Daily Briefing: Affront'n
•Democrats win concession on the investigation of pre-war intelligence by holding private Senate session; Republicans outraged by maneuver.Bill Frist: "This is an affront to me personally [and] an affront to the United States of America."Harry Reid: "The American people had a victory today." [ WP , NYT , LAT , WT ]
•White House hopes to avoid filibuster attempt by sellingAlitoto moderates;Karl Roveis "deeply involved" in the strategy.Arlen Specter: "I hope we do not come back to the terrible schism we had. That just about tore the Senate apart, and it has the potential to do it again, except that the stakes would be bigger. You are talking about the Supreme Court." [ WP , NYT , NYT , LAT , WT ]
• Bushcalls for $7b in emergency spending for avian flu preparedness: "[I]f we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare, and one day many lives could be needlessly lost because we failed to act today." [ WP , NYT ]
•Democrats want to useAlito's conservative record "to drive a wedge between Republicans and swing voters who could be critical in next year's midterm elections." [ WSJ ]
• Samuel Alito's "legal reasoning" implies his disapproval of Roe v. Wade; legal history shows "his thinking is shaped by a traditional concept of marriage." [ WP , NYT ]
•Liberal colleagues ofAlitosay he is no ideologue. Said one attorney, "He didn't decide cases based on ideology, and his record was not extremely conservative." [ LAT ]
•Judge in the trial ofTom DeLayis removed from the case because of his donations to Democratic candidates and causes. [ WP , NYT , LAT ]
• DeLayis angering some Republicans by not relinquishing influential role. Said one congressman, "My issue is having an indicted former leader hanging around the leadership offices... Why does he want to stick around? He's not helping us." [ WP ]
•Administration officials are split over standards for torture of detainees. [ NYT ]
•White House threatens to veto budget bill if lawmakers cut funding for insurers partaking in Medicare. [ NYT ]
• Fristforgot to count to 10 and "exploded," writesDana Milbank[ WP ]
•Advisory panel urges the elimination of many popular tax breaks. [ NYT , WP , WT ]
• David Addington,Cheney's new chief of staff, noted as "smart, secretive and direct." [ NYT ]
•Rep.Solomon Ortiz(D-Texas) received "a free trip to Asia a month after getting a federal courthouse named for the father of a lawyer who paid for [the] trip"; he calls it a coincidence. [ LAT ]
• Prince CharlesandCamilladescend on Washington today with large entourage and many outfits. [ WT ]
• Alito, Roberts, Bernankerepresent "the rise of the Republican A students," writesDavid Ignatius. [ WP ]