After the nomination of Harriet Miers was withdrawn, there was much talk among the puditry that President Bush’s approval would begin inching back up as social conservatives came back into the fold. As Fox News’ Dana Blanton reports, this hasn’t happened. Today, 36 percent of Americans approve and 53 percent disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president. For comparison, two weeks ago 41 percent said they approved and 51 percent disapproved, and at the beginning of his second...

Scooter Libby was not the only Bush administration official to be indicted this month. In September, the White House’s top procurement official, David Safavian, was arrested in connection to his ties to GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff; early this month, Safavian was indicted on the same basis. And now, as Josephine Hearn reports for The Hill, a key Republican Senator is taking the investigation into Abramoff’s shady dealings directly into Bush’s backyard. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)...

cross-posted to my blog at Basie.org President Bush’s nomination of doctrinaire conservative Samuel Alito — “there will be no one to the right of Sam Alito on this Court,” says NBC legal analyst/George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley — is clearly a move to wipe the legal and ethical issues surrounding the administration and the GOP off of the front pages. But it is also an attempt to distract from real and pressing issues facing the country, such...

Today, the AP’s Jesse J. Holland writes the following about the President’s possible selection process for the Supreme Court. Harriet Miers’ failed Supreme Court nomination is driving President Bush back to a tried-and-true formula for filling a high court vacancy: tapping a federal or state judge with a solid conservative paper trail. Last month, I penned an editorial on the judicial selection process for The Undecided, a political journal published by students at Pomona College....

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has long harbored aspirations to make the move up from Congress to the White House, but the ongoing SEC investigation into his sale of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in a company run by his brother is casting a shadow on these ambitions. Jeffrey H. Birnbaum’s front page article in tomorrow’s issue of The Washington Post does little to help Frist’s case. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about...

Earlier today, Holly in Cincinnati passed along a story from WVXU-FM News’ Maryanne Zeleznik that the Paul Hackett campaign was complaining about DSCC attempts to keep the Iraq War vet out of the Senate race. Not so, says DSCC Communications Director Phil Singer.

President Bush’s approval ratings continue to drop to new lows with almost every new poll. In August, a survey from CBS News found 45 percent of Americans approving of the President, a number that dropped to 41 percent last month. Now, as CBS News reports, the President’s numbers have dropped even further. 69 percent of Americans say things in the U.S. are pretty seriously off on the wrong track — the highest number since CBS News started asking the question in 1983. Today, just...

Former President Jimmy Carter’s son Jack is considering a bid for the United States Senate. You can check out the story here over at my blog.

CNN and Fox News are both passing on news from the Associated Press that Tom DeLay has been indicted again by a Texas grand jury, now on the grounds of money laundering. KVUE, an Austin station, has the story from the AP. KVUE News has learned that a separate Travis County grand Jury has indicted U.S. Representative Tom DeLay on another criminal charge. The charge is money laundering. No other details have been released. [Update 3:43 PM Pacific]: The AP’s April Castro has more. The new indictment...

With President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers not being greeted with particular enthusiasm from the right wing, is it possible that the Republican Party could lose the support of religious conservatives? By now no doubt you’ve read Joe’s great coverage of the response from people of all political stripes and have noticed that there are a lot of folks on the right half of the spectrum who are simply unhappy with the selection. Perhaps coincidentally, and perhaps not, today the...

Michigan’s Democratic Senator Carl Levin, ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, has pledged to block President Bush’s immigration nominee Julie Myers, who is viewed by many to be underqualified for the position. Now a high ranking Senate Republican is joining his side. The New York Times‘ David E. Rosenbaum and Steven Labaton have the story. Faced with accusations that the Bush administration is stocking the government with unqualified cronies, the Republican chairwoman...

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to attend a luncheon at which David M. Mason, a Commissioner at the Federal Election Commission, spoke. The title of Commissioner Mason’s address was “Should Bloggers Be Regulated?“, a topic particularly germane to this blog and others. Mason indicated that he — along with his fellow FEC Commissioners — was loath to regulate political activity on the Internet, though court cases have forced his hand on the matter. Although he arrived...

Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts suprised many today with his comments on the rights of privacy and choice, reports the AP’s Jesse J. Holland. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts said Tuesday that the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion was “settled as a precedent,” as he was immediately pressed to address the divisive issue on the second day of his confirmation hearings. “It’s settled as a precedent of the court, entitled to respect under principles of stare...

I would be remiss if I neglected to lay down some thoughts given that it is the fourth anniversary of Al Qaeda’s attack on our homeland — and also given the status of hundreds of thousands of our brethren in the Gulf Coast. At this time last year I began to consider America’s mortality, and I think my thoughts are still as germane today as they were then. In August of last year, a massive power outage swept across the Northeast and millions were without electricity. Throughout the...

There is a slew of new polling available this morning, none of which shows an American public particularly happy with the actions of the Bush administration. To begin with, the latest survey from Zogby finds: President Bush’s job approval rating took a hit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, dropping to a historic low of 41%, a new Zogby America poll reveals. The same survey found the nation’s forty-third president would lose election contests against all of his predecessors since Jimmy...

The Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray and Charles Babington report that under pressure from Democrats and the current political realities across the nation, Republicans are backing off on one of the most conservative items on their agenda. As Congress returns from its August recess today, Republicans face a far more troubling political landscape than the one they left a month ago, according to lawmakers in both parties. Gasoline prices have skyrocketed, the Bush administration is being widely...

Robert Burns, the Associated Press’ military reporter, brings up an interesting question with an article this afternoon: are there enough troops to go around? President Bush’s decision to put thousands of active-duty soldiers and Marines on Hurricane Katrina relief duty adds a new dimension to the enormous strain on the military from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senior military officers said Saturday they have plenty of troops to handle their wide range of missions at home and abroad,...

George Bush has seen his approval among the American people diminish to the lowest point of his Presidency in recent weeks. The latest poll from Gallup only confirms this already-reported trend. A new Gallup Poll reflects further erosion in President George W. Bush’s job approval rating, continuing the slow but steady decline evident throughout the year so far. The poll — conducted Aug. 22-25 — puts Bush’s job approval rating at 40% and his disapproval rating at 56%. Both...

In the August 15 issue of CQ Weekly, the magazine takes a look at where the race to control the Senate in 2006 stands today. No Clear Favorite Minnesota — Mark Dayton, D (Open seat) Pennsylvania — Rick Santorum, R Leans Republican Missouri — Jim Talent, R Montana — Conrad Burns, R Rhode Island — Lincoln Chafee, R Tennessee — Bill Frist, R (Open seat) Leans Democrat Florida — Bill Nelson, D Maryland — Paul Sarbanes, D (Open seat) Nebraska — Ben...

In the comments section of my blog, reader Walker inquires as to whether I believe the Democrats have a shot at retaking the Senate next fall. To get an idea of where the battle for the Senate stands and what exactly the Democrats chances are, click here to read the full post on my blog, Basie!.

During the 2004 election season, I supported Republican Senator Arlen Specter over Democratic challenger Joe Hoeffel for a number of reasons, the most important of which was the fact that if Specter — who is pro-choice — lost while the GOP maintained its majority, ultra-conservative Senator Jon Kyl would have become chairman of the Judiciary Committee (as I opined in October). Upon winning reelection in November, Specter immediately infuriorated conservatives by imploying that an anti-choice...

CQ Weekly’s Shawn Zeller has the interesting story. By tradition, elder statesmen are decorous showpieces, trotted out for reunions or legislative anniversaries. But 76-year-old Pete McCloskey, a liberal Republican House member from California from 1967 through 1982, and Lewis H. Butler an assistant secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Nixon administration, have little patience for tradition. They are the front men for Revolt of the Elders, which last month announced the creation...

cross-posted from my blog, Basie! Everyone knows that William Rehnquist is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, making this the “Rehnquist Court” (like the “Warren Court” before it, for instance). But is William Rehnquist the real leader of this iteration of the top court in the nation? The Los Angeles Times David G. Savage explores this question and more. The Rehnquist court did not come to an end last week as predicted, despite the illness of the chief justice. But the conservative...

As gasoline prices near $3 per gallon in parts of the country spurring inflationary concerns, a debate rages amongst informed geologists on whether this is a temporary crisis or an omen of times to come. The AP’s Matt Crenson takes a look at this discussion and emerges with a lot of interesting information. Could the petroleum joyride — cheap, abundant oil that has sent the global economy whizzing along with the pedal to the metal and the AC blasting for decades — be coming to...

cross posted on my blog Basie! It will take government internvention to solve America’s energy problems in earnest, but for now, it seems the market is finally beginning to correct itself. The New York Times‘ Danny Hakim has the story. But gas prices are a more unconquerable force of nature. With higher prices at the pump sinking in as something more than a blip on the radar, and with several new passenger car models winning back customers, America’s love affair with S.U.V.’s...