Keep Your Eye on the Benchmarks

"In the real world, by choosing unnecessarily to go into Iraq, Bush not only diverted efforts from delivering a death blow to Al Qaeda, he gave that movement both a second chance and the best recruiting tool possible."

Poll Watch

Mark Murray writes for NBC News: "As the Democrat-controlled Congress and the White House clash over an Iraq spending bill, with President Bush vowing to veto it because it contains withdrawal deadlines, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a solid majority of Americans side with the Democrats.

"In addition, a nearly equal number believe that victory in Iraq isn't possible, and about only one in eight think the war has improved in the three months since Bush called for a troop increase there."

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports: "President Bush's approval rating slipped to new lows in the most recent Harris Interactive survey. . . .

"Of the 1,001 American adults polled online April 20-23, only 28% had a positive view of Mr. Bush's job performance, down from 32% in February and from a high of 88% in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Political Briefings

R. Jeffrey Smith writes in The Washington Post: "White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.

"The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.

"The existence of one such briefing, at the headquarters of the General Services Administration in January, came to light last month, and the Office of Special Counsel began an investigation into whether the officials at the briefing felt coerced into steering federal activities to favor those Republican candidates cited as vulnerable. . . .

"The administration maintains that the previously undisclosed meetings were appropriate. Those discussing the briefings on the record yesterday uniformly described them as merely 'informational briefings about the political landscape.' But House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who has been investigating the GSA briefing, said, 'Politicization of departments and agencies is a serious issue. We need to know more about these and other briefings.'

"In the GSA briefing -- conducted like all the others by a deputy to chief White House political adviser Karl Rove -- two slides were presented showing 20 House Democrats targeted for defeat and several dozen vulnerable Republicans."

Paul Kiel writes for TPM Muckraker: "The entire scheme has been laid out before us. The question now is whether Karl Rove will get away with it."

Oversight Watch

Dan Eggen and Paul Kane write in The Washington Post: "Lawmakers approved new subpoenas yesterday for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Bush administration officials, part of an expanding legal battle between the Democratic-controlled Congress and the administration over issues such as the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and flawed justifications for the war in Iraq.

"The subpoena issued to Rice seeks to force her testimony about the claim that Iraq sought to import uranium from Niger for its nuclear weapons program. President Bush offered that as a key rationale for the war in his 2003 State of the Union address. The subpoena was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee along party lines, 21 to 10.

"The same panel also issued two subpoenas to the Republican National Committee for testimony and documents related to political presentations at the General Services Administration and the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House aides, including presidential adviser Karl Rove.

"The House Judiciary Committee voted 32 to 6 to grant limited immunity from prosecution to Monica M. Goodling, the former senior counselor and White House liaison for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. She has invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to answer questions about her role in the prosecutor firings. The panel also authorized, but did not issue, a subpoena that would compel her to testify.

"And finally in the Senate, the Judiciary Committee authorized a subpoena for Rove deputy Sara Taylor, whose name has appeared among thousands of pages of e-mails and other documents released by the Justice Department in the U.S. attorney firings."

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post about the return of the legislative subpoena: "Republicans dubbed it 'Subpoenafest,' but it was nothing compared with the raise-the-roof subpoena bashes the Republicans threw during the Clinton administration. Waxman pointed out that the oversight committee issued 1,052 subpoenas to Democratic targets between 1997 and 2002, all without a debate or vote. During a 100-day period in 1997, Waxman said, then-Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) issued subpoenas at the clip of two per day."

Dale McFeatters writes in an opinion piece for Scripps News: "Late in the day, the Bush administration is getting some of the same scrutiny the GOP-run Congress gave the Clinton administration. Turnabout is fair play and it could also mean better government."

AFP reports that Rice "signaled Thursday that she would not comply with a subpoena to appear before Congress to testify about discredited assertions on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Rice said "that her White House work was covered by the constitutional principle of executive privilege, a principle presidents have in the past used to shelter aides from being forced to testify under oath in Congress."

New Data

In a letter to the House oversight committee, the Republican National Committee turned over a heavily caveated list with 37 names on it. It was described as a "current list of users who we believe are or were White House employees using RNC accounts for whom we have been able to identify active e-mail data on operational RNC servers." The RNC said more names may well show up later.

The RNC says it is "working diligently to identify and preserve all potentially relevant data that may exist" and has already gathered 25.5 million kilobytes of e-mail from the 37. It has also hired a computer forensics firm that has "imaged" several RNC computers and blackberries that are currently being used by White House employees.

The Associated Press has an annotated version of the list. The most prominent name on it, other than Karl Rove of course: Presidential counselor Dan Bartlett.

The Associated Press also reports: "The White House has turned over to a House committee about 200 pages of documents related to a contract with a company run by a man who pleaded guilty to bribing a congressman."

Tillman Watch

Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush hopes someone is held responsible for the U.S. military's mishandling of information about the death of former football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, the White House said Wednesday.

"Bush did not learn about the unusual circumstances of the Army ranger's death until after the soldier's memorial service on May 3, 2004, said deputy press secretary Dana Perino."

Bush of course doesn't have to sit around hoping for people to be held responsible -- he could have ordered the Pentagon to do so long ago. But consider that in spite of Perino's denial, it's still not entirely clear what he knew and when.

Zachary Coile writes in the San Francico Chronicle: "Speculation about what Bush knew has been fueled by the release of a memo sent April 29, 2004, a week after Tillman's death in Afghanistan, in which Gen. John Abizaid, then chief of the U.S. Central Command, was urged by a top general to tell 'POTUS' -- the president of the United States -- that friendly fire was suspected.

"'I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public,' Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the military's special operations chief, wrote to Abizaid and other generals.

"Lawmakers also released an e-mail that said White House speechwriter John Currin had called Army officials six days after Tillman's April 22, 2004, death asking for more details about his Army service for a speech Bush was scheduled to give days later at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. Rumsfeld's speechwriter had also called the Army for information about Tillman, the e-mail said."

Cheney and bin Laden

Anna Johnson writes for the Associated Press: "A top Taliban commander said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, according to an interview shown Wednesday by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera. . . .

"He did not say how he knew bin Laden planned the attack, and it was not clear when the interview took place."

Snow's Return

Ed Henry reports on CNN: "White House spokesman Tony Snow has just confirmed to CNN that he is now planning to come back to work next Monday and do the White House briefing, a comeback that's much sooner than a lot of people expected. You will remember, late last month, Tony Snow, it was reported here at the White House, that his cancer had recurred; it had spread from his colon to his liver, but Tony Snow telling me a moment ago -- quote -- 'I am expecting to be back Monday to work.'

"He also said that he will start chemotherapy next Friday, but said that he expects to be working through the chemotherapy. He said, if he has any problems during that treatment, he will -- quote -- 'dial it back.' But he noted that the first time, several years ago, when he had colon cancer, he had chemotherapy for six months, and worked six days a week at FOX News, both on radio and TV."

Poodle Watch

Tom Baldwin writes in the Times of London: "Tony Blair has felt unable to pick up his US Congressional Gold Medal of Honour for four years partly because the ceremony would reinforce the prejudices of those convinced he was 'some sort of poodle', says Sir David Manning, Britain's Ambassador in Washington."

Bush Dances

Frank James blogs for the Chicago Tribune, complete with video: "Malaria's a serious subject. But that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun at the Malaria Awareness Day event on the White House South Lawn, especially when people are dressed in colorful native costumes and bring along some African drums.

"Moved by the rhythms of the African drumming at the event, Bush tried to catch the beat for a little presidential dancing. Looks like he mostly missed it."

Savage Speaks

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald interviews Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage about the coverage of presidential signing statements that won Savage a Pulitzer Prize last week.

Greenwald: "What do you think are the defining attributes of quality political reporting?"

Savage: "I'll just mention one principle in particular which is important when writing about complex legal or policy matters: avoiding the easy route of 'he said, she said' reporting, which does no favors to readers who don't have the time to become specialists in the subject themselves.

"Sometimes government officials, seeking to 'muddy the coverage' (in the words of a DOJ spokeswoman's internal email that was recently turned over to a congressional committee looking into the US attorneys firings), put out misleading talking points that are intended to distract reporters and the public from the real story. In such a case, one must go beyond simply quoting the government official and give readers the information they need in order not to be misled."

Bush Gets a Purple Heart

Joyce May writes in the Cove Herald of Copperas Cove, Tex, about a Vietnam veteran named Bill Thomas who decided to give Bush one of the three Purple Hearts that he received in Vietnam.

"Thomas said he and his wife came up with the unprecedented idea to present the president with the Purple Heart over breakfast one morning a few months ago as they discussed the verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, the commander in chief has withstood during his time in office.

"'We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds,' Thomas said. . . .

"Thomas said he drew up a citation and he and his wife signed it before dropping it and the medal off with Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, to forward to President Bush.

"Carter later called Thomas to inform him that the president was very moved by the gesture and would like the couple to present it in person."

And that's what happened on Monday, in the Oval Office. Why exactly Bush felt that was appropriate is a pretty good question.

"'He said he didn't feel like he had earned it,' Thomas said."

Cartoon Watch

Tom Toles on Tillman; Don Wright on tracking White House job performance.