Wonkette

• Bush shifts his response to critics of the Iraq war: “People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq. . . This is not an issue of who’s [a] patriot and who’s not patriotic. It’s an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq.” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.): “They have been overly optimistic, illusionary about their policy. This is not a war of words; this is a real war where people are getting killed.” [WP, NYT, WT, USAT]
• CIA Director Porter Goss: “We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture.” [USAT, USAT, USAT]
• Costs associated with rebuilding the Gulf Coast could top $100b; Bush loyalist assumes control of reconstruction effort. [WP, WP]
• Bush has a little fun in China by exercising; White House officials and some journalists enjoy Outback Steakhouse there. [WP]
• Bush returns home after making virtually no news on tour of Asia; the president of China is open to economic reforms but not interested in increasing political freedoms. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• White House associates speculate that Bush “has long been aware that the vice president oversold the case on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.” [NYT]

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• Democrats win concession on the investigation of pre-war intelligence by holding private Senate session; Republicans outraged by maneuver. Bill Frist: “This is an affront to me personally [and] an affront to the United States of America.” Harry Reid: “The American people had a victory today.” [WP, NYT, LAT, WT]
• White House hopes to avoid filibuster attempt by selling Alito to moderates; Karl Rove is “deeply involved” in the strategy. Arlen Specter: “I hope we do not come back to the terrible schism we had. That just about tore the Senate apart, and it has the potential to do it again, except that the stakes would be bigger. You are talking about the Supreme Court.” [WP, NYT, NYT, LAT, WT]
• Bush calls for $7b in emergency spending for avian flu preparedness: “[I]f we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare, and one day many lives could be needlessly lost because we failed to act today.” [WP, NYT]
• Democrats want to use Alito’s conservative record “to drive a wedge between Republicans and swing voters who could be critical in next year’s midterm elections.” [WSJ]
• Samuel Alito’s “legal reasoning” implies his disapproval of Roe v. Wade; legal history shows “his thinking is shaped by a traditional concept of marriage.” [WP, NYT]
• Liberal colleagues of Alito say he is no ideologue. Said one attorney, “He didn’t decide cases based on ideology, and his record was not extremely conservative.” [LAT]
• Judge in the trial of Tom DeLay is removed from the case because of his donations to Democratic candidates and causes. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• DeLay is angering some Republicans by not relinquishing influential role. Said one congressman, “My issue is having an indicted former leader hanging around the leadership offices… Why does he want to stick around? He’s not helping us.” [WP]

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• Patrick Fitzgerald presents his case to the grand jury; Karl Rove’s legal team is on the defense about possible perjury charges. White House officials “are girding for at least one senior administration official to be indicted.” [WP, NYT]
• Arlen Specter will quiz Harriet Miers on her ability to be impartial with cases involving Bush; Christian group calls for her withdrawal. [WP, NYT, LAT, WT, USAT]
• White House reinstates the Davis-Bacon Act for the Gulf Coast. [WP]
• Bush calls for spending cuts to compensate for hurricane relief spending. [NYT, WT]
• Senators irked that Miers‘ former firm promoted and profited from tax shelters. [WP]
• Pundits, bloggers wait anxiously for potential indictments. DeLay’s flack: “There’s a certain element of ‘Groundhog Day’ to all this.” [WSJ, WP, WP]
• Administration wants intelligence agencies to “bolster the growth of democracy.” [NYT]

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• Fitzgerald will not issue a final report and possible indictments are not expected this week; lawyers involved say the prosecutor is “leaning toward indictments but continuing to weigh thousands of pages of documents and testimony.” [NYT]
• Miers supported abortion ban in 1989; today she insists the court should not determine “social policy.” McClellan: “[P]ersonal views and ideology and religion have no role to play when it comes to making decisions on the bench.” [WP, NYT, LAT, WT, USAT]
• Miers‘ questionnaire lifts support among Republicans; Democrats have concerns about her abortion views. [LAT, WSJ]
• Miers was vetted by a few White House “insiders”; she met with Bush but not with Cheney or Rove. [USAT]
• Bush “made his displeasure known” to Rove two years ago and has “made his life miserable about” the leak investigation, says “presidential counselor.” [NYDN]
• Bush announces $32b domestic security bill: “We’re going to get control of our borders. We’ll make this country safer for all our citizens.” [NYT, LAT, WSJ, WT]
• White House to reduce next Gulf Coast relief package to around $20b. [WSJ]
• Republicans losing support among conservatives, moderates, and independents. Ronald Brownstein: “This two-front war complicates the challenge for the GOP as Bush tries to regain the initiative in Washington and the party prepares for the 2006 midterm elections.” [LAT]

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• Attorneys for Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee express “uniform disappointment” with Miers and are “pushing back against her.” Said one lawyer, “Everybody is hoping that something will happen on Miers, either that the president would withdraw her or she would realize she is not up to it and pull out while she has some dignity intact.” [NYT]
• Dobson says Rove assured him that Miers is a conservative evangelical Christian, though Roe v. Wade “was never part of our discussion”; Rove reportedly explained that alternative candidates removed their names “because the process has become so vicious and so vitriolic and so bitter.” [LAT, WT]
• Judith Miller will testify for a second day today; prosecutors are investigating earlier conversations between administration officials and journalists. [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• Laura says criticisms of Miers might be sexist. William Kristol: “It is striking to me they are spending less time explaining the merits of Harriet Miers and more time. . . using liberal talking points to criticize the critics. I think it is going to backfire.” [WP, NYT, WT]
• White House strategy shifts focus to Miers‘ religious credibility. [USAT]
• Bush in New Orleans: “Out of this rubble is going to come some good; out of the devastation is going to come new cities and new hope.” [NYT]
• Milbank on Bush’s “Today” interview: “The president was a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.” [WP]
• DeLay remains a go-to, agenda-setting congressman. [NYT]
• McCain advances his own agenda ahead of the White House and the Republican leadership. McCain: “Do I want to be president? Sure. Do I want to run for president? That’s the question.” [WSJ]

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• Bush packs for Texas as Hurricane Rita approaches. [NYT]
• Senate Judiciary Committee approves Roberts by vote of 13 to 5. [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT, WT, USAT]
• Defying White House calls to control spending, the Senate passes $100b bill for farm and rural development and approves $82.9b military bill. [WSJ]
• Department of Homeland Security is playing hands-on role in preparations for Hurricane Rita. [WSJ]
• Bush says pulling out of Iraq “would allow the terrorists to claim an historic victory over the United States” and “make that country a source of terror and instability. . . for decades.” [USAT]
• Jack Abramoff bragged about his close relationship with Karl Rove, says Tyco executive. [WP]

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• Bush addresses nation from New Orleans: “Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes — we will stay as long as it takes — to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.” [WP, NYT, WSJ]
• Some conservatives call for spending cuts to offset costs of Gulf Coast relief. [WSJ, NYT]
• “Bush’s objective last night was to set out a strategy and commitment for recovery along the Gulf Coast. But the critical question is whether the damage will limit his ability to govern effectively in the remaining 40 months of his presidency and whether he will be able to focus on, let alone win approval for, major initiatives other than Katrina and Iraq,” writes Dan Balz. [WP, USAT]
• Roberts displays “more open demeanor” during third day of confirmation hearings: “I’m not an ideologue.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, LAT, USAT]
• “Democrats were unable to bloody the nominee significantly. . . the fourth and final day of hearings into Roberts left the firm impression that senators were just going through the motions,” writes Dana Milbank. [WP]

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• Bush, during address tonight, will announce plans to put the nation “on pace to spend more in the next year on the storm’s aftermath than it has over three years on the Iraq war.” [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Distrust and disapproval of Bush and the government at large is growing, according to two new polls. NBC/WSJ poll: 55% want to withdraw troops from Iraq and 75% believe the nation is not prepared for nuclear, biological or chemical attack. CBS/NYT poll: Bush’s approval rating slips to 41% and 68% think Bush lacks a clear plan for hurricane victims. [WSJ, NYT]
• Democrats complain Roberts is evading questions. Roberts: “I’m not standing for election.” Hatch: “If people can’t vote for you, then I doubt that they can vote for any Republican nominee.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, WP, NYT]
• Bush at the United Nations: “When a country or a region is filled with despair and resentment and vulnerable to violent and aggressive ideologies, the threat passes easily across oceans and borders and could threaten the security of any peaceful country.” [WP, WP, NYT]
• Nearly 150 killed and over 500 injured by at least a dozen suicide blasts in Baghdad; Al Qaeda group claims responsibility. [NYT, USAT]

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