Bush and Putin Take a Spin

Bush was asked about rolling back the Patriot Act and increasing aid to the poor before the press had to leave. Here is the transcript of the public part of the event.

Documents Galore

Here is the text of the gaggle by Scott McClellan on Air Force One on the way to Latvia. An excerpt:

"Q If the President is going to be ending tyranny, is he going to be staying up later on this trip? (Laughter.)

"MR. McCLELLAN: Looking at the schedule -- it depends on what time zone you're in."

Here is the briefing by Rice and Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the Bush-Putin meeting, and more on the same meeting from national security adviser Stephen Hadley .

Bush also conducted several pre-trip interviews, with television correspondents from Latvia , Estonia , Lithuania , the Netherlands , Russia and Georgia .

Meanwhile, on the Domestic Front

There is no domestic front.

Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker write in The Washington Post: "He has traveled from coast to coast pitching his Social Security plan, devoting speech after speech and even a rare prime-time news conference to his top legislative priority. But as much as President Bush wants to turn more attention in his second term to domestic policy, the rest of the world keeps forcing itself back onto his agenda."

Richard W. Stevenson writes in the New York Times: "The White House and its allies are increasingly prodding, imploring, mocking, daring and threatening Democrats in the hopes of forcing them to put on the table their ideas for dealing with the retirement system's projected long-term problems."

The rationale: What Bush "needs most is the political cover for his party that Democrats would provide by expressing support for the benefit cuts, tax increases or other painful changes widely seen as necessary to assure Social Security's solvency as the population ages.

"So far, Democratic leaders in Congress have refused to play along, and there is little indication that they will change their minds. Their political reasoning is that Mr. Bush's approach is sinking of its own accord, and that there is no reason to jump in the quicksand with him."

The British Memo

Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott of Knight Ridder Newspapers break the American media's silence on this story: "A highly classified British memo, leaked in the midst of Britain's just-concluded election campaign, indicates that President Bush decided to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by summer 2002 and was determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policy."

New on the White House Web Site

The White House Web site has just launched a new online tour of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building .

Lonnie Hovey, who has been directing the building's preservation, will discuss its history on " Ask the White House " today at 3 p.m. ET.

First Lady Watch

Even Putin is aware of the first lady's comic stylings.

In their brief remarks yesterday, Putin told Bush: "Recently I took a look at the coverage of your meeting with the press corps. Well, I could see how Laura attacked you sometimes, so at today's dinner we will have a chance to protect you."

Bush replied: "She was quite the comedian."

Matthew Cooper writes in Time: "Several veteran reporters at the White House correspondents' dinner noted that one reason the comedy routine fell to Laura was that Bush didn't have much to joke about. . . .

"Laura can't win over the Bush haters. But a comedy routine that was at times racy is a reminder that Laura is not a founding member of Focus on the Family. Whatever hard-core Democrats may imagine, she has never been a nodding Stepford wife."

And, Cooper writes: "Laura has been saving Bush for decades. She persuaded him to stop drinking on his 40th birthday. He converted to her Methodism, giving him the religious faith that has guided his remarkable trajectory. At the moment she has no plans to campaign for his signature, second-term Social Security proposal, but a senior White House official says, 'We're not ruling anything out.'"

Robin Abcarian writes in the Los Angeles Times: "A certain public blossoming of the usually reticent first lady has intensified in the last few months, ever since her husband was sworn in for his second term and she appeared at his side as a more svelte, more fashionable incarnation of herself."

Abcarian tagged along for the first lady's recent trip to California.

"Although Bush's encounters in classrooms and small discussions were choreographed for cameras and reporters, there were rare, unscripted moments that revealed something of her old-fashioned sensibility. At Chipman Middle School in Alameda, she was asked by a student during a round-table discussion what subject she taught when she was a teacher.

"'Well, I taught 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, so I taught really every subject, but reading was my favorite . . . I was not a very good math teacher and I think that's kind of a problem in elementary schools. A lot of -- especially women teachers -- are great in language arts and not so great in math.'

"En route to Washington, Bush clarified her remark. 'That is a stereotype,' she said, 'but I think that actually is also proven.' She also said that her daughter, Barbara, a Yale graduate, is a 'math whiz.' 'I don't know where she got it,' said Bush, who is married to a Harvard MBA. 'I guess she got it from her dad.' "

Jacqueline Leo profiles the first lady in Reader's Digest. "I'm not really interested in running for anything. That's just not my personality. I have the wonderful opportunity of being able to do what elected officials do without actually having to run myself," Bush tells Leo.

Leo also quotes the first lady's close friend Penny Royall: "It's fair to say that Laura is a natural introvert. She's not shy. She prefers quiet company. Just a week or so ago, I was over on Saturday, we worked out, showered and dressed, had a latte. We were sitting in the living room. She was working, I was reading a book. We were quietly sitting, just being together. The President came in and said, 'Aren't you all going to talk to each other? You haven't said one word to each other.' We were just quietly enjoying being there together."

R&R

Paul Bedard writes in U.S. News and World Report: "Like his father before him, who used to play 'speed golf' and a funky combo racquetball and volleyball called 'Wallyball,' Dubya likes to exercise hard with his friends, and his latest sport is mountain biking. But he's gotten so good at it that he's singling out his strongest buddies for invites to Camp David. White House correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh, author of a new book on Camp David and other presidential retreats, tells us, 'Bush is looking for the physically fit.' No doubt, since Walsh says the prez has crafted a course of steep hills around Camp David to ride his Trek in 90-minute races, sometimes leaving his friends in his dust. Not everybody has to ride, though: Bush still likes to do jigsaw puzzles."

Walsh's new book is called "From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats."

Walsh himself writes in U.S. News: "Like Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush gets back to his ranch as often as he can. There he has made many key decisions in directing the war on terrorism. 'We met on the Iraq war here a lot,' Bush said in an interview at the ranch. 'Transformation issues have come up here as a result of annually the joint chiefs coming down, or [Joint Chiefs Chairman] Dick Myers coming down with [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and others to go over different aspects of military planning. . . . I spend more time particularly when senior members of my administration come, thinking big-picture items--relationship between the United States and Europe, for example.'. . . .

"Prairie Chapel Ranch is home, a place where Bush can spend time with his wife, Laura, and friends, chop cedar, and clear brush. He goes mountain biking, listens in the morning for the whistling calls of the bobwhite quail, and takes walks with Laura amid the ash, walnut, sycamore, oak, and pecan trees. He entertains small groups of friends over dinners of broiled fish caught in his stocked lake and pitchers of iced tea or diet cola. The president and first lady like to retire early, rarely later than 10 p.m. They get up at dawn."

Loser

Mike Allen writes in The Washington Post: "The Senate's top Democrat, Harry M. Reid of Nevada, called President Bush a 'loser' yesterday just about the time Air Force One was touching down on foreign soil. Reid immediately called the White House to express regret.

"The remark violated the restraint that the opposition party customarily exercises when a president is abroad and reflected the acrid environment on Capitol Hill as Republicans prepare to change a rule that lets Democrats use delaying tactics to block the confirmation of judges. . . .

"Aides said Reid realized right away that he had overstepped. He at first tried to call Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. but when he could not reach him because the presidential party had headed to bed, the senator talked to deputy chief of staff Karl Rove."

Unbanned for Bush?

Paul Nowell reports for the Associated Press that the pastor of a small North Carolina Church is now trying to welcome back the nine members of his church who reported that they were kicked out because they refused to support President Bush.