For the Record.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)

President Bush on his budget, in Washington Post: "The other point that we need to look at, in which there's some consternation, is the size of discretionary spending. And as you notice in hearing my talks, you'll hear me talk a lot about reasonable, common sense spending of your money . . . by slowing down discretionary spending, by ending the spending orgy." . . . Senate Budget Committee chairman Pete Domenici (R., N.M.): "Can we, in fact, do all the things that have been recommended with 4 percent growth? . . . I don't know if we can." . . . Vice President Cheney, following heart procedure: "I've signed on for a four-year term, and whether or not [Bush] wants me to serve with him in his second term, that's a decision he'll make at the appropriate time." . . . After Elizabeth Dole declines, John Negroponte accepts job as U.N. ambassador. . . . Attorney general John Ashcroft promises to increase number of Justice Department lawyers working on voting rights by more than 20 percent. . . . Bush moves quickly to fill 100 vacancies on federal courts, with more than 50 candidates screened so far.

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R., Alaska.) discusses Arctic oil drilling, on Bloomberg Radio: "You've got to recognize, the environmental groups need a cause. . . . You ask them. They just love this issue." . . . Rep. Jim Turner (D., Tex.), from the National Rifle Association website: "I don't think you will hear as much about gun control in this Congress as the last." . . . Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) on Bush promoting tax bill by barnstorming states with Democratic senators: "It's so tacky." . . . Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) on ads comparing Bush tax cuts to those of JFK: "I think it's rather indecent, personally." . . . Sen. Zell Miller (D., Ga.), in Washington Times: "I think the Democratic Party could not have made a worse choice in choosing Terry McAuliffe as chairman of the DNC. He stands in the shade of Bill Clinton." Miller also says "Democrats are making a terrible mistake" with "class-warfare talk": "Most of the poor that I know don't have this class envy. They have this desire to move up in the world and into higher income brackets."

Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D., Tex.): "I don't know any particular member [of Congress] who plays the race card." . . . Rep. Major Owens (D., N.Y.) says plans to restructure the House education subcommittees are endangering black colleges and "going back to the days of separate but equal, where you had one water fountain for colored and one for white people [and] the equal never lasted very long."

"I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next president of ...