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Bush vs. Reality
Norquist, who runs the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform, was cleared for 97 visits to the White House complex between 2001 and 2006. A half-dozen of the visits were to events that involved the president.
Solomon and Theimer report that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was possible some of Norquist's meetings might have been directly with Karl Rove. The records show Norquist's escort to his appointments was sometimes Susan Ralston, who served as Abramoff's aide before taking on the same role for Rove.
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They write: "E-mails obtained this summer by AP show Norquist facilitated several administration contacts for Abramoff's clients while the lobbyist simultaneously solicited those clients for large donations to Norquist's group. . . .
"Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia earlier this year, got 18 meetings, including two events with Bush. . . .
"Documents unearthed by congressional investigators showed Abramoff and business partner Michael Scanlon routed about $4 million from Indian tribes to Reed-controlled entities for grassroots work aimed at blocking rival gambling casinos."
Poll Watch
Bump? Blip? Trend? Doom? Who knows?
Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder write in the New York Times that a poll by their paper and CBS News has "found that President Bush had not improved his own or his party's standing through his intense campaign of speeches and events surrounding the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The speeches were at the heart of a Republican strategy to thrust national security to the forefront in the fall elections.
"Mr. Bush's job approval rating was 37 percent in the poll, virtually unchanged from the last Times/CBS News poll, in August. On the issue that has been a bulwark for Mr. Bush, 54 percent said they approved of the way he was managing the effort to combat terrorists, again unchanged from last month, though up from this spring. . . .
"A USA Today-Gallup Poll published Tuesday reported that Mr. Bush's job approval rating had jumped to 44 percent from 39 percent. The questioning in that poll went through Sunday; The Times and CBS completed questioning Tuesday night. Presidential addresses often produce shifts in public opinion that tend to be transitory."
But Ronald Brownstein writes in the Los Angeles Times about a poll by his paper and Bloomberg that also was in the field through Tuesday, and found Bush's approval at 44 percent, "its highest level since January, helping to boost the Republican Party's image across a range of domestic and national security issues just seven weeks before this year's midterm election."
Brownstein writes that "the survey suggests that one of the critical fault lines in this year's campaign will be whether voters view national security primarily through the lens of terrorism or the war in Iraq.
"Public attitudes about the war remain largely negative. Only 37% of voters say they believe Bush when he says America is making progress in the war; 56% say they don't agree with that assessment. And 57% say the war in Iraq has not been worth the cost, with 38% saying it has been."
Brownstein wonders: "Is the upturn in Bush's fortune a blip linked to the public attention on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, or is it the start of a sustained recovery of political strength?"
Chuck Todd writes for the National Journal: "Bush dominated the media landscape early last week. . . . [I]f he hadn't gotten a bump this week following that five-day media bonanza, then it would have been Katy bar the door for the GOP."
The Gas Factor
Susan Page writes for USA Today: "When it comes to President Bush's approval rating -- the number that measures his political health -- one factor seems more powerful than any Oval Office address or legislative initiative.
"It's the price of a gallon of gas.
"Statisticians who have compared changes in gas prices and Bush's ratings through his presidency have found a steady relationship: As gas prices rise, his ratings fall. As gas prices fall, his ratings rise."
Stuart Eugene Thiel, who teaches economics at DePaul University and maintains the Professor Pollkatz's Pool of Polls Web site, has been tracking the inverse relationship for years. Here's his chart .
Freedom Watch
Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post: "The confluence of timing between Bush's address on democracy to the U.N. General Assembly and the overthrow of a democratically elected government underlined the complexities and contradictions in his 'freedom agenda.' With the president's attention focused on the Middle East, the state of democracy elsewhere in the world does not rate as high on his priority list. In the case of Thailand, the situation is complicated by growing U.S. unease with the ousted prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. . . .
"Bush strongly supports Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president who took power in a military coup, and plans to meet with him at the White House twice in the next week. Bush will also host Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, at the end of next week despite the suppression of opposition parties, newspapers and human rights groups in the oil-rich Central Asian republic."
Tom Raum makes a similar point for the Associated Press.
Iran Watch
Over at the United Nations, prospects have faded for tough economic sanctions against Iran anytime soon. But is that all part of Cheney's master plan?
Howard LaFranchi writes in the Christian Science Monitor: "'Iran is another chapter in the administration's internal struggle for control of foreign policy,' says Joseph Cirincione, a weapons-proliferation policy expert at the Center for American Progress in Washington. 'Depending on where you sit in this divide, what we're seeing in terms of Iran is either the collapse of the Bush strategy [to arrive at international sanctions], or it's all unfolding according to plan.'
"Mr. Cirincione says 'hard-liners' in the administration - starting with Vice President Dick Cheney - 'have always thought Rice's strategy of going for sanctions would fail,' but they have gone along as a way to prove the international community won't act. The objective, he says, is to let diplomacy run its course, especially with military action against Iran's nuclear installations so unpalatable right now.
"'From their perspective, it's fine to have the president talking softly at the UN,' he says, 'as long as plans for military action proceed at the White House and in the backrooms of the Pentagon.'"
Michael Hirsch writes in Newsweek: "The only man who can bring Iran around is George W. Bush. And the only way he can achieve that is by wiping the table clean and proposing a grand bargain with Tehran that discards the silly, artificial constraints in the current U.S. approach. . . .
Writes Hirsch: "Bush once famously said that he doesn't 'do nuance.' No doubt he will resist taking this step to the last. He has a phobia about appearing weak, and he seems utterly locked into the view that strong leadership means never saying you're sorry or changing course. What his savvier advisers must make him understand -- and there is no one who knows this better than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a thorough pragmatist -- is that he has no choice at this point."
Bush on bin Laden
Ken Herman writes for Cox News Service: "President Bush, who said last week that Pakistani sovereignty prevents U.S. forces from searching for Osama bin Laden in that nation, insisted Wednesday that he would send forces there to capture or kill al Qaeda leaders if solid information pinpointed them in that country.
"'Absolutely,' Bush said when asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer whether he would give the order under those circumstances. . . .
"Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, said Wednesday that he would not allow U.S. troops into Pakistan to kill or capture bin Laden. . . .
"Bush and Musharraf are scheduled to meet Friday at the White House."
Bush's comments appeared to contradict his own statement at last week's press conference , where he said: "Pakistan is a sovereign nation. In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation, we've got to be invited by the government of Pakistan."
Bush as the Devil
Colum Lynch writes in The Washington Post: "President Hugo Chavez, the combative Venezuelan leader, denounced President Bush in a U.N. speech Wednesday as a racist, imperialist 'devil' who has devoted six years in office to military aggression and the oppression of the world's poorest people.
"Speaking from the lectern where Bush spoke a day earlier, Chavez said he could still smell the sulfur -- a reference to the scent of Satan. Even by U.N. standards, where the United States is frequently criticized as the world's superpower, Chavez's remarks were exceptionally inflammatory. They were also received with a warm round of applause."
Private Lives
Mark Silva blogs for the Chicago Tribune: "President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush watch baseball games on TV at night and football games on weekends.
"'We watch television just like everyone else,' the first lady says, in an interview with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren slated to be shown at 9 pm Central time tonight -- after the Bushes' usual bedtime.
"The interview with Laura Bush, featured on Fox's On the Record, followed three days that Van Susteren spent 'shadowing the first lady,' according to Fox."
Broder's View
The dean of the Washington press corps, David S. Broder , writes in his Washington Post opinion column that Bush and Cheney are lawless and reckless. But he refuses to throw in his lot with their critics, who he considers uncouth. Rather, he heralds the rise of a supposed middle.
"Bush was elected twice, over Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry, whose know-it-all arrogance rankled Midwesterners such as myself. The country thought Bush was a pleasant, down-to-earth guy who would not rock the boat. Instead, swayed by some inner impulse or the influence of Dick Cheney, he has proved to be lawless and reckless. He started a war he cannot finish, drove the government into debt and repeatedly defied the Constitution.
"Now, however, you can see the independence party forming -- on both sides of the aisle. They are mobilizing to resist not only Bush but also the extremist elements in American society -- the vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left and the doctrinaire religious extremists on the right who would convert their faith into a whipping post for their opponents."
Cartoon Watch
Mike Luckovich , Tom Toles and Ben Sargent on torture.
