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* Tony Snow will “likely” replace Scott McClellan. [CNN, NYT]
* Bush and Republican lawmakers face blame for high gas prices yet have “few if any” available short-term solutions; president will call today for the strict enforcement of price gouging laws. [WP, W$J]
* Attorney for fired CIA officer denies his client leaked classified information to the Washington Post. [WP]
* Bush presses for bipartisan agreement on immigration, though he is not backing a specific proposal. Bush: “I know this is an emotional debate, and I can understand it’s emotional, but one thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings, decent human beings.” [WP, NYT, W$J, USAT]
* Many Republican candidates are plotting how to distance themselves from Bush and the war; approval of the president dips to 32% in CNN poll. [NYT, CNN]
* Excessive supplemental provisions to emergency spending bill receive renewed criticisms. [NYT]

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* Bush’s meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao was heavy on symbolism, light on substance; Bush apologized for heckling. [WP, WP, NYT, WSJ, USAT]
* Bush, Jintao disagree about the dynamic of their relationship; “The mood was friendly, yet the tension was unmistakable.” [WP, NYT]
* Harriet Miers might be lost in the next phase of the White House shuffle; Tony Snow is “in negotiations” for McClellan’s post. [NYT]
* Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised more than double its GOP counterpart in this quarter; RNC, meanwhile, beat the DNC by a 1.9 to 1 ratio. [WP]
* Republican leaders plan to hit the ground running when they return from break; “41 percent of those polled said Congress has accomplished less than usual.” [WP]
* Democratic candidates are trying to use rising gas prices to their advantage. [NYT, WSJ]
* Rumsfeld dismisses critics as being against much-needed reform. [NYT]
* Chertoff compares crackdown against illegal immigrants to shutdown of the mob. [NYT]
* Case against AIPAC lobbyists concerns lobbyists and journalists. Professor: “The chilling effect could become glacial for anybody who is engaged in basic lobbying research or simply doing research or writing stories on national security issues.” [WP]
* Negroponte reveals that about 100,000 people are involved in intelligence operations around the world. [NYT]

* Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost $94B in 2006, up from $48B in 2003, and higher than comparable costs of the Vietnam War; Senate will debate another round of emergency spending next week. [WP]
* Bolten “hopes to demonstrate to the public and the Republican-led Congress that it will no longer be business as usual in a White House afflicted by political defeats, an overseas war and shrinking public support”; Tony Snow and Dan Senor top the list of likely successors to McClellan. [WP, USAT, W$J]
* Bolten faces the challenge of finding “ways to open up the Oval Office to new ideas and to the opinions of people who are not longtime Bush confidants.” [WP]
* Rove will focus on November’s midterm elections: “The president and the new chief of staff said they wanted me focused on the big strategic issues facing the administration.” [NYT]
* Bush will urge Chinese President Hu Jintao to “take a more aggressive stance against governments that U.S. officials believe could potentially threaten U.S. interests and, more broadly, the international system.” [WP, W$J]

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* Reliable Source: Condoleezza Rice plays a duet with Marvin Hamlisch at International Women’s Day celebration attended by Laura Bush, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Chertoff, and John Negroponte. . . John Ashcroft and wife Janet attend mandatory ethics course to complete their induction to the D.C. Bar. . . Jack Abramoff shows Vanity Fair photos of him with Newt Gingrich, who denies knowing the former lobbyist. . . Ann Richards, former Texas governor, has cancer of the esophagus. [WP]
* Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: The James Carville and Luke Russert sports show launches March 17th on XM Radio. [NYDN]
* The Scoop: Madonna supports Hillary ‘08: “I don

• Reliable Source Top guns Karl Rove, John Negroponte, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Michael Chertoff, Carlos Gutierrez, John Warner, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Myers celebrate the Marines’ 230th birthday. . . Bodyguard reportedly followed Dr. Phil to the bathroon of the Capital Grille. [WP]
• Under the Dome: The WB is developing a D.C.-based soap opera that will show “the town

• Kaine and Corzine win gubernatorial races in Virginia and NJ; Texas approves ban gay marriage. [WP, WP, NYT, USAT]
• Frist and Hastert seek investigation into the disclosure of CIA’s “black sites” to the Washington Post. McClellan: “The leaking of classified information is a serious matter and ought to be taken seriously.” [WP, NYT, WT]
• Alito “has signaled he would be highly reluctant to overturn long-standing precedents” such as Rove v. Wade. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine): “At this point, I see no basis for invoking ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and for anyone to mount a filibuster.” [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Schwarzenegger’s initiatives are rejected; his “celebrity may not be the tonic it once was.” [LAT, LAT, USAT]
• Election came at a sensitive time for both parties, especially the GOP. [NYT, WSJ, LAT, USAT]
• House to decide fate of ANWR; Senate approves drilling by vote of 51 to 48. [WP]
• Grassley (R-Iowa) proposes $70b in tax cuts. [NYT, WSJ]

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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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• Reliable Source: Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) had John Roberts review his screenplay in the early eighties. Said Rohrabacher, “There were a lot of people in the White House who felt threatened by the input of the writers, but John was someone who appreciated the creative element.”. . . Bob Shrum and wife Marylouise Oates sold their Massachusetts Avenue home to John Negroponte for $2.2m. [WP]
• Inside the Beltway: 45% of voters would not vote for Bush again, according to poll conducted by James Carville and Stan Greenberg. [WT]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Howard Kurtz is looking to publish a satirical novel about the news industry: “This is something I’m fooling around with in my spare time. . . The fun part is that people may recognize - or think they recognize - some major media figures.” [NYDN]