• Republican leaders will delay plans to cut more taxes. [WSJ]
• Bush’s approval rating dips to 42% in WP-ABC poll; 6 in 10 do not want tax cuts in the near future and racial divide is registered in public’s response to Katrina. Bush: “When those Coast Guard choppers, many of who were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn’t check the color of a person’s skin, they wanted to save lives.” [WP, USAT, WT]
• Confirmation hearings for Judge Roberts begin. Roberts: “Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. I come before the committee with no agenda. I have no platform.” [WP, NYT, WSJ, WP, NYT, LAT, WT, USAT]
• Hearings became “sideshow” once Michael Brown resigned from FEMA. [WP, NYT, USAT]
• Documents show broad failures on part of FEMA and DHS. [WSJ]

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• Approval of Bush slips to new lows: 38% in Newsweek poll and 42% in Time poll; 28% are “satisfied with the way things are going” in the country and 57% have lost confidence in the government since Katrina, Newsweek reports. [Newsweek, Time]
• White House did not comprehend the scope of Katrina until Thursday night; Dan Bartlett prepared a DVD of news clips for Bush’s flight south. “Problems cascaded and compounded; each mistake made the next mistake worse,” writes Evan Thomas. “Bush’s leadership style and the bureaucratic culture combined to produce a disaster within a disaster.” [Newsweek]
• Purported al Qaeda operative threatens Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia in new video message: “So don’t believe Bush and Blair. . . If your leaders really cared about anything other than protecting their own wealth, status and positions, then they wouldn’t attempt to hide the real reasons for our operations by telling you that we are bloodthirsty sadists, who kill out of mere hatred of freedom and the Western way of life. . . When it comes to defending our religion, our freedom, and our brothers in faith, every one of us is Mohammed Atta.” [ABC News, USAT]
• Roberts‘ confirmation hearings begin today at noon; Judiciary Committee members will also be scrutinized. [WP, NYT, USAT, LAT]
• Bush makes third trip to Gulf region. [WP, NYT]

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