For the Record

■ Party-switching Sen. Jim Jeffords, in Newsweek: “I don’t blame the president as much as I do the Senate leadership.” . . . Republican Senate leader Trent Lott says there is “something liberating about being in the minority” because Republicans will be “freer to advocate positions and amendments [they] really think should be adopted.” . . . Rep. Chris Shays (R., Conn.), in Salon.com: “If I were in the Senate, I would want new leadership.” . . . NPR’s Nina Totenberg looks at GOP and sees wife beaters: “The modern Republican party and its moderate wing are in a sort of, to use the psychobabble of the era, in an abusive relationship. . . . The conservatives are the abusers.”

■ President Bush declines to issue statement marking June as Gay Pride Month, as Bill Clinton did during his tenure. . . . Bush at Yale commencement: “Everything I know about the spoken word, I learned right here at Yale.” . . . In McLaughlin & Associates poll, 68 percent of blacks and 59 percent of whites say it is “unfair” for Congress to impose 40 percent death tax on estates worth $1 billion. . . . Democratic consultants Paul Begala and James Carville offer advice in New York Times: “The Democrats must work to spend and shrink: spend the money and shrink the tax cut.” . . . No House Republicans oppose final tax-cut bill, but two Senate GOPers say nay: Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) and John McCain (Ariz.). . . . Chafee, on whether he will “absolutely” remain a Republican, in Associated Press: “I can’t say ‘absolutely’ on anything.” . . . McCain, on what GOP colleagues talk about, in USA Today: “You think they talk to me?”

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■ Party-switching Sen. Jim Jeffords, in Newsweek: “I don’t blame the president as much as I do the Senate leadership.” . . . Republican Senate leader Trent Lott says there is “something liberating about being in the minority” because Republicans will be “freer to advocate positions and amendments [they] really think should be adopted.” . . . Rep. Chris Shays (R., Conn.), in Salon.com: “If I were in the Senate, I would want new leadership.” . . . NPR’s Nina Totenberg looks at GOP and sees wife beaters: “The modern Republican party and its moderate wing are in a sort of, to use the psychobabble of the era, in an abusive relationship. . . . The conservatives are the abusers.”

■ President Bush declines to issue statement marking June as Gay Pride Month, as Bill Clinton did during his tenure. . . . Bush at Yale commencement: “Everything I know about the spoken word, I learned right here at Yale.” . . . In McLaughlin & Associates poll, 68 percent of blacks and 59 percent of whites say it is “unfair” for Congress to impose 40 percent death tax on estates worth $1 billion. . . . Democratic consultants Paul Begala and James Carville offer advice in New York Times: “The Democrats must work to spend and shrink: spend the money and shrink the tax cut.” . . . No House Republicans oppose final tax-cut bill, but two Senate GOPers say nay: Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) and John McCain (Ariz.). . . . Chafee, on whether he will “absolutely” remain a Republican, in Associated Press: “I can’t say ‘absolutely’ on anything.” . . . McCain, on what GOP colleagues talk about, in USA Today: “You think they talk to me?”