President on a Mission

"I made my position clear about this war on terror. And by the way, the enemy made their position clear yet again when we were able to stop them. And I -- the American people expect us to protect them, and therefore I put this program in place. We believe -- strongly believe it's constitutional.

"And if al Qaeda is calling in to the United States, we want to know why they're calling. And so I made my position clear. It would be interesting to see what other policymakers -- how other policymakers react."

There was no explanation of why he felt that following established law -- or asking Congress for new laws -- was too onerous.

And his supposed curiosity about how other policymakers would react was entirely disingenuous.

As Jonathan Weisman reported in Saturday's Washington Post: "Minutes later, under the headline ' Dems Rejoice ,' the Republican National Committee illuminated those reactions, releasing the statements of eight Democrats -- including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the 2004 presidential nominee -- all heralding the decision as a rebuke to the president."

White House political guru Karl Rove believes the best defense is a good offense, and as Weisman writes: "Republicans appeared ready to make Taylor's decision on wiretapping the 2006 equivalent of a Massachusetts judge's legalization of same-sex marriage in 2004: a rallying cry for the Republican base. . . .

"But with polls showing Republican voters more divided on security issues than Democrats are, it was unclear whether the strategy would work. . . .

" 'There is no consensus that Republicans are better on terrorism than the Democrats, as once was clearly the case,' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press."

And here's an incredible irony: "Republicans have done such a good job framing the invasion of Iraq as part of a 'war on terror' that bad news from Baghdad is casting doubts on the anti-terrorism effort, Kohut said."

Book-Reading Competition?

Kenneth T. Walsh writes in U.S. News: "President Bush now wants it known that he is a man of letters. In fact, Bush has entered a book-reading competition with Karl Rove, his political adviser. White House aides say the president has read 60 books so far this year (while the brainy Rove, to Bush's competitive delight, has racked up only 50)."

Walsh even publishes a sampling of Bush's ostensible reading list.

Walsh writes that "portraying Bush as a voracious reader is part of an ongoing White House campaign to restore what a senior adviser calls 'gravitas' to the Bush persona. He certainly needs something."