As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer.

The previously undisclosed fact gathering began in the first week of June 2003 at the CIA, when its public-affairs office received an inquiry about Wilson's trip to Africa from veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus. That office then contacted Plame's unit, which had sent Wilson to Niger, but stopped short of drafting an internal report. The same week, Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman asked for and received a memo on the Wilson trip from Carl Ford, head of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Sources familiar with the memo, which disclosed Plame's relationship to Wilson, say Secretary of State Colin Powell read it in mid-June. Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage may have received a copy then too.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Despite a boost from the majority leader, there is not enough Senate support now to override a threatened veto if Congress tries to ease restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, a key proponent said Sunday.

A favorable Senate vote is considered more likely now that Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has reversed his position to support more federal dollars for research. However, the Senate vote will not matter if, as lawmakers predicted, a veto by President Bush stands in the House.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who sponsors a bill easing restrictions that Bush put in place, said Frist gave his side "a big boost." A vote on the bill could come in September.

While a bill would pass the Senate with a simple majority, 67 senators would be needed to fend off a veto by Bush if all 100 senators voted.

"My analysis is that we have 62 votes at the present time, and we've got about 15 more people who are thinking it over," Specter said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "I believe that by the time the vote comes up, we'll have 67."

On the same program, a leading opponent of embryonic stem cell research, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., countered: "You don't have the votes in the House of Representatives to overcome a presidential veto."

The bill passed the House in May by 44 votes, under the two-thirds of the 435-member House needed to override a veto. However, Specter said Frist's endorsement could provide "a little political cover" for House members to vote to override.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:33 PM | | Basie! Home

ABC's "This Week" - Space shuttle Discovery commander Eileen Collins, pilot James Kelly and mission specialist Charles Camarda; former astronauts John Glenn and Buzz Aldrin; Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA); former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Collins, Kelly and Camarda; NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

"Fox News Sunday" - Collins, Kelly and Camarda; Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

CNN's "Late Edition" - Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie; Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ); Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif; Los Angeles Police Department counterterrorism chief John Miller.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sam Brownback (R-KS)

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

The Senate agreed to shield gun manufacturers and dealers from liability lawsuits on Friday, as Congress broke for a monthlong recess after sending President Bush energy and transportation bills that had been years in the making.

Long sought by the gun lobby, the Senate measure - approved 65 to 31 - would prohibit lawsuits against gun makers and distributors for misuse of their products during the commission of a crime. Senate supporters said the plan was needed to protect the domestic firearms industry from a rash of lawsuits that threatened its economic future.

"This bill is intended to do one thing and that is to end the abuse that is now going on in the court system of America against law-abiding American businesses when they violate no law," Senator Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican who is a chief advocate for gun-rights causes in Congress, said Friday.

Democratic opponents of the bill disputed the assertion that a lawsuit crisis threatened the industry and said that the measure was simply a reflection of the National Rifle Association's influence over Congress.

"This is about politics, the power of the N.R.A. to dictate legislation," said Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, who led the opposition.

But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, and 13 other Democrats joined 50 Republicans and one independent to support the bill; it now goes to the House, where its prospects for approval are good when Congress returns. Twenty-nine Democrats and two Republicans opposed it.

The Senate approved legislation last night that would make permanent most provisions of the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law while placing new limitations on the government's use of secret search and surveillance powers.

The vote, by unanimous consent in the GOP-controlled Senate, marks a defeat for the Bush administration, which campaigned heavily for total renewal of the law and opposed efforts to enact any new restrictions on government powers. The vote sets up fall negotiations between the Senate and the House, where lawmakers have approved legislation with fewer restrictions.

The congressional debate was complicated by a decision released yesterday in California, where a federal judge ruled for the second time that several provisions of the Patriot Act and related laws are unconstitutional.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:46 AM | | Basie! Home

President Bush's job approval ratings have hit the lowest point of his tenure and the number of Americans with an unfavorable opinion of him has reached 50% for the first time, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.
Forty-four percent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling his job, according to the poll, while 51% disapprove. That is a four-point drop from Bush's approval rating of July 22-24 and 1% below his previous low of 45% in a poll taken June 24-26. Bush's approval ratings have now been at 50% or lower since mid-March.

The poll also puts Bush's unfavorable rating among Americans at the highest level of his presidency — 50%. Forty-eight percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of the president, marking the first time in Bush's tenure that his unfavorable rating is higher than his favorable rating. In contrast, a Gallup poll in late November of 2001, less than three months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, put Bush's favorable rating at 87% and his unfavorable rating at 11%.

Bush's previous low favorable rating came twice in October 2004, when 51% of Americans had a favorable opinion of the president and 46% had an unfavorable opinion.

Recent Gallup Polls have shown growing positive momentum for the Democratic Party, even while Bush's ratings were somewhat higher. For example, the July 22-24 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found 52% of Americans rating the Democratic Party favorably, while just 46% give a favorable rating to the Republican Party. When the question was last asked in April, each party was rated favorably by 50% of Americans.

Additionally, Gallup has observed a consistent edge for the Democrats in terms of national party identification in its recent polls. In the current poll, 33% say they are Democrats, 28% Republicans, and 37% independents. This is the fourth consecutive poll in which Democrats have outnumbered Republicans in Gallup Polls.

July 25-28 -- 33% Dem, 28% GOP, 37% Ind

July 22-24 -- 36% Dem, 32% GOP, 31% Ind

July 7-10 -- 35% Dem, 30% GOP, 33% Ind

June 29-30 -- 38% Dem, 29% GOP, 31% Ind

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:52 PM | | Basie! Home

Oregon will get at least $2.2 billion through the end of the decade for highway projects under a massive transportation bill Congress was expected to send to President Bush before the weekend.

The state also will get $297.2 million in transit money, $160 million for work on crumbling bridges on Interstate 5 and $40 million for work on other bridges in the state.

Oregon won money for the I-5 work by arguing that it's a major route of commerce for the West Coast and that anything that affects the transport of goods affects the region's economy.

[...]

"DeFazio has done a good job of leading the delegation. The senators did everything in concert with each other and the House delegation," said Jason Tell, ODOT's federal issues staffer. "We're a small delegation, and we're competing against much larger states."

"I haven't seen this much of an investment in transportation since Sen. Hatfield," Tell said, referring to Mark Hatfield, the retired former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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

President Bush intends to announce next week that he is going around Congress to install embattled nominee John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, senior administration officials said Friday.

Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, a recess appointment during the lawmakers' August break would last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the president had not made the announcement and Congress wasn't in recess yet, said Bush planned to exercise that authority before he leaves Washington on Tuesday for his ranch. The House recessed on Thursday and the Senate's break was scheduled to begin later Friday.

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

John R. Bolton, President Bush's nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, failed to tell the Senate during his confirmation hearings that he had been interviewed by the State Department's inspector general looking into how American intelligence agencies came to rely on fabricated reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa, the State Department said Thursday.

Reacting to a letter from Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Mr. Bolton had not disclosed the interview with the inspector general because Mr. Bolton had forgotten about it. Mr. McCormack said the interview, on July 18, 2003, had nothing to do with a federal investigation into who leaked the name of an undercover C.I.A. official to reporters, a potential crime.

"When Mr. Bolton completed his forms for the Senate he did not recall being interviewed by the inspector general," Mr. McCormack said in a telephone interview Thursday. Mr. McCormack reiterated that Mr. Bolton had not been questioned by the grand jury in the leak investigation.

The latest disclosure about Mr. Bolton came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice strongly hinted that President Bush would bypass the Senate when Congress adjourns this weekend and temporarily appoint Mr. Bolton to the United Nations post. Another Republican official said Mr. Bush could name Mr. Bolton as early as next week, but the official would not let his name be used as the decision is Mr. Bush's.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:17 AM | | Basie! Home

In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening to veto the measure.

Mr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon who said last month that he did not back expanding financing "at this juncture," is expected to announce his decision Friday morning in a lengthy Senate speech. In it, he says that while he has reservations about altering Mr. Bush's four-year-old policy, which placed strict limits on taxpayer financing for the work, he supports the bill nonetheless.

"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," Mr. Frist says, according to a text of the speech provided by his office Thursday evening. "Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified."

Mr. Frist's move will undoubtedly change the political landscape in the debate over embryonic stem cell research, one of the thorniest moral issues to come before Congress. The chief House sponsor of the bill, Representative Michael N. Castle, Republican of Delaware, said, "His support is of huge significance."

The stem cell bill has passed the House but is stalled in the Senate, where competing measures are also under consideration. Because Mr. Frist's colleagues look to him for advice on medical matters, his support for the bill could break the Senate logjam. It could also give undecided Republicans political license to back the legislation, which is already close to having the votes it needs to pass the Senate.

The move could also have implications for Mr. Frist's political future. The senator is widely considered a potential candidate for the presidency in 2008, and supporting an expansion of the policy will put him at odds not only with the White House but also with Christian conservatives, whose support he will need in the race for the Republican nomination. But the decision could also help him win support among centrists.

"It's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science," Frist, R-Tenn., said on the floor of the Senate.

Frist's announcement immediately dented his support among Christian conservatives but won lavish praise from former first lady Nancy Reagan, who said it "has the potential to alleviate so much suffering." Her husband, the late former President Ronald Reagan, had Alzheimer's disease.

[...]

The Christian Defense Coalition lambasted Frist's change of position.

"Sen. Frist should not expect support and endorsement from the pro-life community if he votes for embryonic research funding," it said.

"Senator Frist cannot have it both ways. He cannot be pro-life and pro-embryonic stem cell funding," said Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the group. "Nor can he turn around and expect widespread endorsement from the pro-life community if he should decide to run for president in 2008."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:10 AM | | Basie! Home

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., today raised the possibility that an ethics inquiry could result from the deals offered by Republicans to round up the votes to pass implementing language for the Central America trade agreement.

But she offered no examples and would not identify the Democrats who received what she considered improper overtures.

“Offers made to Democrats didn’t sound like it passed legal muster to me,” Pelosi said. “Offers were made, that were in my view, questionable. And I know they would be at cost to the taxpayers and I say that without any hesitation.”

Pelosi said she would not be the one to file any ethics complaint that might be warranted. Rather, she said, “those who have the information may.”

Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said majority Republicans made no improper offers in securing their 217-215 victory.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:35 PM | | Basie! Home

A former congressman and vocal critic of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Thursday that he will challenge Gov. Rick Perry in 2006.

"Rick Perry is an inspiring leader," Democrat Chris Bell told The Associated Press. "In fact, he's inspired me to run for governor."

Bell was elected to the U.S. House in 2002 but lost his seat to Democrat Al Green last year after his district was redrawn.

Bell is best known for accusing DeLay of ethical violations. DeLay, a Republican, was instrumental in the GOP-led Texas congressional redistricting effort that resulted in Bell's defeat.

[...]

Bell reported raising about $153,000 in campaign contributions during the first six months of the year. Maverick independent candidate Kinky Friedman, a musician and author, raised $300,000 in the same period.

Perry and state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a GOP challenger, have raised millions.

Based on what you have heard or read, in general, do you approve or disapprove of George W. Bush’s approach to addressing the Social Security system?

Approve -- 29 (40% in March)
Disapprove -- 62 (53% in March)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:46 PM | | Basie! Home

"She's the hottest person on the Senate Finance Committee. ... She's known to put on various sort of sexy librarian glasses and take out a big adding machine and sort of very coyly punch numbers, adding, subtracting ... you know, if you please her, she'll appropriate you."

-- Mo Rocca, discussing on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) on "Countdown"

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:35 PM | | Basie! Home

Senior military lawyers lodged vigorous and detailed dissents in early 2003 as an administration legal task force concluded that President Bush had authority as commander in chief to order harsh interrogations of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, newly disclosed documents show.

Despite the military lawyers' warnings, the task force concluded that military interrogators and their commanders would be immune from prosecution for torture under federal and international law because of the special character of the fight against terrorism.

In memorandums written by several senior uniformed lawyers in each of the military services as the legal review was under way, they had urged a sharply different view and also warned that the position eventually adopted by the task force could endanger American service members.

The memorandums were declassified and released last week in response to a request from Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. Mr. Graham made the request after hearings in which officers representing the military's judge advocates general acknowledged having expressed concerns over interrogation policies.

The documents include one written by the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, advising the task force that several of the "more extreme interrogation techniques, on their face, amount to violations of domestic criminal law" as well as military law.

General Rives added that many other countries were likely to disagree with the reasoning used by Justice Department lawyers about immunity from prosecution. Instead, he said, the use of many of the interrogation techniques "puts the interrogators and the chain of command at risk of criminal accusations abroad."

Any such crimes, he said, could be prosecuted in other nations' courts, international courts or the International Criminal Court, a body the United States does not formally participate in or recognize.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:21 AM | | Basie! Home

The House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement early Thursday, a personal triumph for President Bush, who campaigned aggressively for the accord he said would foster prosperity and democracy in the hemisphere.

The 217-215 vote just after midnight adds six Latin American countries to the growing lists of nations with free trade agreements with the United States and averts what could have been a major political embarrassment for the Bush administration.

It was an uphill effort to win a majority, with Bush traveling to Capitol Hill earlier in the day to appeal to wavering Republicans to support a deal he said was critical to U.S. national security.

The vote, supposed to take 15 minutes, dragged on for an hour as negotiations swirled around the floor among GOP leaders and rank-and-file members reluctant to vote for the agreement. In the end, 27 Republicans voted against CAFTA, while 15 Democrats supported it.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:00 PM | | Basie! Home

American voters disapprove of the job President George W. Bush is doing 53 - 41 percent, his lowest approval rating since becoming President. This compares to a 50 - 44 percent disapproval in a May 25 Quinnipiac University poll.

Voters disapprove 60 - 30 percent of the way Congress is doing its job and approve 50 - 39 percent of the way the Supreme Court is doing its job.

For the first time, a majority of Americans, 51%, say the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction — the reason Bush emphasized in making the case for invading. The administration's credibility on the issue has been steadily eroding since 2003.

By 58%-37%, a majority say the United States won't be able to establish a stable, democratic government in Iraq.

About one-third, 32%, say the United States can't win the war in Iraq. Another 21% say the United States could win the war, but they don't think it will. Just 43% predict a victory.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:12 PM | | Basie! Home

Republican George Pataki, who brought down Democratic icon Mario Cuomo in 1994 to become governor of New York, said Wednesday he will not seek a fourth term next year and "come 2007, I will follow a new path, find new challenges."

While Pataki is eyeing a possible run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, he told The Associated Press "that's for down the road. I'm not ruling anything in or out."

Later, the nation's longest currently serving governor told several hundred cheering supporters and state employees at the Capitol that he will call it quits after three terms.

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

On the season premiere of the SciFi Network's Tripping the Rift (10PM), the crew visits a gay planet where "heterophobia" runs rampant, and where the closeted straight politician in charge is named Gov. McJersey.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:51 PM | | Basie! Home

An independent panel headed by two former U.S. national security advisers said Wednesday that chaos in Iraq was due in part to inadequate postwar planning.

Planning for reconstruction should match the serious planning that goes into making war, said the panel headed by Samuel Berger and Brent Scowcroft. Berger was national security adviser to Democratic President Clinton. Scowcroft held the same post under Republican Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush but has been critical of the current president's Iraq and Mideast policies.

"A dramatic military victory has been overshadowed by chaos and bloodshed in the streets of Baghdad, difficulty in establishing security or providing essential services, and a deadly insurgency," the report said.

"The costs, human, military and economic, are high and continue to mount," said the report, which was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent foreign policy group.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:19 AM | | Basie! Home

For the two years since he left the White House - on the very day in July 2003 that Robert D. Novak printed the name of a Central Intelligence Agency operative in his syndicated newspaper column - Mr. Fleischer has been caught up in the investigation of who supplied that information to the columnist and whether it was a crime. The prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, called Mr. Fleischer to appear before the grand jury that is investigating the leak.

One person familiar with Mr. Fleischer's testimony said he told the grand jury that he was not Mr. Novak's source. And Mr. Fleischer, who was never shy about championing his Republican bosses, seems not to fit Mr. Novak's description, in a subsequent column, of his primary source as "no partisan gunslinger."

But Mr. Fleischer was in the middle of the developments that surrounded the White House's response to the criticism leveled by Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat, who on July 6, 2003, publicly said the administration had "twisted" intelligence about the nuclear ambitions of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case.

Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street. In doing so, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa.

Most of the questioning of CIA and State Department officials took place in 2004, the sources said.

It remains unclear whether Fitzgerald uncovered any wrongdoing in this or any other portion of his nearly 18-month investigation. All that is known at this point are the names of some people he has interviewed, what questions he has asked and whom he has focused on.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:16 AM | | Basie! Home

Dem nominee endorsed by Cincinnati Post

Paul Hackett, the Democratic nominee to succeed former Rep. Rob Portman (R) in Ohio’s 2nd District, received a surprising endorsement yesterday from the editorial board of The Cincinnati Post, which has been generally supportive of GOP candidates.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:02 PM | | Basie! Home

DeWine’s vulnerabilities are not simply reflective of the mood, however, but also show personal vulnerabilities. He is less well-known and less-popular than the state’s junior Senator, Republican George Voinovich. DeWine’s personal favorability rating, at 48 percent, is respectable, and a modest 25 percent are unfavorable, but 27 percent are unable to rate DeWine. Only 37 percent believe DeWine is doing a good job and 31 percent believe he deserves reelection, compared to a 42 percent plurality who prefer someone else.

DeWine’s ratings have fallen since February. At that time, 56 percent were favorable toward him, and his job performance rating was 45 percent positive with a 36 percent presumption in favor of his reelection. Slippage in DeWine’s reputation since February is concentrated among Republicans. Currently, only 20 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of independents believe DeWine deserves another term. Even among Republicans, the presumption in favor of DeWine’s reelection is below the 50 percent mark, at 46 percent. There is little question that he can be defeated in 2006.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:00 PM | | Basie! Home

The legal right to abortion is settled for lower courts, but the Supreme Court "is not obliged to follow" the Roe v. Wade precedent, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday as the Senate prepared to consider John Roberts' appointment that would put a new vote on the high court.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gonzales said a justice does not have to follow a previous ruling "if you believe it's wrong," a comment suggesting Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision settled the issue.

[...]

Gonzales said circumstances had changed since Roberts commented on Roe v. Wade during his 2003 confirmation hearing for the seat he now holds on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

"If you're asking a circuit court judge, like Judge Roberts was asked, yes, it is settled law because you're bound by the precedent," Gonzales said.

"If you're a Supreme Court justice, that's a different question because a Supreme Court justice is not obliged to follow precedent if you believe it's wrong," Gonzales said.

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

House and Senate leaders announced a tentative budget deal Monday, clearing the way for ending Oregon's fourth longest legislative session.

But leaders of the Republican-controlled House and Democratic Senate still have to get enough votes from rank-and-file legislators to pass the plan for how the state will spend $12.4 billion over the next two years.

The deal covers most -- but not all -- money issues. Policy questions such as civil unions, a rainy-day fund, tax cuts, expansion of the North Bend Airport and insurance coverage for mental illness remain unresolved.

Leaders said adjournment could come within two weeks.

In the most avidly awaited number in the budget, the agreement calls for $5.24 billion in state aid for K-12 schools, part way between the House's original $5.22 billion proposal and the Senate's $5.27 billion. The deal also includes a trigger that could result in $23 million more in the second year if state revenue continues to increase.

Other key elements legislative leaders agreed to include money for a pesticide-use reporting system, a nine-month delay in opening a new Madras prison and dental coverage for Oregon Health Plan members.

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

Former US president Bill Clinton has been offered 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter by a love-struck African government official.

Mr Clinton was offered the deal on a recent trip to Kenya.

He was offered the animals as a traditional African way of getting a father to give away his daughter's hand in marriage.

The dowry is a very generous one by the country's own standards.

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

Do you think George W. Bush should fire Karl Rove?

Yes, should -- 40
No, should not -- 39

Do you think Karl Rove should resign from the Bush administration?

Yes, should -- 49
No, should not -- 31

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

Despite repeated calls by President Bush and members of Congress to decrease U.S. dependence on oil imports, a major energy bill that appears headed for passage this week would not significantly reduce the country's need for foreign oil, according to analysts and interest groups.

The United States imports 58 percent of the oil it consumes. Federal officials project that by 2025, the country will have to import 68 percent of its oil to meet demand. At best, analysts say, the energy legislation would slightly slow that rate of growth of dependence.

Negotiators worked last night and into this morning to iron out differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions of an energy bill that has been high on the president's agenda since shortly after he took office in 2001 and created an energy task force headed by Vice President Cheney. The legislation would create billions of dollars' worth of tax breaks and other federal subsidies to encourage oil and gas production, to reduce pollution at coal-burning power plants, and to encourage energy conservation. The bill also would require the use of billions of gallons of ethanol and other fuels derived from agricultural products.

Lawmakers resolved one of the most contentious issues in the legislation by agreeing not to protect manufacturers of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) from defective product lawsuits. The Senate blocked final passage of an energy bill in 2003 after such legal protections were added.

But the emerging package does not do what some analysts said would have the greatest impact on reducing U.S. oil demand and cutting imports: a requirement to increase fuel-efficiency standards for trucks and cars. Under strong pressure from the automobile industry, the House and Senate rejected higher efficiency standards. Lawmakers argued that doing so would require redesigns that would make vehicles unsafe and result in a loss of manufacturing jobs -- arguments sharply disputed by advocates of fuel efficiency.

House and Senate negotiators came to agreement on broad energy legislation early today, hoping they have put together an overhaul of national energy policy that can clear Congress after years of stalemate.

We hope to have the bill on the House floor on Wednesday and I think the Senate is going to put it up on Thursday,'' said Representative Joe Barton, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, as he concluded negotiations shortly before 3 a.m. Eastern time.

The measure touches on virtually every aspect of American energy production and consumption, including the electrical grid, hybrid cars, traditional oil and gas drilling, and incentives to develop new energy sources. But it does little to immediately lower the price of gasoline at the pump.

As they wound up their talks, lawmakers agreed to a significant new requirement to add corn-based ethanol to the gasoline supply, which will build support for the measure from farm state lawmakers.

Working furiously to try to strike an energy deal, the negotiators killed two major provisions aimed at curbing consumption of traditional fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal. They also agreed to slow the potential takeover of Unocal by a Chinese oil company to allow for a study of the national security and economic implications of the acquisition.

In a decision that could cost support for the bill from some coastal state lawmakers, negotiators beat back efforts by Florida and California House members to strip from the measure a provision that would allow an inventory of offshore oil and gas resources. Some lawmakers view the inventory as a precursor to a push to allow drilling off states that have opposed it.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:33 AM | | Basie! Home

Louisiana

State Sen. Craig Romero is making a comeback.

Last year, the Louisiana Republican came in third in an open primary, losing to Billy Tauzin (R), the son of the former congressman, and Charlie Melancon (D), who went on to beat Tauzin in a runoff.

[Continued at link...]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:35 PM | | Basie! Home

[...] Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) has joined a short list of would-be candidates weighing a challenge to Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) next year.

Ryan, a sophomore lawmaker from the Youngstown area, joins Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in contemplating a Senate run; he is at least the third Ohio Member to be courted by national party leaders, who increasingly believe that DeWine is vulnerable and are anxious to get a candidate into the race.

When contacted for this story, Ryan’s office referred all questions about his interest in the contest to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

DSCC spokesman Phil Singer declined to speculate about specific candidates or discuss the committee’s recruiting efforts, saying only they believe DeWine is beatable and that “these are all candidates that can win.”

“Mike DeWine has failed to put together a record of achievement for the state of Ohio and a lot of people have noticed that and are taking a very serious look at this race,” Singer said.

A Democratic consultant who has done work in Ohio confirmed Ryan’s interest in the Senate race.

“Are people talking to him? You betcha. Are people encouraging him? You betcha,” the consultant said, adding that Ryan is “absolutely entertaining” the idea of running against DeWine.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:34 PM | | Basie! Home

The Teamsters and a major service employees union on Monday bolted from the AFL-CIO, a stinging exodus for an embattled movement struggling to stop membership losses and adjust to a rapidly changing working environment.

In a decision that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney labeled a “grievous insult” to labor's rank-and-file, the Teamsters union and the Service Employees International Union, two major federation affiliates, said they decided to leave.

“In our view, we must have more union members in order to change the political climate that is undermining workers' rights in this country,” said Teamsters President James P. Hoffa. “The AFL-CIO has chosen the opposite approach.”

The Teamsters joined the Service Employees International Union, the largest AFL-CIO affiliate with 1.8 million members, in bolting. The SEIU is a union that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney once headed. They said they were forming a competing labor coalition designed to reverse labor's long decline in union membership.

Unless I'm misreading this, it looks like a breakup of the AFL-CIO is now a done deal. I suspect this is for the best, since the two halves have genuinely different goals and a breakup will allow them to pursue those goals as aggressively as they want. Still, I sure hope Andy Stern knows what he's doing....

While labor is definitely a potent political force on behalf of Democrats, I would argue that even their political activities actually work best for progressives and for workers when they are coordinated with other groups, including civil rights and environmental organizations. Further, GOTV efforts tend to work better when they are conducted by people in your neighborhood anyway, which is an issue entirely separate from this split.

Overall, I can't agree with DhinMI's tone in his article today where he seems to be very down on the prospect of a split. Yes, union members are just about the only segment of the white and white male populations that vote Democrat, and yes unions are the progressive voice in the workplace, which is undeniably one of the most important ideological conversion mechanisms in the country. However, there are other segments of the white and white male populations that do in fact vote Democrat, including seculars, the GLBT community, and the Jewish community. Further, unlike the labor movement, which is shrinking in size, the secular population is exploding. In fact, while the rise of seculars is one of the demographic trends that gives progressives electoral hope for the future, the current decline in the labor movement should give us extreme cause for concern. Unless the labor movement rises, which it clearly has not under the guidance of the AFL-CIO over the past few decades, the future of progressivism, especially in the workplace, is bleak. So while these unions may be splitting, and while this may cause more competition between unions, the value of maintaining the current structure is not in clear to me. What the leaders of this separatist charge, Andy Stern and SEIU, is doing seems to be working, as they are actually rapidly increasing in size at a time when overall unions are in decline. I, for one, am more willing to support a plan that seems to be working rather than one that seems to be failing.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:20 PM | | Basie! Home

Experts in 2005 predict that Alabama will have had a black governor by 2055, but say little else is likely to change dramatically, though all said it's impossible to predict what would happen in the next 50 years.

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

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory.

Having served only two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a long career as a government and private-sector lawyer, Roberts has not amassed much of a public paper record that would show his judicial philosophy. Working with the Federalist Society would provide some clue of his sympathies. The organization keeps its membership rolls secret, but many key policymakers in the Bush administration are acknowledged current or former members.

Roberts has burnished his legal image carefully. When news organizations have reported his membership in the society, he or others speaking on his behalf have sought corrections. Last week, the White House told news organizations that had reported his membership in the group that he had no memory of belonging. The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Associated Press printed corrections.

Over the weekend, The Post obtained a copy of the Federalist Society Lawyers' Division Leadership Directory, 1997-1998. It lists Roberts, then a partner at the law firm Hogan & Hartson, as a member of the steering committee of the organization's Washington chapter and includes his firm's address and telephone number.

Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Roberts "has no recollection of being a member of the Federalist Society, or its steering committee." Roberts has acknowledged taking part in some Federalist Society activities, Perino said.

The Federalist Society was founded in 1982 by conservatives who disagreed with what they saw as a leftist tilt in the nation's law schools. The group sponsors legal symposia and similar activities and serves as a network for rising conservative lawyers.

In conservative circles, membership in or association with the society has become a badge of ideological and political reliability. Roberts's membership was routinely reported by news organizations in the context of his work in two GOP administrations and legal assistance to the party during the contested 2000 presidential election in Florida.

But the society's alignment with conservative GOP politics and public policy makes Roberts's relationship with the organization a potentially sensitive point for his confirmation process because many Democrats regard the organization with suspicion.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:16 AM | | Basie! Home

"I must say from a common-sense standpoint, driving back and forth to work to the C.I.A. headquarters, I don't know if that really qualifies as being, you know, covert."

-- Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on the outing of CIA agents like Valerie Plame

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

As White House counsel, he was the one first notified that the Justice Department, at the request of the C.I.A., had opened an investigation into the outing of Joseph Wilson's wife. That notification came at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2003, but it took Mr. Gonzales 12 more hours to inform the White House staff that it must "preserve all materials" relevant to the investigation. This 12-hour delay, he has said, was sanctioned by the Justice Department, but since the department was then run by John Ashcroft, a Bush loyalist who refused to recuse himself from the Plame case, inquiring Senate Democrats would examine this 12-hour delay as closely as an 18½-minute tape gap. "Every good prosecutor knows that any delay could give a culprit time to destroy the evidence," said Senator Charles Schumer, correctly, back when the missing 12 hours was first revealed almost two years ago. A new Gonzales confirmation process now would have quickly devolved into a neo-Watergate hearing. Mr. Gonzales was in the thick of the Plame investigation, all told, for 16 months.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday that he notified White House chief of staff Andy Card after the Justice Department opened an investigation into who revealed a covert CIA officer's identity, but waited 12 hours to tell anyone else in the executive mansion.

The White House did not respond to questions Sunday about whether Card passed that information to top Bush aide Karl Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation.

[...]

Gonzales said Justice Department lawyers notified him of the investigation around 8 p.m., and he got permission from them to wait until the following morning to direct the staff to preserve any materials related to the case.

"We were advised, `Go ahead and notify the staff early in the morning, that would be OK,'" Gonzales said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "And again, most of the staff had gone home. No one knew about the investigation."

Gonzales said he immediately notified Card, then told President Bush the next morning before notifying the White House staff.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:58 PM | | Basie! Home

The race for Virginia governor is a tossup, according to The Times-Dispatch Poll.

Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has a statistically insignificant lead over former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, according to the survey, which shows Kaine is helped by the broad popularity of the fellow Democrat he hopes to succeed, Gov. Mark R. Warner.

The poll also suggests Republican Kilgore is losing GOP and independent votes to state Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., a Republican state senator running for governor as an independent.

Kaine had 38 percent to 37 percent for Kilgore. Potts was favored by 9 percent. Sixteen percent were undecided.

Because Kaine's advantage is within the poll's margin of error -- plus or minus 4 percentage points -- the contest with Kilgore could be considered a dead heat.

[...]

Ten months ago, Mason-Dixon put Kilgore 5 percentage points ahead of Kaine.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:45 AM | | Basie! Home

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who has been publicly vague about whether he will give up the reins at the end of this Congress, told a group of supporters last week that he plans to run again and serve as speaker for the rest of President Bush's second term.

Republican officials said they are relieved by the development because it postpones what is likely to be a brutal succession fight that would be a distraction from next year's midterm elections, which are historically tough for the party in power, and from Bush's domestic agenda, which is already having a tough time on Capitol Hill.

[...]

White House officials said Bush is comfortable with Hastert, and that the president and Andrew H. Card Jr., his chief of staff, have long hoped that Hastert would remain throughout the second term.

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said Bush has often brought the speaker up in conversation, saying how much he enjoys and appreciates him. "We are a nation at war, and Denny Hastert is battle-tested and offers stability," he said.

Hastert has yet to tell other lawmakers of his decision. Some have expressed concern about his health after he was hospitalized in April because of kidney stones. But some of those members said last week that he looked tan from working in his garden and appeared to have lost some weight.

The most immediate beneficiary is House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who holds the No. 2 slot in leadership, because it gives him a chance to be cleared by the House ethics committee before the leadership jockeying begins. "What he needs is time," a Republican leadership aide said.

[...]

In addition to DeLay, others who might be likely to seek the speakership are House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.); Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee; Rep. John A. Boehner (Ohio), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce; Rep. Eric I. Cantor (Va.), chief deputy majority whip; Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee; and Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.), vice chairman of the House Republican Conference.

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

Sen. John Kerry thinks Lance Armstrong would make a terrific politician — but fears he'd be running for the other party.

Watching Armstrong during his warmup for Saturday's time trial, the Democrat from Massachusetts listed the Texan's winning qualities.

"What's made him so special at the Tour de France, and as an athlete, is the level of focus, discipline, intelligence, strategic ability, and obviously, his endurance — his ability to just take it on and go," Kerry said.

Those qualities would serve Armstrong well in politics, Kerry said. But Armstrong is also friendly with fellow Texan President Bush.

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

Democrats slammed President Bush's response to a top aide's role in outing a covert CIA operative on Saturday, turning their radio address over to an ex-agent critical of his actions.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and registered Republican, accused Bush of flip-flopping on his promise to fire anyone at the White House implicated in the leak.

Democrats have called on Bush to fire top adviser Karl Rove or revoke his security clearance after he was identified by a reporter as being a source in the leak of Valerie Plame's name two years ago after her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, criticized the White House's justification for going to war in Iraq.

Bush initially said he would dismiss anyone involved in exposing a covert CIA agent. But as attention in the case focused on White House aides in recent weeks, the president said he would fire anyone who was found by a federal probe to have acted illegally in the case.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:47 AM | | Basie! Home

Lawyers for the Defense Department are refusing to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release secret photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

The lawyers said in a letter sent to the federal court in Manhattan late Thursday that they would file a sealed brief explaining their reasons for not turning over the material, which they were to have released by yesterday.

The photographs were some of thousands turned over by Specialist Joseph M. Darby, the whistle-blower who exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib by giving investigators computer disks containing photographs and videos of prisoners being abused, sexually humiliated and threatened with growling dogs.

The small number of the photographs released in spring 2004 provoked international outrage at the American military.

In early June, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered the release of the additional photographs, part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to determine the extent of abuse at American military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The government has turned over more than 60,000 pages of documents on the treatment of detainees, some containing graphic descriptions of mistreatment. But the material that the judge ordered released - the A.C.L.U. says there are 87 photographs and 4 videos - would be the first images released in the suit. The judge said they would be the "best evidence" in the debate about the treatment of Abu Ghraib prisoners.

The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

Vice President Cheney met Thursday evening with three senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press the administration's case that legislation on these matters would usurp the president's authority and -- in the words of a White House official -- interfere with his ability "to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack."

It was the second time that Cheney has met with Senate members to tamp down what the White House views as an incipient Republican rebellion. The lawmakers have publicly expressed frustration about what they consider to be the administration's failure to hold any senior military officials responsible for notorious detainee abuse in Iraq and the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

This week's session was attended by Armed Services Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and committee members John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). Warner and Graham last week chaired hearings that explored detainee abuse and interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay and the concerns of senior military lawyers that vague administration policies have left the door open to abuse.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:30 AM | | Basie! Home

There is disinformation out there claiming that Clinton nominees, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, refused to answer right-to-privacy questions in their Senate confirmation hearings. Both answered some questions, and refused others. But in Ginsburg's confirmation, she clearly told senators she favored a right to abortion (and the Equal Rights Amendment). The right, she stressed, should be grounded in a constitutional right to privacy and in the 14th Amendment's "equal protection" clause. (For more, see "Ginsburg Hearings Provide Some Insight Into Judge's Ideals," Christian Science Monitor, July 26, 1993). Also, Breyer testified openly about his thinking on privacy rights. For more on that, see "Breyer Charts Moderate Course to High Court," The National Law Journal, July 25, 1994.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:27 PM | | Basie! Home

While there has been a dramatic shift in the way Americans view the economy, George W. Bush's overall job approval ratings remain unchanged from a month ago according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 42% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 52% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 38% approve and 54% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 42% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 53% disapprove, and 38% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 55% disapprove.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is living up to his reputation as the most vulnerable incumbent at this point in the 2006 election cycle. Santorum trails Democrat Bob Casey, Jr by eleven percentage points, 52% to 41%.

Casey is viewed favorably by 49% of the state’s likely voters while 27% have an unfavorable opinion. For Santorum, 44% say favorable and 43% unfavorable.

Casey earns 85% of the vote from self-identified liberal voters and 62% from moderates. Santorum currently attracts 66% of the conservative vote.

Typically, Republicans do better among married voters. However, at the moment, Santorum attracts 41% of married voters and 40% from those who are not married.

Among voters who Approve of the job President Bush is doing, just 70% say they will vote for Santorum. Early in Election 2004, several Republican candidates had relatively low levels of support from Bush voters. However, as Election Day approached, their support from Bush voters increased dramatically. This phenomenon helped elect Republicans in Oklahoma and Alaska. The President is significantly more popular in those states than he is in Pennsylvania.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:26 PM | | Basie! Home

Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to people familiar with the case.

Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified before a federal grand jury that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, according a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was first to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor, the person said.

These discrepancies may be important because Fitzgerald is investigating whether Libby, Rove or other administration officials made false statements during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has its genesis in whether any administration officials violated a 1982 law making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a covert intelligence agent.

At the same time in July 2003 that a C.I.A. operative's identity was exposed, two key White House officials who talked to journalists about the officer were also working closely together on a related underlying issue: whether President Bush was correct in suggesting earlier that year that Iraq had been trying to acquire nuclear materials from Africa.

The two issues had become inextricably linked because Joseph C. Wilson IV, the husband of the unmasked C.I.A. officer, had questioned Mr. Bush's assertion, prompting a damage-control effort by the White House that included challenging Mr. Wilson's standing and his credentials. A federal grand jury investigation is under way by a special counsel to determine whether someone illegally leaked the officer's identity and possibly into whether perjury or obstruction of justice occurred during the inquiry.

People who have been briefed on the case said that the White House officials, Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr., were helping to prepare what became the administration's primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been included in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address six months earlier.

They had exchanged e-mail correspondence and drafts of a proposed statement by George Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to explain how the disputed wording had gotten into the address. Mr. Rove, the president's political strategist, and Mr. Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coordinated their efforts with Stephen Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, who was in turn consulting with Mr. Tenet.

At the same time, they were grappling with the fallout from an Op-Ed article on July 6, 2003, in The New York Times by Mr. Wilson, a former diplomat, in which he criticized the way the administration had used intelligence to support the claim in Mr. Bush's speech.

The work done by Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby on the Tenet statement, during this intense period, had not been previously disclosed. People who have been briefed on the case discussed the critical time period and the events surrounding it to demonstrate that Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby were not involved in an orchestrated scheme to discredit Mr. Wilson or disclose his the undercover status of his wife, Valerie Wilson, but were intent on clarifying the use of intelligence in the president's address. Those people who have been briefed requested anonymity because prosecutors have asked them not to discuss matters under investigation.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:21 AM | | Basie! Home

A state representative announced he will challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch next year, saying his fellow Republican is not serving people back home.

"Utah deserves the full attention of our senators," Steve Urquhart said Thursday during an informal meeting with reporters on Utah's Capitol Hill. He tipped constituents to his plans a day earlier in postings on his Web site.

A primary contest between Hatch and Urquhart would be held only if neither gets 60 percent of the delegate vote at the state Republican convention in May.

Urquhart, a lawyer and the House majority whip, has been active in trying to keep radioactive waste out of Utah and did not want Utah to participate in President Bush's No Child Left Behind education plan.

He said his decision to run stems from complaints that Hatch is not responsive to constituents and has lost touch with his home state.

[...]

A Valley Research poll conducted for The Salt Lake Tribune in June found that 42 percent of 400 respondents would support Hatch's re-election bid. Nearly 17 percent would favor another Republican and 20 percent said they would vote for a Democrat. The survey had a margin of error of 5 percent.

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

A judge kicked Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure off the special election ballot Thursday, a crushing blow for a proposition that was held up as a centerpiece of the governor's campaign to reform state government.

The judge ruled that supporters violated California's constitution by using two versions of the initiative in the process of qualifying the measure for the ballot.

"The differences are not simply typographical errors," Judge Gail Ohanesian said. "They're not merely about the format of the measure. They are not simply technical. Instead they go to the substantive terms of the measure."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:53 PM | | Basie! Home

The Bush administration's free-trade agreement with Central America would cost taxpayers $50 million a year in loan forfeitures by sugar farmers, the Congressional Budget Office says.

An administration official said Thursday that the analysis was unrealistic and that there would be virtually no cost under sugar provisions in the deal.

The CBO released its estimate as House leaders planned for a vote next week on the Central America Free Trade Agreement. It would remove or lower trade barriers with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and he Dominican Republic.

Overall, CAFTA would cost the U.S. about $4.4 billion over the next 10 years, primarily in lost tariffs, the CBO said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:25 PM | | Basie! Home

Majority Leader Tom DeLay raised $42,900 for his legal expense fund in the quarter ending June 30 — short of the fund's expenses during the period, a House report showed Thursday.

Expenses for the Tom DeLay Legal Expense Trust totaled $56,211 in the second quarter. Most of the disbursements, more than $45,600, went to the Washington firm of DeLay lawyer Bobby Burchfield.

DeLay faces a possible investigation this year by the House ethics committee, which admonished him on three separate issues in 2004. News articles have questioned whether a Washington lobbyist or his clients paid for some of DeLay's nongovernment travel, despite House rules prohibiting lobbyist travel payments.

The Texas Republican has denied wrongdoing and said he assumed the nonprofit groups that invited him to travel had paid for the trips. In an effort to clear his name, DeLay has asked the ethics committee to look into the matter.

[...]

The legal fund contributions are running far below 2004, when DeLay raised $439,300. In the quarter ending March 31 this year, DeLay raised $47,750 — enough to cover his first quarter expenses of more than $34,000.

The fund has raised $1,089,871 since its formation in July 2000, according to Public Citizen, a congressional watchdog group that keeps track of the donations.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:19 PM | | Basie! Home

"These people are kooky."

-- Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) on those speculating that he will run for President in 2008

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

Just over half of all Americans — and a solid majority of women — want to know John Roberts' position on abortion before the Senate votes on whether to elevate him to the Supreme Court.

Most people don't yet know enough about Roberts to form an opinion on him, but among those who do, most view him favorably, an AP-Ipsos poll also found.

Roberts, 50, an appeals court judge and former Justice Department official, was chosen by President Bush on Tuesday to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Abortion is sure to come up at his Senate confirmation hearings, and the survey found 52 percent believe he should give his position on the matter before lawmakers vote on him, while 42 percent said he should not. Women were more inclined to want to know his position — 60 percent — while only 43 percent of men felt similarly.

[...]

While deputy solicitor general in 1990, Roberts helped write a legal brief that said the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion was "wrongfully decided and should be overruled." However, as a government lawyer he was promoting established Bush administration policy; it's unclear what his personal beliefs are.

When Roberts was asked about abortion during the 2003 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to the federal bench, he said, "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:30 PM | | Basie! Home

Democratic senators have contributed far more from their personal campaign accounts to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) than Republicans have given its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), fundraising reports due out today show.

The numbers reveal that the Senate Democratic campaign’s money effort, under Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), has leapt ahead of its GOP counterpart both in its fundraising rate and in terms of cash on hand. That is a sharp turnaround from the equivalent stage of the 2004 election cycle, when the Republicans had raised $14.5 milllion and had $5.3 million on hand while the Democrats had raised $10.8 million and had $2.6 million left in the bank.

[...]

The figures reflect the fact that Senate Democrats have outraised Republicans in the first six months of this year, despite GOP control of the Senate. Usually, the majority party has a marked fundraising advantage because it controls the legislative agenda.

Through June, the DSCC had raised $22.6 million while the NRSC had raised $20.9 million, say officials from both committees.

More significant than the Democrats’ $1.7 million advantage is that they now have $15.2 million on hand after the first six months of the year, while Republicans have $8 million.

The Frontline Democrat program, a fundraising operation for the House’s 10 most vulnerable Democrats, nearly matched its Republican counterpart in fundraising for the second quarter, overcoming a much poorer showing in the first quarter, according to recently filed Federal Election Commission reports.

Democrats raised an average of $339,000 for each of the Frontline members, just short of the Republican average of $361,000. Last quarter, the Frontline program raised just less than $200,000 per member, compared with a much more robust Republican average of $390,000.

Despite the Democratic gains, Republicans maintained an edge in overall cash in the bank, with each of the nine members of its Retain Our Majority Program (ROMP) reporting $630,000 in cash on hand as of June 30, as compared to $457,000 for each of the Democrats.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:21 AM | | Basie! Home

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.

Prosecutors attempting to determine whether senior government officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative to the media are investigating whether White House officials gained access to information about her from the memo, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The memo may be important to answering three central questions in the Plame case: Who in the Bush administration knew about Plame's CIA role? Did they know the agency was trying to protect her identity? And, who leaked it to the media?

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:13 PM | | Basie! Home

Senator George Allen will face a major re-election battle if Governor Mark Warner decides to challenge him in 2006. The latest Rasmussen Reports Election 2006 survey finds the Democratic Governor leading by four percentage points in that match-up.

Warner currently attracts 48% of the vote to 44% for Allen. Many people consider it unlikely that Warner will challenge Allen. It would be difficult for other Democrats to match Warner's numbers at this time.

Three months ago, Allen was ahead by four points. Both Warner and Allen are considered prospects for their party's Presidential nomination in 2008.

Shopping mall developer Jim Pederson, who pumped nearly $7 million of his own money to reinvigorate Arizona Democrats, resigned as party chairman Tuesday, paving the way for a likely run against U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl in 2006.

Pederson remained coy about his plans, saying he'll decide by mid-September.

"It's time for some fresh blood in the party," he said. "But I know there are a lot of Democrats who would like to see me run against Kyl, including the governor. If I do this, I'll get a lot of Republican votes."

This is the third move in recent months that suggests Pederson may take the plunge against Kyl, R-Ariz.

Just a few weeks ago Pederson was in Nantucket, Mass., schmoozing with incumbent Democratic senators and top-level party operatives on the upscale island. Pederson announced a few months ago he was stepping down as president of his development company and would serve only as his company's chairman.

While Pederson remains mum on his future, Democratic strategists close to him predict he will run against Kyl. Fred DuVal, a former aid to President Clinton, said it's a smart move for the party to run its best candidates, and that means Pederson must step out from behind the scenes.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to sport a hefty lead over potential Republican challenger Jeanine Pirro in the 2006 Senate race, a statewide poll reported Wednesday.

The Siena College Research Institute Poll also found that Gov. George Pataki's favorable rating among New York voters has climbed to its highest level of the year — 52 percent.

The poll had the former first lady leading Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, 57 percent to 31 percent. A June poll from the Albany-area institute had Clinton leading Pirro, 59 percent to 29 percent.

Pirro has said she will run for statewide office next year, but has not announced whether that will be for Senate or state attorney general, or less likely, governor if Pataki doesn't run again.

Sixty percent of voters surveyed by Siena for the new poll said Clinton should be re-elected and 60 percent said they have a favorable opinion of her. National polls have her as the front-runner for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:03 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush moved boldly to shift the Supreme Court to the right last night by selecting federal appellate judge John G. Roberts Jr. to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But in choosing a jurist with establishment credentials and bipartisan allies, Bush also picked a nominee he believes can win confirmation with some Democratic votes.

Bush appeared to have the court's future and the confirmation process in mind as he made his decision this week. All day, the name of appellate judge Edith Brown Clement floated through Washington as the president's apparent choice, but many on the right consider her conservative credentials far more suspect than Roberts's. By picking Roberts, Bush displayed his determination to put a more conservative stamp on the court.

At the same time, the president passed over a number of highly conservative judges whose nominations would have been seen as far more ideological and polarizing than that of Roberts. Given that this was the first but probably not the last Supreme Court vacancy he will be asked to fill, Bush signaled a less confrontational approach toward the Senate than he has adopted with his lower-court nominations -- and challenged the Senate to avoid a divisive debate over his choice.

[...]

For the White House, the 50-year-old appears to be the ultimate confirmable conservative. As a replacement for O'Connor, a centrist who voted to uphold abortion rights and affirmative action, he would probably move the court's overall balance to the right. But he would do so without some of the verbal pyrotechnics that have characterized the opinions of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:23 AM | | Basie! Home

Unocal's board of directors has endorsed a sweetened, $17 billion takeover bid from Chevron, rejecting a higher offer from one of China's state-owned oil companies.

The decision by Unocal's board late Tuesday could signal an end to China's most ambitious attempt yet to acquire an American corporation. The takeover battle also had sparked debate about U.S. security concerns with the communist nation.

Chevron boosted its offer by $2 per share to $63 per share — or $17 billion overall — shortly before the Unocal board met Tuesday night. CNOOC Ltd., an affiliate of China National Offshore Oil Corp., has an $18.5 billion offer on the table for the El Segundo-based company. Unocal's board had previously also endorsed Chevron's lower offer over the higher CNOOC bid.

In a joint statement with Chevron, Unocal's board urged stockholders late Tuesday to accept the amended bid at a shareholders' meeting scheduled for Aug. 10.

But a spokesman for China's third-largest oil company vowed early Wednesday that CNOOC was not ready to drop out of the bidding war.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:19 AM | | Basie! Home

It's like C-SPAN. But for your iPod.

A growing number of lawmakers are offering their speeches, news conferences and radio addresses to the millions of Americans who own digital audio players such as Apple's iPod.

House Democrats have now joined the "podcast" bandwagon, releasing half a dozen audio files on both their Web site, HouseDemocrats.gov, and at Apple's popular iTunes online music store. There is a free, downloadable file of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) blasting the GOP's energy bill. In another, Rep. Bob Menendez (N.J.) complains that the Bush administration is shortchanging security programs for public transit.

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

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

Also leading to the early skepticism of Rove's accounts was the claim that although he first heard that Plame worked for the CIA from a journalist, he said could not recall the name of the journalist. Later, the sources said, Rove wavered even further, saying he was not sure at all where he first heard the information.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, has said that Rove never knew that Plame was a covert officer when he discussed her CIA employment with reporters, and that he only first learned of her clandestine status when he read about it in the newspaper. Luskin did not return a telephone call today seeking comment for this story.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:22 PM | | Basie! Home

President Bush chose federal appeals court judge John G. Roberts Jr. on Tuesday as his first nominee for the Supreme Court, selecting a rock solid conservative whose nomination could trigger a tumultuous battle over the direction of the nation's highest court, a senior administration official said.

Bush offered the position to Roberts in a telephone call at 12:35 p.m. after a luncheon with the visiting prime minister of Australia, John Howard. He was to announce it later with a flourish in a nationally broadcast speech to the nation.

Roberts has been on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since June 2003 after being picked for that seat by Bush.

Advocacy groups on the right say that Roberts, a 50-year-old native of Buffalo, N.Y., who attended Harvard Law School, is a bright judge with strong conservative credentials he burnished in the administrations of former Presidents Bush and Reagan. While he has been a federal judge for just a little more than two years, legal experts say that whatever experience he lacks on the bench is offset by his many years arguing cases before the Supreme Court.

Liberal groups, however, say Roberts has taken positions in cases involving free speech and religious liberty that endanger those rights. Abortion rights groups allege that Roberts is hostile to women's reproductive freedom and cite a brief he co-wrote in 1990 that suggested the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 high court decision that legalized abortion.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:47 PM | | Basie! Home

A State Department memo that has caught the attention of prosecutors describes a CIA officer's role in sending her husband to Africa and disputes administration claims that Iraq was shopping for uranium, a retired department official said Tuesday.

The classified memo was sent to Air Force One just after former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson went public with his assertions that the Bush administration overstated the evidence that Iraq was interested in obtaining uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.

The memo has become a key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation because it could have been the way someone in the White House learned — and then leaked — the information that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and played a role in sending him on the mission.

The document was prepared in June 2003 at the direction of Carl W. Ford Jr., then head of the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research, for Marc Grossman, the retired official said. Grossman was the Undersecretary of State who was in charge of the department while Secretary Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage, were traveling. Grossman needed the memo because he was dealing with other issues and was not familiar with the subject, the former official said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:02 PM | | Basie! Home

Americans have growing doubts about President Bush's honesty and his effectiveness, according to a poll taken at a time people are uneasy with the war in Iraq, uncertain about the economy and nervous about the terrorist threat.

Half of those in the poll taken by the Pew Research Center, 49 percent, said they believe the president is trustworthy, while almost as many, 46 percent said he is not. Bush was at 62 percent on this measure in a September 2003 Pew poll and at 56 percent in a Gallup poll in April. One of Bush's strong suits throughout his presidency has been the perception by a majority of people that he is honest.

The slide in trust in Bush comes at a time the White House is answering questions about top aide Karl Rove's involvement in the public leak of the identity of a CIA operative.

"If the economy were doing better, the Iraq war wasn't as tenuous and people weren't as uneasy about terrorism, then they might be willing to cut Bush some slack on the Rove issue," said Robert Shapiro, who specializes in public opinion at Columbia University. "And it's all tied back to how the war was justified, so it raises all those issues as well."

[...]

Bush's job approval in the Pew poll was 44 percent, with 48 percent disapproving.

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

The name at the top of the list appears to be that of Judge Edith "Joy" Clement, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. Activists have already prepared a video testimonial from long-time lawyer friends of Clement.

FOX News has learned that Clement has already been interviewed by Vice President Dick Cheney, a possible sign that she is the choice for the high court.

"The October 4, 2001 confirmation hearing for Edith Clement is available full text online. See S.Hrg. 107-584, Pt. 1 on GPO Access
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate14ch107.html. Thisincludes submissions to the record, any follow-up questions, and her questionnaire."

UPDATE: We're helpfully advised that a committee staff member sent the email around because of the large number of requests received for information on Clement, no more.

Judge Edith Clement — perceived by many observers as a potential frontrunner for the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor — is not President Bush's choice for the high court.

An informed source told ABC News they had spoken with Clement and said she received a phone call from the White House this afternoon. According to the source, Clement was thanked for meeting with the president and sharing her views on the Supreme Court, but that the administration has decided to go in a "different direction."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:44 PM | | Basie! Home

White House officials have assured select conservative leaders that they will not nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, according to a conservative familiar with the behind-the-scenes discussions.

The message has filtered out to conservative activists that Gonzales, whom many activists believe would be too liberal on abortion and racial preference issues, is no longer a threat to their cause. That could portend a fierce battle in the Senate in September, as Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) has said Gonzales would be a qualified nominee, suggesting that his selection could have achieved bipartisan consensus.

Senior administration officials have told select conservative leaders that President Bush is likely to nominate either Edith Jones or Edith Clement, members of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the conservative source said.

It is also possible that would nominate Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan or former Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, whom the Senate recently confirmed to the 5th Circuit.

It wasn't all that long ago that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was on the cutting edge of the civil rights movement, a liberal pocket of scholars aggressively enforcing the Supreme Court's demand for speedy desegregation in the Deep South.

But things have changed mightily in 20 years. Today, the New Orleans-based appellate court is considered among the most conservative in the land -- but it is still at the center of politics and history.

As both sides dig in for what is expected to a be contentious ideological struggle over a successor to Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, five of the judges mentioned as possible nominees are on the 5th Circuit: Edith Brown Clement, Emilio M. Garza, Edith Hollan Jones, Priscilla R. Owen and Edward C. Prado.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:04 AM | | Basie! Home

President Bush said yesterday that he will fire anyone in the administration found to have committed a crime in the leaking of a CIA operative's name, creating a higher threshold than he did one year ago for holding aides accountable in the unmasking of Valerie Plame.

After originally saying anyone involved in leaking the name of the covert CIA operative would be fired, Bush told reporters: "If somebody committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."

This is a small, but potentially very significant, distinction, because details that have emerged from the leak investigation over the past week show that Karl Rove, Bush's top political aide, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, discussed Plame with reporters before her name was revealed to the public. It is unclear whether either man committed a crime, according to lawyers familiar with the case.

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

CBS's Schieffer: This just in, 'I love my job'

When Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) last month announced on CBS’s “Face the Nation” his intention to seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, host Bob Schieffer was taken aback.

“That’s the kind of thing you dream about happening,” says Schieffer, 68. “You love for big news to be broken on your broadcast. And I think that was a pretty good news story.”

That was far from the first such moment in Schieffer’s long career in journalism, which began after he graduated from Texas Christian University in 1959. Schieffer has found himself in the right place at the right time — or placed himself there — many times over the years.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:31 PM | | Basie! Home

Just a quarter of Americans think the White House is fully cooperating in the federal investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's identity, a number that's declined sharply since the investigation began. And three-quarters say that if presidential adviser Karl Rove was responsible for leaking classified information, it should cost him his job.

Skepticism about the administration's cooperation has jumped. As the initial investigation began in September 2003, nearly half the public, 47 percent, believed the White House was fully cooperating. That fell to 39 percent a few weeks later, and it's lower still, 25 percent, in this new ABC News poll.

This view is highly partisan; barely over a tenth of Democrats and just a quarter of independents think the White House is fully cooperating. That grows to 47 percent of Republicans — much higher, but still under half in the president's own party. And doubt about the administration's cooperation has grown as much among Republicans — by 22 points since September 2003 — as it has among others.

There's less division on consequences: 75 percent say Rove should lose his job if the investigation finds he leaked classified information. That includes sizable majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats alike — 71, 74 and 83 percent, respectively.

At the same time, in September 2003 more Americans — 91 percent — said someone who leaked classified information should be fired. The question at that time did not identify Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and one of George W. Bush's closest advisers, as the possible source of the information.

Bush Job Approval

Approve 49 (50 in May)
Disapprove 47 (47)

Sample Congressional Ballot

Republican 40
Democratic 47

Ratings of George W. Bush are similar to what they were last month. Now, 45 percent of Americans approve of the overall job Bush is doing as president, up from 42 percent last month. Bush does not appear to have yet received a large boost from Americans’ renewed focus on terrorism, which remains his strongest area. 54 percent now approve of the Bush’s handling of the campaign against terrorism.

Bush’s ratings on the economy and Iraq remain much as they were in June. 40 percent approve of his handling of the economy, 39 percent approve of his handling of Iraq.

Approval ratings for Congress continue to be low. 33 percent now approve of the job Congress is doing, while 50% disapprove. These percentages are nearly identical to those in June.

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

Former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler is mounting a challenge for the U.S. House seat held by Republican Charles Taylor of Brevard.

Shuler, a Democrat who lives in Waynesville, said in a statement Monday that he has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission that clear the way for him to run next year in the 11th Congressional District.

Taylor, an eight-term incumbent, has been targeted by the state Democratic Party in recent months. The party has released a series of statements attacking Taylor's ethics and under the leadership of new party chair Jerry Meek has created a task force aimed at shoring up Democratic prospects in the western mountains.

Shuler did not name Taylor in a press release that emphasized pocketbook issues.

"Far too many families in western North Carolina are struggling to earn a decent living, educate their children, and pay for health care," Shuler said. "Congress is spending too much time playing partisan politics, instead of working to find solutions to the real problems facing our families."

[...]

In 2001, Shuler, then living in Tennessee, declined efforts by that state's Republican Party to recruit him for the 4th Congressional District seat vacated when incumbent Republican Van Hilleary entered the gubernatorial race. Shuler was to hold a fund-raiser for Hilleary that year, but it was canceled because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Flack said Shuler supported Democrats and Republicans while living in Tennessee but is now registered as a Democrat and has never been a registered Republican.

[...]

Shuler played football at Swain County High School, where he ranked among North Carolina's all-time passing leaders and led his team to three straight state championships. At the University of Tennessee, he was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:07 PM | | Basie! Home

A Colorado congressman told a radio show host that the U.S. could "take out" Islamic holy sites if Muslim fundamentalist terrorists attacked the country with nuclear weapons.

Rep. Tom Tancredo made his remarks Friday on WFLA-AM in Orlando, Fla. His spokesman stressed he was only speaking hypothetically.

Talk show host Pat Campbell asked the Littleton Republican how the country should respond if terrorists struck several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

"Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.

"You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.

"Yeah," Tancredo responded.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:51 PM | | Basie! Home

A public dispute has flared between two Republican House committee chairmen over an inquiry one of them began last month into the integrity of an influential study of global temperature trends.

The study, published in 1998 and 1999, meshed data from modern thermometers and evidence of past warmth or cold, like variations in tree rings. The result was a curve showing little variation for nearly 1,000 years and then a sharp upward hook in recent decades.

The inquiry was initiated by Representative Joe L. Barton of Texas, who heads the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, after two Canadians with no expertise in climate change published academic papers and opinion articles challenging the study's methods.

Letters requesting detailed responses to the criticisms as well as raw data, documents and financial information were sent last month by the committee to the scientists who generated the graph: Michael E. Mann, the climatologist who led the research and has just become the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University; Raymond S. Bradley, a climatologist at the University of Massachusetts; and Malcolm K. Hughes, a tree-ring expert at the University of Arizona.

The inquiry has since been criticized by scientists and Democratic lawmakers. Now the critics have been joined by Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York, the chairman of the House Science Committee, who late last week sent a letter to Mr. Barton calling the investigation "misguided and illegitimate."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:12 AM | | Basie! Home

The Environmental Protection Agency paid the Weather Channel $40,000 to produce and broadcast several videos about ozone depletion, urban heat problems and the dangers of ultraviolet radiation as part of the Bush administration's efforts to inform the public about climate change, agency records show.

The agreements, reached in 2002 and 2004, required the cable TV station to create four two-minute "video capsules" on the topics and air them several times during peak viewing periods, according to interviews and EPA records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Weather Channel also was to provide access to the segments through its Web site. The EPA had the right to review scripts and suggest content, but the Weather Channel retained editorial control.

[...]

Two experts who reviewed the videos at the request of The Washington Post said the content is straightforward, educational and scientifically sound.

But the EPA's payments to a commercial news organization to further its public relations efforts reinforce recent concerns that the administration sometimes has cloaked its promotion of executive branch policies in messages that resemble news stories and do not always fully disclose the government's role. It also raises questions about whether Americans can trust that the information they receive from news outlets such as the Weather Channel has been independently reported and presented.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:01 AM | | Basie! Home

The chairman of the Senate committee that will oversee hearings on President Bush's Supreme Court nominee said Sunday that he would like to see a moderate in the tradition of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and perhaps someone with experience in politics.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter said he didn't want to recommend a specific candidate because of his role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But he said he would like to see a nominee who has experience outside the judiciary, which would rule out many of the candidates that Bush is said to be considering.

[...]

Specter said on "Fox News Sunday" that he would like Bush to pick "somebody who's had more experience, somebody who's been out in the world and has a more varied background." He said someone who has been in politics might be a good choice.

"I have expressed the view that it would be useful, in my judgment, to have somebody on the court who does not come from the graduates of the courts of appeals," Specter said. "When you look back at the court which handed down Brown v. Board of Education unanimously, there was an ex-governor, there were three ex-senators, two attorneys general, a solicitor general, a professor and somebody from the SEC."

Specter encouraged Bush not to bow to pressure from conservative groups and instead try to preserve the existing ideological balance on the court — meaning that his nominee would be a moderate like O'Connor.

Bush "stands in a position where he has to put a person on not where the president would be beholden to any group, no matter how much they contributed to his election, but something in the national interest," Specter said. "And when you have these very delicate questions, it's helpful to the country to have somebody who is a swing vote, which maintains the balance."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:52 PM | | Basie! Home

Avoiding potential jail time, a Time magazine reporter has given a statement to prosecutors investigating the Bush administration leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

In a statement Tuesday, Time said reporter Matthew Cooper agreed to give a deposition after Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, personally released Cooper from a promise of confidentiality about a conversation the two had last year.

Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was among the sources for a Time magazine reporter's story about the identity of a CIA officer, the reporter said Sunday.

Until last week, the White House had insisted for nearly two years that vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove were not involved in the leaks of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity.

The White House refused last week to repeat those assertions when it was revealed that Rove had told Time reporter Matt Cooper that the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson apparently works at the CIA and that she had authorized his trip to Africa. The CIA dispatched Wilson to check out a report that the government of Niger had sold yellowcake uranium to Iraq for nuclear weapons.

Cooper said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he spoke to Libby after first learning about Wilson's wife from Rove.

According to Cooper, Libby and Rove were among the government officials referred to in Cooper's subsequent Time story that said Wilson's wife was a CIA official and that she was involved in sending her husband on a trip to Africa.

Cooper's article was headlined, "A War on Wilson?"

On Sunday, Cooper also said there may have been other sources for that information. He declined to elaborate.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:32 AM | | Basie! Home

ABC's "This Week" — Pre-empted for coverage of the British Open golf tournament.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson; Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper; RNC chairman Ken Mehlman; Center for American Progress president John Podesta; Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

"Fox News Sunday" — Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA); Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA)

CNN's "Late Edition" — Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command in Iraq; Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Joseph Biden (D-DE); Mehlman; Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe; former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:07 PM | | Basie! Home

An insurgent suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body Saturday, triggering a huge explosion at a gas station near a mosque south of Baghdad and killing at least 54 people. The attack capped a string of three major bombings over the past four days that killed at least 120.

Police Capt. Muthanna Khaled Ali and Dr. Adel Malallah of the Jumhuri General Hospital in Hillah, the provincial capital, said the gas station blast in Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, killed 54 and wounded at least 82 others. In Baghdad, the Interior Ministry put the casualty count at 51 dead and 82 wounded, but the report was believed based on a preliminary count.

Witnesses and police said the fuel tanker was moving slowly toward the pumps when an attacker ran to it and detonated his charge. A cluster of houses near the city-center gas station caught fire, the witnesses said. Gasoline stations in Iraq routinely include a number of small businesses selling tea, soft drinks and snacks and are often crowded with people.

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

Democrats accused President Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress on Saturday of failing to do enough to prevent London-type bombing strikes on the nation's mass-transit systems.

They argued that while the government has dug deep into its financial pockets to bolster airline security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, relatively little has been done to better protect trains and buses.

"In the past four years, the federal government has spent about $9 per flying passenger, but only 1 cent per transit passenger," Rep. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said in delivering his Democratic Party's weekly radio address.

"While the money we spend on aviation security is absolutely necessary, we cannot afford to forsake public transportation security," said Menendez.

"The president's refusal to acknowledge this reality in his budget is putting the lives of Americans needlessly at risk," Menendez said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:16 AM | | Basie! Home

The leading House bill to overhaul Social Security would marginally extend the program's solvency, but it would add $851 billion to the national debt over 11 years, according to an analysis released Friday by the system's chief actuary.

The bill calls for establishing personal retirement accounts for workers under age 55 and stocking them with Treasury bonds equal to the surplus Social Security taxes the government will collect each year through 2016. Next year alone the program expects to receive $84.5 billion more in payroll taxes than it needs for monthly benefit checks.

Currently such money is spent on other government programs or budget priorities, including tax cuts or funding for the war in Iraq.

While the bill's Republican sponsors describe the legislation as "stopping the raid on Social Security" taxes, it would allow Congress to continue spending the surplus money through 2009, to ease the financial transition. At that time, a new central administrative authority would be empowered to expand the ways the money can be invested, as well as to propose an alternate means of financing the accounts.

That has prompted accusations by Democrats of duplicative accounting, as well as criticism that the accounts are merely a backdoor attempt to establish the private accounts favored by President Bush. Those accounts would be financed with a direct diversion of payroll taxes, not just surplus funds. So far the Bush plan has received a lukewarm reception both from the public and members of Congress.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:29 PM | | Basie! Home

Dino Rossi, who unsuccessfully challenged his 129-vote loss in last fall's governor's race, told national Republicans Friday that he won't run for U.S Senate next year, dashing hopes that the charismatic former state senator could knock off a vulnerable Democrat incumbent.

In a letter Friday to Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., the Sammamish Republican said that while he was flattered to be considered as a challenger to Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, he didn't want to disrupt his family and is focusing on working for the state from home.

"Right now I'm committed to turning this state around, and I need to stay here to accomplish that goal," Rossi wrote to Dole, who is chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Rossi had been touted by Republicans as the perfect candidate to take on U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, but for months he has consistently shot that idea down. Cantwell still hasn't drawn a GOP challenger.

[...]

She said Cantwell raised $1.7 million in campaign contributions in the last quarter, bringing the year's total to over $3.6 million, with about $3 million still on hand.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:09 PM | | Basie! Home

The mayor of Vancouver, Wash., went on a violent rampage Tuesday.

Lest anyone be alarmed, Mayor Royce E. Pollard's anger was directed at two Starbucks coffee mugs that had the audacity to have — horrors! — "Portland" printed on them.

Pollard's made an issue of promoting his fair city, which both languishes in the shadow of much larger Portland, Ore., just across the Columbia River, and gets confused with even larger Vancouver, British Columbia, far to the north.

"Vancouver is the fourth-largest city in Washington" — after Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma — "and people better start showing a little respect," he told The Columbian of Vancouver (Wash.).

So when Starbucks started selling its "Portland" coffee mugs, part of its "Destination" series of 23 locally branded mugs, in his town, Pollard went ballistic.

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

House GOP leaders are divided about the best way to address Social Security's solvency issues this year, one prominent House Republican told The Hill today.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) does not want to force members to vote on the issue, the member said, while Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is more intent on scheduling a vote for the latest bill to create private accounts from Social Security taxes, which is sponsored by Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) but has yet to be introduced.

Members are reluctant to embrace the plan and have been hesitant to make public statements about the legislation, much less record a vote on it.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:49 AM | | Basie! Home

Forty-four government scientists have violated ethics rules on collaborating with pharmaceutical companies, a preliminary review by the National Institutes of Health shows.

Nine of the scientists may have violated criminal laws, the report said.

The review was outlined in a July 8 letter the agency's director, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating conflicts of interest by government researchers.

Because the N.I.H. is investigating 103 people who have been accused of ethics violations, Dr. Zerhouni had asked the committee to keep his letter confidential. But its leaders - Representatives Joe L. Barton, Republican of Texas and John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan - said in a statement yesterday that they were releasing it because of "the compelling public interest."

"The ethical problems are more systemic and severe than previously known," Mr. Barton said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:41 AM | | Basie! Home

Public approval of President Bush's handling of terrorism and foreign policy ticked up slightly after the attacks in England renewed focus on the president's strongest issue — fighting terrorism. But his overall job approval rating remains in the doldrums — at 42 percent in the AP-Ipsos poll taken Monday through Wednesday.

[...]

Just over half, 51 percent, say they approve of Bush's handling of foreign policy and terrorism, up slightly from June and the highest rating in that area since March.

[...]

Bush's overall job approval ratings remain as low as they have ever been since the AP-Ipsos poll was started in December 2003. The president's job approval was at 42 percent — essentially the same as last month.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:35 AM | | Basie! Home

A California congressman who is under federal investigation for his dealings with a defense contractor announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election.

U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham made the disclosure at a hastily arranged news conference.

"The time has come for me to conclude the public chapter in my life," the eight-term San Diego-area Republican said, reading from a brief written statement. "Quite simply, right now I may not be the strongest candidate."

[...]

Cunningham has been shadowed by questions concerning his relationship with Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc., a defense firm.

Wade purchased Cunningham's 3,826-square-foot house north of San Diego in 2003, then put it back on the market and eventually took a $700,000 loss when he resold it a year later. During that span, home prices in San Diego County rose an average of nearly 25 percent.

At the same time, MZM Inc. was increasing its federal contracting business.

Cunningham is a member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, both of which oversee the kind of classified intelligence work MZM does for the military.

The congressman also faces questions about the arrangement under which he has lived on a yacht belonging to Wade and moored in Washington.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:06 PM | | Basie! Home

Four female senators called Thursday for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to stay on the court and try for chief justice if the ailing William Rehnquist steps down.

In a letter to O'Connor, Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Barbara Boxer of California asked the nation's first female justice to consider staying on the high court if Chief Justice Rehnquist relinquishes the top spot.

Rehnquist was discharged Thursday after two nights in the hospital for treatment of a fever. O'Connor announced her retirement on July 1, but has made it conditional on a replacement being confirmed.

"We urge you to reconsider your resignation and return to the Supreme Court to serve as chief justice, should there be a vacancy," the senators said in the Thursday letter.

The four senators also said they will "strongly recommend" to President Bush that O'Connor become the next chief justice if Rehnquist steps down.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:03 PM | | Basie! Home

George Bush

Favorable 48% (52% in June)
Unfavorable 45% (42%)

Approve 47% (48%)
Disapprove 47% (43%)

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

Half of voters remain favorable toward President Bush (50% from 49% last month), while 47% are unfavorable. Approval of Bush’s handling of the Presidency (49%) remains higher than approval of his handling the situation in Iraq (41%) or the economy (39%). There was no significant change in approval ratings from the May poll.

There was no significant change from last month in political Party favorability, with 49% having a favorable opinion of Democratic Party and 45% having a favorable view of the Republican Party.

[...]

Voters are unsure of whom they would rather see in control of Congress: 34% say Democrats, 30% say Republicans, and 24% say “neither.” This month, more voters say “neither” would they rather see in control, up from 14% in May. Republicans and Democrats have near opposite stances, with 72% of Republicans saying the U.S. would be better off with a Republican controlled Congress and 71% of Democrats saying the U.S. would be better off with their own Party in control. Twice as many Independents side with Democratic control (28%) than Republican control (14%), however, the plurality (41%) of Independents say “neither.”

Voters are similarly ambiguous about their political preferences in Congress when asked whom they will vote for in the next Congressional election. Slightly more say they will vote for the Democratic candidate (39%) than the Republican candidate (33%).

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:32 AM | | Basie! Home

Interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forced a stubborn detainee to wear women's underwear on his head, confronted him with snarling military working dogs and attached a leash to his chains, according to a newly released military investigation that shows the tactics were employed there months before military police used them on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The techniques, approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use in interrogating Mohamed Qahtani -- the alleged "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- were used at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 as part of a special interrogation plan aimed at breaking down the silent detainee.

Military investigators who briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday on the three-month probe, called the tactics "creative" and "aggressive" but said they did not cross the line into torture.

The report's findings are the strongest indication yet that the abusive practices seen in photographs at Abu Ghraib were not the invention of a small group of thrill-seeking military police officers. The report shows that they were used on Qahtani several months before the United States invaded Iraq.

The investigation also supports the idea that soldiers believed that placing hoods on detainees, forcing them to appear nude in front of women and sexually humiliating them were approved interrogation techniques for use on detainees.

A central figure in the investigation, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who commanded the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and later helped set up U.S. operations at Abu Ghraib, was accused of failing to properly supervise Qahtani's interrogation plan and was recommended for reprimand by investigators. Miller would have been the highest-ranking officer to face discipline for detainee abuses so far, but Gen. Bantz Craddock, head of the U.S. Southern Command, declined to follow the recommendation.

Miller traveled to Iraq in September 2003 to assist in Abu Ghraib's startup, and he later sent in "Tiger Teams" of Guantanamo Bay interrogators and analysts as advisers and trainers. Within weeks of his departure from Abu Ghraib, military working dogs were being used in interrogations, and naked detainees were humiliated and abused by military police soldiers working the night shift.

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

It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."

"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

[...]

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean spoke to the NAACP yesterday and said through an aide: "It's no coincidence that 43 out of 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus are Democrats. The Democratic Party is the real party of opportunity for African Americans."

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

The last two weeks certainly have been eventful ones in America and across the globe: President Bush gave a prime-time speech on Iraq and attended a G-8 summit in Scotland; Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court (with perhaps another retirement on the way); and suicide bombers killed approximately 50 people in London. After these events, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Bush’s overall job rating has slipped and that his rating for being “honest and straightforward” has dropped to its lowest point.

Regarding Bush’s upcoming pick to replace O’Connor on the court, moreover, the poll shows that strong majorities believe Bush would be taking a step in the right direction if he appointed a woman and someone who supports references to God in public life. But a majority also thinks that Bush would take a wrong step if he chose someone who would vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

The survey, which was conducted from July 8-11 among 1,009 adults, and which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, finds that respondents, by a 49 percent-to-46 percent margin, disapprove of Bush’s job performance. That’s a drop from the last NBC/Journal poll in May, when 47 percent approved and 47 percent disapproved. In addition, the only time when Bush’s job rating has been worse was in June 2004, when 45 percent approved of his performance.

Furthermore, only 41 percent give Bush good marks for being “honest and straightforward” — his lowest ranking on this question since he became president. That’s a drop of nine percentage points since January, when a majority (50 percent to 36 percent) indicated that he was honest and straightforward. This finding comes at a time when the Bush administration is battling the perception that its rhetoric doesn’t match the realities in Iraq, and also allegations that chief political adviser Karl Rove leaked sensitive information about a CIA agent to a reporter. (The survey, however, was taken just before these allegations about Rove exploded into the current controversy.) [emphasis added]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:12 PM | | Basie! Home

"I would vote for, in most cases, the Republican. Maybe I should say in all (cases)."

-- First lady Laura Bush

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:05 PM | | Basie! Home

Son of '60 Minutes' icon makes his own mark at Fox News

Moments before airtime, the computer at the Fox News Channel’s Washington bureau crashes, much to the consternation of frazzled network staffers. Host Chris Wallace, a seasoned journalist, remains poised despite the technical glitch, improvising for several seconds when a video fails to cue.

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

Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has gained slightly on State Treasurer Robert Casey, Jr., but still trails the Democratic challenger 50 - 39 percent in the 2006 Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac poll released today.

This compares to a 49 - 35 percent Casey lead in an April 20 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN uh-pe-ack) University.

[...]

Democratic voters back Casey 81 - 10 percent, and independent voters back him 50 - 35 percent. Republicans go with Santorum 72 - 19 percent. Women voters back the Democrat 51 - 35 percent and men back him 47 - 43 percent. Pennsylvania voters give Santorum a 37 - 27 percent favorability with 17 percent mixed and 19 percent who say they don't know enough to form an opinion.

Pennsylvania voters give Santorum a 37 - 27 percent favorability with 17 percent mixed and 19 percent who say they don't know enough to form an opinion.

Casey gets a 39 - 9 percent favorability, with 17 percent mixed and 36 percent who say they don't know enough to form an opinion.

[...]

By a 64 - 27 percent margin, Pennsylvania voters say President George W. Bush should not nominate for the U.S. Supreme Court someone who would overturn the historic Roe v Wade decision. Men and women are consistent on this position

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:44 PM | | Basie! Home

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich signed an executive order on Tuesday making Illinois the fourth state to devote public money to embryonic stem cell research.

A state program will distribute $10 million in grants in its first year to seek treatments and cures for conditions like Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries and heart disease.

"It is the necessary and proper role of government to take action when no one else will," Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, said at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he signed the order. "Unfortunately, the federal government has decided to sit on the sidelines." Four years ago, President Bush limited federal financing for stem cell research to existing stem cell lines.

The state program, which Mr. Blagojevich said he expected to be running by the end of year, permits research on adult, cord blood and new embryonic stem cell lines, but prohibits research involving human cloning, tissue that was bought or sold for research, and embryos from abortions.

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

"As one Republican said to me last night if this was a Democratic White House we'd be having congressional hearings in a second."

-- Tim Russert (NBC's "Today," 7/12)

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:56 PM | | Basie! Home

State District Judge Bob Perkins today said he believes two officials with Texans for a Republican Majority should stand trial on felony charges of money laundering.

The judge ruled that the state election code is constitutional and said he disagreed with arguments that the money-laundering charges had to refer to "cash" instead of a $190,000 check that the pair is accused laundering during the 2002 legislative elections.

Perkins, a Democrat who must run for office, referred to his own fundraisers: "All the funds I ever received were checks. In my opinion, funds would include checks."

Although Perkins was clear on what he thought the law was, the results of the hearing were muddled because he ruled in the case against John Colyandro, the executive director of TRMPAC, but withheld a ruling in the case against political consultant Jim Ellis, at the request of Ellis' lawyers.

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

Six months into the 2006 election cycle, Senate Democrats have set a torrid fundraising pace and have roughly twice the available campaign cash their GOP counterparts do, soon-to-be filed fundraising reports will show.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee finished the second quarter with a record-setting $15.2 million in the bank after raising $6.9 million in June alone.

Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $4 million in June and had $8 million left in the bank at the end of last month. The NRSC raised a total of $11 million in the second quarter of the year, compared to a $13 million three-month total for the DSCC.

Senate Democrats’ fundraising has been buoyed by a variety of factors, including the high-profile battle over judicial nominations and the tenacity and New York fundraising base of DSCC Chairman Charles Schumer. The committee also had a schedule packed with fundraising events in June.

In fact, in six months’ time the DSCC has already eclipsed the committee’s fundraising total for all of 2003. So far this cycle Senate Democrats have raised $22.6 million, compared to the $22.4 million they took in two years ago.

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

On the north lawn of the White House yesterday afternoon, gardeners were taking a chain saw and wood chipper to some tree branches. Inside the briefing room, reporters were taking press secretary Scott McClellan to the woodshed.

It was journalists' first chance to grill McClellan on camera since coming to the conclusion that he had misled them 18 months ago when he said President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, had nothing to do with the unmasking of a CIA operative. The recipients of McClellan's bum steer were furious -- hectoring him more than questioning him.

"This is ridiculous!"

"You're in a bad spot here, Scott."

"Have you consulted a personal attorney?"

The 32-minute pummeling was perhaps the worst McClellan received since he got the job two years ago. His eyes were red and tired. He wiggled his foot nervously behind the lectern and robotically refused to answer no fewer than 35 questions about Rove and the outing of the CIA's Valerie Plame. Twenty-two times McClellan repeated that an "ongoing" investigation prevented him from explaining the gap between his past statements and the facts.

President Bush's aides put up a wall yesterday when questioned about revelations that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove had discussed the role of CIA official Valerie Plame with a reporter despite past White House assertions that he was not involved in her unmasking.

Engulfed by questions at two combative briefings, White House press secretary Scott McClellan cited the continuing criminal investigation to say that he would not discuss conversations Rove had with a reporter about Plame before her name was published, or say whether Bush's pledge to fire anyone involved in leaking classified information still stands.

[...]

McClellan's previous denials of White House involvement over nearly two years also occurred when the matter was already under investigation. But he said yesterday that at some point after Fitzgerald's inquiry began, "those overseeing the investigation . . . said that it would be their preference that we not get into discussing it while it is ongoing."

In two contentious news briefings, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, would not directly address any of a barrage of questions about Mr. Rove's involvement, a day after new evidence suggested that Mr. Rove had discussed the C.I.A. officer with a Time magazine reporter in July 2003 without identifying her by name.

Under often hostile questioning, Mr. McClellan repeatedly declined to say whether he stood behind his previous statements that Mr. Rove had played no role in the matter, saying he could not comment while a criminal investigation was under way. He brushed aside questions about whether the president would follow through on his pledge, repeated just over a year ago, to fire anyone in his administration found to have played a role in disclosing the officer's identity. And he declined to say when Mr. Bush learned that Mr. Rove had mentioned the C.I.A. officer in his conversation with the Time reporter.

When one reporter, David Gregory of NBC News, said that it was "ridiculous" for the White House to dodge all questions about the issue and pointed out that Mr. McClellan had addressed the same issues in detail in the past, Mr. McClellan replied, "I'm well aware, like you, of what was previously said, and I will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time."

A moment later, Terry Moran of ABC News prefaced his question by saying Mr. McClellan was "in a bad spot here" because he had spoken from the same podium on Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department began its formal investigation into the leak, and specifically said that neither Mr. Rove nor two other officials - Elliot Abrams, a national security aide, and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - were involved.

Mr. McClellan disputed the characterization of the question but did not directly address why the White House had appeared now to have adopted a new policy of not commenting on the matter.

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

Trying to kill the 'death tax'

Jim Martin and the anti-estate-tax movement have come a long way since their early days.

When Martin first got involved in the movement, Rep. Chris Cox’s (R-Calif.) bill to repeal the tax had fewer than 20 co-sponsors in the House and no Senate sponsor. Martin is widely credited with successfully repackaging the repeal of the estate tax during the late 1980s and early 1990s. As Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, remembered, “He’s the guy, more than anybody else, who renamed it the ‘death tax.’”

State by State

Iowa
Democrats hoping to replace retiring Rep. Jim Nussle (D-Iowa) are reeling in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Former Iowa state Rep. Rick Dickinson raised $166,700 during the second quarter; his cash on hand is $145,000. Waterloo attorney Bruce Braley, meanwhile, brought in more than $83,000 and has $190,000 on hand.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 7:26 PM | | Basie! Home

Calling it "one of the most difficult political decisions I have made," Rep. Chris Van Hollen said today that he will not be a candidate in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes.

"It was a difficult decision because I believe we could have waged an energetic and ultimately successful campaign," Van Hollen said in a letter to supporters released by his campaign. "However, I believe it was the right decision for two important reasons -- for my still young family and for our efforts to win a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives in 2006."

He thanked his supporters for their enthusiasm about a potential Senate candidacy.

Van Hollen, who is in his second term representing Montgomery County, has been mulling a bid since Sarbanes announced his retirement in early March. He toured the state and raised more than $700,000.

[...]

Van Hollen's demurral leaves Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman and head of the NAACP, as the only two formal candidates for the Democratic nomination. Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who recently opened an exploratory committee, is considered the most likely Republican candidate.

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn is raising (M) millions of dollars to challenge Governor Rick Perry.

The Republicans plan to face each other in the 2006 election.

Strayhorn today announced she raised one and a-half (M) million dollars in campaign funds during a ten-day period in June.

Strayhorn in January reported having five-point-seven (M) million dollars in election money.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 3:27 PM | | Basie! Home

Reuters’ write-up of Rove’s involvement in the leak scandal captures the emerging consensus within the media that Karl Rove is an astute wordsmith who carefully-parsed his statements:

Rove has carefully chosen his words when questioned about the leak. “I didn’t know her name. I didn’t leak her name,” he told CNN last year when asked if he had had anything to do with it.

There’s no doubt that Rove has tried to carefully parse his statements, but what is being overlooked is that Rove actually did not choose his words carefully enough.

Consider his two on-the-record comments about the leak (which are both on-camera):

Reporter: Did you have any knowledge or did you leak the name of the CIA agent to the press?
Rove: No. [ABC, 9/29/03]

Rove: Well, I’ll repeat what I said to ABC News when this whole thing broke some number of months ago. I didn’t know her name and didn’t leak her name. [CNN, 8/31/04]

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:37 PM | | Basie! Home

George Allen: The fairest of the lot, as in pleasant smile and folksy demeanor. Love the pickup truck he rides around town in, but lose the aides in business suits huddled in the truck bed. At least put them in overalls. For now, the Virginia senator’s my pick. He’s got the deft touch with social conservatives and is too darn friendly to scare the moderates. Plus, the New Hampshire press raved about his June 25 speech. The Manchester Union Leader even compared him to Ronald Reagan!

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:31 PM | | Basie! Home

Fred Thompson is on TV again, and this time he's not play-acting.

His appointment by President Bush to handle the confirmation process for a new Supreme Court justice led tongues to wag all over town about whether this was a move toward him running for governor. Could Thompson end up being Gov. Phil Bredesen's worst political nightmare come true? Or is this just a case of GOP wishful thinking?

son, speaking through a local contact person, declined to comment. But Tennessee GOP Chairman Bob Davis Jr. confirmed there has been talk about Thompson running for governor.

"We had lunch at Swett's a few weeks ago," Davis said, declining to answer whether he asked Thompson to run for governor.

"Those are the kinds of conversations between myself and others and Senator Thompson I'm not really going to talk about. He's very happy personally where he's at in life. If you're asking if he is the most formidable candidate we could have running, there's no question about it in this state. If Fred Thompson got in that race, it wouldn't be much of a race at all, in my opinion."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 1:25 PM | | Basie! Home

Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, suggested on Sunday that President Bush could name Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring from the Supreme Court, to the position of chief justice if it opens up.

"I think it would be very tempting if the president said to Justice O'Connor, 'You could help the country now,' " Mr. Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and a pivotal player in any confirmation hearings, said in an interview on the CBS program "Face the Nation." "She has received so much adulation that a confirmation proceeding would be more like a coronation, and she might be willing to stay on for a year or so."

Although Mr. Specter's seeming endorsement of the idea was highly speculative - Justice O'Connor, 75, has announced her retirement, while Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, has not stepped down - it was the clearest of his several recent signals that he plans to steer his own course as he oversees hearings on a replacement for Justice O'Connor, independent of the president and of his party's conservative base.

Mr. Specter also said he intended to push hard for a bill, expected to come up in the Senate this week, to authorize federal financing for research using stem cells derived from human embryos left over at fertilization clinics. Many social conservatives object to the research, saying it destroys potential human life, but supporters argue that the research could yield new treatments for many life-threatening diseases.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:38 PM | | Basie! Home

Flight tests of the nation's missile defense system will not resume until this fall at the earliest as the military revamps the program following two failures in the past seven months, a military official says.

The military may conduct two tests by year's end, with the earliest possibly this fall, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no schedule has been announced.

[...]

The delay further protracts Pentagon efforts to validate a multibillion-dollar program that supporters say will help protect the nation from intercontinental ballistic missiles. Critics say that claim remains unproven.

Even though the military occasionally activates interceptor bases in Alaska and California, they are not yet on around-the-clock alert as envisioned. The system has not had a successful intercept of a target since October 2002. Three tests have ended in failure.

The Bush administration had said the system would be working by the end of 2004.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:33 AM | | Basie! Home

The number of farms on which estate tax is owed when the owners die has fallen by 82 percent since 2000, to just 300 farms, as Congress has more than doubled the threshold at which the tax applies, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released last week.

All but 27 farmers left enough liquid assets to pay taxes owed, the budget office found, although it hinted that the actual number might be zero. The study examined how much in cash, stocks and bonds these farmers left to pay estate taxes, but the report noted that no data existed on how much life insurance the farmers had put into trusts. Virtually all wealthy farmers own life insurance in trusts, say estate tax lawyers who specialize in working with farmers.

These findings come as the Senate is poised to vote this month on repeal of the estate tax. Advocates of repeal have begun showing commercials criticizing senators who oppose repeal, like Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington. Many of the criticisms focus on a supposed threat to family farms.

The estate tax raised an estimated $23.4 billion last year. Repeal would shift part of the burden of taxes off the fortunes left by the richest 1 percent of Americans, some of whose fortunes were never taxed, onto the general population. The lost revenue could be made up in three ways: through higher income taxes; reduced government services; or more borrowing, which would pass the burden of current government spending to future generations.

[...]

In 2000, when the threshold was $675,000, taxes were owed by 1,659 farm estates, the study found. Had the current threshold been in effect, only 300 farms would have owed any tax.

Next year, when the threshold rises to $2 million per person, just 123 farms will be subject to the estate tax, the study found. And in 2009, when it rises to $3.5 million, only 65 of the nation's 2.2 million farms will be affected, the study said.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:25 AM | | Basie! Home

Contending that President Bush's far-right allies are pushing him to appoint an extreme conservative to the Supreme Court, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid pointed to liberal icon Earl Warren as a model.

In his party's weekly radio address, Reid, D-Nev., noted that Saturday marked the anniversary of the 1974 death of Warren, a Republican whose court established a liberal tradition with its 1954 school desegregation ruling and other decisions. Reid said Warren had been able to forge a consensus on the court that would become the national consensus.

"Mr. President, that's the kind of justice we hope you'll nominate," Reid said in Saturday's broadcast. "Someone who will bring us together. A mainstream justice who won't use their judicial robe as a cloak to impose their political ideology on the country."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:50 PM | | Basie! Home

From a political standpoint, would it be better for President Bush to nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Supreme Court or a conservative jurist like Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig?

Gonzales 29 votes
Conservative like Luttig 19 votes

Volunteered: Neither, 3 votes; Orrin Hatch, 1 vote;
"Doesn't matter," 1 vote; "Whomever he wants," 1 vote

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:29 AM | | Basie! Home

A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a ruling by a lower court judge striking down the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which bars a method of abortion generally used after the first trimester.

The decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, was the first that an appeals court has issued on the ban, which Congress approved in November 2003 with the strong backing of President Bush.

The ruling, written by Judge Kermit Edward Bye and joined by Judges James B. Loken and George G. Fagg, found the law unconstitutional because, while making an exception to the ban to protect the life of a pregnant woman, it made no such exception to preserve her health.

That an appeals court has now ruled on the matter moves the law one step closer to a likely review by the Supreme Court, perhaps in the coming term. In a rare point of agreement between adversaries in the abortion debate, advocates on both sides said the stakes had now been raised even further in Mr. Bush's selection of a nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

The Eighth Circuit's ruling rests heavily on a decision by the Supreme Court, which, in Stenberg v. Carhart five years ago, struck down such a ban that had been enacted by Nebraska. Before Justice O'Connor announced her retirement last week, the balance on the court in favor of a constitutional right to abortion was 6 to 3. But in Stenberg, the majority was only 5 to 4, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy voting to sustain the state ban and Justice O'Connor's vote making the majority.

The appeals court's decision yesterday "only underscores the fact that the successor to Justice O'Connor will cast the deciding vote on whether this barbaric partial-birth-abortion practice will continue," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.

Setting up a potential clash with religious conservatives, the national business lobby for the first time is marshaling its forces to persuade the White House to pick an industry-friendly Supreme Court nominee.

Usually, corporations duck Supreme Court fights. This time, with vital interests at stake, business advocates are raising millions of dollars, plotting major lobbying campaigns, and quietly working to influence the president as he ponders a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

For 2 1/2 years, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business association, has privately funneled to the White House staff in-depth analyses of decisions rendered by federal appeals court judges -- the most likely pool of high court candidates. The reports, which the chamber declined to make public, grade jurists on their pro-business leanings, and none received a rating of more than 70 out of 100.

The chamber and other industry groups have also told the White House that they plan to bankroll large-scale efforts to promote the president's choice, which they see as another incentive for President Bush to take into account corporate concerns such as taxation and product liability when he makes his selection.

The aggressiveness marks a sea change in the way corporate America approaches judicial appointments. Ever-cautious companies have traditionally left the divisive, high-pressure politicking to outspoken social conservatives.

Now, business leaders are working behind the scenes to influence the process, an action that threatens to break apart the long-standing Bush coalition of corporate and social conservatives.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:50 PM | | Basie! Home

The editor of The Cleveland Plain Dealer said last night that the newspaper, acting on the advice of its lawyers, was withholding publication of two major investigative articles because they were based on illegally leaked documents and could lead to penalties against the paper and the jailing of reporters.

The editor, Doug Clifton, said lawyers for The Plain Dealer had concluded that the newspaper, Ohio's largest daily, would probably be found culpable if the authorities were to investigate the leaks and that reporters might be forced to identify confidential sources to a grand jury or go to jail.

"Basically, we have come by material leaked to us that would be problematical for the person who leaked it," Mr. Clifton said in a telephone interview. "The material was under seal or something along those lines."

In an earlier interview with the trade journal Editor & Publisher, which published an article on its Web site late yesterday, Mr. Clifton said that lawyers for The Plain Dealer and its owner, Newhouse Newspapers, had strongly recommended against publication of the articles.

"They've said, This is a super, super high-risk endeavor and you would, you know, you'd lose," Mr. Clifton told Editor & Publisher. "The reporters say, 'Well, we're willing to go to jail,' and I'm willing to go to jail if it gets laid on me, but the newspaper isn't willing to go to jail."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:47 PM | | Basie! Home

Three weeks before London's bus and subway bombings, a Senate committee voted to slash spending on mass transit security in the United States, a decision sure to be reversed when Congress returns next week.

At a minimum, the Senate will restore the $50 million cut, G. William Hoagland, top budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Friday.

There is pressure for a lot more, though adding to rail and transit security programs means cutting elsewhere in the Homeland Security Department's $32 billion budget for next year. That places severe limits on what Congress can do — at least if it plays by its budget rules.

Despite the March 2004 bombing of Madrid's subway system, U.S. officials have been consumed with preventing a repeat of the airliner hijackings that produced the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In a stroke of bad timing, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted last month to slash money for rail and transit security grants to state and local government by a third from the $150 million devoted to them this year. As of May, none of the money had been distributed by the Homeland Security Department.

The House would match current funding in a bill it passed in May. President Bush proposed bundling rail, transit and bus security grants into one $600 million program that would also fund security improvements at ports and other critical facilities such as chemical plants. Both the House and Senate have rejected that idea.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:31 PM | | Basie! Home

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn [R-OK] challenged the accuracy of Terri Schiavo's autopsy Thursday, saying he has a copy of the Florida woman's medical file.

Coburn's comments came during the taping of a television show for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority in Oklahoma City. He was responding to questions from a panel of journalists, including a Tulsa World reporter and Terri Watkins, a reporter from KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City.

"I have on my desk a complete medical file of Terri Schiavo, and I would challenge the accuracy of many of the statements by people involved in that case in terms of her medical condition, and I would also challenge some of the autopsy findings based on what I have on my desk in Washington," Coburn said.

Coburn is an obstetrician and gynecologist and is not trained as a pathologist or medical examiner. He said he had reviewed Schiavo's medical file but had not examined her body.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:47 AM | | Basie! Home

Former Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer announced Thursday that he won't challenge Republican Sen. Dick Lugar, who will seek a sixth term next year.

Roemer, who represented a northern Indiana district from 1991 to 2002, said in a statement that he wants instead to spend more time with his wife and four children. Roemer now leads the Center for National Policy, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Roemer was a member of the commission that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks, and was the only remaining opponent to Howard Dean to become chairman of the National Democratic Committee before Dean was named to the post in February.

Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was first elected to the Senate in 1976. A victory in 1994 made him the first person in Indiana history to win a fourth term to the Senate. He won his fifth term in 2000 with 67 percent of the vote.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:58 PM | | Basie! Home

If the election for United States Senate were held today and the candidates were (ROTATE) Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Mike DeWine, for whom would you vote?

Mike DeWine (R) 42
Sharrod Brown (D) 36

Overall, do you think Mike DeWine deserves reelection as United States Senator, or do you think that someone else should be given a chance?

Deserves Reelection 31
Someone Else 42

Now, generally speaking, do you think things in this country are going in the right direction, or do you feel things are pretty seriously off on the wrong track?

Right Direction 32
Wrong Direction 57

The American Independent Party has about 29,000 registered voters in Orange County, with 7,620 voters in Cox's 48th Congressional District. Republicans have 202,793 voters in the district; Democrats have 109,514.

The independent platform includes ending foreign aid and debt financing by state and federal governments, ending the federal income tax and international trade pacts, reducing immigration and ending subsidies to illegal immigrants. The group opposes abortion and claims it's the only party to support a state's right to recognize God and the Ten Commandments.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:22 AM | | Basie! Home

A Kansas energy company said it donated $25,000 so that it could attend a golf outing with U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to try to influence pending energy legislation.

The admission from Topeka, Kan.-based Westar Energy marks the first time a company has publicly admitted to donating to DeLay's political action committee in exchange for a meeting and possible legislative help.

In court documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News, Westar officials said after they made the donation, two company executives attended a June 2002 golf outing with DeLay and two top aides at The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, Va.

Former DeLay aide Drew Maloney said DeLay's staff did not require that donations be given in exchange for access. The company claims it sent the money to talk with DeLay about getting an exemption in federal law, but not to affect legislative elections in Texas.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:31 AM | | Basie! Home

President Bush has named former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson to help shepherd his yet-to-be named Supreme Court nominee through the Senate, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday.

Thompson, a Republican and actor on the NBC television series "Law & Order," agreed to accept the post in a telephone conversation with the president on Monday, McClellan said.

"Senator Thompson will guide the nominee through the confirmation process," McClellan said.

[...]

Thompson, 62, retired from the Senate in 2002 to pursue an acting career. He has appeared in the movies "The Hunt for Red October," "Cape Fear," and "In the Line of Fire."

He was elected to the Senate in 1994 to serve out the term of Democrat Al Gore, and was easily re-elected in 1996. He retired in 2002. Thompson was a member of the Judiciary Committee, which will hold confirmation hearings on the eventual nominee.

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

"The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness"

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) in his book, "It Takes a Family"

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:47 PM | | Basie! Home

Criminal investigators at the Justice Department have been asked by a House committee to consider broadening their corruption investigation of a Washington lobbyist whose ties to Tom DeLay, the House Republican leader, and other prominent lawmakers are the subject of inquiries throughout the government, Congressional officials disclosed on Tuesday.

The request about the investigation of the lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, was made in a letter last week to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales from the Republican chairman and the senior Democrat on the House Resources Committee.

The letter, dated June 30, cited a flurry of accusations of wrongdoing involving Mr. Abramoff's multimillion-dollar lobbying on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands, a small American commonwealth in the Pacific, and said that "any allegations of criminal matters of this sort are best addressed to the Department of Justice."

[...]

The Resources Committee request could suggest new scrutiny for Mr. DeLay, because he worked closely with Mr. Abramoff for years to block Washington from imposing the federal minimum wage on large clothing factories in the Northern Marianas. Human rights groups have long criticized the factories, which employ mostly migrant Asian workers.

On a trip to the islands with Mr. Abramoff in 1997, Mr. DeLay told a meeting of local officials that the lobbyist was among "my closest and dearest friends" and promised to continue to defend the islands' interests in Congress. Mr. Abramoff's billing records show that he frequently met with Mr. DeLay and his top aides to discuss the Northern Marianas. In a 2001 e-mail message to the islands' general counsel, Mr. Abramoff described Mr. DeLay as "our biggest supporter on Capitol Hill."

The lobbyist Jack Abramoff mixed business with business at Signatures, the upscale restaurant he opened here three years ago. Playing host at his private corner spot, Table 40, he courted Republican lawmakers and talked strategy with subordinates while eating rolls of sushi and firing commands to the staff on his BlackBerry.

[...]

Mr. Abramoff could patronize his own business - his meals were sometimes prepared in a special kosher kitchen - while billing clients thousands of dollars. And he could generate good will by offering free food and drink to guests including Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, now the majority leader, and other members of Congress, according to restaurant records and interviews with former employees.

For example, Mr. Abramoff wrote an e-mail message to three restaurant managers in May 2002, instructing them not to charge Mr. DeLay, his wife, Christine, and four others when they came in a week later.

"Table of 6," Mr. Abramoff wrote, "put it where I sit and remove that other table. Their meal is to be comped."

[...]

Mr. Abramoff was in the restaurant almost daily, often treating a table full of guests to hundreds of dollars worth of food, wine and liquor, financial records show. Over a 17-month period in 2002 and 2003, the restaurant gave away about $180,000 in food and drink, with Mr. Abramoff's tab roughly $65,000 for himself and his guests, the records say. About a dozen former employees and managers, including three who provided records, described Mr. Abramoff's activities at Signatures. Most would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the investigations. Several acknowledged that they had left on poor terms, while most said they simply moved on.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 5:10 AM | | Basie! Home

Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale, a highly decorated Navy pilot who inspired fellow prisoners of war in North Vietnam and later ran for vice president as H. Ross Perot's running mate in 1992, died on Tuesday in Coronado, Calif. He was 81.

[...]

A winner of the Medal of Honor, Admiral Stockdale was shot down over North Vietnam on Sept. 9, 1965. He spent seven and a half years as a prisoner, four of them in solitary confinement. While a prisoner, he organized a culture of defiance among his fellow captives, including another naval aviator, John McCain, who went on to become a senator from Arizona and a presidential candidate.

Though he had a distinguished military career, Admiral Stockdale is perhaps best remembered as Mr. Perot's running mate in the 1992 campaign. Mr. Stockdale was first selected as a stand-in on the ticket, since Mr. Perot needed to name a vice presidential candidate in order to qualify for the ballot in several states. Mr. Perot later kept Mr. Stockdale on after he fired his professional advisers, who wanted him to run a more conventional campaign with a better-known and more experienced running mate.

Mr. Perot and Admiral Stockdale received 19 percent of the popular vote.

Admiral Stockdale seemed out of his league in the debate with the major party vice presidential candidates, Dan Quayle and Al Gore. He startled the audience and those watching on television with his opening remarks: "Who am I? Why am I here?"

While the statement transformed him into the butt of jokes from late-night comedians, he later wrote in The World & I magazine that he had chosen his words deliberately to showcase his basic view of himself that "I am a philosopher."

In the article, Admiral Stockdale said he drew his inspiration from the writings of Epictetus, a former Roman slave who was an adherent to the teachings of the Stoics. "Stoics belittle physical harm, but this is not braggadocio," Admiral Stockdale wrote. "They are speaking of it in comparison to the devastating agony of shame they fancied good men generating when they knew in their hearts that they had failed to do their duty vis-à-vis their fellow men or God."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 4:44 AM | | Basie! Home

Crosswords relieve clerk during debate downtime

During periods of extended debate in the House, some members and staff can be seen surreptitiously typing on their BlackBerrys or perusing unrelated documents. Reading Clerk Paul Hays has another way of killing time — crosswords.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 6:49 PM | | Basie! Home

Social conservatives relish the idea that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation from the Supreme Court has moved them one step closer to their goal of outlawing abortion. Liberals are vowing to fight any potential successor who would, unlike O'Connor, favor overturning Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling that affirmed a woman's right to end a pregnancy.

But the political irony that few on either side readily acknowledge — but many are pondering — is that Roe's demise could transform American elections by crippling the conservative political majority that opposes abortion and by giving new life to hobbled liberals who support the ruling's preservation.

[...]

[T]he prospect of progress toward overturning Roe — and the realization that President Bush could have at least two chances to make transformative appointments to the court — has exposed a disagreement between conservatives who want abortion criminalized and pragmatic Republicans concerned that shifting the issue from the courts to the ballot box would lead to massive GOP losses.

Of particular concern is the party's fate in closely contested battlegrounds such as Ohio, Florida and Michigan, where the resurgence of the abortion issue could alienate moderate voters who have helped Republicans make gains on all levels.

"Smart strategists inside the party don't want the status quo changed," said Tony Fabrizio, chief pollster for the 1996 Republican presidential campaign of Bob Dole.

"This may cause Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger — who are strongly committed to being pro-choice — to flip or to push for a third-party movement," he added. "If they did outlaw it, it would ultimately turn the Republican Party into a theocratic-based party rather than an ideological party, and the party would necessarily start shedding people."

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:51 PM | | Basie! Home

That’s when I heard something really different, for real — the Democratic governor of North Carolina doing a dead-on impression of Hank Hill. I was on the telephone with Gov. Michael F. Easley, discussing the president’s recent trip to North Carolina to deliver his nationally televised address about Iraq. In a lighter moment, the conversation turned to our favorite prime time cartoon, “King of the Hill,” and in a flash Easley burst into the voice of the lead character, a suburban everyman from Texas who has a typically awkward relationship with his son, Bobby.

“Just remember, Bobby, I’m so proud of you,” Easley said, in a near-perfect rendition of Hank Hill’s soft drawl. “If you weren’t my son, I’d hug you.”

[...]

I’ve talked to lots of Democrats who secretly wish Rove was a Democrat — even while they insult him in public. But you don’t have to catch a mind-altering ear infection to guess what he might do as a Democrat. Considering the horse Rove rode to Washington, he might just advise Democrats to take a hard look at this Southern governor with a common touch and a sense of humor.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:46 PM | | Basie! Home

"President Ford told me just three weeks ago that one of the decisions he was proudest of was his appointment of Mr. Justice Stevens."

-- William T. Coleman Jr., Gerald Ford's Secretary of Transportation

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

The Rehnquist court did not come to an end last week as predicted, despite the illness of the chief justice.

But the conservative Supreme Court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist did fade away, a development as surprising as the retirement announced Friday by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

In its place at the end of the term stood a moderate-to-liberal court led by John Paul Stevens, the 85-year-old justice who sports bow ties and whose energy and influence seem to have grown with age.

By forming alliances with O'Connor or Justice Anthony M. Kennedy — and sometimes even with Justice Antonin Scalia — Stevens has been able to forge a majority in some of the biggest Supreme Court cases.

The loss of O'Connor's vote might mean Stevens' sway over the court has reached its high-water mark. But with Kennedy and four liberals still in place, the Stevens bloc isn't likely to dissolve overnight.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 2:34 PM | | Basie! Home

Gaylord A. Nelson, who spent a lifetime in service to Wisconsin, the nation and the planet, never stopped fighting on behalf of environmental causes, even as his own body began to fail.

The former governor and U.S. senator died of cardiovascular disease Sunday morning at his home in Kensington, Md., according to his family. He was 89.

He was the founder in 1970 of Earth Day, which is regarded as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Twenty-five years later, Nelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, for that and his lifelong work on behalf of the environment.

Earth Day was a milestone that, in retrospect, Nelson himself regarded as the most personally satisfying, although only as the capstone of his efforts on behalf of environmental protection throughout his political career and beyond.

Gaylord A. Nelson, one of the architects of America's modern environmental movement who as a United States senator from Wisconsin founded Earth Day to protest degradation and launch a national legislative campaign to improve stewardship, died today in at his home in Kensington, Md. He was 89 years old,

The cause was cardiovascular failure, Bill Christofferson, Mr. Nelson's biographer and a family spokesman, told The Associated Press.

A liberal Democrat, Mr. Nelson was known for his candor and independence. He was just one of three United States senators who voted against the $700 million appropriation that began the nation's expanded involvement in the Vietnam War.

But it was Mr. Nelson's lifelong devotion to the natural landscape that distinguished him as one of Capitol Hill's early and ardent environmental leaders. On March 25, 1963, in his first Senate speech, he framed the declining condition of the nation's air and water as a national issue. "We need a comprehensive and nationwide program to save the national resources of America," he said. "Our soil, our water, and our air are becoming more polluted every day. Our most priceless natural resources - trees, lakes, rivers, wildlife habitats, scenic landscapes - are being destroyed."

The speech coincided with Mr. Nelson's private effort to successfully lobby President John F. Kennedy to embrace environmental protection as a priority. In September 1963, Mr. Kennedy embarked on a five-day, 11-state tour to talk about conservation.

The president's attention stirred political interest. In 1964, Mr. Nelson was part of the group of lawmakers that sponsored and celebrated the passage of the Wilderness Act to permanently safeguard millions of acres of federal land. He worked with the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the 1968 federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Among the first eight rivers protected by the law were the St. Croix and the Namekagon rivers in Wisconsin. And he helped the Interior Department establish new national scenic seashores and lakeshores, including the Apostle Island National Lakeshore along Wisconsin's Lake Superior coast.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 9:00 AM | | Basie! Home

ABC's "This Week" — Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and John Cornyn, (R-TX); country singer Toby Keith.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT); People for the American Way president Ralph Neas; American Center for Law and Justice chief counsel Jay Alan Sekulow.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sens. Specter, Pat Leahy (D-VT), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Chuck Hagel (R-NE); Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

CNN's "Late Edition" — Sens. Specter and Leahy; U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Andrew Natsios.

"Fox News Sunday" — Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC); The Committee for Justice chairman C. Boyden Gray; Alliance for Justice president Nan Aron.

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

Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, presumably revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source, and what might happen to him or her. Tonight, on the syndicated McLaughlin Group political talk show, Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, claimed to know that name--and it is, according to him, top White House mastermind Karl Rove.

Here is the transcript of O'Donnell's remarks:

"What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury, the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

"And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

Other panelists then joined in discussing whether, if true, this would suggest a perjury rap for Rove, if he told the grand jury he did not leak to Cooper.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:56 AM | | Basie! Home

Federal agents on Friday searched the California home of U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, along with the yacht in Washington, D.C., where he has been living, the FBI said.

Agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and the Defense Department's criminal investigative service also searched the Washington offices of a defense firm whose founder bought the congressman's previous home, leading to a federal investigation, said Debra Weierman, a Washington FBI spokeswoman.

Cunningham, 63, has said that he showed poor judgment in selling the house, but he acted honestly and predicted that an investigation would prove that.

Two experts on congressional politics say that Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is in deep trouble with his Republican constituents, if the results of a poll released Thursday are on the mark.

Of those respondents who have followed the recent controversy involving the Escondido Republican, 76 percent said they thought the congressman broke the law or acted unethically when he sold his Del Mar Heights home to the president of a defense contractor in late 2003.

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

As the White House lobbied Congress to win support for a Central American trade pact, the United States Labor Department tried for more than a year to block the release of reports that harshly criticized labor standards in the region.

The reports, by a labor advocacy group, the International Labor Rights Fund, were commissioned by the Labor Department, and concluded that working conditions in five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic were dismal, and that enforcement of labor laws was weak.

In a statement Thursday, the Labor Department called the findings biased and flawed. Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs, said the study was "rife with unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims, questionable statistical data, and biased statements of findings and conclusions."

The Labor Department's condemnation drew a quick rebuke from Senator Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. "The reports describe labor conditions that would be harmful, not helpful, for passage of Cafta," he said, referring to the Central American Free Trade Agreement. "So they decided to deep-six it."

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