Executive Power Outrage

And here's Lou Dobbs at the top of the hour on CNN: "Tonight, the war in Iraq, record trade and budget deficits, failing public education, illegal immigration, border and port security. Those are some of the issues that the president and the U.S. Senate today did not take up. Instead, they took up the issue of gay marriage and the U.S. Constitution."

Pangloss Watch

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Mark Silva blogged for the Chicago Tribune yesterday about how "the White House has taken to emailing updates on the news to all interested in reading the rest of the story. Today's synopsis of all the reasons that the forest is far greener than the media portrays it comes from Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president and author of a memo to all 'interested parties' circulated via White House email."

Silva publishes the whole memo, which is a classic in the art of spin.

Barlett's conclusion: "From uniting the world community in preventing Iran from making a nuclear weapon to successfully installing qualified officials at home, and from assisting the Iraqi people in setting up a unity government to overseeing a strong economy that continues to create jobs for American workers, President Bush's leadership is achieving a steady flow of results that do not always dominate the day's headlines on their own but that together represent real progress for the American people."

Earlier that morning, as I noted in yesterday's column , Karl Rove deputy Peter Wehner spread a similar message on The Washington Post's op-ed page, writing: "Off-key as it may sound in the current environment, a strong case can be made that in a number of areas there are positive trends and considerable progress."

Optimism is apparently a primary strategy at the White House. See also my May 18 column about Rove's chirpiness, and my March 21 column about Bush's incredible optimism.

ABC News's increasingly bizarre Note today publishes a fictionalized version of Bartlett's memo (without any disclosure to its readers). But I did like today's subhead: "The Bubble Gets Laminated."

Now, of course it's possible that things really are going better than they seem, and it's just the media's fault that the news is so grim, right?

So asked Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz on his CNN show Sunday. Repeatedly.

Kurtz: "[W]ith rising casualties in Iraq and sinking poll numbers, is the president having a terrible year, or are the media just making it seem that way?"

And again: "Day after day the news from Iraq is consistently negative. Car bombs, roadside explosions and now disturbing allegations about the role of U.S. troops in the death of Iraqi civilians.

"President Bush's popularity is inextricably linked to developments in Iraq. His poll numbers have been low for months. Some Republicans are criticizing him on other issues, such as immigration, and the press seems to be constantly beating him up. Are the media accurately reflecting an administration that's lost its way or just piling on an embattled president?"

And again: "Has the Bush administration, which has gotten pretty bad coverage for the last year on all kinds of issues, including Iraq, gotten a raw deal from the press, or was that an accurate reflection of an administration that's had a pretty tough year?"

Neither of his guests -- not former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke, and certainly not Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel -- took the bait.

Safavian Watch

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Philip Shenon writes in the New York Times: "A former White House budget official acknowledged Monday that he had provided 'a lot of insight and advice,' including government information not available to the public, to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2002."

Poll Watch

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A new Gallup Poll finds Bush's approval rating up to 36 percent, with 57 percent disapproving. "This represents a modest improvement in that measure from recent weeks, a finding mirrored in several other national surveys. . . .

"While it is difficult to pinpoint a precise reason for Bush's improved rating, several events in recent weeks may have had an impact: Gas prices have stabilized (though they remain high), Bush's nomination of Henry Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury has been well-received, Bush addressed the nation regarding immigration, and he admitted some mistakes in his prior statements on the wars in Iraq and against Osama bin Laden.

"The June 1-4 poll shows about a 10 percentage-point increase in Bush's approval rating among Republicans, from 69% in the two May polls to 78% in the current poll."

Good One

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Tony Snow did get off a wonderful line yesterday, in response to a question from Baltimore radio personality Lester Kinsolving, who asked him about Elisabeth Bumiller 's contention that "This White House, like all White Houses, is obsessed with the press."

Kinsolving: "My question, will you admit to this alleged obsession, or is this just one more New York Times exaggeration?"

Snow: "It's more a love affair than an obsession, Lester."

Off to the Border

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Bush flies to Artesia, N.M., and Laredo, Tex., today to stump for his immigration proposals.

Ed Henry reports on CNN: "The jury is out on whether yet another trip down to the border will help the president break the stalemate on Capitol Hill over immigration reform, but it could help the White House in their efforts in trying to rebuild the president's image with another photo op down at the border, just like last month, when he headed down to the Arizona-Mexico border to highlight efforts to crack down on border security.

"You'll remember we saw some pictures of the president on an all- terrain vehicle, inspecting border activities. These trips square directly with what Time magazine reported back in April about what they referred to as an informal five-point recovery plan for the president by the new White House chief of staff, Josh Bolten. Point number one on that list, beef up the number of agents along the border, get the president down there to actually take some pictures. And Time magazine quoted one proponent of the Bolten plan as saying, 'It will be more guys with guns and badges. Think of the visuals. The president can go down and meet with the new recruits, he can go down to the border and meet with a bunch of guys and go around on an ATV.' "

Julie Mason blogs for the Houston Chronicle: "En route to Artesia, Air Force One is landing in Roswell, N.M. And today's date is 6/6/06, if anyone is keeping track."