Daily Briefing: Pants on Fire
* House Appropriations Committee votes overwhelmingly to block Dubai ports deal; measure was attached to war spending bill. [ WP ]
* For Republican lawmakers, "political considerations" trump loyalty toBushover port deal and, to a lesser extent, eavesdropping. Rep.Roy Blunt(R-MO): "If there was ever a good time for Congress to figure out oversight, it would be in the sixth year of a presidency." [ NYT ]
* Senate compromise would permit eavesdropping on Americans without court warrant; administration would have 45 days to prove individual cases. [ NYT ]
*Bushaccuses Congress of underfunding Gulf Coast reconstruction: "Congress heard our message about improving the levees, but they shortchanged the process by about $1.5 billion." [ WP , NYT ]
* Senators agree to reject meals and gifts from lobbyists. [ WP , NYT ]
*Jack Abramoffto Vanity Fair: "Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying." [ NYT ]
* Senate Republicans try to trimBush's spending requests for defense and foreign aid. [ W$J ]
* South Dakota expected to start trend of states rethinking abortion rights; nine others are moving to limit the procedure. [ W$J ]
*Michael Chertofflooks for the high road as others point fingers of blame -- and some directly at him. [ NYT ]