BACK OFF THE CIA A LITTLE BIT: Gen. Michael V. Hayden, President Bush's choice to lead the CIA, strongly defended the administration's policies on domestic surveillance and the treatment of detainees during his confirmation hearing yesterday, and urged senators to suspend debate about CIA failures and give the agency a chance to rebound. "It's time to move past what seems to me to be an endless picking apart of the archaeology of every past intelligence success or failure," Hayden said. "CIA officers... deserve recognition of their efforts, and they also deserve not to have every action analyzed, second-guessed and criticized on the front pages of the morning paper." Although accountability is important, he said the "CIA needs to get out of the news as source or subject and focus on protecting the American people by acquiring secrets and providing high-quality all-source analysis." Washington Post: Hayden Urges CIA Critics to Refrain

"CONGRESSIONAL EQUIVALENT OF A TEMPER TANTRUM": There were two types of senators at Thursday's confirmation hearing for Gen. Michael V. Hayden: the briefed, and the briefed-nots. The former were mostly polite. The latter, especially Democrats, threw the Congressional equivalent of a temper tantrum. General Hayden, President Bush's nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency, invoked what he termed "a very crude airman's metaphor" in suggesting he believed lawmakers should have been informed earlier by the White House of its secretive domestic eavesdropping program, which he oversaw when he ran the National Security Agency. "If you want people with the craft," the general said, "you've got to put them on the manifest." New York Times: Senators Left Out of Loop Make Their Pique Known

BELLSOUTH DEMANDS RETRACTION: BellSouth asked USA TODAY on Thursday to "retract the false and unsubstantiated statements" about the company that it contends were in a May 11 story about a database of domestic calling records maintained by the National Security Agency. In a letter to the newspaper's publisher, Craig Moon, the company noted that the story said BellSouth is "working under contract with the NSA" to provide "phone call records of tens of millions of Americans" that have been incorporated into the database. "No such proof was offered by your newspaper because no such contracts exist," stated the letter, portions of which were read by spokesman Jeff Battcher. "You have offered no proof that BellSouth provided massive calling data to the NSA as part of a warrantless program because it simply did not happen." USA Today: BellSouth calls for a retraction of report it cooperated with NSA

"MAKES SENSE" TO USE SOME FENCE: President Bush traveled on Thursday to a blistering stretch of scrub land surrounding the nation's busiest Border Patrol station and declared that he supported fencing some but not all of America's 1,950-mile border with Mexico. "It makes sense to use fencing along the border in key locations in order to do our job," Mr. Bush said in a speech at the headquarters of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol. "We're in the process of making our border the most technologically advanced border in the world." Mr. Bush has in the past indicated he is opposed to fencing, and White House officials were kept busy on Thursday trying to explain the change in his position. New York Times: Bush Now Favors Some Fencing Along Border

"SEE YA", MR. CHAIRMAN: A Senate committee approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage Thursday, after a shouting match that ended when one Democrat strode out and the Republican chairman bid him "good riddance." "I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shouted after Sen. Russ Feingold declared his opposition to the amendment, his affinity for the Constitution and his intention to leave the meeting. "If you want to leave, good riddance," Specter finished. "I've enjoyed your lecture, too, Mr. Chairman," replied Feingold, D-Wis., who is considering a run for president in 2008. "See ya." AP via Yahoo! News: Feingold, Specter Clash Over Gay Marriage

SENATE VOTES FOR ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE: The Senate voted on Thursday to designate English as the national language. In a charged debate, Republican backers of the proposal, which was added to the Senate's immigration measure on a 63-to-34 vote, said that it was equivalent to establishing a formal national anthem or motto and that it would simply affirm the pre-eminence of English without overturning laws or rules on bilingualism. "We're free to say what we want, speak what we want, but it is our national language," said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. The amendment was proposed by Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma. It is not clear, though, that the measure will be included in any final bill after negotiations with the House. New York Times: Senate Votes to Set English as National Language

COUNTDOWN TO NOLA RUNOFF: Like the countless forums that preceded Thursday's final televised debate between incumbent Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu before Saturday's mayoral runoff election, the candidates admitted that at the root, their plans to resuscitate the hurricane-ravaged city are basically the same. But bubbling to the top of the otherwise agreeable discourse were a pair of issues that embodied the questions of competence and character that have framed the political fight throughout: the uncertain state of City Hall's finances; and whether New Orleans's recovery should be led by a businessman prone to shooting from the hip or a career politician from a family of elected leaders. New Orleans Times-Picayune: Mayoral candidates face in final debate

NAGIN SAYS VICTORY WOULD "SEND A MESSAGE ON RACE": Mayor C. Ray Nagin says a victory in tomorrow's election will send a message on race that "will echo throughout America." "This election will say in spite of American prejudice, I was able to attract votes from all races and classes and move forward with the process of healing," said Mr. Nagin, who has hinted that whites locally and nationally are working to unseat him from the post, which blacks have held for nearly 30 years. Mr. Nagin questions the source of "$6 million" that opponent Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu has raised, hinting at an effort to return the city to the "good-old-boy system," and says Hurricane Katrina exposed the soft underbelly of race and class in America. Washington Times: Nagin says win would send racial message

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS," SAYS SCALIA: Justice Antonin Scalia rebuked fellow conservatives on Capitol Hill yesterday, saying they have gone too far in trying to prevent the Supreme Court from using foreign law in its constitutional rulings. Scalia dissented vigorously from the court's recent decisions that invoked foreign law to help strike down the death penalty for juveniles and laws against consensual homosexual conduct. In Congress, conservative Republicans responded angrily to the rulings and introduced bills that would either condemn or ban the court's use of foreign legal authorities. But in his speech to a National Italian American Foundation luncheon attended by several House members, Scalia said, in effect, that he does not need any help. "It's none of your business," he said, referring to Congress. "No one is more opposed to the use of foreign law than I am, but I'm darned if I think it's up to Congress to direct the court how to make its decisions." Washington Post: Scalia Tells Congress to Mind Its Own Business

DEMS TARGETING THEIR OWN: Democratic activist groups that mounted an aggressive campaign against President George W. Bush in the 2004 election have a new target: Democrats who support his policies. A loose network of organizations, ranging from women's groups to Internet bloggers, is pressuring incumbents such as Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Representatives Jane Harman of California and Melissa Bean of Illinois, in some cases by backing insurgent candidates in primary elections. The groups charge that these and other Democrats have been too supportive of Bush on issues like Iraq and trade, and say they're trying to energize voters disillusioned with a party that has failed to draw clear distinctions with Republicans. Bloomberg: Democratic Activists Seek to Punish Their Own for Backing Bush

RUDY AND RALPH IN GA: Looking to shore up his right flank, Rudy Giuliani embraced former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed as the man with "the right ideas" at a campaign fund-raiser yesterday in Georgia. With maverick Sen. John McCain emerging as his main GOP competition for 2008, the socially moderate ex-mayor played up leadership as he boosted Reed in a close primary race for lieutenant governor. "He's a person that has the right ideas and the right direction and the right goals," Giuliani said as he headlined a luncheon of more than 250 people in a part of the country where many believe he'd face a tough time in a GOP primary. New York Post: Rudy Turns Right into Heart of Dixie to Back Pal

HOW DEEP WILL THE DUKE PROBE GO? [C]ourt papers indicate that the investigation that snared Cunningham -- in which the California Republican, now serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison, admitted that he took millions in bribes -- and led Wade to take a plea deal could go much deeper. At least three other federal investigations involving members of Congress are also underway, linked to questions about whether lawmakers traded the power and influence of their offices for hefty campaign contributions and lavish gifts. "There is some increasing panic among members who worry that there may be e-mails in which they sort of promised to do something that is contemporaneous with campaign contributions," said Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution. Boston Globe: Congress bribery probe could deepen

SCHWARZENEGGER DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM BUSH: With a methodical series of public gestures, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is distancing himself from President Bush and fellow Republicans in Congress as he seeks to avoid harm to his reelection effort from their declining political fortunes. Schwarzenegger has challenged Bush on border security and global warming regulations. He publicly threatened to sue the Bush administration over Medicare regulations. He has tacitly sanctioned at least three other state lawsuits against the federal government. He has demanded that Bush dispense more money to the state to cover the costs of disasters, immigration and welfare, and chastised Republican efforts in Congress to expand offshore oil drilling. In the last few weeks, he has labeled actions by Bush and Congress as terrible, irresponsible, unacceptable and embarrassing. Los Angeles Times: Gov. Widens His Distance From Bush