It's the Credibility, Stupid

An Intriguing Question

And in his personal blog, Waas raises another interesting question, based on the January 9 letter from special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald to Libby's legal team that was filed with the court earlier this week.

Libby's lawyers have apparently requested that Fitzgerald turn over 11 months' worth of Presidential Daily Briefs (or PDBs). The PDB is the very closely held and highly classified compilation of that day's most significant national security intelligence.

In his response, Fitzgerald wrote that he had never asked the White House for any PDBs at all -- but that, in fact, he did receive a "very discrete amount of material relating to PDBs" based on his generic request for any documents related to Wilson, Plame, and Wilson's trip to Niger.

So, as Waas asks: "Did President Bush personally receive information during his morning intelligence briefings about Joe Wilson's mission to Niger?"

Libby Watch

Toni Locy writes for the Associated Press: "A federal judge on Friday set former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trial date in the CIA leak case for January 2007, two months after the midterm congressional elections."

Neil A. Lewis writes in the New York Times that "the managers of the fund-raising effort on behalf of Mr. Libby say they have already reached the $2 million mark and expect to increase the pace when they start a fund-raising Web site."

Domestic Spying Sparks Hill Slugfest

Spencer S. Hsu and Walter Pincus write in The Washington Post that the annual briefing on global threats for the Senate intelligence committee yesterday "sparked a fierce partisan battle over President Bush's widening claims of executive power, centered on the recently disclosed program of warrantless eavesdropping on the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States suspected of communicating with terrorists overseas. Democrats charged that the White House has politicized the handling of intelligence by launching a week-long public defense of its efforts while refusing to divulge to Congress details of the program's reach.

"Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate panel, invoked the reliance on questionable intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war and alleged a 'disturbing pattern' by the administration 'to selectively release intelligence information that supports its policy or political agenda, while withholding equally pertinent information that does not.'

"Rockefeller, one of the few members of Congress briefed on the spy program, asked 'whether the very independence of the U.S. intelligence community has been co-opted . . . by the strong, controlling hand of the White House.'

"The charges provoked a withering response from Republicans, led by committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who said Democrats were minimizing the threat of terrorism for political gain."

Looking for Answers

Charles Babington writes in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration's reluctance to provide lawmakers with documents related to domestic surveillance, the response to Hurricane Katrina and other matters prompted stern complaints from Congress yesterday, as Democrats in particular vowed to push for more aggressive oversight of the executive branch."

Katrina Watch

Bruce Alpert and Laura Maggi write in the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "The debate over how to rebuild homes and communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina erupted into public warfare between Louisiana and the White House on Thursday as the Bush administration sharply denounced the state's preferred solution and the author of the Louisiana plan accused the administration of misleading the public in an effort to kill the proposal."

Bush in Minnesota

Bush gave a long unscripted speech on Minnesota yesterday on competitiveness.

But apparently he hadn't gotten the memo about his energy policy. On Wednesday, just a day after he called in his State of the Union address for America to break its addiction to oil, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said that the president didn't mean it literally. See yesterday's column.

As Elisabeth Bumiller writes in the New York Times: "On Thursday, Mr. Bush went even further in calling for independence from Middle East oil in a speech on scientific innovation and research.

" 'I'm confident that we'll be able to say to the American people when this research is complete that the United States is on our way to no dependence on oil from the Middle East,' Mr. Bush said to applause from several hundred employees and Republican supporters at 3M headquarters here."

Here's the transcript of his speech.

Post-It Follies

Eric Black writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "President Bush, meaning to pay homage to one of his host's famous products, attached a 3M Post-it note to the first page of his speech Wednesday. But things soon came unglued.

"'Gotta take my Post-it note off my speech here,' Bush said as he warmed up the crowd, mostly made up of 3M employees. That got a laugh, as he displayed the note and affixed it to the front of the podium.

"The laughter turned into a groan from the audience as the Post-it immediately came unstuck and floated to the ground. 'My fault,' Bush riposted, in the main unscripted moment of the speech. 'I should have cleaned off the podium.'"

Here's a Reuters photo of the falling sticky.

Presidential Humor

Julie Mason writes in the Houston Chronicle about how Bush shared a podium at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday with Rock star Bono, who "challenged the president to tithe an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to the poor."

Bush responded with a joke.

Here's the transcript.

"I was trying to figure out what to say about Bono," Bush said. "And a story jumped to mind about these really good Texas preachers. And he got going in a sermon and a fellow jumped up in the back and said, 'Use me, Lord, use me.' And the preacher ignored him, and finished his sermon. Next Sunday he gets up, and cranking on another sermon. And the guy jumps up and says, 'Use me, Lord, use me.' And after the service, he walked up to him and said, 'If you're serious, I'd like for you to paint the pews.' Next Sunday, he's preaching, the guy stands up and says, 'Use me, Lord, use me, but only in an advisory capacity.'"