Briefly Noted

Before the Senate resumes consideration of the energy bill at 9:30 at this morning (I'll have updates throughout the day on that), I wanted to quickly mention just a few things from the papers.

- WashPost and NYT report on Bush's supremely partisan (and hence utterly unhelpful) speech last night at a major GOP fundraiser, at which he accused the Democratic leadership of embodying "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the roadblock." Sometimes a stop sign is useful when you're getting close to the edge of a cliff ...

- The CSM runs a Providence Journal editorial by Froma Harrop, outlining some of the interesting contortions of Mitt Romney. Is he a moderate? Or not? Or isn't he sure? Bottom, line: "Romney's in a tight spot, all right. My guess is that he'll enjoy the national attention, skip the governor's race, then take his Harvard law and business degrees back to Boston. That's where he started a successful venture-capital company. There's something nicely straightforward about venture capital."

- NYT's Stolberg says Frist will push for another Bolton vote this week, while the WashPost notes that might just keep the nomination stalled: Arkansas' Mark Pryor said Monday that if Democrats "continue being reasonable and the White House won't provide the information, I want to reserve the right to change my vote." Now if some Republicans would just come out and say the same thing, that might help move the process along.

- Peter Baker and Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post report on Bush's recent meetings with dissidents from North Korea and other countries, including Venezuela and Russia. Might I suggest he call in Rumsfeld and urge some of that much-touted consistency by demanding that the Pentagon join State in calling for an investigation into the Andjian massacre in Uzbekistan?