Fantasy Budget

"Budget director Josh Bolten paused yesterday when asked if they were owed an apology.

"' I don't think so. The costs of the war are what they are,' he said."

Here's the text of Bolten's briefing.

Domestic Spying Watch

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales spent more than seven hours yesterday sparring with skeptical lawmakers over a controversial domestic eavesdropping program, defending its legality while refusing to answer dozens of questions about its operations or whether President Bush has authorized other types of warrantless searches or surveillance in the United States."

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "Just 13 months ago, at his confirmation hearing, Gonzales vowed that he would 'no longer represent only the White House,' instead representing 'the United States of America and its people.' Yesterday, however, he relapsed, referring to Bush at one point as 'the client.'

"Fortunately for Gonzales, the committee members did not seem to be in any position to impose restrictions on the executive branch. They couldn't even agree on whether to administer an oath."

Eric Lichtblau and James Risen write in the New York Times: "Mr. Gonzales said that as commander in chief, the president's powers 'are not limitless. Obviously Congress has a role to play in time of war.'

"But when asked to elaborate on where those limits lay, he refused to be drawn into specifics. He was asked several times, for instance, whether the president had or could authorize without warrants the interception of communications entirely within the United States, and he was careful to say that such interceptions were 'beyond the bounds of the program which I'm testifying about today.'"

Charles Babington writes in The Washington Post: "Despite President Bush's warnings that public challenges to his domestic surveillance program could help terrorists, congressional Republicans and conservative activists are split on the issue and are showing no signs of reconciling soon."

Babington spoke to committee chairman, Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

"When Gonzales argues that the Constitution gives the president undisputable powers to conduct warrantless surveillance despite a statute aimed at requiring him to seek court approval, such an interpretation 'is not sound,' Specter said in the interview. ' . . . He's smoking Dutch Cleanser.'"

Best I can tell from a little Googling, Dutch Cleanser is an old-fashioned scouring powder -- possibly with hallucinogenic qualities when inhaled? So "smoking Dutch Cleanser" would appear to fall somewhere between "dreaming" and "smoking crack" on the expression-of-doubt spectrum.