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 to Bush over 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]
• Bush accuses Congress of underfunding Gulf Coast reconstruction: “Congress heard our message about improving the levees, but they shortchanged the process by about $1.5 billion.” [WP, NYT]
• Senators agree to reject meals and gifts from lobbyists. [WP, NYT]
• Jack Abramoff to Vanity Fair: “Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn’t know me is almost certainly lying.” [NYT]
• Senate Republicans try to trim Bush’s spending requests for defense and foreign aid. [W$J]
• South Dakota expected to start trend of states rethinking abortion rights; nine others are moving to limit the procedure. [W$J]
• Michael Chertoff looks for the high road as others point fingers of blame — and some directly at him. [NYT]

READ MORE: Democrats, Republicans, abortion, budget, dubai, eavesdropping, george w. bush, gulf coast, homeland security, jack abramoff, katrina, lobbying, michael chertoff, nsa, ports, roy blunt, south dakota, vanity fair