Much Ado About Tuesday

John Harwood writes in the Wall Street Journal: "The failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers appears to have deepened skepticism about the quality of Mr. Bush's appointments, which swelled in late summer after the Federal Emergency Management Agency's much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina. Some 45% of Americans now rate Mr. Bush poorly for 'appointing qualified people,' while just 26% give him strong marks."

Here are the complete results .

A few other statistics:

* The public views Cheney negatively by a 49 percent to 27 percent margin.

* Asked if they think Bush has or has not given good reasons for why the United States must keep troops in Iraq, 58 percent said he has not given good reasons; compared to 38 percent who said he has.

Divide and Conquer

Howard Fineman writes for Newsweek that Democrats are focusing on Cheney's troubles as part of a new wedge strategy "aimed at Bush-led Republican Washington, where team loyalty is supposed to be the number one virtue, and where the president has ruled with an iron hand. The Democrats want to unhinge that discipline by exposing -- or creating -- friction between: Bush and Cheney, Bush and his political advisor, Karl Rove; the White House and the Republican-run Congress; and between competing Republican leadership tongs on Capitol Hill.

"None of these figures or factions is popular in the country right now, and the Dems' rather simple idea is to force them to defend each other in broad daylight."

Abramoff Promised Access to Bush

Philip Shenon writes in the New York Times: "The lobbyist Jack Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of a West African nation to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to a Maryland company now under federal scrutiny, according to newly disclosed documents.

"The African leader, President Omar Bongo of Gabon, met with President Bush in the Oval Office on May 26, 2004, 10 months after Mr. Abramoff made the offer. There has been no evidence in the public record that Mr. Abramoff had any role in organizing the meeting or that he received any money or had a signed contract with Gabon.

"White House and State Department officials described Mr. Bush's meeting with President Bongo, whose government is regularly accused by the United States of human rights abuses, as routine. The officials said they knew of no involvement by Mr. Abramoff in the arrangements. Officials at Gabon's embassy in Washington did not respond to written questions.

" 'This went through normal staffing channels,' said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, who said the meeting was 'part of the president's outreach to the continent of Africa.' " Abramoff suggested in his letter to Bongo "that he had unusual influence to arrange a meeting with President Bush," Shenon writes.

Abramoff has been known to have bragged about his contacts with Karl Rove. (See this Sept. 23 Post story .) Shenon also notes in the Times today that Abramoff "had connections to Gabon through a former business partner, David Safavian, who was a registered agent in Washington for President Bongo. Mr. Safavian, a former White House budget official, was arrested in September on charges of lying about his ties to Mr. Abramoff."