Wonkette

• 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]
• Bush echoes 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.) says Bush is 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.), and Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.). [WP, NYT]
• Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are bidding for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide border security. [NYT]

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• White House, in effort to win over critics, makes the “highly unorthodox move” of nominating Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA while announcing his new deputy. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• John Negroponte says Hayden is “independent-minded.” [WP]
• Former aide to Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio) pleads guilty to “conspiring to corruptly influence Ney’s official actions by showering him with gifts and trips.” [WP, NYT]
• Sensing “historic opportunity,” Democratic intellectuals and analysts argue over the best strategy forward. [NYT]
• American Bar Association downgrades rating of Bush judicial nominee Brett Kavanaugh; Senate Judiciary Committee holds unusual second hearing today. [NYT, USAT]
• CIA official resigns amid accusations of unethical behavior. [WP]
• What will the Bushes do about Katherine Harris? [NYT]
• Media blitz thrusts Mary Cheney in the limelight to promote her new memoir. [WP]
• Senate votes down limits on malpractice awards. [NYT]

• Patrick Fitzgerald “has assembled evidence that suggests Cheney’s long-standing tensions with the CIA contributed to the unmasking of operative Valerie Plame.” [WP]
• Miers tells Schumer: “No one knows how I would rule on Roe v. Wade.” The White House tries to focus on her qualifications. [WP, NYT, LAT, USAT, WT]
• Conservative “apparatus” built by Rove “has splintered over Miers and broken free from its commander”; “rarely have they turned against a president so normally aligned with them on such a central, legacy-building priority.” [WP]
• “Confluence of crises. . . has some critics asking whether [Andrew Card] needs to clean house or assert himself more forcefully. . . before [Bush] is downgraded permanently to lame duck status.” David Frum: “The lesson of both Katrina and Miers is that the system of decision making in the White House no longer meets the needs of the president.” [NYT]
• Bush’s approval rating slips to 39% in Gallup Poll; only 29% approve of Congress. [USAT]
• DeLay could have saved his position as majority leader if he accepted deal to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. [WP, LAT, USAT]

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