Daily Briefing: ‘Anal-Retentive Chowderhead’

• Administration to propose major shift in nuclear energy strategy; program would import spent fuel for “recycling.” [WP]
• Expansion of Health Savings Accounts will be tenet of State of the Union address, Bush says. [WSJ, NYT]
• Democrats seek even more documents related to Katrina. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.): “What do they have to hide? Why don’t they just come forward and say, ‘This is what we knew, when we knew, and this is how we reacted?’” [NYT]
• Partisan divide over eavesdropping widens as Bush visits the NSA and Sen. Hillary Clinton calls his justification “strange” and “far-fetched.” Ken Mehlman: “Not only are the Democrats not learning from costly policy mistakes, they are not learning what happened from the political mistakes of 2002 and 2004.” [WP, NYT, WT]
• Administration rejected 2002 proposal by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) to lower the standards for getting wiretaps of non-citizens approved. [WP]
• Bush “seems unlikely to reshape the political landscape with his speech”; no major initiatives expected. [NYT]
• Samuel Alito makes “victory lap” on Capitol Hill; Bush renominates Brett Kavanaugh to U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. [WP]

• Debate on Alito centers on executive power and eavesdropping. [LAT]
• On lobbying reform, there is a “yawning disconnect between the problem and the proposed remedies.” [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Rep. Roy Blunt and John Boehner have op-ed off. [USAT, USAT]
• Donald Rumsfeld: “The force is not broken. I just can’t imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they’re close to breaking. That’s just not the case.” [WP, WT, USAT]
• Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America PAC wants “to raise as much as $10 million this year to support veterans seeking House and Senate seats on platforms promoting a change of strategy in Iraq.” [WP]
• Liberals disappointed by selection of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine for State of the Union rebuttal. [USAT]
• Republicans end K Street job listings. [WP]
• Margaret Spellings‘ daughters call her “an anal-retentive chowderhead.” [WP]
• Al Gore‘s environmental film receives a standing ovation at Sundance screening; “he is wearing earth tones again.” [WP]