Where's the Base?

The Los Angeles Times editorial board is agog: "With his latest explanation for the continued confinement of almost 500 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, President Bush sounds like the proverbial teenager who killed his parents and then asked for mercy from the court because he was an orphan."

Abramoff Watch

Watch the Judicial Watch Web site today for the much anticipated release of Secret Service logs that should provide new information on convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's White House visits. Judicial Watch had to sue to get them.

A USA Today editorial says: "This episode is the latest example of the Bush administration's stubborn and counterproductive efforts to withhold information from the public. Sometimes it has done so in the name of national security. Sometimes in the name of executive privilege, as with Vice President Cheney's energy task force. And sometimes for the simple reason that it appears to enjoy saying no, particularly to reporters.

"Administration officials seem to forget that White House staffers are taxpayer-paid officials doing the people's business on public property. In addition to the Secret Service records of Abramoff's comings and goings, the administration should put out documentation showing whom he spoke to and what topics were discussed. . . .

"Abramoff might have visited the White House only a few times. But if the president doesn't learn this simple lesson about the dangers of not being forthcoming, it will seem as if he never left."

Spin Alert

Hoping that the public -- and, apparently, the press -- will forget all about the spectacularly botched rollout of the highly problematic Medicare prescription drug benefit, the White House is madly spinning the program as a huge success that will lead Republican candidates to victory in November.

Jim Rutenberg and Marjorie Connelly write in the New York Times: " 'I think it's going to be value added as we go forward,' Dan Bartlett, the White House counselor, said at the end of a presidential event here encouraging people to sign up for the program before the deadline on Monday. Asked whether Republicans should promote the plan as they campaign this summer, Mr. Bartlett said, 'They'd be smart to.'

"The calculation, accurate or not, represents a marked shift in thinking on the plan, which emerged as a potential hurdle for Republicans as people voiced growing frustration about complicated enrollment.

"Democrats say Republicans are fooling themselves if they now believe that the plan will help them in November, saying people continue to complain about it, especially about the deadline."

Amazingly enough, Rutenberg and Connelly find evidence in the new poll that they say supports the White House argument that opinion is turning. "Many respondents who said they had signed up said their expenses for prescription drugs decreased -- 42 percent, against 19 percent who said they were paying more."

Talk about low expectations. Shouldn't a new $724 billion federal program be saving money for all of them--or at least not costing them more.

David Jackson writes in USA Today: "The White House sees Medicare's new prescription-drug plan as good political medicine.