Morning copy 02.01.2006

State of the Union

The president's speech is available on the White House website.

CNN this morning noted that talk about hurricane Katrina totaled 51 seconds of the 52 minutes last night. An A.P. story,via the New Orleans Times Picayune ledes one story:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Arms out, palms up and eyebrows raised, Korean War veteran Tom Short watched President Bush step down from the podium following the State of the Union address, then asked with a raised voice, "Did I miss something?"

Short, a Republican who generally supports the president, had expected Bush to highlight the need to help rebuild New Orleans' flood defenses and economy.

The news stories...

New York Times: "In Annual Address, Bush Warns About Dangers of Isolationism"

The domestic side on the New York Times: "On Education and Health, Costly Plans Face Hurdles"

Washington Post: "Bush Warns Against Shrinking Global Role"

The Washington Post also has a domestic break away: "In a Lean Budget Year, A Pledge for Research"

The Los Angeles Times: "Bush Calls for Cuts in Oil Reliance"

The St. Louis Post Dispatch:

President George W. Bush defended his commitment to a robust role in global affairs Tuesday night by evoking memories of 9/11 and warning anew of more terrorism attacks.

The Boston Globe: "Bush calls for US to cut oil reliance"

The Chicago Tribune: "Bush: U.S. 'addicted to oil'"

The Baltimore Sun: "President focuses on health, energy"

The Baltimore Sun also sees the "ownership society" in health care: "Bush sees health fix in tax breaks"

The Chicago Sun Times notes on the cheers from both sides of the aisle -- at different moments: "Both sides give cheers"

The Denver Post:

He urged Americans to remain resolute and engaged in world affairs. "We cannot find security by abandoning our commitments and retreating within our borders. If we were to leave these vicious attackers alone, they would not leave us alone. They would simply move the battlefield to our own shores.

Bloomberg News: "Bush Rejects Iraq `Defeatism,' `Addiction' to Oil"

The Associated Press via the Tennessean:

WASHINGTON — President Bush set energy self-sufficiency goals last night that would still leave the country vulnerable to unstable oil sources. He also declared he is helping more people get health care, despite a rising number of uninsured.

Whether promoting a plan to "save Social Security" or describing Iraqi security forces as "increasingly capable of defeating the enemy," Bush skipped over some complex realities in his State of the Union speech.

The New York Daily News: "Dubya: There's no honor in retreat"

The analysis...

The New York Times notes that presidents -- including Nixon and Carter -- have promised often to work on energy independence. Andrew Sullivan keyed in on the catchy phrase of oil addiction, including a reference to a gas tax, then pulled back in real-time; he was "not convinced" by 9:53 p.m.

David Sanger's lede in the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 — It was an evening for President Bush to confront America's anxieties — and his own.

Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei write the analysis for the Washington Post:

The president has never lacked for big ambitions, particularly in foreign policy, and he restated many of them last night. But his address lacked the rhetorical lift of some of his best efforts of the past, and the domestic policy agenda, although lengthy, included initiatives that have been around for some time.

In that sense, the speech was a reminder of how much the war in Iraq has drained the administration's energy and creativity, and how much it continues to define the Bush presidency. Before even turning to domestic issues, the president restated his determination to stay the course in Iraq, defended his controversial program of warrantless surveillance at home and issued another warning to Iran over its nuclear program.

An interesting "for the record" story in the Washington Post as well:

In other sections of his speech, Bush omitted context or made rhetorical claims that are open to question.

Referring to Iraq, he said the United States is "continuing reconstruction efforts." He did not use the word "spending" because officials say the administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request to be submitted to Congress this month. About $18 billion was previously budgeted, and $16 billion of that has been committed, but nearly a third was devoted to security and law enforcement.

Ronald Brownstein in the Los Angeles Times notes:

It spoke volumes that he now proposed not to remake Social Security but to restudy it, with the appointment of a bipartisan commission to examine the structure of all federal entitlement programs for the aged. Nor did Bush say a word about fundamental restructuring of the tax code, which the administration once envisioned as its next great overhaul after Social Security.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Keeping pesky facts out of it"

Peter Wallsten and Maura Reynolds, also in the Los Angeles Times, note:

Bush did not name names, but was apparently reiterating the argument offered earlier this month by Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, who invoked Presidents Lincoln, Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt for their use of executive authority.

However, warrantless surveillance within the United States for national security purposes was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 — long after Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt stopped issuing orders. That led to the 1978 passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that Bush essentially bypassed in authorizing the program after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Michael Tackett in the Chicago Tribune notes:

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush made an implicit concession Tuesday night: After five momentous years he has little new to say.

The small-bore nature of his State of the Union address spoke to an era of scaled-down ambition. But the more sweeping goals of the conservative movement that brought President Bush to office might well have been met hours earlier when Justice Samuel Alito was sworn in as the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Robert Novak, in the Chicago Sun Times, asks:

The question is whether George W. Bush was adjusting only his rhetoric or was embarking on a policy adjustment toward the left and the middle.

The San Francisco Chronicle: "Analysis: President's appeal for harmony rings false"

And now for something completely different...

The Guardian's lede on one Op-Ed:

It was, as one Washington wag pointed out, almost certainly the first State of the Union address in US history to mention switch grass. It is also known, perhaps more appropriately as tall panicgrass. It grows in marshes and may, according to George Bush, be part of the solution to America's oil addiction - along with woodchips and stalks.

The Democratic response...

The New York Times with a party wide story: "Democrats Point to 'Poor Choices' in Policy"

The Washington Post on Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine's response: "Va.'s Kaine Assails 'Poor Choices, Bad Management'"

Andrew Sullivan wrote of this responder:

Kaine looks good. Great idea to have a governor, an executive, standing with that big red tie. And the first thing you hear from him is that he was once a missionary. God, God, God for the first few minutes. Then competence and "good management." Nice touch on Katrina response; even more effective on the Medicare mess. And finally, we have a real challenge on fiscal recklessness. Pity it took a Democrat. Nice line on "inaccurate information" about war intelligence. Much better than the "misled" line (which Begala is now repeating).

The text of Kaine's response is available here.

Rick Klein, of the Boston Globe, has one Bay State Dem reaction:

''He's had five years to get it done," said Representative John F. Tierney, a Salem Democrat. ''Where are the big ideas? We've heard the rhetoric before."

Jeff Zeleny, of the Chicago Tribune, has this quote:

"He really laid into the foreign side for two reasons," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. "First, he's weak on the war in Iraq and people don't believe he has a plan. Second, he knows when it comes to security and terrorism, people have positive feelings toward him."

Iran

BBC News: "Iran condemns nuclear 'bullying'"

A.P.: "Tehran has papers on making warhead"

Washington Post:

TEHRAN -- On the afternoon of Jan. 4, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reached for the phone and got Latin America on the line. In quick succession, he chatted with President Fidel Castro of Cuba, rang up President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and, sensing yet another kindred spirit, reached out to Evo Morales, the young firebrand who had just been elected president of Bolivia.

Person-to-person and peer-to-peer, the transatlantic calls described on Ahmadinejad's presidential Web site linked self-styled populists who glory in defying the West. But for Iran, the exchanges carried significance reaching well beyond Ahmadinejad and the controversy enveloping him personally after questioning the Holocaust and saying Israel should be "wiped off the map."

New York Times: "Atomic Agency Sees Possible Link of Military to Iran Nuclear Work"

Hamas

Los Angeles Times: "Putin urges Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist"

The Congress

The Hill reports on lobbying auto-reforming:

A growing number of lawmakers aren’t waiting around for new lobbying reforms to be enacted. Instead, they are imposing new limits on staffers’ contacts with K Street, seeking to cleanse the sudden stain of scandal from once-routine gifts and lunches.

The Christian Science Monitor on the president's war powers:

But that deference may be ending. The Senate, especially, is gearing up to make the case that power between the executive and legislative branches is unbalanced.