The Minority Leader

-"He expects House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, to keep his job despite ethics questions. . . .

-"There was 'general knowledge within the White House' of an Education Department contract to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind education law, but officials there had no knowledge of the specifics of a subcontract with television and radio commentator Armstrong Williams to personally promote it."

Here are a few audio excerpts .

The Saudi Gambit

Bush yesterday kissed and held hands with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia -- and went to extraordinary measures to keep the media away from a man who is not the poster child for Bush's effort to spread democracy in the Middle East.

So what did Bush get for his troubles? Nothing.

Michael A. Fletcher writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand."

Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press that "the White House, eager to showcase any progress, expressed hope that a previously announced Saudi plan for increasing its capacity for crude oil production by the end of the decade would help.

" 'The problem in the oil market now is a perception that there is inadequate capacity,' National Security Adviser Steve Hadley said. Any reassurance that available supply will begin increasing should 'have a downward pressure on the price,' he said."

Here is the transcript of a briefing by Hadley and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after the meeting.

Edwin Chen writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Bush's meeting with Abdullah was perhaps his highest-profile move to show that he is working to curb oil and gasoline prices at a time when his job approval rating has been plummeting.

"But by not publicly pressuring Abdullah, Bush may expose himself to criticism that he's not doing enough to tackle high gasoline prices."