Daily Briefing: Different Strokes
• Bushdefends eavesdropping program but offers no details: "This is a different era, a different war." [ WP , WP , NYT , USAT , USAT ]
•House approves $39.7b in cuts and drilling of ANWR; showdown expected in the Senate. Sen.Kerry: "Let's be very clear about what's happening here. Republicans -- SenatorStevensin particular -- are putting oil companies ahead of our troops." [ WP , WP , WP , NYT , USAT , LAT ]
•Approval ofBushrebounds to 47% in WP-ABC poll: "His approval rating on Iraq jumped 10 percentage points since early November, to 46 percent, while his rating on the economy rose 11 points, to 47 percent. A clear majority, 56 percent, said they approve of the wayBushis handling the fight against terrorism." [ WP ]
• Bush" apparently decided that a passionate offense was his best defense"; his mood "was casual and crisp." [ WP ]
•ACLU claims the FBI has wrongly monitored antiwar, environmental, and civil rights groups; FBI used secret informants to track PETA for years. [ NYT , WP ]
•Sen.Rockefellerpenned hand-written note toCheneyabout civil liberties concerns over eavesdropping. [ WP ]
•Force reductions expected in Iraq, Afghanistan. [ WP , NYT ]
•Senators still struggling over renewal of the Patriot Act. [ USAT ]
•Leak to the Washington Times in 1998 aboutbin Laden's communication preferences "made it much more difficult for the National Security Agency to intercept his conversations," the 9/11 commission found. [ NYT ]
•Many Republicans welcome resistance from Democrats on security issues to differentiate their positions. [ LAT ]
•House has frequently held controversial votes in the wee hours of the morning to avoid news cycles. [ WP ]
•Sen.Baucus(D-Mont.) returns contributions linked toAbramoff. [ WP ]