I know it is far ahead, but thinking about next year's elections, if the election for U.S. Congress were held today, would you be voting for the Democratic candidate or the Republican canidate in your district where you live?

Total Democratic candidate -- 48%
Total Republican candidate -- 43%

Now, I'd like to rate your feelings toward some people and organizations, with one hundred meaning a VERY WARM, FAVORABLE feeling; zero meaning a VERY COLD, UNFAVORABLE feeling; and fifty meaning not particularly warm or cold. You can use any number from zero to one hundred, the higher the number the more favorable your feelings are toward that person or organization. If you have no opinion or never heard of that person or organization, please say so.

The Republican Party -- 43% warm
The Democratic Party -- 38% warm

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:35 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush’s televised address to the nation produced no noticeable bounce in his approval numbers, with his job approval rating slipping a point from a week ago, to 43%, in the latest Zogby International poll. And, in a sign of continuing polarization, more than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.

[...]

In a more significant sign of the weakness of the President’s numbers, more “Red State” voters—that is, voters living in the states that cast their ballots for the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004—now rate his job performance unfavorably, with 50% holding a negative impression of the President’s handling of his duties, and 48% holding a favorable view. The President also gets negative marks from one-in-four (25%) Republicans—as well as 86% of Democrats and 58% of independents. (Bush nets favorable marks from 75% of Republicans, 13% of Democrats and 40% of independents.)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:58 PM | | Basie! Home

Republican leaders said Wednesday for the first time that they would put Social Security legislation to a vote in the House this year even if the measure stood no chance in the Senate.

Until now, the House leaders had been wary of forcing rank-and-file Republicans to cast a futile and politically perilous vote to reduce Social Security benefits if the bill was sure to be blocked by Democratic opposition in the Senate.

But the bill the Republicans are advocating, unlike President Bush's proposal, would not reduce retirement benefits - and would do nothing else to address the problem of eventual Social Security insolvency.

On issues like tax cuts and flag burning, House Republicans have made a practice of passing legislation popular with their conservative base even if the bills are likely to die in the Senate. Republicans are convinced that the Social Security legislation will be politically popular, whether or not it becomes law.

The bill would use the temporary surplus in the Social Security system, now being spent on other government programs, to pay for private investment accounts for workers. Rather than increasing taxes or cutting those other programs, the plan calls for borrowing more money and increasing the federal debt.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:18 AM | | Basie! Home

Phil Angelides (D) -- 46
Arnold Schwarzenegger -- 42

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:20 PM | | Basie! Home

"It's not a pay raise. It's an adjustment so that they're not losing their purchasing power."

-- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:14 PM | | Basie! Home

"Gosh, I'd love to be governor of Texas."

-- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) announcing her bid for reelection to the Senate (rather than running for Governor).

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:43 PM | | Basie! Home

The number of Americans disapproving of President Bush's job performance has risen to the highest level of his presidency, according to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

According to the poll, 53 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Bush's performance, compared to 45 percent who approved.

The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The 53 percent figure was the highest disapproval rating recorded in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll since Bush became president in January 2001.

The approval percentage -- 45 percent -- matches a low point set in late March. The 8-point gap between those who disapproved and approved was the largest recorded during Bush's tenure.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:13 PM | | Basie! Home

The government is losing the battle to keep the world's most dangerous weapons away from the world's most dangerous terrorists, largely because of a failure to monitor nuclear materials at the source, former Sen. Sam Nunn said Monday.

"We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe, and the threat is outrunning our response," said Nunn, a former Armed Services chairman who now leads the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group that promotes nonproliferation issues.

Part of the difficulty, Nunn said, is the effort requires broad international support — particularly from Russia, where hundreds of tons of loose nuclear material reportedly sit unprotected. [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:59 AM | | Basie! Home

Parties target Fla. Jews who switched to Bush

While President Bush made significant gains with Florida’s Jewish voters in 2004, Republicans hoping to knock off Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in 2006 might not be able to count on the same level of support because of the GOP’s handling of Social Security reform, stem-cell research and the Terri Schiavo case.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:53 PM | | Basie! Home

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? Do you approve/disapprove strongly or somewhat?

Approve 48 (strongly 27, somewhat 21)
Disapprove 51 (strongly 41, somewhat 11)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:51 PM | | Basie! Home

"Politics is a dicey thing," he said. "I'm an old yellow-dog Democrat, well-known as a liberal. I was working on Kerry's campaign for the Senate before that. I didn't think about a backlash, I felt this case so urgently. For someone like the Dixie Chicks, it's different. They're taking a big risk with their audience."

Taylor said he wondered if there might be some backlash from his involvement on Vote for Change on a tour of "red states" earlier this year, but it didn't come. "We all know that all the states are really purple," he said. "If I sound disapproving, that's not really much of a surprise to people who know me. There was a dire necessity in changing this administration. But I want to be careful that I don't come off as shrill, or me on my high horse railing about the world."

He said his message on the current tour is much simpler. "I just want to thank people for showing up," he said. "I have the best job in the world, and I know it."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:31 PM | | Basie! Home

"Ted Kennedy called for Rumsfeld's resignation. This is interesting. This marks the first time Kennedy has ever come out against anything with rum in it."

-- Conan O'Brien

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:24 PM | | Basie! Home

For President Bush, it is bad enough that his campaign to sell Americans on his overhaul of Social Security has not been considered a brilliant success. Now a flap over who got to go to one of the president's recent Social Security events has erupted in a swing state, showing the power of a dogged little anti-Bush group now called the Denver Three to irritate the Goliath of the White House.

Three months ago, the three were thrown out of a taxpayer-financed Bush Social Security event in Denver by a person they thought was a Secret Service agent, reportedly because of a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on one of their cars. Similar incidents have occurred at other presidential events around the country, and the three have not been silent since.

Last week they were in Washington demanding to know the identity of the "mystery man" who ejected them, and they got some unlikely support from Republicans in the Colorado Congressional delegation. One of them was Representative Marilyn Musgrave, a reliable Bush ally.

"I really do believe in free speech, and if you try to quell people it just makes them more determined," Ms. Musgrave said in an interview after meeting with the trio. "So they just want to get to the bottom of this, and I think that's fair."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:09 AM | | Basie! Home

Some nonpartisan analysts see deeper shortcomings in the way Frist approaches difficult issues, such as judicial nominees and Bolton. He sometimes compounds his problems, they say, with ill-timed comments and actions that a cannier Senate leader might have avoided. "We still see a bumpy learning curve," said Norman J. Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

For example, he said, Frist could have sidestepped Tuesday's row over Bolton simply by deferring comments until after the White House lunch, at which he knew Bush would discuss the nomination.

On broader and more complex issues, Frist's tendency to stake out early and firm positions has restricted his ability to negotiate in the crucial later stages of compromise efforts, when leaders sometimes need every inch of political leeway. As early as Nov. 11, he made a speech suggesting Senate rules should be changed to ban filibusters of judicial nominees. When the matter finally culminated more than six months later, the bipartisan "Gang of 14" drafted their accord in a room that excluded Frist, as well as Democratic leaders.

"He showed his greenness in a way that took away his running room," Ornstein said. "Going and meeting with some of these groups, that left him no way out."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:14 PM | | Basie! Home

As Arlen becomes more built up and more diverse, however, Hank finds himself struggling to adapt to new phenomena: art galleries and yoga studios, latte-sipping parents who ask their kids to call them by their first names and encourage them to drink responsibly. The show gently pokes fun at liberal and conservative stereotypes, but the real point is not to eviscerate so much as to watch Hank struggle mightily to adapt to a world of political correctness and moral ambiguity. When Peggy tells him he'll look like a racist for snubbing his Laotian neighbor, Hank replies, ''What the hell kind of country is this where I can only hate a man if he's white?'' And yet, like a lot of the basically conservative voters you meet in rural America -- and here's where Democrats should pay close attention -- Hank never professes an explicit party loyalty, and he and his buddies who sip beer in the alley don't talk like their fellow Texan Tom DeLay. If Hank votes Republican, it's because, as a voter who cares about religious and rural values, he probably doesn't see much choice. But Hank and his neighbors resemble many independent voters, open to proposals that challenge their assumptions about the world, as long as those ideas don't come from someone who seems to disrespect what they believe.

The composition of the audience for ''King of the Hill'' is telling. You might expect that a spoof of a small-town propane salesman and his beer-drinking buddies would attract mostly urban intellectuals, with their highly developed sense of irony. In fact, as Governor Easley long ago realized, the show's primary viewer looks a lot like Hank Hill. According to Nielsen Media Research, the largest group of ''King of the Hill'' viewers is made up of men between the ages of 18 and 49, and almost a quarter of those men own pickup trucks. ''This is only the second show that's a comedy about the South -- this and 'Andy Griffith' -- that doesn't make fun of Southerners,'' Easley told me recently, adding that Hank and his neighbors remind him of the people he grew up with in the hills near Greenville. (Which is probably why Easley does startlingly good impressions of the various characters, including the verbally challenged Boomhauer.)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:48 AM | | Basie! Home

Meet the Press (NBC): Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Bono

FOX News Sunday: Rumsfeld

Face the Nation (CBS): General John Abizaid of Central Command.

This Week (ABC): L. Patrick Gray and Rumsfeld.

Late Edition (CNN): Abizaid and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:51 PM | | Basie! Home

The chairman of the House ethics committee apparently did not properly file a required report about a $3,170 trip to Canada last year. His staff said it must have been lost in the mail.

Perhaps the report, due nine months ago, will turn up. But this is a potentially embarrassing juncture for the chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), to suffer a paperwork blunder.

[...]

The errant report came to light when PoliticalMoneyLine, a Web site specializing in money and politics, compared the trips summarized on lawmakers' annual financial disclosures -- released earlier this month -- with those on the more detailed disclosure forms that are supposed to be filed within 30 days of a trip.

Hastings listed a trip from July 30 to Aug. 1, 2004, to Stuart Island, B.C., that was paid for by Washington Group International, an Idaho-based engineering and construction company that provides nuclear-cleanup services.

PoliticalMoneyLine did not find a matching travel report that would have spelled out the details of the trip.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:17 AM | | Basie! Home

Like "Crossfire" before it, "Capital Gang" will leave CNN's schedule this week. The political roundtable -- featuring Robert Novak, Mark Shields and others -- has been on the air for 16 years. But like Novak's other show, "Crossfire," it has reached the end of the road as CNN attempts to retool itself in content and ratings under the leadership of CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein. Its last show will be Saturday. In its place is an expanded version of "On The Story," a one-hour weekend show originally launched to provide the news channel's female correspondents with a platform to talk about the major stories of the week.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:55 PM | | Basie! Home

"A quagmire, perhaps"

-- President Bush, joking about his "second term slump"

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:53 PM | | Basie! Home

The poll finds Congress rated even less favorably than the President, with just one-in-four Americans holding a favorable impression of the co-equal branch of government’s job performance. Seven-in-ten American voters, meanwhile, view Congress in negative terms, with half of all likely voters (47%) terming Congress’ job performance “fair.” The disapproval of Congress crosses the Red-Blue divide, with voters in both areas holding a negative view of the legislature—though Red Staters are slightly more favorable to the Republican-controlled body.

In a sign of voter dissatisfaction with Congress, a “generic ballot” question that asks voters which party’s candidate they would select for Congress finds the minority Democrats polling at 38% while the majority Republicans take 33%. A full one-in-five (20%) say they are not sure or will not vote in the mid-term Congressional elections next fall.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:55 AM | | Basie! Home

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to restore $100 million for public television and radio broadcasting next year, reversing a Republican-led plan to cut spending deeply.

The funding fight played out as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced the controversial appointment of Patricia Harrison, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, to be its new president.

With the House's 284-140 vote to put $100 million back into the CPB's budget for the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1, public broadcasting supporters in the House beat back charges from some Republicans that "Big Bird is a billionaire."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:47 PM | | Basie! Home

A total of 60% of registered voters in America say they disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy while 63% of all Americans rate the national economy as bad, very bad, or terrible according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 37% say they approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 59% disapprove.

When it comes to the way Bush is handling his job as president, 42% of Americans approve, 53% disapprove, and 5% are undecided. Among Americans registered to vote, 42% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 53% disapprove.

A total of 58% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse, which is unchanged from May. While Americans are less apt to say their household financial situations are getting worse (50% in the latest survey compared to 61% in May), 51% say they expect their financial situations to be worse a year from now, which is unchanged from May.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:05 PM | | Basie! Home

The chairman of the House ethics committee, Representative Doc Hastings, Republican of Washington, is warning that he may resign from the post this summer because of a stalemate of months with Democrats over whether and how to conduct investigations of Representative Tom DeLay and other lawmakers, Republican Congressional officials said.

They said Mr. Hastings had told colleagues privately in recent weeks that he might step down out of frustration with what he considered intractability of Democrats on the panel and their repeated public attacks on his leadership.

The committee is deadlocked over several issues, including staffing for the committee, and has been unable to pursue investigations of Mr. DeLay, the majority leader, or anyone else. House Republican officials say the departure of Mr. Hastings and the appointment of a new chairman could mean months of additional delay before the committee is able to resume any of its investigative work.

Mr. Hastings has also faced criticism in recent weeks over newly disclosed documents that show he has worked closely for years with lobbyists at a Seattle-based law firm that is under scrutiny because of its ties to Mr. DeLay. The firm's former star lobbyist arranged lavish overseas trips for Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:15 AM | | Basie! Home

Anonymity: OK for novels, not sources

After nearly 35 years in television and print journalism, Time magazine’s Joe Klein has some real concerns about what he sees as the tenuous position of America’s supposedly nonpartisan and non-ideological press.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:04 PM | | Basie! Home

"Adios, mofo."

-- Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) to a reporter

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:48 PM | | Basie! Home

Nearly six in 10 Americans oppose the war in Iraq and a growing number of them are dissatisfied with the war on terrorism, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

Only 39 percent of those polled said they favored the war in Iraq -- down from 47 percent in March -- and 59 percent were opposed.

[...]

Meanwhile, 47 percent of those surveyed said they approved of how President Bush was handling his job, the same percentage as earlier this month.

Over the past year, Bush's rating has hovered near 50 percent, with a low of 45 percent in March and a high of 57 percent just after his second inauguration and the State of the Union in February. A poll in May put his approval rating at 46 percent.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:46 PM | | Basie! Home

With the acquiescence of their leaders, key House Republicans are drafting Social Security legislation stripped of President Bush's proposed personal accounts financed with payroll taxes and lacking provisions aimed at assuring long-term solvency.

Instead, according to officials familiar with the details, the measure showcases a promise, designed to reassure seniors, that Social Security surplus funds will be held inviolate, available only to create individual accounts that differ sharply from Bush's approach. [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:09 AM | | Basie! Home

Massachusetts Democrat calls for Tomlinson to quit

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of a House panel on telecommunications, called at a rally yesterday in support of public broadcasting for the resignation of Kenneth Tomlinson.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:40 PM | | Basie! Home

"After all, why wouldn't two groups -- one driven by greed and the other by hatred -- collaborate to further their goals."

-- Newt Gingrich, on hosting a Fox News Special "American Gangs -- Ties to Terror?"

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:54 PM | | Basie! Home

A researcher retained secretly by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to monitor the "Now" program with Bill Moyers for political objectivity last year, worked for 20 years at a journalism center founded by the American Conservative Union and a conservative columnist, an official at the journalism center said on Monday.

The decision by the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, to retain the researcher, Fred Mann, without the knowledge of the corporation's board, to report on the political leanings of the guests of "Now" is one of several issues under investigation by the corporation's inspector general.

At the request of two Democratic lawmakers, investigators are examining whether Mr. Tomlinson has violated any rules as he has sought, he says, to ensure that public television and radio provide greater program balance.

His critics, including some lawmakers and executives of public broadcasting, say he has sought to tilt the corporation, which provides $400 million to radio and television stations and producers, toward a conservative agenda.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:13 AM | | Basie! Home

A new Mason-Dixon poll set to be released today showed Sen. Bill Nelson (D) with a healthy lead over Rep. Katherine Harris (R) in a test of next year’s Senate matchup.

Nelson led Harris 53 percent to 36 percent in a survey of 625 registered voters in the state. The poll had a 4 percent margin of error.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:06 PM | | Basie! Home

"I'm thinking about being a medical missionary, I'm thinking about returning to my cardiac-surgical practice."

-- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:24 PM | | Basie! Home

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Sunday he intends to run for president in 2008.

But Biden, who also sought the nomination in 1988, said he would give himself until the end of this year to determine if he really can raise enough money and attract enough support.

Going after the nomination "is a real possibility," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:09 AM | | Basie! Home

For years, a key U.S. program intended to keep Russian nuclear fuel out of terrorist hands has been frozen by an arcane legal dispute. As undersecretary of state, John R. Bolton was charged with fixing the problem, but critics complained he was the roadblock.

Now with Bolton no longer in the job, U.S. negotiators report a breakthrough with the Russians and predict a resolution will be sealed by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an international summit in Scotland next month, clearing the way to eliminate enough plutonium to fuel 8,000 nuclear bombs.

The prospective revival of the plutonium disposal project underlines a noticeable change since Bolton's departure from his old job as arms control chief. Regardless of whether the Senate confirms him as U.N. ambassador during a scheduled vote today, fellow U.S. officials and independent analysts said his absence has already been felt at the State Department.

Without the hard-charging Bolton around, the Bush administration not only has moved to reconcile with Russia over nuclear threat reduction but also has dropped its campaign to oust the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and made common cause with European allies in offering incentives to Iran to persuade it to drop any ambitions for nuclear weapons.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:16 PM | | Basie! Home

Congressional Republicans are hoping yet again to split the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers nine Western states and has issued some rulings to the dismay of conservatives, saying a breakup is the best way to reduce the caseload of the circuit's federal judges.

Next week, Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, plans to introduce a bill to split the circuit into three parts. Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, has already introduced legislation that would create two new appellate courts for the area.

And because the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has linked the addition of any new judgeships across the country to dividing the circuit, lawmakers may have reason to view the prospect with an open mind.

[...]

The three-way split proposed last year and reintroduced this year in the House would lump together California, Hawaii, Guam and the Mariana Islands; Alaska, Oregon and Washington; and Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and Montana.

A split would not directly affect the jurisprudence of the Ninth Circuit, of course. But it might speed the day that Republican appointees become the majority in the new, smaller circuits. Also, any circuit (or circuits) created that excluded California would probably be more conservative, Professor Hellman observed.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:21 PM | | Basie! Home

MAPLE GROVE, Minn., June 17 - President Bush came here on Friday to promote the Medicare drug benefit, enacted 18 months ago with help from AARP. But he was greeted by people protesting his plan to overhaul Social Security.

"Hands off our Social Security," said a sign outside the local community center, where Mr. Bush encouraged older Americans to sign up for the drug benefit.

The fight over Social Security could complicate efforts to sell the drug benefit, if only by sending a mixed message about actual and potential changes in the two programs.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 11:32 AM | | Basie! Home

Republican Florida House Speaker Allan Bense said Thursday he has been encouraged by the White House and the governor to run for the U.S. Senate.

That would pit Bense against U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, who some Republicans worry is too polarizing to defeat incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson.

Senate President Tom Lee said he also is being urged to run for the U.S. Senate seat. Lee said he hasn't been contacted by the White House but by Republicans who think Harris cannot defeat Nelson.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:54 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush will delay his plans to overhaul the tax code, in part because of his mounting difficulties on Social Security and other top initiatives.

In an announcement on Thursday, Mr. Bush said he would wait an extra two months, until the end of September, for recommendations from an advisory panel on ways to make the tax code simpler and fairer.

The decision means that Mr. Bush is unlikely to propose a big tax measure until next year, mainly because administration officials have been bogged down far more than they expected on efforts to overhaul Social Security.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:15 AM | | Basie! Home

Rumors are swirling that U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Portland, has assembled a committee to explore a possible run for Oregon governor.

But Blumenauer's aides said that the rumors are false.

"No committee has been formed," said Tim Daly, the fifth-term congressman's spokesman, in Washington, D.C. "The rumor is not true."

"Honestly, right now Earl is not thinking about running for governor," said Willie Smith, Blumenauer's congressional campaign manager based in Portland.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:21 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush's job approval rating has dropped this month to just 42 percent, while 51 percent disapprove. His current approval rating is near the low reached in May 2004, after news and photos from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal were made public.

Bush's job approval dropped significantly since last month among people aged 30 to 44, from 52 percent to 40 percent now. Approval among those in middle-income households (incomes between $30,000 and $50,000) also dropped, from 46 percent in May to 40 percent now. Bush also lost ground among white Catholics.

[...]

On Iraq, the President's 37 percent approval rating (not much different from the 38 percent he received last month) is also similar to the low ratings he received last summer. The percentage of Americans who say taking military action against Iraq was the right thing to do is now at 45 percent, matching the lowest level ever found in this poll. 51 percent think the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:23 PM | | Basie! Home

"I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond."

-- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on March 17

He "never made a diagnosis."

-- Frist spokeswoman Amy Call

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:09 PM | | Basie! Home

Gov. Mitt Romney said Thursday he will support a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Massachusetts, the only state where it is legal.

The Legislature was already working on a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage but also would allow Vermont-style civil unions. The new proposal drops the civil union language, meaning such unions would remain illegal in the state.

If the new proposal passesprocedural hurdles, it could appear on the statewide ballot as soon as November 2008.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:02 PM | | Basie! Home

"The idea of not having an alternative to the Bush proposal is politically acceptable, at least for the moment. So I don't see any momentum for Democrats to come forward with a proposal."

-- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), commenting on his belief that the Democrats will not face short term repercussions from blocking private accounts.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:25 AM | | Basie! Home

Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are examining $15,000 in payments to two Republican lobbyists last year that were not disclosed to the corporation's board, people involved in the inquiry said on Wednesday.

One of the lobbyists was retained at the direction of the corporation's Republican chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, they said, and the other at the suggestion of his Republican predecessor, who remains on the board.

The investigators, in the corporation's inspector general's office, are also examining $14,170 in payments made under contracts - which Mr. Tomlinson took the unusual step of signing personally, also without the knowledge of board members - with a man in Indiana who provided him with reports about the political leanings of guests on the "Now" program when its host was Bill Moyers.

[...]

One of the lobbyists, Brian Darling, was paid $10,000 for his insights into Senator Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican who sponsored the provision. This year, he briefly served as a top aide to Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida, but resigned after the disclosure that he had written a memorandum describing how to exploit politically the life-support case of Terri Schiavo.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:15 AM | | Basie! Home

Recent Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) polling shows that seven Republican members would be easily defeated if their reelection took place today, the committee’s chairman told House Democrats yesterday at a closed-door meeting.

While Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) did not name the members, who are from districts “around the country,” he said all polled at 43 percent or less when voters were asked if they would vote today to reelect their congressional representative, sources at the meeting told The Hill.

Emanuel said three of the Republicans polled below 40 percent, including one, from a Western state, at 32 percent and another, a Californian, at 34 percent. The DCCC has targeted three California members: Reps. David Dreier, Richard Pombo and Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:17 PM | | Basie! Home

With major changes expected as aging justices leave the bench, 57 percent of people had a favorable view of the court in the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Only Justice Clarence Thomas, who is 56, is under the age of 65. Nominations of new justices are likely in the coming months and years.

For more than a decade, at least seven in 10 people had a favorable view of the high court. In January 2001, just after the court ruled that President Bush was the winner of the 2000 election, 68 percent had a favorable view.

Democrats grew more negative about the court after the 2000 decision on the election, and 51 percent of Democrats now have a positive view. But conservative Republicans have been growing more negative in their views of the court, the poll found. Favorable opinions of the court have dropped by 20 points among conservative Republicans and white evangelical Christians since January 2001.

"The court is taking criticism from both sides of the political spectrum," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "Liberals lost regard for the court in 2001 following the 2000 election ruling, and the court has lost favor with conservative Republicans, possibly because of their discontent about some big social issues they are focused on."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:24 PM | | Basie! Home

"The governor is my homeboy. I always, regardless of what I am doing, am going to take care of my homeboy."

-- MD Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R) on Gov. Bob Ehrlich

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:20 PM | | Basie! Home

Politics followed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to his alma mater Tuesday, where he was jeered relentlessly by protesters while delivering a commencement speech.

His address to 600 graduates in blue robes and caps at Santa Monica College turned into an exercise in perseverance, as virtually his every word was accompanied by catcalls, howls and whistles from the audience of several thousand people.

Schwarzenegger's face appeared to redden during the 15-minute speech, but he ignored the shouting while recalling his days as a student in the early 1970s and, later, his work as a bodybuilder and actor.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:15 PM | | Basie! Home

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the early results was the weak showing of Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine, who finished fourth behind Schmidt, McEwen and state Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr.

Two months ago, as the race to replace Portman was taking shape, DeWine was considered the odds-on favorite, given his name recognition and the easy access to large amounts of campaign cash, thanks to his father, U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine.

His father's connections paid off - the DeWine campaign raised nearly $1 million. In the last week of the campaign, nearly all of it was spent on TV advertisements attacking McEwen.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:15 AM | | Basie! Home

Yes, there is a clear historical pattern for second-term, midterm election losses. The party whose president was in power lost dozens of House seats in 1958, 1966 and 1974, for example. But, having said that, the intensely polarized electorate adds a new and very different dynamic. Combined with the low number of competitive races, it is virtually impossible for such huge losses to happen this time.

So this is probably a good time for Bush to cut his losses. Domestic distractions are draining his power and creating the impression that he is not focused on a solution for the deepening crisis in Iraq. But there is still time to cut a deal on Social Security that allows him the appearance of success even if it does not get all he wants.

One sign that Bush might understand his need to reshuffle the deck came in his answer to a recent question about closing the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. “We’re exploring all alternatives,” he said on the Fox News Channel, broadly hinting that he might be looking for a way to end the voracious debate about guards abusing prisoners.

The most dangerous aspect of Bush’s sideshow-laden second term is how the extraneous issues he pursues give Americans the impression that he has dropped the ball in Iraq. With some fresh ideas, and some new faces at the helm, Bush might regain the public’s faith in his management of the worsening situation there.

Every time the president hits the road to talk about Social Security, it looks like he is living in denial about the bad news from Iraq. If he dumps the divisive domestic agenda and shows some new thinking about Iraq, the president will have his comeback.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:36 PM | | Basie! Home

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) yesterday defended Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) after calls from congressional Democrats to investigate the Republican appropriator for selling his San Diego home to a defense contractor whose firm had received $65 million in federal funds in 2004.

“Duke Cunningham is a hero,” DeLay said during a press briefing Tuesday. “He is an honorable man of high integrity.”

Cunningham sold his home in 2003 to Mitchell Wade, president of MZM Inc., a Nevada-based defense contractor that specializes in security and intelligence-gathering technology. The company lost $700,000 after it resold the property eight months later, the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported Sunday.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:33 PM | | Basie! Home

The Club for Growth, the nation’s leading pro-growth advocacy group, today began an ad campaign to urge Senator Ron Wyden to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which would open foreign markets to U.S. products, producing jobs for American workers and growing the economy in Oregon and across the country.

“Senator Wyden’s support for CAFTA is vital if we are to take advantage of the enormous opportunity it represents to ensure that U.S. companies have greater access to a market of 44 million consumers,” said Pat Toomey, President of the Club For Growth. “This ad campaign is designed to remind him - and the voters of Oregon - that his support could be the deciding factor in whether we have this important tool to help create jobs and grow our economy.”

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:59 PM | | Basie! Home

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away several appeals from broadcast and newspaper groups that sought to restore new government rules easing restrictions on media ownership.

Without comment, the justices let stand a lower court ruling that threw out the looser Federal Communications Commission regulations as unjustified.

The agency must now try a second time to revise its former ownership rules, which the media groups say are inadequate to address the rapidly growing cable television, satellite broadcasting and Internet markets.

The proposed changes would have allowed a single company to own TV stations and a newspaper in the same area, and to own more TV and radio stations in a single market. But critics, including many in Congress, say that would encourage mergers and stifle diversity in news and entertainment.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:20 AM | | Basie! Home

• 'Hardball' host a softy with guests off-camera

  Think Chris Matthews always employs a serious and aggressive stance toward his guests? Once you’ve seen him off camera, you might think differently.

• Vermont Lt. Gov. Dubie eyes House, Senate races
  

  Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie is being pulled in two directions — by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who would like him to run for the House, and by Senate Republicans urging him to seek the seat being vacated by Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.).

• Pat DeWine taps his father's donors (the shared byline)
  

  Pat DeWine’s hopes of succeeding former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) have tanked in recent weeks, but just three weeks ago DeWine was favored among Washington lobbyists, some of whom had been asked by his father, Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), to aid his son.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:24 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon Republican Chairman Kevin Mannix, who is preparing to run for governor a second time, said Thursday he will step down from his party position next month.

Mannix, an attorney in Salem, said he decided to speed up his timetable for leaving the chairmanship because the political activity surrounding the 2006 governor's race is "heating up sooner than expected."

Portland lawyer Ron Saxton, who lost to Mannix in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary, also is planning to run again, and he is competing with Mannix for endorsements and financial support.

Mannix and Saxton criticized each other after Saxton announced his exploratory candidacy in March. Under prompting from some Republicans, Mannix then announced he would not criticize any other Republican as long as he was party chairman.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:01 PM | | Basie! Home

"I can't tell you how often I get up in the morning and go to work and wonder if in fact I'm not really an ambassador to a foreign country."

-- Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:33 PM | | Basie! Home

Jonathan Singer: One of the big things that has occurred in the Senate recently was the deal to stop the “constitutional” or the so-called “nuclear” option. You were around in the Senate in the ‘80s and the early ‘90s for a number of the major battles over nominees, whether it was Bork, whether it was Thomas. Do you think the deal will hold? And what will be the repercussions of it?

Alan Simpson: I think that what the seven moderates on each side did… The deal will hold, unless they put up a card-carrying commie or a guard from Lenin’s tomb or something, or a ragged Neanderthal on the Republican side. It will hold because they know that whatever the Republicans do here to lessen the rights of the minority, in ten years they’ll be in the minority and they’ll feel the sting of the lash. That’s the way it works. Like a giant wheel with a hobnail boot. You set it in motion, it’ll kick your opponent in the ass, but eventually it’ll get you too.

Singer: Given that President Bush seems to be in favor of forwarding pretty conservative justices – he hasn’t listed people specifically, but people are throwing around names like Thomas and Scalia (for Chief Justice) – should the Democrats filibuster someone like Clarence Thomas, do you think the Republicans will invoke the “nuclear” option at that point?

Simpson: It’s hard to say at this point. It just depends on what the person’s previous activity had been. Sad part is they go back ten or twenty years of legal opinions that were done for law review articles or to stimulate discussion, and that’s unfair on either side of the aisle. So eventually I guess you’ll get no one on the court except people that haven’t written anything or done anything, and that’s a sad situation.

Singer: A number of Senators have talked about the fact that this started around the time when you first became a Senator, when the Democrats starting to block some of Reagan’s nominees and the first President Bush’s nominees, and there was quite a bit of retaliation once the Republicans took over the Senate. I think Chuck Hagel said 62 of Clinton’s nominees were blocked in one way or another, and the Democrats have blocked at least a dozen or so so far. Is there any way of getting out of this cycle of retribution – one side blocking the other, and the other side blocking the first?

Simpson: Yeah. Times, people change, the public changes. I don’t think the public is interested in seeing this. It comes from people who are zealous on both sides. Zealotry is not an attractive trait. Certainly the issue of people thinking compromise means that you’re a wimp. That’s not an attractive idea.

I think they’ll work through it. Extremists do not have the power to change the Senate. That’s already known. You have moderates in the middle who have the power, and they’ll keep the power as long as you don’t change the rules of the filibuster. I don’t think they should change the rules of the filibuster.

Singer: When you served, there were still a number of moderate or liberal Republicans within the caucus, yourself included, but also people like Oregon Senators Hatfield and Packwood, John Danforth, and John Chafee. Now that the number seems to have gone down, do you think there can be a resurgence of your wing of the party?

Simpson: If you have people that are moderate on both sides – you have Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter, Lincoln Chafee and Judd Gregg, often, Jeffords will be leaving, he was fully an independent. I can’t find who will be there and what they will do, but the middle will always save the day.

Singer: For major legislation such as Social Security to pass, it will take a great move toward the middle. Literally, the Republicans need the votes from at least five Democrats to invoke cloture on a Social Security bill. But there hasn’t been so much reaching out yet. What more can the President and the Republicans do to get those five or more Democrats on board?

Simpson: Well the Democrats haven’t put up any proposals. They don’t intend to. So there won’t be any Social Security reform coming out of this Congress in my mind.

I testified before a House committee with Tim Penny. I’ve never seen such sarcasm and hostility. Michael Oxley, the chairman, and Barney Frank seem to have a good relationship, but let me tell you, I heard plain old sarcasm and caustic comments.

I said, “gentlemen and ladies, you’ll never get that done on this end. You’d better appoint a commission and take the heat off yourselves, because you’re never going to make it yourselves.”

Singer: Some people say that the Democrats are modeling themselves after the Republicans in 1994 – maybe not as much on your side in the Senate, but certainly in the House – just simply not engaging President Clinton’s healthcare proposal. Do you think that’s a fair characterization?

Simpson: Everybody can pick their own flashpoint. The flashpoint on judges was Robert Bork. Here was a very capable man, exceeding capable and rather extraordinary. He had done 104 opinions as a district court judge. None of them had ever been reversed. And six of his dissenting opinions became majority opinions of the United States Supreme Court. And before my eyes, they just cremated him. They tore him to bits. So that was the start.

[There’s a book] called The People Rising by Michael Pertschuk, Democrat. I know Michael. I went to him, I said “Michael, you just wrote the bible. They’re going to use that on your guy the next time to rip him or her apart. That’s the way it works.”

Singer: Looking at Social Security, the problem with Social Security, if you take the President’s number the program’s trust fund will be bankrupt in 2040 or so, at which point benefits will be cut by about a quarter. Medicare, on the other hand, the trust fund will run out within about the next decade. Is it time to focus on Medicare and Medicaid rather than Social Security?

Simpson: No. That would be a real grave mistake. You’d better cure the lesser one before you go for the cancer. Go for the one that is lesser, because the figures are huge. Guys your age will be eaten alive in regard to money. So if they can’t resolve Social Security, then don’t even try to help Medicare if you haven’t done anything on Social Security.

Singer: I just want to thank you so much. I really appreciate this time.

Simpson: It sounds to me, Jonathan, like you’re very involved in politics, and I admire that. Keep going with that.

Singer: Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:29 AM | | Basie! Home

Sen. Mel Martinez said the Bush administration should consider closing the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects — the first high-profile Republican to make the suggestion.

"It's become an icon for bad stories and at some point you wonder the cost-benefit ratio," Martinez said Friday. "How much do you get out of having that facility there? Is it serving all the purposes you thought it would serve when initially you began it, or can this be done some other way a little better?"

Martinez, who served in President Bush's first cabinet and is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made his comments after Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden suggested earlier in the week that the prison in Cuba be shut down.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:40 PM | | Basie! Home

ABC's "This Week" — Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., LendingTree.com chief executive officer Anthony Hsieh and personal finance adviser Suze Orman; Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.; actor Brad Pitt.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa.

CNN's "Late Edition" — Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the U.S.; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Defense Secretary William Cohen; Lee Hamilton and John Lehman of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project.

"Fox News Sunday" — Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.; Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch; historian David McCullough. [link]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:39 PM | | Basie! Home

If there is a Supreme Court vacancy this summer, President Bush may look no farther than the Capitol for a member of Congress who can be confirmed quickly. Past presidents have done it, more than two dozen times.

While admittedly long shots, GOP Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas are being talked up by some conservatives as possible nominees for the high court.

Seen as most likely to step down is Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who at 80 is fighting cancer. Retirement also might be attractive option for Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, 75, and John Paul Stevens, 85.

Kyl is a stalwart pro-business conservative and a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cornyn is a former Texas Supreme Court justice and state attorney general. Both men have been at the forefront in fighting Democratic filibusters against Bush's federal appeals court nominees.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:32 PM | | Basie! Home

Philip A. Cooney, the chief of staff to President Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality, resigned yesterday, White House officials said.

Mr. Cooney’s resignation came two days after documents revealed that he had repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that cast doubt on the link between building greenhouse-gas emissions and rising temperatures.

Mr. Cooney has no scientific training. Dana Perino, a deputy White House press secretary, said Mr. Cooney “had long been considering his options following four years of service in the administration.” Ms. Perino said the decision was unrelated to revelations about the documents. Mr. Cooney did not return e-mails messages or phone messages left at his home.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:16 PM | | Basie! Home

Militants killed five U.S. Marines and authorities found 21 bodies Friday near the Syrian border, where American and Iraqi troops bore down in two recent major operations aimed at crushing a tenacious insurgency.

The victims, thought to be missing Iraqi soldiers, were shot repeatedly in the head and found blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs. Three were beheaded.

The killings were a clear sign of the profound difficulties faced by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Anbar province around the dusty, lawless frontier town of Qaim, and their inability to seal the porous desert border with Syria despite major efforts to boost their military presence in the area.

Also Friday, a car bomb killed four men and wounded nine as they sat outside a restaurant in Baghdad waiting to pick up falafel sandwiches, a popular Arab staple made with fried chickpeas.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:41 PM | | Basie! Home

"Howard Dean reminds me of one of these old soldiers from previous wars you find in a cave somewhere that still hasn't caught up with reality."

-- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:41 PM | | Basie! Home

The latest Gallup survey finds Americans about evenly divided in their assessment of how well President George W. Bush is handling his job, but decidedly negative in their assessment of Congress and of how things are going in the country. Iraq and the economy continue to top the public's list of most important problems facing the country.

The poll, conducted June 6-8, shows that 47% of Americans approve, and 49% disapprove, of Bush's job performance. In the past nine polls, since the third week in March, Bush has averaged a 48% to 48% approval to disapproval rating. In the previous nine Gallup readings, taken between Jan. 3 and March 20, Bush averaged a 52% to 44% approval to disapproval rating.

The public's rating of Congress is far more negative than its rating of Bush. Just 34% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 59% disapprove -- the lowest Gallup rating since July 1997. Last month's rating was almost as bad -- 35% approval to 57% disapproval -- but earlier this year, more than 4 in 10 approved. In 2004, approval did not dip below the 40% mark; and in 2003, it hovered just at or below the 50% level for the first seven months, but averaged only 42% for the rest of the year.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:25 PM | | Basie! Home

Portland's pluck early on that it could lead the nation in reducing the release of planet-warming greenhouse gases has paid off. Emissions of carbon dioxide in Portland and Multnomah County have dropped below levels not seen since 1990, the first time a major U.S. urban area has shown such a decrease.

City and county officials were elated Wednesday after a 30-page report indicated that carbon dioxide emissions last year nudged 0.1 percent below 1990 figures. On a per capita basis, the drop marks a 13.2 percent decline. Relative to trends elsewhere nationally, that's dramatic.

Portland and Multnomah County's figures contrast sharply with carbon dioxide emissions levels nationwide, which have increased more than 17 percent since 1990 -- about a 0.6 percent per capita rise.

[...]

Portland's emissions decrease "is absolutely astounding," Jane Lubchenco, an environmental scientist based at Oregon State University and participant worldwide in global warming proceedings, said Wednesday. "I know of no other city in the world that has lowered greenhouse gas emissions at this level."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:50 AM | | Basie! Home

As the war in Iraq drags on, President Bush's job approval and the public's confidence in the direction he's taking the nation are at their lowest levels since The Associated Press-Ipsos poll began in December 2003.

About one-third of adults, 35 percent, said they think the country is headed in the right direction, while 43 percent said they approve of the job being done by Bush. Just 41 percent say they support his handling of the war, also a low-water mark.

[...]

Support for Bush's handling of domestic issues remained in the high 30s and low 40s in the latest AP-Ipsos poll.

Thirty-seven percent support Bush's handling of Social Security, while 59 percent disapprove. Those numbers haven't budged after more than four months of the president traveling the country to sell his plan to create private accounts in Social Security.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:45 AM | | Basie! Home

After the meeting, the second-ranking Republican on the committee, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, said the Senate was unlikely to approve legislation that included investment accounts financed by Social Security taxes.

"I don't think we're going to get it," Mr. Hatch said. "We can't get even one Democrat, and some Republicans won't go along either."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:55 PM | | Basie! Home

That former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer, D-South Bend, might run for the U.S. Senate seat held by five-term Republican incumbent Richard Lugar has emerged as a possibility.

Tuesday's speculation was primarily based on the results of a poll taken last week by the Indiana Democratic Party that reportedly indicated that Roemer would run a close second to Lugar should the two match up in a 2006 U.S. Senate race.

Whether Roemer could win or would even run against the popular incumbent, who is seeking his sixth term, remains speculative.

According to Owen "Butch" Morgan, St. Joseph County Democratic chairman, the poll showed Lugar with a 41 percent to 39 percent advantage over Roemer.

That is likely close enough to be within the margin of error, according to Morgan, who said he knows that Roemer "has been taking a serious look at this endeavor."

The poll, Morgan speculated, might encourage Roemer to "take the next step."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:26 PM | | Basie! Home

"The broad outlines of how to succeed are clear. The question is, can the administration do a good enough job to make us successful and that remains uncertain."

-- General Wesley Clark, on the deteriorating situation in Iraq

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:14 PM | | Basie! Home

Which political party do you think better shares your values?

Democratic -- 44%
Republican -- 40%

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:59 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush yesterday said his plan to restructure Social Security would improve the program's long-term stability without shrinking the retirement income of older Americans. But a new Washington Post-ABC News survey found a clear majority of the public does not believe that.

The poll found that 56 percent said the president's plan to couple new personal retirement accounts with a reduction in guaranteed benefits for most Americans would cut the overall retirement income of seniors. About a third -- 32 percent -- said Bush's proposals would result in future retirees receiving more money.

More troubling for a president who took a political risk by advocating reductions in future guaranteed benefits for all but the poorest Americans is that an even larger majority said the Bush plan would not fix the system's financial problems. More than six in 10 -- 63 percent -- said the proposals would not improve the long-term financial stability of the Social Security system, while 32 percent said it would.

[...]

According to the poll, 62 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the way he was handling Social Security, an increase of seven percentage points since January. Fewer than half -- 48 percent -- support a voluntary plan to invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market, a key change advocated by Bush, while 49 percent reject private investment accounts, down from 51 percent last month but still a five-point increase since mid-December.

More worrisome for the president is that support for personal accounts drops to 27 percent if it is coupled with a reduction in the growth of guaranteed Social Security benefits for future retirees, a provision the White House is considering.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:49 AM | | Basie! Home

Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has positioned himself as a driving force behind an ambitious plan to overhaul the congressional budgetary rules, aligning himself with House conservatives with whom he has recently clashed on the issue.

DeLay has also asked the chairman of the Appropriations Committee to work with fiscal conservatives to implement budget reforms, bringing together two factions of the GOP conference that have been mutually antagonistic.

DeLay has thus forged a working relationship with House conservatives on reforming House budget rules, which GOP leaders have opposed because the proposed changes would undermine their power, according to conservative lawmakers involved in the issue.

[...]

One conservative member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of angering his leader, interpreted DeLay’s recent push for reform as an effort to strengthen his ties to House conservatives, who form DeLay’s power base in the GOP conference.

Last month, DeLay also led opposition to legislation that would liberalize federal funding for stem-cell research, another important issue for conservatives.

Conservatives have been DeLay’s staunchest defenders in recent controversies. Leaders of conservative groups such as the American Conservative Union met DeLay in March to pledge support. They also helped organize a dinner in his honor last month.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:29 PM | | Basie! Home

The annual President's Dinner, a Republican Party fundraising event featuring President Bush, could get an extra dash of spice this year with porn actress and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey planning to attend.

The porn industry and Republicans may seem like strange bedfellows, but Carey said she sees Tuesday night's dinner as a good opportunity to learn more about their policies and do some networking. She plans to run for lieutenant governor of California as an independent next year.

[...]

Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is co-hosting the dinner, had no qualms about Carey and her boss, adult film executive Mark Kulkis, attending.

"Their money was donated to the NRCC. The NRCC's job is to elect Republicans. We'll take that money and use it to elect more Republicans," Forti said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:34 PM | | Basie! Home

"Last week's scandal was Deep Throat. This week's scandal was Dean's throat."

-- Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:01 PM | | Basie! Home

The poll shows Democratic state Treasurer Bob Casey leading Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in next year's Senate race by a 44-to-37 percent margin. In March, the race was a toss-up.

The difference in the numbers is that 6 percent of respondents have moved from the Santorum to the "don't know" column.

"Santorum has taken a hit because of his high profile on some of the hot-button conservative issues," [poll director Terry] Madonna said. "I jokingly say maybe the best thing Casey could do is not campaign, and let Rick create his own problems."

"In any case," he added, "it looks like we're in for a very competitive Senate race next year."

Madonna noted that in the Philadelphia suburbs only 38 percent said Santorum deserves re-election.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:57 PM | | Basie! Home

After eight months of courtroom argument, Justice Department lawyers abruptly upset a landmark civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry yesterday by asking for less than 8 percent of the expected penalty.

As he concluded closing arguments in the six-year-old lawsuit, Justice Department lawyer Stephen D. Brody shocked tobacco company representatives and anti-tobacco activists by announcing that the government will not seek the $130 billion that a government expert had testified was necessary to fund smoking-cessation programs. Instead, Brody said, the Justice Department will ask tobacco companies to pay $10 billion over five years to help millions of Americans quit smoking.

[...]

"We were very surprised," said Dan Webb, lawyer for Altria Group's Philip Morris USA and the coordinating attorney in the case. "They've gone down from $130 billion to $10 billion with absolutely no explanation. It's clear the government hasn't thought through what it's doing."

The Justice Department offered little explanation for the figure. Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. and members of the trial team declined to answer questions as the court session ended. In 2001, then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft tried to settle or shelve the government's racketeering case against the industry before a public outcry forced its revival.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:00 AM | | Basie! Home

Republican U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, who was praised and vilified for her role as Florida's secretary of state in the 2000 presidential recount, said Tuesday she will run for the U.S. Senate next year against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.

Her announcement brings a high-profile name and the potential to raise a substantial amount of money to a race that Republicans already have said they would target.

"Today, after months of encouragement from friends and constituents, colleagues and advisers, many prayers and with the love and support of my family, the time has come to launch a campaign for the U.S. Senate," Harris said.

Harris, who is serving her second term in Congress, will formally announce her plans in July. The Sarasota woman considered running for Senate last year after popular Democrat Bob Graham announced his retirement. After weeks of speculation, she said she would run later, just not in 2004.

Running against an incumbent may be a more difficult challenge, but Harris is considered a top fundraiser and is a popular figure among Republicans.

However, she is also despised by some Democrats for her role in overseeing the recount that ultimately gave Florida and the White House to George W. Bush over Al Gore. Her entry into the race could galvanize Democratic voters and contributors.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:11 PM | | Basie! Home