End of a Rubber Stamp Era?

Safavian Watch

Philip Shenon and Anne E. Kornblut write in the New York Times: "Congressional Democrats said on Tuesday that the arrest of a former senior White House budget official involved in organizing the federal response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need for an independent investigation of the government's reaction to the disaster, especially since the official is married to a leading Republican Congressional aide.

"The official, David H. Safavian, 38, a lawyer who was chief of procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget until he resigned on Friday, was arrested Monday on charges of lying to federal investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a corruption investigation at the Justice Department. . . .

"Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said the arrest of Mr. Safavian undermined the credibility of a House Republican plan to investigate the troubled hurricane-relief effort through a committee to be led by Representative Thomas M. Davis III, Republican of Virginia. Mr. Safavian's wife, Jennifer, is chief counsel for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee, which Mr. Davis leads."

And in a fine example of the Senate's rubber-stamping of most Bush appointees, regardless of possible warning signs, Susan Schmidt and R. Jeffrey Smith write in The Washington Post: "David H. Safavian, the Bush administration official arrested Monday, initially failed to disclose lobbying work he had done for several controversial foreign clients when he went before a Senate panel last year to be confirmed as chief of the White House's federal procurement office.

"The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held up Safavian's nomination for more than a year, in part because of lawmakers' concerns about lobbying work for two men later accused of links to suspected terrorist organizations, according to committee documents. Safavian did not disclose his firm's representation of the men until questioned in writing by the committee's staff, and initially failed to tell the panel he had registered as a foreign agent for two controversial African regimes.

"The Senate panel nevertheless approved him unanimously and the Senate followed suit on Nov. 21, 2004."

The Stakeholder blog from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is watching Safavian developments closely.

Poll Watch

Will Lester writes for the Associated Press: "Hurricane Katrina did more than wipe out much of the Mississippi coastline and flood New Orleans. The storm and the bungled government response eroded President Bush's political standing and dampened enthusiasm for his second-term agenda. . . .

"As many Republicans fear, the survey shows signs of conflict between Bush's top two priorities: the Iraq war and post-Katrina recovery. . . .

"Given several choices to raise government money for Katrina recovery, people most often chose reduced spending on Iraq -- named by 42 percent. About three in 10, 29 percent, wanted to delay or cancel Republican tax cuts. That's seven in 10 backing options that Bush doesn't even have on the table."

The poll shows that 40 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing, while 57 percent disapprove.

Here are the full results .