Daily Briefing: Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Senate approves fences and barriers for the southern border as well as restrictions for the guest-worker program. Sen.Jeff Sessions(R-Ala.): "Good fences make good neighbors. Fences don't make bad neighbors." [ WP , NYT , WSJ ]
New details about Gen.Michael Hayden's "highly classified world" are "forcing lawmakers to reexamine a man many of them have known for years"; last-minute briefings to lawmakers on the Intelligence Committees "have smoothed what might have been a contentious path toward confirmation" and a declassified list shows select members were briefed 30 times on surveillance programs since 9/11. [ WP , NYT , NYT , USAT , USAT , WSJ ]
Tuesday's election results may preview a "brewing unrest that could threaten incumbents of both parties in the November elections"; a "broader disaffection" is noted. [ WP , NYT ]
Bushechoes past campaign themes in speech at RNC fundraiser: "We are the party of the future, and our candidates will be running against the party of the past -- a party that offers no new ideas like the Republican Party, a party that can only offer opposition." [ NYT ]
Sen.Judd Gregg(R-N.H.) saysBushis not appropriately funding the National Guard order: "A lot are going to be sitting in cars that don't run and planes that don't take off." [ USAT ]
House ethics committee opens investigations of Reps.Robert Ney(R-Ohio),William Jefferson(D-La.), andRandy Cunningham(R-Calif.). [ WP , NYT ]
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are bidding for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide border security. [ NYT ]
House Republicans believe they have enough votes to pass their budget. [ NYT , WSJ ]
Government tracking focused on long-distance calls, not local ones. [ NYT ]
Rumsfeld"can't promise" a troop withdrawal this year. [ WP ]
Medical benefits for state and local workers could top $1 trillion. [ USAT ]
Democrats unveil their own energy bill. Sen.Harry Reid(D-Nev.): "Republican leaders have proposed the same old solution: drill, drill, drill. But drill, drill, drill is not going to deliver the results we need." [ NYT ]
Pro-immigration activists take their cause to the Hill in widespread lobbying effort. [ WP , WP ]
Haydenwants to improve morale at the CIA and focus on overseas intel. [ WP ]
Bill Clintonwill write a book about activism and community service. [ NYT ]