has violated law, the person will be taken care of." Steven Aftergood, head of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, which monitors issues related to classified intelligence, said the court filing showed not that the Bush White House is different from its predecessors, but that it is the same -- in spite of occasional White House protests that leaks can threaten national security. "It highlights the arbitrary and self-serving character of classification policy," Aftergood said. "It can be used as an instrument of political advantage rather than for national security. Needless to say, it's hypocritical for an administration that frequently complains about leaks." The disclosures were made in a 39-page motion filed late Wednesday night in Washington by Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the criminal case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff. Libby was indicted last year on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in connection with the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA official, Valerie Wilson, in 2003. Wilson, who also has been referred to by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who had been sent by the administration before the war to investigate reports that Iraq had been trying to purchase uranium ore from Niger to produce nuclear weapons. In his January 2003 State of the Union address, Bush had cited the reported efforts to purchase the ore as part of his justification for the war against Iraq, which started two months later. In July 2003, Joseph Wilson went public with his findings that the claims about the Iraqi efforts appeared to be false, and he harshly criticized the administration's rationale for attacking Iraq: that Hussein supposedly had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Shortly afterward, columnist Robert Novak disclosed that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, citing unnamed "administration sources," a possible violation of the law because she had been a covert operative. The president, among others, condemned the disclosure of her identity. McClellan said in September 2003, "If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." Libby has acknowledged that he spoke with reporters from the New York Times, Time magazine and NBC. He said in his grand jury testimony that he discussed with some of them assertions in a highly classified 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that Iraq was trying to buy the uranium ore and build nuclear weapons, but that he did not disclose Valerie Wilson's identity. He said the reporters told him about her identity, not the other way around -- which Fitzgerald charged was a lie. Libby has also said he was not a source for Novak's column. In the recent filing, Fitzgerald provides a more extensive explanation of why Libby allegedly made the disclosures, suggesting the White House, and especially Cheney, were deeply anxious about the allegations from Joseph Wilson and others that Bush had inflated the threat from Hussein. After Baghdad fell, the United States found no credible weapons programs in Iraq. Libby testified that Cheney instructed him to leak information to the press from the intelligence estimate about Iraq's attempts to buy uranium, in order to shore up the administration's credibility. Libby leaked the information to a reporter, the filing adds, "only after the vice president advised the defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information" from the National Intelligence Estimate. The prosecutor's filing also says White House documents suggest that Libby's leaks to the press "could be characterized as reflecting a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." The motion does not suggest that Bush played any role in the leak of Valerie Wilson's identity.

Link to president
What happened: Court papers were filed that say Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence about Iraq. What it means: Libby's testimony, if true, would put the president and vice president in the awkward position of hav- ing authorized leaks -- a practice both men have long said they abhor. Reaction: Bush's political foes jumped to the attack.
Libby links Bush to leaks of classified information Contra Costa Times
Libby: Bush authorized leak of Iraq intelligence Houston Chronicle
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Senior Republican to Bush: say "exactly what happened" Yahoo! NEWS
A leading Republican urged President George W. Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened" in a leak of information aimed at countering criticism of his reasons for taking America to war in Iraq. The president, whose popularity is slumping, is on the defensive because of a prosecutor's disclosure that Bush authorized a former top official, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share intelligence data on Iraq in 2003 with a reporter to defend his decision to invade Iraq. Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Sunday that "there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, speaking from Cartagena, Colombia. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has insisted that Bush had the authority to declassify intelligence and rejected charges from Democrats that he did so selectively for political purposes. But Specter urged Bush to address the topic himself. "I think that it is necessary for the president and the vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," he said. "There has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President (Dick) Cheney did, what the president said to him, and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated," said Specter. "The president has justifiably criticized the Congress for leaking and, of course, the White House has leaked." The case is rooted in an investigation in which Libby, Cheney's former top aide, is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked the identity of then-CIA officer Valerie Plame. According to court papers made public last week, Libby testified to a federal grand jury that Cheney had told him Bush authorized him to give secret information to a New York Times reporter. Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, said the administration leaked his wife's identity in retaliation for his assertion that the president knowingly gave the American people information about Iraq's alleged nuclear program that U.S. intelligence services knew was untrue. Wilson, speaking on ABC television's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of Bush and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said. Inspectors who scoured Iraq after the U.S. invasion failed to find any signs of a nuclear program.
By Diane Bartz

Specter: Bush, Cheney Should Explain Roles Yahoo! NEWS
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should speak publicly about their involvement in the CIA leak case so people can understand what happened, a leading Republican senator said Sunday. "We ought to get to the bottom of it so it can be evaluated, again, by the American people," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a federal court filing last week, the prosecutor in the case said Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from a classified document that detailed intelligence agencies' conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Saturday that Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Libby be the one to disseminate the information. "I think that it is necessary for the president and vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," Specter told "Fox News Sunday." "I do say that there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people ... about exactly what he did," Specter said. Libby faces trial, likely in January, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury and investigators about what he told reporters about CIA officer Valerie Plame. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald did not say in the filing that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame's identity, and Bush is not accused of doing anything illegal. "The president may be entirely in the clear, and it may turn out that he had the authority to make the disclosures which were made," Specter said. But, he added, "it was not the right way to go about it because we ought not to have leaks in government." The investigation is looking into whether Plame's identify was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic. Wilson had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who ran against Bush for president in 2004, said it was wrong for Bush to declassify information selectively "in order to buttress phony arguments to go to war " and to attack people politically. "This was not a declassification in order to really educate America. This was a declassification in order to mislead America," Kerry said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "I think it's a disgrace." Wilson said Sunday that Bush and Cheney should release transcripts of their interviews with Fitzgerald. "It seems to me that first and foremost, the White House needs to come clean on this matter," Wilson said on ABC's "This Week." "My own view of this is that the White House owes the American people and particularly our service people who have been sent into war, an apology for having misrepresented the facts." The lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Bush instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details about disseminating the intelligence to him. The lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House, said Cheney chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide. It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. "There has to be a detailed explanation as to precisely what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him and an explanation by the president as to what he said," Specter said.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Poll: Immigration High on List of Concerns Yahoo! NEWS
People are now about as likely to mention immigration as the economy when they are asked to name the most important problem facing the United States, though both rank behind war in Iraq and elsewhere, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Immigration's rise in the latest survey about the nation's top problems suggests the public is keeping close watch on the immigration debate in Congress and reaction around the country. "Nobody is happy about the war, but the war is far away — the immigration issue is right here," said Dagmar Washington, a nurse from the Atlanta suburbs. Efforts in the Senate to pass sweeping immigration legislation faltered Friday, leaving in doubt the prospects for passage of a measure that offered the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally. The rise in public concern about immigration over the last three months has been substantial. When people were asked this past week to name the top national problem that came to mind, 13 percent said immigration — four times the number who said that in January. Roughly the same number, 14 percent of those polled, named the economy, according to the poll of 500 adults conducted April 3-5. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. More than 11 million illegal immigrants are believed to be in this country now, with thousands more coming in all the time. About 1.2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended last year along the nation's border with Mexico, according to immigration officials. Ron Smith of Corpus Christi, Texas, has a front-row seat. "A lot of it is happening where I live," said Smith, who lives about 150 miles from the Mexican border. "When I was younger, the amount of illegals coming across the border was a lot less," said Smith, 51. "Now, I think there is a systematic disregard for the border patrol." As immigration concerns have grown, economic worries have dipped. Only 14 percent now say the economy and related issues are their top concern, compared with 24 percent in October. While consumers remain edgy and the housing market is cooler, the economy is believed to be growing at a brisk rate so far this year. Solid hiring totals during the last month pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest point in more than four years. For Shirley Mosko of Tampa, Fla., the economy is a big concern that is tied closely to the war in Iraq. "Iraq leads to this nation's economic problems," she said. "We didn't have the huge deficit before the war. I want to see the people of Iraq to form their own government, let them take control of their own country and I want us to get out of there as soon as we can." About one in five, 19 percent, said they view war as the nation's top problem. "The tax money we're paying is going to another country to rebuild it," said Charles Jones of Vancouver, Wash. "The Iraq war is going to hurt this country more and more."
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

Bush acknowledges declassifying Iraq intelligence Yahoo! NEWS
President George W. Bush acknowledged on Monday he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics who alleged he manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Bush offered his first comment on a prosecutor's disclosure last week that he authorized Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to declassify Iraq intelligence. The disclosure prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats who charged Bush was a hypocrite who denounces leaks of information while becoming the "leaker-in-chief." A Republican ally, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, urged Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened." At issue is the administration's release in July 2003 of parts of an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that alleged Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Bush said he declassified parts of the document to answer questions raised about why the United States invaded Iraq. "I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said. Bush, answering questions from an audience after a speech in Washington, would not comment on the allegation that he authorized Libby to release the information to reporters. But a senior administration official said Bush did not designate Libby or anyone else to release the information, trying to distance Bush from any tactical decisions made on how to release the information. The White House release of the parts of the National Intelligence Estimate came in response to charges from former ambassador Joe Wilson that Bush had manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Wilson later accused the White House of leaking the identity of his wife, who was then a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to retaliate against him. Libby is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked Plame's name. White House officials have stressed that Bush was well within his legal authority to declassify the document. The new controversy erupted as Bush seeks to rebound from weak poll numbers and tries to bolster sagging American support for the Iraq war. Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush owed "a specific explanation to the American people" of what happened. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," he said. Wilson, speaking on ABC's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of his and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said.
By Steve Holland

Immigration Advocates Rally Around U.S. Yahoo! NEWS
Tens of thousands of immigrants spilled into the streets of Atlanta and other cities Monday in a national day of action billed as a "campaign for immigrants' dignity." In North Carolina and Dallas, immigrant groups called for an economic boycott to show their financial impact. In Pittsburgh and other cities, protesters gathered at lawmakers' offices to make their voices heard as Congress considers immigration reforms. "We all know pay is not the same everywhere and lot of people won't work for the minimum here, so if they won't take the job, what's the problem?" said 47-year-old Jose Salazar, who joined about 100 people outside Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record)'s Pittsburgh office. In Atlanta, police estimated at least 50,000 people, many in white T-shirts and waving signs and American flags, joined a two-mile march from a largely immigrant neighborhood. The Georgia protesters had two targets: the congress members weighing immigration reform and state legislation now awaiting Gov. Sonny Perdue's signature that would require adults seeking many state-administered benefits to prove they are in the U.S. legally. Nineth Castillo, a 26-year-old waitress from Guatemala who joined the Atlanta march, said she has lived in the United States for 11 years "without a scrap of paper." Asked whether she was afraid to parade her undocumented status in front of a massive police presence, she laughed and said: "Why? They kick us out, we're coming back tomorrow." Elsa Rodriguez, 25, talked about the baby girl she expected to give birth to in about three months. "This is why I had to be here," she said. "She's going to be a U.S. citizen and I'm here illegal?" Hundreds of Latinos in North Carolina prepared to skip work or boycott all purchases on Monday to demonstrate the financial impact of the Latino community on area businesses. In Charlotte, some employees planned to skip work, including some with the blessing of their Latino bosses. "We're hoping that employers stop to consider what this is all about," organizer Adriana Galvez said. "That if you need people here to do the work, to buy, then give them a legal channel to get here." In Dallas, where a march Sunday drew between 350,000 and 500,000 people, activists also were urging immigrants to showcase their spending power by not buying anything during an economic boycott. Rallies also were planned Monday in Houston, El Paso and Austin. Several thousand people gathered in Philadelphia, including Inocente Gonzalez, 19, an illegal immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico, who is living and attending high school in Vineland N.J. and wants to become a doctor. "I want to stay here to continue with my studies," said Gonzalez, who was wearing a sombrero and a Mexican flag. "We have a voice. We have to stay here because this country needs us." An estimated 3,000 people demonstrated in Garden City, Kan., a farming community in the southwest corner of the state that counts fewer than 30,000 residents. Several hundred turned out in South Bend, Ind., and in Lexington, Ky., where they waved signs that read: "We were all immigrants once," and "We are not terrorists." The demonstrations followed a day of rallies in 10 states, including up to 500,000 people in Dallas, 50,000 in San Diego, and 20,000 in Salt Lake City. Dozens of rallies and student walkouts, many of them organized by spanish-language radio DJ's over the past few weeks, have been held in cities around the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York. With an overhaul of immigration law stalled in Congress, the demonstrators have been urging lawmakers to help an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants settle legally in the United States. The rallies have also drawn counter-demonstrations. In Salt Lake City, Jerry Owens, 59, a Navy veteran from Midway wearing a blue Minuteman T-shirt and camouflage pants, held a yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flag. "I think it's real sad because these people are really saying it's OK to be illegal aliens," Owens said. "What Americans are saying is 'Yes, come here. But come here legally.' And I think that's the big problem."
By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO, Associated Press Writer

Republicans mull changes in immigration bill Yahoo! NEWS
Following huge nationwide protests, Republicans on Tuesday moved to possibly change two key provisions in a get-tough immigration bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. One would turn millions of illegal immigrants into felons and the other has raised concerns that people who provide them humanitarian relief would be punished. Top Republicans insisted that neither is their intent. Their verbal commitments to revisit those provisions came a day after hundreds of thousands of people held demonstrations nationwide, provoked by the bill that would also erect a fence along much of the U.S.-Mexican border. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, issued a joint statement, saying: "It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony." They said an effort had been made earlier to change the bill to make "unlawful presence" a misdemeanor, but it was rejected mostly by Democrats in the Republican-led House. They also blamed Democrats for stalled legislation in the Senate, which would bolster border security and provide most of the estimated 11.5 million to 12 illegal immigrants in the United States a path toward citizenship. A spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said, "clearly Speaker Hastert and Leader Frist are feeling the heat from the hundreds of thousands of people around the country rallying against the (House) bill that Republicans supported." Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, said, "Actions speak louder than words, and there's no running away from the fact that the Republican House passed a bill and Senator Frist offered one that criminalizes immigrants." "Millions of people have made their voices heard in support of a comprehensive immigration reform plan and now it is time for action, not empty rhetoric," Kennedy said. Earlier on Tuesday, senior Republican aides told reporters it is not the intent of the House bill to crack down on humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants. They said key House Republicans were prepared to try to revise language in the measure to eliminate such concerns -- if and when the bill is sent to a House-Senate conference. "We don't want to arrest nuns and priests," said one aide. The aide cited a letter sent last week to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has voiced concerns that the bill could make them a target for prosecution. The bill reads, in part, "whoever -- assists, encourages, directs or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States (illegally) -- shall be punished ...." The letter to the Catholic bishops was signed by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King of New York and International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde of Illinois. In it, they wrote, "We can assure you, just as under current law, religious organizations would not have to 'card' people at soup kitchens and homeless shelters under the House bill's anti-smuggling provisions. "Nonetheless, we stand willing to work with you and other persons of good will to ensure humanitarian assistance efforts are not mistakenly ensnared in this moral effort to end suffering at the hands of human traffickers," who bring illegal immigrants into the United States for a profit, they wrote. A conference spokesman said despite the letter, Catholic bishops still have concerns about the bill.
By Thomas Ferraro

Poll: Conservatives Cutting Approval Rates Forbes
Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre. Six months out, the intensity of opposition to Bush and Congress has risen sharply, along with the percentage of Americans who believe the nation is on the wrong track. The AP-Ipsos poll also suggests that Democratic voters are far more motivated than Republicans. Elections in the middle of a president's term traditionally favor the party whose core supporters are the most energized. This week's survey of 1,000 adults, including 865 registered voters, found:

• Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.
• Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.
• A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That's the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.
• The souring of the nation's mood has accelerated the past three months, with the percentage of people describing the nation on the wrong track rising 12 points to a new high of 73 percent. Six of 10 conservatives say America is headed in the wrong direction

. Republican strategists said the party stands to lose control of Congress unless the environment changes unexpectedly. "It's going to take some events of significance to turn this around," GOP pollster Whit Ayres said. "I don't think at this point you can talk your way back from those sorts of ratings." He said the party needs concrete progress in Iraq and action in Congress on immigration, lobbying reform and tax cuts. "Those things would give the country a sense that Washington has heard the people and is responding in a way that will give conservatives a sense that their concerns are being addressed," Ayres said. Conservative voters blame the White House and Congress for runaway government spending, illegal immigration and lack of action on social issues such as a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage. Those concerns come on top of public worries about Iraq, the economy and gasoline prices. Candice Strong, a conservative from Cincinnati, said she backed Bush in 2004, "but I don't agree with the way he's handling the war and the way he's handling the economy. I think he should have pulled our troops out of Iraq." Hardline conservatives are not likely to vote Democratic in the fall, but it would be just as devastating to the Republicans if conservatives lose their enthusiasm and stay home on Election Day. AP-Ipsos polling suggests that Democrats may be winning the motivation game. Fewer voters today than in 2004 call themselves Republicans or Republican-leaning. In addition, 27 percent of registered voters were strong Republicans just before the 2004 election, while only 15 percent fit that description today. Democratic numbers are the same or better since 2004. "This tells us we've got our work cut out for us," said Sen. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican from Kansas who may run for president in 2008. "The key for us is to show restraint on spending and on dealing with immigration." Bush's strong suit continues to be his handling of foreign policy and terrorism, an area in which he modestly improved his ratings since April. Still, a majority of Americans disapprove of his performance on both fronts. It gets worse. Only 23 percent of the public approve of the way the president is handling gasoline prices, the lowest in AP-Ipsos polling. Those who strongly disapprove outnumber those who strongly approve by an extraordinary 55 percent to 8 percent. As for his overall job performance, history suggests that Bush's paltry 33 percent spells trouble for Republicans in the fall. In the past six decades, only one president had a lower job approval rating six months before a midterm election - Richard Nixon in May 1974, the year in which Watergate-scarred Republicans lost 48 seats in the House and four in the Senate. By November, Nixon was out of a job too, having resigned the presidency in August. Nearly half of the public strongly disapproves of Bush, a huge jump from his 5 percent strong disapproval rating in 2002. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Of all Republicans, nearly 30 percent disapprove of the job Bush is doing, including 13 percent who feel strongly about it. "Hopefully this is a wakeup call for my party to get out of its bunker and hunker mentality," said Republican strategist Greg Mueller, whose firm specializes in conservative politics. He urged his party to start criticizing Democratic positions on the Iraq war, immigration and the economy. "We've been like a punching bag," Mueller said. Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate for control of Congress, no easy task in an era that favors incumbents. "What we have to do is earn the public approval of our right to govern again," said Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean. The Democratic strategy is to nationalize the elections around a throw-the-bums-out theme. Republicans counter that they will do better than polls suggest when voters are forced on Election Day to choose between candidates in their particular House and Senate races. "But," Ayres said, "we better get in gear."
In blogger call, Pelosi outlines Democratic strategy for 2006 ... Raw Story
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Republican sees problems with likely Bush CIA pick Yahoo! News
The general considered the Bush administration's likely choice to become CIA director would be the "wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time," the Republican head of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday. Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency, has been widely cited in the media as the President George W. Bush's expected pick to lead the CIA following the ouster of CIA director Porter Goss. "We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time," Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, told "Fox News Sunday." He said the Department of Defense, which has its own intelligence agencies, had been the biggest opponent to intelligence reform and that there were continuing tensions between the CIA and the Defense Department. "I think putting a general in charge, regardless of how good Mike is, putting a general charge is going to send the wrong signal to the agency here in Washington but also to our agents in the field around the world," Hoekstra said. "The bottom line: I do believe he is the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time," he said. He said the perception would be that the CIA was under the sway of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Hoekstra said the White House had discussed several possible candidates with him, and his views on Hayden would not be a surprise to the Bush administration.

Top CIA candidate under fire SouthCoastToday.com
The prospect of President Bush nominating a four-star Air Force general to head the Central Intelligence Agency has some Democrats and Republicans worried that the Pentagon's control over America's intelligence apparatus is growing too expansive. White House officials said in recent days that Mr. Bush intends to nominate as early as this week Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden to succeed Porter J. Goss, who resigned as CIA director Friday. Gen. Hayden's appointment and confirmation could put active military officers in charge of the U.S.'s principal spy agencies, which include the CIA, National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, at a time when the Defense Department controls more than 80 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget. Lawmakers from both parties said yesterday that there are concerns the military's growing involvement in intelligence collection, both overseas and domestically, could threaten Americans' civil liberties. The nomination of Gen. Hayden could prove contentious, they said, because of his role in overseeing the White House's warrantless wiretapping program, which has been contested as illegal. His nomination could fuel a contentious confirmation process in the Senate at a time when President Bush is drawing criticism for his handling of Iraq and other national security and domestic issues. Gen. Hayden, 61 years old, is deputy to the national intelligence director, John Negroponte, who oversees the CIA and 15 other spy agencies. Gen. Hayden served from 1999-2005 as director of the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's electronic-surveillance unit that executes President Bush's domestic-surveillance program. "You can't have the military control most of the major aspects of intelligence," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The CIA "is meant to be a civilian agency," she said on ABC's "This Week." Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" that Gen. Hayden "is the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time." Officials at the White House yesterday cautioned that Mr. Goss' successor hadn't yet been chosen and said there was no timetable for an official announcement, though it was likely this week. An administration official said there was a "lot of conjecture" about Mr. Hayden, but insisted that "it was not a done deal." "I'm not saying it won't be Hayden, but remember what happened with the Supreme Court," the official said, referring to speculation last year that Mr. Bush was going to select appeals court Judge Edith Clement to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. In the end, Mr. Bush chose John G. Roberts, now chief justice of the U.S. Other possible successors to Mr. Goss suggested by members of the intelligence community include Mr. Bush's homeland-security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend and Mary Margaret Graham, Mr. Negroponte's deputy for intelligence collection. President Bush ordered a restructuring of the American intelligence community after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the invasion of Iraq. A key element of the overhaul was the creation last year of the Office of National Intelligence, to oversee and coordinate intelligence gathering and analysis among the 16 U.S. spy agencies. Another hallmark of the Bush administration has been the growth of the Pentagon's intelligence activities, both overseas and domestically, in response to the threat posed by al-Qaida and other militant Islamist organizations. Mr. Goss' resignation was seen, in part, as a reaction to being sandwiched between these forces. Mr. Negroponte has assumed the CIA director's role as principal intelligence adviser to the president. The Pentagon, meanwhile, is increasingly handling spy operations traditionally carried out by the CIA. Current and former CIA officials say Gen. Hayden would be hard-pressed to revitalize an agency plagued by low morale and a declining sense of mission. Some CIA employees say they feel their agency has been scapegoated for the administration's troubles in Iraq. And some neoconservative strategists inside the Pentagon and White House have been openly contemptuous of the CIA's capabilities in recent years. Bringing in an active general who is seen as close to both the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld could make things even worse, these current and former CIA officials say. "Morale is one of the biggest challenges," says Michael Scheuer, who headed the CIA's office dedicated to finding Osama bin Laden. "I think many in the agency will perceive the White House as sending over someone who'll provide the intelligence that fits into their parallel universe." These intelligence officials also said Gen. Hayden's nomination would deprive the CIA of a leader with extensive experience in the discipline it needs most: intelligence collected by humans, not machines. They say the general has years of experience running spy satellites and phone taps, but little knowledge of running on-the-ground spies that traditionally have been the agency's bread and butter. The agency is really about one thing: human-source espionage, the collection of intelligence from human sources," said a recently retired station chief in the CIA's clandestine service. "This is something Michael Hayden never has done."
By Jay Solomon
Hayden admired for directness, but résumé has holes USA Today
Lawmakers of Both Parties Question Choice of Hayden to Head CIA Bloomberg
New Republic - [url=http://voanews.com/english/2006-05-07-voa27.cfm]Voice of America - CNN - Financial Times - all 2,251 related »

Verizon warns financial sector on Internet fight Yahoo! News
Verizon Communications warned the financial services industry may not get the secure networks it needs if Congress adopts laws governing high-speed Internet broadband networks, according to a company memo obtained by Reuters on Monday. The financial services industry is weighing whether to wade into a fight over legislation on broadband service, known as "Net neutrality." It fears that without safeguards on pricing for network access, the costs to financial institutions could rise. Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. telephone company, opposes legislation for Net neutrality and sent the memo to its consultants urging them to discuss with banking industry clients the arguments against possible legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. "They are being fed a lot of cock-and-bull, Chicken Little stories about how the future of their industry is at stake because another network industry might have the freedom to price broadband services according to market demand," Verizon's chief congressional lobbyist Peter Davidson said in the memo. He warned that the financial services industry "better not start moaning in the future about a lack of sophisticated data links they need" if Net neutrality laws were passed because the communications industry may not invest in new networks. Verizon and AT&T Inc. have expressed interest in expanding from flat pricing for broadband to selling tiers of service based on the speed, reliability and security. They have pledged not to block access to the open Internet. "Why in the world should broadband network providers, who have invested billions to create those networks, be denied such pricing freedom?" Davidson said. That has raised fears among Internet content companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. that they will be shunted to a slower lane of the Internet if they do not pay more for dedicated access. Davidson argued that that broadband providers are not "going to do anything stupid to antagonize the people they rely on for their money!" A financial industry lawyer has been circulating a memo warning that the sector ignores the Net neutrality debate at its peril and urged companies to push for legislation that would preserve flat broadband pricing for online financial services. Financial services lobbyists have said they are concerned about the issue, and are monitoring it. The House could consider legislation this week that would preserve the ability to surf on the open Internet but does not specifically bar Internet providers from charging new fees to assure reliable service to business users. It is part of a broader communications bill. The Senate is considering its own legislation but only requires a study on Net neutrality. Differences between the bills could prevent any legislation from becoming law this year, analysts have said.

Republicans in Congress Move to Extend $69 Bln in US Tax Cuts Bloomberg
Congressional Republicans, saying investors need certainty in tax policy, agreed to extend about $69 billion in tax cuts, including low rates on dividends and most capital gains. Lawmakers said they were near agreement on a second measure that would extend as much as $30 billion in tax breaks, including a lapsed research credit that has benefited companies such as Chicago-based Boeing Co. and Dow Chemical Co., based in Midland, Michigan. The agreement on the $69 billion measure, a centerpiece of President George W. Bush's agenda, may end a deadlock of almost five months. The House of Representatives plans to vote today on the plan to spare more than 15 million U.S. households a tax boost from the alternative minimum tax and extend low tax rates on dividends and most capital gains from 2008 until 2010. The two-year extension is "going to encourage investment when people know what the tax policy of our country is for a longer period of time,'' Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said in an interview yesterday. Lawmakers will reach agreement on the second tax measure, containing the research credit, "very shortly,'' Grassley said. The credit, available to as many as 16,000 companies, is worth $10 billion a year.

Tax Breaks
The $69 billion measure combines measures passed by the House and Senate. The $56.1 billion House measure included the two-year extension of the tax breaks on investments; the Senate approved a provision that limits the reach of the alternative minimum tax, a levy that has increasingly affected middle-income households. The legislation also would extend a tax break for companies such as Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co. and New York-based Citigroup Inc. that generate profits from financial services outside the U.S. That tax break is due to expire at the end of the year. The Senate may vote this week on the measures. The 17 provisions in the $69 billion legislation require only a majority vote to pass the Senate under budget rules. The research-credit legislation, which Grassley said would cost $20 billion to $30 billion, would require 60 votes to pass. Montana Senator Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said the decision to renew the research credit and other expired tax breaks in separate legislation puts them in peril. "A different tax vehicle has a high likelihood of breaking down,'' he said.

`Wrong Judgment'
Democrats and some Republicans said they opposed the agreement. Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said continuing the tax cuts would add to a federal budget deficit that the Bush administration projects will reach $423 billion this year, up from $319 billion in fiscal 2005. "It's the wrong judgment to provide further problems for the deficit by extending the tax breaks for dividends and other issues,'' Reed said in an interview. Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, said he opposes the tax cuts in part because the national debt has increased 50 percent since he took office in 1999. "We have an unbelievable crisis in our finances and we're talking about doing this at this time,'' Voinovich said. "It doesn't make sense.'' If passed, the legislation would prevent rates on most capital gains from increasing at the end of 2008 to 20 percent; dividends would be taxed at ordinary income tax rates as high as 35 percent. Dividends and most capital gains currently are taxed at 15 percent. "I'm pleased to see that investors can now plan on those lower rates for the coming years,'' Treasury Secretary John Snow said.

Small Business Expenses
The legislation also would extend an increase in the amount of expenses small businesses can write off in a single year rather than depreciate over time. The legislation also ensures the first $62,550 of a household's income will be exempted from the alternative minimum tax, a step necessary to prevent a $31 billion tax increase on 16 million families this year. The alternative minimum tax was created in 1969 to prevent 155 wealthy people from reducing their tax liability with excessive exemptions, credits, and other deductions. Because the tax was never indexed for inflation, it increasingly is affecting more people as their incomes rise. It ensnares large families and those who live in high-tax states because breaks for children and state and local taxes are disallowed under the AMT.

Roth IRAs
Under the legislation, wealthy investors will win an opportunity in 2010 to transfer their tax-deferred individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs, allowing them to pay tax on investment gains now and escape taxes on future gains. Currently, Roth IRAS are available only to households earning less than $160,000 a year. The research credit, which had been law since 1981, has been renewed more than a dozen times before expiring Jan. 1. According to a 2004 study by the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, as many as 16,000 companies annually claim the credit, which is offered only to companies that regularly increase their research spending. The new legislation would make it easier for companies such as Detroit-based General Motors Corp. to claim the credit. Companies such as GM have had difficulty receiving the credit because their income from financial services outpaced their manufacturing income. The second tax measure also would renew a work opportunity tax credit used by companies that hire former welfare recipients; such companies include Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, and Orlando, Florida- based Darden Restaurants Inc., operator of Red Lobster restaurants. Other provisions in the second tax measure would renew tax deductions for teachers who buy their own classroom supplies and a tax deduction for state and local sales taxes that is worth more than $2 billion a year to residents of states with no income tax such as Texas, Alaska, Florida, and Tennessee.
GOP OKs deal on tax cuts Washington Times
Political showdown emerges on voter photo ID requirement Belleville News-Democrat
San Jose Mercury News - MarketWatch - Los Angeles Times - Reuters - all 261 related »

Bush presses Senate to confirm Hayden for CIA Yahoo! News
President Bush urged the Senate on Saturday to move quickly to approve U.S. Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA and defended his administration's actions in a new domestic spying controversy. Bush praised Hayden in his weekly radio address as someone who knows the intelligence world well and is "supremely qualified" to lead the CIA. "In Mike Hayden, the men and women of the CIA will have a strong leader who will support them as they work to disrupt terrorist attacks, penetrate closed societies, and gain information that is vital to protecting our nation," Bush said. "I urge the Senate to confirm him promptly as the next director of the CIA," he added. Hayden, an Air Force general, was picked to replace Porter Goss, who resigned under pressure last week. Hayden's nomination immediately raised questions about an active-duty military officer heading the civilian spy agency. Some senators have also cited concerns about his former role leading the supersecret National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. The focus on Hayden's NSA experience intensified after a report in USA Today this week said the agency was amassing data on tens of millions of domestic telephone calls in an effort to uncover terrorist activities. While the Bush administration has not denied the report, the president has insisted that his government was not "trolling through" people's personal lives. Bush alluded to the controversy in his radio address, saying "new claims have been made about other ways we are tracking down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America." "The intelligence activities I have authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat," Bush said. "The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," he said.

POLL SHOWS OPPOSITION
A Newsweek poll released on Saturday showed 53 percent of respondents believed the NSA's actions in secretly collecting phone records went too far in invading people's privacy, while 41 percent felt it was a necessary tool to combat terrorism. The survey of 1,007 adults, taken Thursday and Friday, has an error margin of 4 percentage points. USA Today said in its report earlier this week that the NSA database used records provided by three major phone companies, AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. The report prompted Democrats and Republicans alike to demand an explanation. The uproar over the decision to monitor call patterns followed revelations late last year that the NSA was eavesdropping inside the United States without warrants on international calls and e-mails of terrorism suspects. The report on the phone records may heighten worries among some lawmakers who believe Bush may have pushed beyond the limits of his executive powers in the aftermath the September 11 attacks. Hayden, who made a round of courtesy calls on Capitol Hill this week, on Friday won support from two independent-minded Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record) of Maine and Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska, while Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada offered encouraging words. His confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin next Thursday.
By Caren Bohan

Hayden Hearings to Focus on Surveillance Yahoo! News
The fate of President Bush's CIA nominee could hinge on how he justifies domestic eavesdropping programs that some lawmakers contend are illegal and started without congressional approval. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden should expect sharp questioning about programs he oversaw while directing the National Security Agency as the Senate Intelligence Committee begins hearings Thursday. "There's no question that his confirmation is going to depend upon the answers he gives regarding activities of NSA," one committee member, Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., said Sunday. Asked if Hayden's nomination to succeed Porter Goss was in trouble, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said, "I would say that there are a lot of questions which General Hayden has to answer. He's a first-class professional, but he has been in charge of a program where we need a lot more information." Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, does not serve on the Intelligence Committee, but he wants to ask representatives of telephone companies that cooperated with the NSA to testify before his panel. A secret NSA program, disclosed last week, kept records of millions of domestic phone calls made by ordinary Americans as part of a growing database. The agency also has allowed eavesdropping on phone calls to and from the United States when the calls involve al-Qaida and its operatives. "There has been no meaningful congressional oversight on these programs," Specter said on CBS' "Face the Nation." Hagel, who met with Hayden on Friday, has expressed "absolute confidence" in the general and said the hearings should provide the facts on the monitoring programs. "The American people need to be assured that their government is, in fact, following the law, not just protecting the security interests of our country, but also the constitutional rights of individual Americans," Hagel told ABC's "This Week." "We can do both. We always have done both," he said. White House officials have declined to confirm how the NSA programs operate and how they aid in the fight against terrorism. Bush and others have stressed that they believe the programs are constitutional and have safeguards for privacy. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said Hayden has answered questions in private meetings with members of Congress and in public. Asked if Hayden would provide to the appropriate lawmakers more information than he has in public, Hadley responded, "He already has." Specter and Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said the White House has not followed the law because it has not briefed all members of the Senate and House intelligence committees. "I think the administration is breaking the law. Its legal rationale that it offers, I think, is extremely shaky," said Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House committee. "This is a lawless White House, out of control with respect to a program like this. Sure, we all want to catch terrorists, but I am against an effort to have the executive branch monitor itself," Harman said. Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., said on CNN's "Late Edition" that he wants to know from Hayden "how does he justify the illegal spying upon millions of millions of ordinary Americans?"
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer

Bush admits broken border Yahoo! News
President Bush on Monday declared the U.S.-Mexico border was broken and he would deploy up to 6,000 National Guard troops there, but he said millions of illegal immigrants should be given a chance to become citizens. Bush, stepping into the emotionally charged issue in a rare prime time Oval Office address, spoke under pressure from conservative allies to take tougher steps against illegal immigration and after big protests demanding immigrant rights. Despite recent progress, "we do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that," Bush said in a speech timed to get out in front of a U.S. Senate debate on a sweeping immigration overhaul. But to the chagrin of conservatives demanding only tougher border enforcement, Bush also insisted on a temporary guest-worker program for illegal immigrants that would give them a path to eventual U.S. citizenship if they pay a fine, pay taxes, learn English and show they are employed. He ruled out a mass deportation of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. "We must face the reality that millions of illegal immigrants are already here," Bush said. "They should not be given an automatic path to citizenship. This is amnesty, and I oppose it." White House officials said the up to 6,000 National Guard troops would support U.S. Border Patrol agents in duties like surveillance, analyzing intelligence and building patrol roads. While they will be armed, they will not conduct patrols. "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border. Mexico is our neighbor and our friend," Bush said. But in Mexico, Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez, Foreign Ministry undersecretary for North America, said in a statement, "Even though the Mexican government has been assured the announced measures do not imply the militarization of the border, we must express our concern that these actions are still not accompanied by sufficient advances in the legislative process." The U.S. Senate is set to debate this week a sweeping immigration overhaul that would couple tougher border enforcement with a guest-worker plan. The House of Representatives earlier passed a tough bill that would make illegal immigrants felons and erect a big border fence. Democrats said Bush had come late to the debate and said he must persuade many in his own party to back a plan that many Democrats already support. "The president has the power to call up the National Guard to patrol our border, but now he must summon the power to lead his own Republican forces in Congress to support a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform," said Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.

CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION
Bush's main challenge was to sway his conservative Republican allies in the House. The bill passed by the House has drawn sharp protests from thousands of pro-immigration demonstrators in recent weeks. Bush did not appear to have won any immediate converts. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said he had "real concerns about moving forward with a guest worker program or a plan to address those currently in the United States illegally until we have adequately addressed our serious border security problems." Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo said he welcomed increased enforcement, "but if the president thinks by taking one step forward with enforcement the House will follow him two steps backwards with amnesty, he's confusing us with the Senate." Bush's speech was the first time he has addressed a domestic issue in the forum of an Oval Office speech. He took on the divisive issue despite a drop in his approval in opinion polls in advance of congressional elections in November. The Guard deployments are likely to begin in early June and up to 6,000 would be used for a year. They will be reduced as U.S. Border Patrol agents increase their numbers by 6,000 by the end of 2008 -- to 18,000 from the current 12,000. The whole two-year package will cost about $1.9 billion. White House officials said they would pay for it by redirecting money for the U.S. military included in an emergency spending plan being negotiated on Capitol Hill. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the Senate "will have to legislate carefully to circumscribe the Guards' duties so we don't get them involved in law enforcement or activities which are inappropriate." Bush said federal funds would be increased for state and local authorities to help curtail illegal immigration, and that high-tech fences would be built in urban areas and motion sensors, infrared cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles would be used to prevent illegal border crossings. Bush said the practice of capturing immigrants and giving them court dates and releasing them only to find they rarely show up in court would end.
By Steve Holland

Bush presses Senate to confirm Hayden for CIA Yahoo! News
President Bush urged the Senate on Saturday to move quickly to approve U.S. Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA and defended his administration's actions in a new domestic spying controversy. Bush praised Hayden in his weekly radio address as someone who knows the intelligence world well and is "supremely qualified" to lead the CIA. "In Mike Hayden, the men and women of the CIA will have a strong leader who will support them as they work to disrupt terrorist attacks, penetrate closed societies, and gain information that is vital to protecting our nation," Bush said. "I urge the Senate to confirm him promptly as the next director of the CIA," he added. Hayden, an Air Force general, was picked to replace Porter Goss, who resigned under pressure last week. Hayden's nomination immediately raised questions about an active-duty military officer heading the civilian spy agency. Some senators have also cited concerns about his former role leading the supersecret National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. The focus on Hayden's NSA experience intensified after a report in USA Today this week said the agency was amassing data on tens of millions of domestic telephone calls in an effort to uncover terrorist activities. While the Bush administration has not denied the report, the president has insisted that his government was not "trolling through" people's personal lives. Bush alluded to the controversy in his radio address, saying "new claims have been made about other ways we are tracking down al Qaeda to prevent attacks on America." "The intelligence activities I have authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat," Bush said. "The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," he said.

POLL SHOWS OPPOSITION
A Newsweek poll released on Saturday showed 53 percent of respondents believed the NSA's actions in secretly collecting phone records went too far in invading people's privacy, while 41 percent felt it was a necessary tool to combat terrorism. The survey of 1,007 adults, taken Thursday and Friday, has an error margin of 4 percentage points. USA Today said in its report earlier this week that the NSA database used records provided by three major phone companies, AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. The report prompted Democrats and Republicans alike to demand an explanation. The uproar over the decision to monitor call patterns followed revelations late last year that the NSA was eavesdropping inside the United States without warrants on international calls and e-mails of terrorism suspects. The report on the phone records may heighten worries among some lawmakers who believe Bush may have pushed beyond the limits of his executive powers in the aftermath the September 11 attacks. Hayden, who made a round of courtesy calls on Capitol Hill this week, on Friday won support from two independent-minded Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record) of Maine and Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) of Nebraska, while Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada offered encouraging words. His confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin next Thursday.
By Caren Bohan

Bush agrees to review of spy program Yahoo! News
The White House, in an abrupt reversal, has agreed to let the full Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees review President George W. Bush's domestic spying program, lawmakers said on Tuesday. The Republican chairmen of the Senate and House panels disclosed the shift two days before a Senate confirmation hearing for Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as the new CIA director, which is expected to be dominated by concern over the program. The chairmen said separately that Bush had agreed to full committee oversight of his Terrorist Surveillance Program rather than the more limited briefings allowed up to now. The White House, under political pressure, did agree to conduct a set of briefings for the two full committees earlier this year, but those sessions did not disclose operational details about the eavesdropping. Initiated after the September 11 attacks, the program lets the National Security Agency eavesdrop without a court warrant on international phone calls and e-mails made by U.S. citizens if one party is suspected to have links with terrorism. It has stirred an outcry among rights groups and lawmakers who believe Bush overstepped his constitutional authority. The White House has sought to avoid full committee oversight by limiting briefings to subcommittees from each panel. Initially, the administration shared program details only with the chairmen and vice chairmen of the committees and party leaders in the House and Senate. "It became apparent that in order to have a fully informed confirmation hearing, all members of my committee needed to know the full width and breadth of the president's program," Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record) of Kansas, who heads the 15-member Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement. Democrats, who have long pushed for full hearings, said the change would bring the White House into compliance with the National Security Act of 1947, which requires the executive branch to keep Congress informed on intelligence matters. "The White House, for the first time, is showing signs that they are serious about oversight," said Democrat Sen. John Rockefeller (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, the Senate panel's vice chairman. A full Senate committee briefing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Full oversight was expected to replace subcommittee reviews that have been in place since earlier this year, said committee staff members from both chambers.

CONFIRMATION HEARING
Hayden, who was the program's architect as NSA director from 1999 to 2005, was expected to face a blizzard of questions on NSA spying at a Thursday confirmation hearing before Roberts' committee. Republicans and Democrats have said Hayden's confirmation would depend on his answers would be. A congressional aide who deals with intelligence matters said the change in policy on NSA oversight would allow Hayden to speak about the program during the classified segment of his confirmation hearing. The aide predicted that broader oversight could also pave the way for bringing the program under federal law. Hayden has signaled possible support for this during meetings with members of Congress. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said full oversight would eliminate what he called politically driven rumors. Bush has defended the program by saying the intelligence activities he authored are lawful and necessary to protect Americans from further harm.
By David Morgan

Big Oil, Clay, Dave and Brian John Kerry
Dear Friends,
It's time for an accountability moment for Clay Shaw and Dave Reichert. They're a couple of Republican congressmen with absurdly bad environmental voting records and connections to big oil that would make Dick Cheney blush, and their Democratic opponents are closing in on them every day.

If we give these pro-environment Democrats the immediate help they need, we can win two of the most environmentally critical elections in the country.
Support strong pro-environment Democratic candidates right now.
Clay Shaw (Florida) and Dave Reichert (Washington) are from opposite ends of the country. But, they're as close as they could be when it comes to cozying up to polluters and giant oil companies. In fact, they share identical 28% scores on the non-partisan League of Conservation Voters environmental scorecard. That means they vote against the environment 7 out of every 10 chances they get. They've voted to open up the Arctic Refuge to drilling, gut funding of environmental protections for clean water and environmental conservation, and sell off our public lands to the big mining companies. The contrast couldn't be more compelling. Their Democratic opponents are strong environmentalists. Ron Klein, running to unseat Clay Shaw, has been a leader in the Florida State Senate opposing the Bush administration's efforts to open up Florida's coastline to oil drilling. And Darcy Burner, opposing Dave Reichert in Washington, is running because she's fed up with the Bush Republicans paying only lip service to alternative energy and conservation while they give away billions of dollars in tax subsidies to giant oil companies that are already raking in record profits. Here's how you can help. Make sure the voters in Florida and Washington state reject the 28% voting records of anti-environment Republicans by donating $28 each to the fast-moving campaigns of Ron Klein and Darcy Burner.

Support strong pro-environment Democratic candidates right now.
And, while you're at it, please consider sending another $28 to Francine Busby. She's a committed pro-environment Democrat running in a very tight race in California. Her opponent, Brian Bilbray - a former GOP congressman turned energy company lobbyist - is running on the dubious proposition that what Congress needs right now is more Republican advocates for Big Oil. Francine Busby is running against Bilbray in the seat vacated by the GOP's Randy "Duke" Cunningham who has admitted to a long string of corrupt acts. Sending someone as clean and green as Francine Busby to replace Cunningham would truly be a breath of fresh air. The special election to fill this seat is only 3 weeks away, so please act today.

Support strong pro-environment Democratic candidates right now.
Every day I become more hopeful that, thanks to you, our hard-driving efforts to deliver unprecedented levels of grassroots support to key Democratic candidates can turn the tide in 2006. I'm tired of being forced to spend so much of our time just trying to stop bad things from happening in Washington. If we can take back Congress in November, we can stop anti-environment Republicans from threatening the Arctic Refuge, selling off our national forests, weakening environmental standards, and we can finally do right by our national security by putting America on a path to genuine energy independence. You and I both know that the best way to protect our environment is to throw ourselves heart and soul into winning these elections. Think we can't do it? Think again. I believe in this cause with all my heart and gut. I know it's not easy, but I remember when you couldn't even mention environmental issues without a snicker. But then in the 1970's people got tired of seeing the Cuyahoga River catch on fire from all the chemicals. So one day millions of Americans marched. Politicians had no choice but to take notice. Twelve Congressmen were dubbed the Dirty Dozen, and soon after seven were kicked out of office. The floodgates were opened. We got the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. We created the EPA. The quality of life improved because concerned citizens made their issues matter in elections. We need to do this all over again. If possible, I urge you to send $28 to each of the three pro-environment candidates we're focusing on this week. If you can't afford that, I urge you to pick one or two candidates to support. But, whatever you do, don't let pass this opportunity to build strong momentum in must-win races across the nation that will determine who controls Congress for the next two years. Thanks so much for all of the hard work you're putting into this campaign.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. In addition to providing direct candidate assistance, I hope you'll add a special donation to Keeping America's Promise in support of our broader efforts to help shape the outcome of this November's elections.

Now that's what I call momentum! John Kerry
Dear Friends,
You know what our mission is -- to drive to victory on November 7 by using our online strength to give key Democratic candidates grassroots help they couldn't even imagine getting in the past. This week, we're focusing on a handful of races across the nation that are absolutely critical to the environment. We're out to take back the Congress and defeat Republican candidates who have sold out the environment whenever it really counts.

Support pro-environment Democratic candidates now.
Yesterday, we helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for three critical House challengers: Ron Klein in Florida, Francine Busby in California, and Darcy Burner in Washington state. Today, we've added a new candidate to the list -- Linda Stender who is running in New Jersey's 7th Congressional district. Linda is not only a strong environmental candidate, she has also fought to protect the right to privacy and she has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's failed policies in Iraq. Linda has led fights in her county to pass the Open Space, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Trust Fund, create the area's largest tree replacement program, and develop a new program to improve the appearance of county property. Protecting our environment and making America energy independent are two of her key priorities when she gets elected. I told you earlier that two of the GOP incumbents we're out to defeat, Clay Shaw and Dave Reichert, had identical 28% voting records on the League of Conservation Voters' scorecard. Linda's opponent, Mike Ferguson, is even worse. In the last session of Congress, he voted pro-environment only 17% of the time. All 3 of these Republican incumbents have voted to open up the Arctic Refuge to drilling, gut funding of environmental protections for clean water and environmental conservation, and sell off our public lands to the big mining companies. We can't continue to let this happen.

Support pro-environment Democratic candidates now.
We have these anti-environment Republicans on the run. Let's keep it that way. Help build an unstoppable momentum for our environmental slate of candidates. Donate to one or more of our candidates right now.

Let's give them the strong support they need to win.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. In addition to providing direct support to our candidates, don't forget to also include a donation to Keeping America's Promise in support of our broader efforts to help shape the outcome of these vitally important elections.

Wiretap briefings for US Congress BBC News
The US government has agreed to extensive briefings in Congress on its controversial domestic wiretapping programme, according to lawmakers. Full congressional intelligence committees will be acquainted with the programme, which so far only eight legislators have been briefed on. The New York Times said last year that the National Security Agency was tapping terror suspects' phone calls. President George W Bush has insisted that all such activities are lawful. But many legal experts say the government needs explicit permission from a special court to do so - which it did not obtain. Further claims followed in USA Today newspaper last week that the NSA was collecting phone records of tens of millions of Americans from the country's three biggest phone companies. Mr Bush has not confirmed or denied the latest reports.

'Width and breadth'
The surveillance briefings are expected to take place on Wednesday afternoon, a day before the confirmation hearings for the nominee for CIA director, Gen Michael Hayden, a former NSA head who oversaw the surveillance programme.Correspondents say that by allowing the briefings the administration may be trying to ease what could otherwise be a rocky ride for Gen Hayden. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said the surveillance issue was "central" to Gen Hayden's hearings. "It became apparent that in order to have a fully informed confirmation hearing, all members of my committee needed to know the full width and breadth of the president's programme," he said in a written statement. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold also praised the decision to brief the committees, which he said he and colleagues had been seeking for months. "It is my hope that Congress finally gets some answers to the questions I and others have been asking about this programme," he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

Hayden faces grilling on NSA at Senate hearing Yahoo! News
U.S. President George W. Bush's nominee for CIA director faces a grilling on Thursday over the administration's domestic spying program that has raised concern among critics that the war on terrorism is encroaching on civil liberties. Gen. Michael Hayden is expected to face a blizzard of questions at a Senate confirmation hearing about his role as architect of Bush's domestic spying program, which the administration has defended as legal and necessary to protect citizens after the September 11 attacks. Hayden, a four-star Air Force general, would replace Porter Goss, who was forced to resign as CIA director this month after clashing with U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte over the U.S. spy agency's future. But questions about the CIA are likely to play second fiddle to concerns among senators about the scope of the warrantless eavesdropping program that Hayden crafted and implemented as National Security Agency director soon after September 11. Critics have questioned the program's legality and said Bush may have overstepped his constitutional powers in authorizing it. The Bush administration provided new details about the NSA surveillance effort in closed-door briefings for members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the eve of Hayden's confirmation hearing.

MORE QUESTIONS
Some members of the committee, which is holding the hearing, said the NSA provided lots of information about the program, but Wednesday's briefing was only a beginning. "It's an ongoing process. They're obviously pretty forthcoming, we just have to learn more about it," said Sen. Olympia Snowe (news, bio, voting record), a Maine Republican. Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) added that committee members had "40 or 50" questions about the program that had yet to be answered. Concern over government spying was stirred again last week when USA Today reported that the NSA had also assembled a database containing phone records of millions of Americans that can be examined for patterns of potential terrorist activity. The full Senate must vote to confirm Hayden as CIA director. He is currently Negroponte's chief deputy. But senators, including some Republicans, say his chances of confirmation could depend on how he handles questions on NSA activities. The domestic spying program, which first came to light in a New York Times article last December, allows the NSA to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining a warrant, while pursuing al Qaeda suspects. In addition to constitutional concerns, critics say the program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, a 1978 law requiring court warrants for all intelligence-related eavesdropping inside the United States. A Senate intelligence committee aide predicted the NSA issue would lead to political posturing at Thursday's hearing but pose no substantive obstacle for Hayden. Hayden, 61, has backing from some influential Republicans including Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia and Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record) of Maine.
By David Morgan

House, Senate Intel Panels Briefed on NSA Yahoo! News
After five months of resistance, the Bush administration provided new information to Congress on the National Security Agency's eavesdropping Wednesday, hoping to help the architect of the controversial operations secure a new job as CIA chief. Gen. Michael Hayden, who ran the NSA before becoming the nation's No. 2 intelligence official last year, faces what will undoubtedly be the toughest public questioning of his 37-year government career at Thursday's Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing. President Bush chose Hayden earlier this month to replace Porter Goss as director of the beleaguered CIA. Hayden has come under fire in recent months for his stewardship of surveillance programs that he and others in the Bush administration say have helped stop terror attacks. Democrats and privacy advocates have questioned the price to civil liberties. For the first time on Wednesday, the administration briefed the full House and Senate intelligence committees on the NSA's no-warrant surveillance program. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte also declassified a list of 30 congressional briefings that have been held since NSA began the program after Sept. 11, 2001. Until Wednesday, the sessions had never included more than a dozen members at any given meeting, with 31 members briefed in all since the surveillance program began in October 2001, according to the newly declassified list. The Senate committee chairman, Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said it had become apparent that his entire committee needed to understand the NSA program before holding the hearing on Hayden, the NSA head from 1999 until 2005. "There was no way we could fulfill our collective constitutional responsibilities without that knowledge," Roberts said. Wednesday's classified briefings were certain to have focused on efforts to monitor domestic calls when one participant is overseas and suspected of terrorism. But new questions also have emerged in the past week about the NSA's efforts to analyze records of the telephone calls of ordinary Americans. USA Today reported last week that three of the four major phone companies provided information on the calling records of millions of Americans. Two of the companies — Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. — have since disputed key assertions that they provided vast amounts of customer data to the NSA. In an interview, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a former FBI agent and intelligence committee member, said: "I can assure you there are no customer records involved. None." But he would not elaborate on the briefings he received. "I think it was inaccurately reported and completely overblown about what is and what isn't available to the NSA," he said. A former official familiar with NSA procedures, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that since the 1970s the agency has made sure that when its systems collect information that is not relevant to foreign intelligence investigations no person can access it or use it in an inappropriate way. The official said any information used by the agency would have been traced back to terror suspects or their associates, not information about Americans making doctor appointments or ordering pizzas. Suggesting computers do the analysis, the official said, "No human being would ever look at the record." Democrats, however, aren't yet sure. Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., said this week there are serious privacy concerns about the program. If the government maintains a database of Americans' calls, he said, "that has got to be addressed." Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore., said his Wednesday session gave "new meaning to the concept known as a cram course." West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the intelligence committee's top Democrat, wrote Hayden Wednesday to lay out concerns regarding the general's independence from the Bush administration, given his aggressive defense of the decision to conduct the warrantless monitoring. "It is of the utmost importance that officials of the intelligence community avoid even the appearance of politicization, and that its senior leaders set an example," wrote Rockefeller, who will miss Hayden's hearing while recovering from back surgery. He said he hoped Hayden would also explain how he plans to repair the CIA, which is struggling to find its footing after the 2004 overhaul law to reorganize the spy community. Rockefeller wants to be sure the Pentagon and CIA are adequately coordinating their classic spy operations, in which the Defense Department is taking an increasingly large role. And Rockefeller wants better Iran intelligence. "The CIA, and the intelligence community as a whole, needs to be better positioned," he said.
By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

Senate OKs Border Fence, Backs Citizenship Yahoo! News
A broad bill letting illegal immigrants stay in the United States is clearing hurdle after hurdle toward Senate passage next week as House Republicans turn against President Bush and dig in their heels against what they deride as "amnesty" for millions of lawbreakers. Supporters deflected an assault on what is considered the heart of the bill — a plan to grant millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship — while accepting conservatives' calls for hundreds of miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. Bush, meanwhile, was traveling Thursday to a hot spot of illegal border crossings, Yuma, Ariz., in an attempt to placate critics who label his approach for dealing with the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country as amnesty. Bush has said repeatedly he does not support amnesty, a position he staked out again Wednesday night before wealthy GOP donors. "America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society and we don't have to choose between the two," the president said.

House Republicans weren't buying it.
"Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the lawmaker who would lead House negotiators in any attempt to draft a compromise immigration bill later this year. It is amnesty, "because it allows people who have broken the law to stay in the country," Sensenbrenner said of positions Bush staked out in his speech earlier in the week. House legislation that passed last year over strenuous Democratic opposition would make all illegal immigrants subject to prosecution as felons. In a conference call with reporters, Sensenbrenner said Bush had "basically turned his back" on a tough border security bill after requesting that certain provisions be included before House passage last year. Senate opponents readied another lineup of changes for Thursday in hopes of chipping away at the immigration bill that appears likely for Senate passage next week. Among them is an amendment sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., that would make English the national language. Inhofe's proposal provides some exceptions for election ballots, court interpreters and natural disaster assistance. The Senate bill already would require illegal immigrants to learn English as a condition of earning legal permanent residency, a step toward citizenship. As governor of Texas, Bush proposed what he called "English plus," rather than English only. But after the recent debut of the national anthem in Spanish, Bush said people who want to be U.S. citizens ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English. On Wednesday, the Senate followed the House's lead and voted 83-16 to build 370 miles of fence in areas "most often used by smugglers and illegal aliens" as determined by federal officials. The House approved twice as much fencing in its bill. The Senate also okayed 500 miles of vehicle barriers. Supporters said the fencing and barriers could help improve economies in communities where they are located and reduce crime. But opponents said the barriers would shift illegal immigrant and smuggling traffic to areas of the border without fencing. The underlying Senate bill provides for a "virtual" fence along the border using cameras, sensors and other technology to monitor the border. Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., estimated the cost at roughly $3.2 million per mile, more than $900 million for 300 miles. He said the fence would send "a signal that open-border days are over." But Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., said the cost would be much higher, while Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., predicted the fencing would be a "down payment" on a fence stretching the length of the border. All Republicans and more than half the Senate's Democrats supported the proposal.
The bill is S. 2611.
On the Net: Senate: http://www.senate.gov
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer

Legal loophole emerges in NSA spy program CNET News.com
An AT&T attorney indicated in federal court on Wednesday that the Bush administration may have provided legal authorization for the telecommunications company to open its network to the National Security Agency.
Federal law may "authorize and in some cases require telecommunications companies to furnish information" to the executive branch, said Bradford Berenson, who was associate White House counsel when President Bush authorized the NSA surveillance program in late 2001 and is now a partner at the Sidley Austin law firm in Washington, D.C. Far from being complicit in an illegal spying scheme, Berenson said, "AT&T is essentially an innocent bystander." AT&T may be referring to an obscure section of federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which permits a telecommunications company to provide "information" and "facilities" to the federal government as long as the attorney general authorizes it. The authorization must come in the form of "certification in writing by...the Attorney General of the United States that no warrant or court order is required by law." Information that is not yet public "would be exculpatory and would show AT&T's conduct in the best possible light," Berenson said. But he did not acknowledge any details about the company's alleged participation in the NSA's surveillance program, which has ignited an ongoing debate on Capitol Hill and led to this class-action lawsuit being filed in January by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Some legal experts say that AT&T may be off the hook if former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in office at the time the NSA program began, provided a letter of certification. (Other officials, including the deputy attorney general and state attorneys general, also are authorized to write these letters.) "If the certification exists, AT&T is in pretty good shape," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and co-author of a book on information privacy law. EFF's lawsuit alleges that the telecommunications company let the NSA engage in wholesale monitoring of Americans' communications in violation of privacy laws. Confidential documents that EFF unearthed during the course of the suit--kept under seal and still not public--allege that AT&T gave the government full access to its networks in a way that let millions of e-mail messages, Web browsing sessions and phone calls be intercepted.

AT&T's ace in the hole?
If a letter of certification exists, AT&T could have an ace in the hole. A second section of federal law says that a "good faith" reliance on a letter of certification "is a complete defense to any civil or criminal" lawsuit. During the hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Carl Nichols also hinted that such a letter exists. Nichols said that there are undisclosed "facts that AT&T might want to present in its defense."But, Nichols added, those facts relate to classified information that are "state secrets" and would jeopardize national security if they were disclosed. A hearing on the Bush administration's request to dismiss the case on national security grounds has been scheduled for June 23. For its part, AT&T has remained silent about the extent of its alleged participation in the NSA surveillance scheme, which initially was thought to apply only to international calls but now may encompass records of domestic phone calls and more. Verizon and BellSouth, for instance, took steps to distance themselves from a USA Today report that said their call databases were opened to the NSA. But AT&T wouldn't comment. Marc Bien, a spokesman for AT&T, told CNET News.com on Wednesday: "Without commenting on or confirming the existence of the program, we can say that when the government asks for our help in protecting national security, and the request is within the law, we will provide that assistance." The next tussle in this lawsuit is likely to center on how far the "state secrets" concept can extend. Is AT&T able to divulge the text of any certification letter, without saying exactly what information it turned over as a result? Must the mere existence of a certification letter remain secret? Injecting additional complexity is 18 U.S.C. 2511's prohibition on disclosure. It says that telecommunication companies may not "disclose the existence of any interception or surveillance or the device used to accomplish the interception or surveillance"--except if required by law. Unlawful disclosures are subject to fines. EFF claims that the existence of a letter of certification should not be classified. Cindy Cohn, an EFF attorney, told the judge on Wednesday that it is "not a state secret because the statute has a whole process" governing it. "If you have a certification, let's see it," EFF attorney Lee Tien said in an interview after the hearing. For his part, Berenson, the former attorney for President Bush who's now representing AT&T, complained about allegations that his client is violating the law. It's unfortunate that EFF "chose to use words like 'criminal tendency' and 'crimes,'" Berenson said. AT&T "is one of the great companies of the United States. To attach those kinds of labels is reckless at best." Berenson's biography says he worked for Bush on the "war on terrorism" and the USA Patriot Act. Since leaving the White House, Berenson has written letters to Congress (click here for PDF) calling for renewal of the Patriot Act and has co-founded a group called Citizens for the Common Defence that advocates a "robust" view of presidential authority. It filed, for instance, an amicus brief (click here for PDF) before the Supreme Court in the Hamdi case arguing that a U.S. citizen could be detained indefinitely without trial because of the war on terror.
By Declan McCullagh

Hayden Senate Confirmation Appears Assured Yahoo! News
After more than six hours of sometimes-tense Senate questioning, the confirmation of Michael Hayden to head the CIA still appeared assured. The four-star Air Force general tried to look forward throughout the long day of grilling, even as senators repeatedly returned to controversies over the eavesdropping work he directed as National Security Agency head from 1999 to 2005. The CIA needs to look ahead, he said. "It's time to move past what seems to me to be an endless picking apart of the archaeology of every past intelligence success or failure," Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee at his confirmation hearing Thursday. "The CIA needs to get out of the news — as source or subject — and focus on protecting the American people." Hayden said he would focus on traditional spycraft and reward risk-taking among the CIA's operatives in the clandestine service. He'd push analysts to explain when they aren't sure of judgments, but be unafraid of hard-edged assessments. And he'd focus the agency's scientists, who once built a mechanical eavesdropping dragonfly, on developing technology to improve intelligence collection. Republicans gushed over the nominee. "You're going to be one of America's best CIA directors, general," Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., told Hayden. But some Democrats voiced strong concerns. "General, having evaluated your words, I now have a difficult time with your credibility," said Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore., who cross-examined him about his role in the NSA's post-9/11 warrantless domestic surveillance program. The White House hopes the Senate can approve Hayden as soon as next week, allowing him to step in as Porter Goss departs on May 26. Even with the tough questioning, Hayden appeared likely to be confirmed in the Republican-controlled Senate. Hayden's plans for the CIA indicate he is targeting flaws that have been highlighted repeatedly by commissions investigating Sept. 11, 2001, and the Iraq intelligence. During Thursday's questioning, he vigorously defended the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program as a legal spy tool needed to ensnare terrorists. But he also acknowledged concerns about civil liberties within the program and others he oversaw at the NSA. "Clearly, the privacy of American citizens is a concern — constantly," he said. "It's a concern in everything we've done." Hayden sought to portray himself as an independent thinker, capable of taking over the CIA as it struggles with issues ranging from nuclear threats to its place among 15 other spy agencies. Bush selected Hayden to be the nation's 20th CIA director earlier this month, knowing his choice would inflame the debate about the NSA program to monitor domestic calls and e-mails when one person is overseas and terrorism is suspected. Breaking new ground, the work was done without court approval. A USA Today report last week about NSA efforts to analyze the call records of millions of Americans added new grist to the discussion and prompted the administration to reverse course after five months and tell the intelligence committees more about the terror-monitoring work on Wednesday. Hayden declined to openly discuss the reports, saying he would talk only about the part of the program the president had confirmed. On the world's hot spots, Hayden acknowledged a series of intelligence failures in the run-up to the U.S. decision to invade Iraq and promised to take steps to guard against a repeat of such errors. He called Iran "a hard target," but said senators shouldn't compare what's known about Iran to the mistakes of Iraq. The Iraq estimate, he said, focused on weapons of mass destruction and ignored regional or cultural context. "We're not doing that on Iran," he said. "Besides the technical intelligence, there's a much more complex and harder to develop field of intelligence that has to be applied as well: How are decisions made in that country?" Hayden said the number of terrorists in the world has grown, but they are reduced in capability. "This is a broader war," he said. "And the war has got to be fought with all elements of American power."
On the Net: Senate Intelligence Committee: http://intelligence.senate.gov
By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

Politicians Brave the Internet - With Help Ask News
LOL:) Look who's podcasting! No, it's not your teenager. It's your senator. Veteran politicians more familiar with turntables and typewriters are enlisting twentysomething computer whiz kids to help them brave the digital world of blogs, podcasts and the Web as they look to connect directly with voters. The 2004 presidential campaign ushered in Internet fundraising and the lightning speed effectiveness of Web logs. The next campaign promises a significant increase in Web-based activities; politicians are responding to the reality. Few are treating it with a LOL - laugh out loud - attitude. This is serious business. Consider Ari Rabin-Havt, 27, who blogs for a living as a staffer to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., 66. Rabin-Havt's duties include watching the blogosphere for what's being said about his boss and others, and helping manage the blog and other Web-based activities for Reid. Rabin-Havt said the way politicians and their staffs view blogs and other Internet tools is dramatically different from just two years ago when he was helping Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts with his Internet strategy. "There was a communications staffer who once said to me - in the summer of 2004 - I wouldn't know a blog if it slapped me in the face," Rabin-Havt recalled. "I don't think that attitude exists anymore." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., responds on a weekly basis to questions on his blog. He also is among several politicians who have recorded podcasts, self-made audio or video broadcasts that can be downloaded from the Internet to a computer or portable gadget. The former heart surgeon who is considering a 2008 presidential bid said he saw the power of podcasts when one in which he discussed avian flu was featured on a conservative blog and downloaded a million times. Frist, 54, said the technology allows him to "break through the gaggle of reporters" and "touch people who are sitting in Smyrna, Tennessee." John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee and a White House hopeful in 2008, recently showed off a newly designed Web site that features a reality television show that tracks Edwards, up close and personal, as he goes around the country. The former North Carolina senator has favored video blogs, in which individuals submit questions to his site via video and he responds in the same format. "Where in history has that ever happened?" asked Ryan Montoya, 32, technology adviser to Edwards, 52. "He sees the people, and he is able to respond to their questions directly. That's democracy." Strategists in both parties say the drive to use new media is simple: It's cheap, easy and more and more people are connected. According to a survey after the last presidential election, reliance on the Internet for political news during the 2004 contest grew sixfold when compared with 1996. At the same time, the Pew Research Center poll showed that 40 percent of Internet users found the Web important in helping them decide for whom to vote. In the 2003-04 election cycle, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean used the Internet to raise tens of millions of dollars and stun his primary rivals early in the campaign. He easily surpassed Republican Sen. John McCain, who had relied in part on the Internet for his fundraising in 2000. In this election year, Republican gubernatorial candidate and pro football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann of Pennsylvania found his contributions increased when he added a personal touch to his Web site. When visitors click on a "donate" button on the site, a video pops up of Swann telling voters why they should elect him. "Campaigns are won and lost on a lot more than a simple Web site, but a campaign Web site is step one in determining the voters' ability to understand who you are and what you're about," said Leonardo Alcivar, Swann's communications director. Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat who is considering a presidential run, recently added a professional blogger to his staff. Warner likes to use video podcasts. "Things that you can see and hear make a much greater impact than just reading," says Ellen Qualls, Warner's communications director. "Video of the governor is a much more powerful tool than simply an e-mail or blog post from him." That sentiment should make YouTube attractive to campaigns. The new company lets people share videos through the Web. Each day, 6 million people watch more than 40 million videos on YouTube or through e-mail or posts to other sites, says Julie Supan, marketing director for YouTube. "You'll never see people enthusiastically sending around an e-mail message from a candidate. But those videos move across the Internet like wildfire," said Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Web site Personal Democracy Forum, which focuses on technology and politics, said Youtube can spark conversations between users, helping to build an online community. He said that is how Dean's candidacy got its strong start in the last election. Zack Exley, 36, who directed the Kerry campaign's online activities, said e-mail actually sounds old-fashioned to techies, but remains vital. He says politicians should personalize e-mail messages to keep people reading. For example, he said 2008 candidates could empower supporters, and reward their efforts, by giving them first word in an e-mail of the candidate's pick for a running mate.
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD and BROOKE DONALD

Midterm elections crux of GOP strategy MSNBC
Bush aides look to November vote as way to reverse precipitous slide
Confronting the worst poll numbers seen in the West Wing since his father went down to defeat, President Bush and his team are focusing on the fall midterm elections as the best chance to salvage his presidency and are building a campaign strategy around tax cuts, immigration and national security.Modern history offers no precedent of a president climbing from a hole as deep as the one Bush finds himself in, and White House strategists have concluded that no staff shake-up or other quick fix will alter their trajectory. In the sixth year of his tenure, they said, Bush cannot easily change the minds of voters whose impressions are fully formed. And so short of some event outside their direct control — such as a dramatic turnaround in Iraq or the capture of Osama bin Laden — Bush advisers have turned to the election as the most important chance to rewrite the troubled narrative of his presidency and recover enough to govern his last two years, Republican strategists said. With that in mind, Bush last week called on the National Guard to help stop illegal immigrants, signed tax-cut legislation and headlined three party fundraisers. If Republicans retain Congress in November, Bush advisers note, he could assert that for the third straight election, the party defied historical patterns and popular predictions. Bush, they said, could advance a fresh agenda in early 2007. But they acknowledge a House takeover by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would foreshadow a contentious final two years fending off congressional subpoenas and hostile legislation. "If she's not the speaker, then conceptually I think we've turned this thing around and he has two more years to get some things done," said Ron Kaufman, who was White House political director under George H.W. Bush and remains close to the former president. A Republican loss of the House, on the other hand, "makes the next two years that much more difficult."

Bush, Cheney hit campaign trail
Bush has turned his attention to the campaign. Six months before the election, he has made 36 fundraising appearances, more than at this point in 2002. He spoke at a party gala last week that broke off-year records for hard-money fundraising and later attended events in Virginia and Kentucky. Vice President Cheney has been even more active, making 62 fundraising appearances, including one in Nashville on Saturday, and he plans three more in California in the next couple of days. With Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove reassigned from day-to-day policy management to concentrate on the fall campaign, the White House has begun setting an agenda. Bush focused on stopping illegal immigration with his National Guard plan announced in an Oval Office address last week, followed a few days later by a visit to the border. In between, he signed legislation extending $70 billion in tax cuts that he has made a signature issue on the campaign trail. To address conservatives, who have been key to his election victories but have grown disenchanted with the administration, Bush and Senate Republicans are reviving their fight with Democrats over judicial nominations and last week voted out of committee a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to set up a floor vote next month. The White House also appears eager for a battle over the nomination of Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden as CIA director. With a committee vote expected this week and a floor vote by next week, the White House hopes voters will see the warrantless surveillance program Hayden started as head of the National Security Agency as tough on terrorism rather than a violation of civil liberties. And Bush remains a firm believer in the "Iraq first" strategy. The war has overshadowed everything else and, in the White House's view, to a large extent has poisoned the public against other messages — to the point that many Americans fault Bush's handling of the economy even though economic performance has been strong. So the White House calculates that if the public sees any improvement in Iraq and a withdrawal of even some U.S. troops, Republicans will be rewarded. Aides point to the president's last spike in the polls late last year after Iraqi elections and a series of Iraq speeches by Bush. A top adviser said Rove and White House political director Sara M. Taylor are advising candidates not to duck the issue of Iraq, but rather to make it a centerpiece of their campaigns. The Rove-Taylor view is that one-third of Americans agree with liberal Democrats calling for immediate withdrawal, with another third supporting staying the course. The middle third wants a new strategy but would be leery of pulling out and leaving behind a volatile Iraq, a position strategists believe leaves those voters open to persuasion. "Look, we're in a sour time — I readily admit it," Rove said in a speech last week. "I mean, being in the middle of a war where people turn on their television sets and see brave men and women dying is not something that makes people happy and optimistic and upbeat." But, he added, "ultimately, the American people are a center-right country who, presented with a center-right party with center-right candidates, will vote center-right."

Seeking to position GOP as lesser evil
Perhaps the most important element of the emerging strategy will be to "move from a referendum to a choice," as Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman put it. Instead of a verdict on Bush, Republicans want to frame the election as a contest with Democrats, confident that voters unhappy with the president will find the opposition even more distasteful. "We're moving from a period where the public looks at things and says thumbs-up or thumbs-down, to a time when they have a choice between one side or the other," Mehlman said. Nonetheless, the latest spate of polls deeply worries many Republicans, who are unsure they can rally the base as they have in past elections. The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll last week found 33 percent of Americans approving of Bush's job performance, his worst ever in that poll and matching his father's lowest point. Support among Republicans has fallen to 68 percent, down from 93 percent after the president's reelection. Recent staff changes orchestrated by new White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten have not proved to be an elixir. Aides who once talked of a "Bolten bounce" now anticipate a long, difficult summer. Although these aides believe Bolten has brought new energy and a more aggressive day-to-day approach — and bought Bush some goodwill with Congress — they believe it will take a long time for the public to notice. Once a president has lost the public's faith so deep into his tenure, experience suggests it is enormously difficult to win it back. Depending on the surveys used, only four presidents in the past 60 years have fallen as far in the polls as Bush, and none genuinely recovered before leaving office. Harry S. Truman opted not to run again; Richard M. Nixon resigned under the threat of impeachment; and Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush lost reelection. Even under optimistic scenarios, aides believe Bush's ratings may never rise above the mid-forties, and privately are mulling contingencies if Democrats win the House. Whenever the White House thinks it is turning a corner, it runs into trouble, such as a 10-day period in February when Cheney shot a friend in a hunting accident, Republicans rebelled against Arab management of U.S. ports and militants blew up a Shiite shrine in Iraq.

‘Perfect political storm’
"The president's run into a perfect political storm where the confluence of natural disasters from last fall, gasoline prices, staff changes, the continuing war in Iraq, all are giving conservatives a defensive fatigue," said Kenneth Khachigian, a California GOP strategist who served in Ronald Reagan's White House. "And let's put immigration in there, too. . . . There's just wave after wave washing over them at this point." Still, he said, Republicans will come back to Bush when the contest heats up this fall. "The president still needs to find ways to motivate the troops, and that means using the powers of his office to find victories here and there," Khachigian said. "If I were sitting in their shoes, I'd be looking at probably some high-profile challenges with Congress, whether it's a veto of a spending bill or a battle over judgeships." Ed Rogers, a prominent Republican strategist, offered similar advice. "We need less panic among Republicans in town and on the Hill and to some degree in the states, and more energy from the White House," he said. "Use the Rose Garden, sign some executive orders. Activity is our friend." But time may not be, some Republicans say. "Opinions do begin to set in . . . so we need successes now," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) offered a novel model for recovery: Bill Clinton. In 1995, after Gingrich's Republicans took over Congress, the White House rebuilt public support methodically. "He split with the left, he moved to the center, he did dozens of little things that worked and gradually, week by week, he grew more acceptable," Gingrich said. "You get to the point where you have to take a very deep breath and rethink what you're doing," he said of Bush. "He's still president, and he's got 2 1/2 years left. It's very important not just to him but to the country" that he recover authority.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei

Senate committee approves Hayden for CIA post Washington Times
Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden cleared the first legislative hurdle to becoming director of the Central Intelligence Agency yesterday, with a few Democrats voting against his nomination because of his role in crafting the Bush administration's telephone surveillance program. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 12-3 behind closed doors in favor of the four-star Air Force general's nomination. Voting "no" were Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and panel chairman, reported the vote and called Gen. Hayden an "outstanding choice" and a "proven leader." Mr. Roberts urged a swift vote in the full Senate, which could confirm Gen. Hayden before next week's Memorial Day break. The eight Republicans and four Democrats supporting Gen. Hayden's nomination said his independence was a deciding factor. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat present yesterday, said the general has shown "independence and some backbone, and a willingness to say no to power, because you've got to have someone in this position that speaks truth to power." Notably, Gen. Hayden has stood up to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Mr. Levin said. The general would be an objective voice to the White House, differing from former Director George J. Tenet, who Mr. Levin said exaggerated information about weapons of mass destruction "in order to please the White House." The Democrats opposing Gen. Hayden praised his patriotism and credentials but each cited the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program and the nominee's unwavering defense of the program as a source of discomfort. "My vote was an objection to the administration's unwillingness to ensure both our physical security and our civil liberties. We should not be forced to choose," Mr. Bayh said. Gen. Hayden, now the deputy director of national intelligence, last week defended the program, which he helped design as NSA chief after the September 11 attacks as legal and necessary to prevent further attacks. Mr. Wyden said extensive questioning of the general failed to reconcile statements he made about the NSA program last year with published newspaper reports that the NSA is compiling a database of millions of domestic phone calls. "We can't have our government saying one thing and then doing another," he said. Most panel members were only briefed for the first time about the secret program last week before the confirmation hearing, as only 31 lawmakers were made aware of the program before its disclosure in newspapers last year. Mr. Feingold said Gen. Hayden and President Bush have misled the country and have bucked congressional oversight. "I don't see how you put somebody in charge of an agency like this who takes that view, even though he's a fine individual," he said. Both Mr. Bayh and Mr. Feingold have been talked about as potential Democratic presidential candidates in 2008.
By Christina Bellantoni.
Goss is another casualty of war The News-Press
Senate Panel Backs Hayden CIA Confirmation ABC News
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Justice Department denies House speaker probe Yahoo! News
A Justice Department official denied a report on Wednesday that the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI in connection with a corruption probe. ABC News, citing unnamed Justice Department sources, reported that information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists now cooperating with the government. But a Justice Department official told Reuters: "The story is wrong. Hastert is not under investigation." Hastert's spokesman Ron Bonjean demanded that the network retract the story, pointing out the Justice Department denial. "The ABC News report is absolutely untrue. As confirmed by the Justice Department, 'Speaker Hastert is not under investigation by the Justice Department,"' Bonjean said in a statement. "We are demanding a full retraction of the ABC News story." In an update on its story, ABC quoted unnamed federal law enforcement sources as saying that the Justice Department denial was meant only to deny that Hastert was a formal "target" or "subject" of the investigation. "Federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is 'in the mix' in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress," the network reported on its Web site. In its initial report, ABC said part of the corruption investigation involved a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the secretary of the Interior Department to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with those of other tribes. The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who reportedly provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government, ABC said. Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to fraud charges and is cooperating with prosecutors in the investigation into a conspiracy to bribe members of Congress in return for legislative favors, which could implicate more officials and lawmakers. Tom DeLay, the former Republican House leader, resigned his seat after becoming embroiled in the Abramoff scandal. Two of his former aides and a former aide to Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record) have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the corruption investigation. Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) is also under investigation in a separate public corruption probe. Two of his former associates have pleaded guilty to bribery charges and the FBI disclosed it videotaped Jefferson accepting bribe money and had found $90,000 in cash in his freezer.

Gunfire sound heard at US Capitol building garage Yahoo! News
U.S. Capitol Police were investigating the sound of gunfire in the garage of a House of Representatives office building, Capitol Police said on Friday. The gunfire was heard in the garage level of the Rayburn building, which houses offices of members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle told Reuters: "We have been told by staff of shots fired and the smell of smoke in the lobby of the Rayburn House building." Pickle said there were no reports of any injuries. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican and head of the House intelligence committee, also said there were reports of "gunfire in the building" and said the office building had been locked down, with no one allowed to enter or leave.