The Morning Read: Thursday, February 1, 2007

In a speech in New York yesterday, President Bush said that Congress doesn't need to change the Sarbanes-Oxley law on corporate accountability, but that "we need to change the way the law is implemented." [subscription]

A transcript of Bush's chat with the Wall Street editorial board is here. [subscription]

Eliot Spitzer's budget increases spending at twice the rate of inflation, but cuts $1.2 billion from health care.

So add health care workers among the list of groups with whom Spitzer is fighting.

EJ McMahon says Spitzer's budget is the biggest spending surge since 1998.

The Times editorial board, on the other hand, lauds it as "one of the boldest, bravest budget proposals in Albany in many years."

Spitzer's claim about having "done more in three weeks than any governor has done in the history of the state" is sort of accurate.

But he must still play his cards right, warns Errol Cockfield.

Jill Gardiner previews tonight's faceoff between Hillary Clinton and John Edwards when they both speak in front of the same pro-Israel group in midtown.

By the way, Hillary has no home-field advantage, according to Errol Louis.

Fred Barnes thinks Hillary is already becoming too liberal for the general election. [subscription]

Clarence Norman allegedly threatened to kick off the ballot a judge who didn't pay his friends.

And Harvard is not in Bill Clinton's future.