The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Ashcroft already rolling, Bush calms religion fears, McCain makes a new friend, Powell lays out agenda, Specter plans Rich hearings, McCall announces New York gov run, Davis signs energy plan, Florida punches out punch-cards, "Lewinsky" ruled as harassment:

• After being sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, new Attorney General John Ashcroft promised Thursday that his Justice Department will be "free from politics," AP reports. Ashcroft "plans to meet soon with critics as well as supporters in the Senate."
• The Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Ashcroft, ABCNews.com reports. Eight Democrats voted for him, and "Republicans brushed aside the 42 'No' votes -- the most ever cast against the confirmation of an attorney general." The Washington Post lists how each senator voted.
• The split vote "marked the first serious breach in the good feeling that has prevailed in Washington since President Bush was inaugurated two weeks ago," the Washington Post reports.
• Ashcroft is "close to filling senior posts at the Justice Department" already, and "the leading contender for deputy attorney general... is Larry D. Thompson, who was a United States attorney in Georgia during the Reagan administration," the New York Times reports.

• At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Bush said he will not impose his religious beliefs on the rest of the country, Reuters reports. He "used the annual event to address concerns about his initiative allowing faith-based organizations to gain access to federal dollars to help pay for their solutions to social ills."
• Bush on Thursday announced a five-year, $880 million proposal to help disabled Americans, Reuters reports. The plan would "increase federal investment in research and development of so-called assistive technologies."
• Bush's proposed tax plan "could easily swell from $1.6 trillion to well over $2 trillion once members of Congress begin adding tax breaks for individuals, businesses and interest groups waiting in the wings," AP reports.
• Scripps Howard News Service reports that some of the nicknames Bush has assigned to people he works with include "Freddo" for Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and "Thunderbolt Lindsey" for economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey.

• Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will team up to introduce legislation next week "to reform managed health care," CNN.com reports. A White House official "confirmed" that Bush "and his team were having to rethink their message and legislative approach to deal with the McCain-Kennedy tandem."
• The White House is "wary" of McCain and his alliances with Democrats, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Congressional Republicans began a three-day legislative planning retreat in Virginia on Thursday, and Democrats will head to both Pennsylvania and the Library of Congress for their retreats today, Reuters reports. President Bush will speak at all three retreats.
• The Justice Department is investigating "three current and former aides to Sen. Robert G. Torricelli," D-N.J., for possible "fundraising violations during Torricelli's 1996 campaign," the Washington Post reports.

• Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that he expects "Middle East peace talks and controlling Iraqi weapons programs" to dominate the new administration's foreign policy, Reuters reports.
• The Bush administration this week gave "Iraqi opposition groups permission to resume their activities inside Iraq with American funding," the Washington Post reports.
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin "were likely to have" discussed Bush during a 25-minute phone conversation Thursday, Reuters reports.
• "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will attend a European security conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday," and one of the likely topics will be Bush's plan for a national missile defense system, AP reports.
• "The Voice of America, the U.S. government's worldwide radio service, plans in August to end its Uzbek-language broadcasts to Uzbekistan, its Portuguese broadcasts to Brazil and its Thai-language service," AP reports.
• During a meeting in Washington Thursday, Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwanda President Paul Kagame discussed "the fighting between forces from their two countries, but it was not clear whether the two reached any agreement," the Washington Post reports.
• Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday railed against the United States and the handling of the Lockerbie trial, which resulted in a conviction for one of the suspects for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight, the New York Times reports.

• Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has scheduled a Senate hearing on former President Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich for next week, and he has threatened to call the former president to testify, Reuters reports.
• When he pardoned Rich, Clinton broke a "1996 campaign promise" that "he would not issue any presidential pardons unless they were first reviewed by the Justice Department," the Washington Times reports.
• Rich's lawyer, Jack Quinn, released documents on Thursday that said "the No. 2 official at the Justice Department... knew about the pardon, supported it and even congratulated him at the first opportunity," the New York Times reports.
• After it was reported that the former chief executive's new office will exceed its budget, Rep. Ernie Istook, R-Okla., wrote "a letter Thursday to the General Services Administration warning that" Clinton "must not use more taxpayer funds than already allotted for his New York office space," CNN.com reports.

• New York Comptroller H. Carl McCall, an ordained minister and the only black candidate elected to statewide office in New York, announced yesterday he would seek that state's Democratic nomination for governor, AP reports. The New York Times reports that McCall immediately focused his attention on GOP incumbent George Pataki.
• It's not just federal contests that are setting spending records -- the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports that a Corona, Calif., city council member spent an unprecedented $174,558 in his successful re-election bid.

• The Los Angeles Times reports that California Gov. Gray Davis (D) "signed legislation Thursday that authorizes the state to sell up to $10 billion in bonds -- about $300 of debt for every person in the state-- to buy electricity that private utilities can no longer afford."
• A Florida election reform task force voted unanimously Thursday to recommend banning punch-card ballots from state elections by next year, AP reports. The Orlando Sentinel reports the task force suggested leasing optical scanning equipment.
• Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) "acknowledges he has an image problem," the Chicago Tribune reports, but "blames it as much on voter resentment over... tax hikes" as on "any fallout from the ongoing federal investigation into corruption."
• "Virginia state police are investigating whether a political-action committee controlled by Gov. Jim Gilmore illegally eavesdropped on telephone calls" between voters and lawmakers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• Indiana Republicans are pushing for a moratorium on that state's natural gas tax, Tribune News Services report.
• New Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum (R) pledged Thursday to seek new tax cuts despite a tight state budget ahead, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
• Budget cuts may be necessary in Kansas, the Kansas City Star reports, as state tax revenues fall far below estimates.
• Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) vowed Thursday to veto any changes made to that state's Clean Elections Law, the Boston Globe Reports. "Democratic legislative leaders are planning an assault" on the law, which "provides public funds to candidates who agree to strict limits on campaign fund-raising and spending."
• A new bill is being moved in Massachusetts that would rule out gay marriage and other domestic agreements, the Boston Globe reports.
• The New York Times reports that, "technically speaking," New Jersey got yet another acting governor Thursday afternoon, as Donald T. DiFrancesco (R) -- who was sworn in Wednesday -- traveled to Washington for an evening of political meetings. The line of succession is triggered when a governor leaves the state, and would have put state Attorney General John J. Farmer Jr. in charge.

• A federal judge last night dismissed the $5.1 million defamation lawsuit against G. Gordon Liddy, the Baltimore Sun reports.
• Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Mont., "is denying a published report that she made disparaging remarks about U.S. Sens. Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi," AP reports.
• New York's "soon-to-be ex-First Lady Donna Hanover could get a big chunk of Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani's $3 million book deal when the estranged couple hammer out their divorce settlement," the New York Post reports.
• Carson, Calif., Mayor Pete Fajardo was arrested Thursday "on charges that he violated conditions of his probation by leaving the country," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• "A federal judge has found that calling a woman 'Monica Lewinsky' can be considered sexual harassment," the New York Post reports. The real Lewinsky said she was "dismayed" by the decision.