Wrong About Rove?

Meanwhile, talk about cold cash: If you're a congressman said by the FBI to have been videotaped taking an envelope stuffed with money, how exactly do you explain that $90,000 was found in your freezer?

"Democrats' plans to make Republican corruption a theme of their election strategy this year have been complicated by accusations of wrongdoing in their own ranks," says the New York Times , "leading the party to try on Monday to blunt the political effects of the unfolding case against Representative William J. Jefferson.

"Democratic leaders sought to distance the party from Mr. Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat who has been accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. In doing that, the leaders tried to draw a distinction between the accusations against him and what they said was a much broader pattern among Republicans of trading legislative influence for campaign donations, trips and other perks.

"Mr. Jefferson appeared on Capitol Hill to deny any wrongdoing. Facing a bank of television cameras down the hall from his Congressional office, which was raided by federal agents on Saturday night, Mr. Jefferson said that he would not resign and that he expected to be cleared."

At the same time, both parties questioned "whether the executive branch had violated the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers by carrying out a raid on the official office of a member of Congress." I don't think that argument is going to find much traction with the public.

On the GOP side, is the president no longer an electoral asset?

"President Bush goes to Pennsylvania tomorrow to campaign for embattled Republican House members in the Philadelphia suburbs. But one of the candidates isn't expected to be there," notes the Wall Street Journal .

Mr. Bush "is really doing poorly in our state," says Rep. Curt Weldon, explaining why he won't be on hand and hasn't asked for the president's help. "I've got to win this by myself."

Is "unease" the new "malaise"?

"While hailing the creation of a new democratic government in Iraq as 'a turning point in the struggle between freedom and terror,'" says the Chicago Tribune , "President Bush acknowledged Monday that the ongoing war and fear of failure weigh heavily on the mood of the American public.

"'I would say that there's an unease in America now, and the reason why is because we're at war,' Bush said in a long and impassioned response to a question after a speech in Chicago. 'War is more difficult--particularly this kind of war, where it's on our TV screens every day. And I can understand why people are uneasy.'"

War is so difficult, in fact, that even the government's own Voice of America has been forced to close its Baghdad bureau , as I report this morning.