The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Campaign finance, economic slowdown, Kerry's war chest, Schundler's team, Townsend's bash, Condit's defense:

• "The Republican-dominated House regains center stage this week," the Los Angeles Times reports, "with GOP leaders facing stiff tests of their ability to modify or derail campaign finance reform, patient protection proposals and other key legislation."
• Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday that he is "guardedly optimistic" about his campaign finance bill's chances in the House, the Washington Times reports. But McCain said, "Let's be clear. If this [bill] loses, it's because of the efforts of the House Republican leadership."
• House Republicans, meanwhile, are accusing McCain of "bullying" tactics, the New York Times reports.
• McCain "is visiting Boston this morning to headline a rally for campaign finance reform," the Boston Globe reports.
• "Granny D" -- the 91-year-old woman who "walked 3,200 miles in 14 months to push for campaign finance reform," will "march around the Capitol while the House debates the Shays-Meehan bill," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

• "House Republicans hope to restore momentum to President Bush's national energy plan this month after several weeks of setbacks," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., "has assured free-trade opponents in organized labor that he will take a strong stand against Congressional efforts to give President Bush fast-track trade-negotiating authority," Roll Call reports.
• The Washington Post reports that the House Republican Conference has launched "Committee Central," a Web site that "offers the inside skinny on legislation that's making its way to the floor."
• CongressDailyAM reports that the Senate will tackle a $6.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill for FY01 defense spending when it reconvenes today.

• "On the misty last day of a brief vacation, President Bush attended church Sunday at an oceanside chapel and went fishing in the Atlantic with his father," AP reports.

• "The slowing economy and President Bush's recently enacted tax cut have combined to shrink the government's likely surplus," the Washington Post reports, "provoking arguments over who is responsible for ending the capital's season of plenty."
• "As the U.S. economy slows, lawmakers from farm states have begun pushing for Congress to pass a new farm bill this year for fear of losing tens of billions of dollars earmarked for subsidies," Reuters reports.
• The New York Times reports that "for the first time in the 20-year history of the popular 401(k) retirement savings plan, the average account lost money last year."
• "A growing number of U.S. corporations think their investment in new buildings, software and equipment... will increase in the next six months and boost economic growth," the Dow Jones Newswires reports.

• "The conservative Heritage Foundation has taken issue with President Bush's praise of Senate- and House-passed education reform bills," the Washington Times reports. The group claimed the legislation "would set back true public school reform."
• NAACP board chairman Julian Bond on Sunday charged that Bush has "appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing" with his Cabinet selections, AP reports.
• "A Congressional study has found that the votes of poor people and members of minorities were more than three times as likely to go uncounted in the 2000 presidential election than the votes of more affluent people," the New York Times reports.

• The Chinese government is preparing to try two China-born U.S. scholars for espionage, the Wall Street Journal reports, in "a move likely to lead to their expulsion and the removal of an irritant" to U.S.-Chinese relations.

• Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "will reveal later this month that he has raised more than $2 million in hard dollars in the first six months of this year alone," Roll Call reports. Kerry's "aggressive fundraising pace is being viewed by many Democratic insiders as a first step toward a presidential campaign."

• The Newark Star-Ledger reports that gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler's (R) political team members "are not all conservatives and political outsiders," despite his "body blow to the state Republican Party establishment in the gubernatorial primary."
• About 7,100 people attended Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's (D) 50th birthday bash yesterday, sending "her prospective opponents for governor a message: Don't bother," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• AP reports that Illinois "voters are treated to such strange sights" this summer, with Rep. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., "picking up an endorsement for governor even though he has not announced he is running," and Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood's (R) "Web site telling people she is running for higher office next year but has not decided which one."
• Former Massachusetts state Sen. Joe Timilty (D) announced that he would not run in the special election for the seat vacated by the death of Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass., Roll Call reports. The special election is Sept. 11.

• "Police sources said Saturday that" Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., "admitted during the third interview Friday of having a romantic relationship with Levy, something the congressman had denied for eight weeks through his aides," CNN.com reports.
• Abbe Lowell, Condit's attorney, "lashed out at the media Sunday for continuing to try to link the" congressman "with the disappearance of" 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy, the Los Angeles Times reports.
• The Modesto Bee reports that people in Condit's district "seem to genuinely like him, trust him and know him," or "at least they did before Chandra Levy disappeared and the rumors began."
• "National Republican strategists have approached state Sen. Dick Monteith of Modesto about running for the congressional seat that Condit now holds," the Sacramento Bee reports.

• "At least one person died and dozens of others were stranded Sunday by floodwaters in Southern West Virginia," the Charleston Gazette reports. Gov. Bob Wise (D) "declared a state of emergency" in eight counties.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that settlement talks between the state of California and power suppliers "neared the end with no compromise in sight" yesterday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission "has said it will impose a settlement if the parties fail to reach agreement."

• Chesapeake, Va., Mayor William Ward (D) was charged on Friday "with assaulting a congressional aide of" Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, "during a political rally last month," the Washington Times reports.
• Seattle Mayor Paul Schell (D) "was attacked at a community event Saturday and was hospitalized... with a fractured right cheekbone and lacerations," CNN.com reports. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that with his "eye badly swollen," Schell left the medical center Sunday to go home.
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver, whose car was hit head-on over the weekend, "continued her recovery yesterday and should be released from a Cape Cod hospital on Tuesday," the Boston Herald reports.