McNulty Gets Knife in the Back

Wolfowitz Watch

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Steven R. Weisman writes in the New York Times: "A World Bank committee charged Monday that Paul D. Wolfowitz violated ethical and governance rules as bank president by showing favoritism to his companion in 2005. In response, the Bush administration mounted a last-ditch global campaign to save Mr. Wolfowitz from being ousted from office....

"Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview with Fox News in Jordan before the committee's findings were released that Mr. Wolfowitz was 'one of the most able public servants I've ever known' and that 'he's a very good president of the World Bank, and I hope he will be able to continue.'

"White House and Republican officials said that from the beginning, President Bush has seen the controversy over Mr. Wolfowitz as a proxy fight waged by liberals at the bank opposed to Mr. Bush's policies, and that he would not toss him or Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales overboard just because opponents want them out."

Ashcroft's bedside stand

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Laurie Kellman writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program was so questionable that a top Justice Department official refused for a time to reauthorize it, sparking a battle with top White House officials at the bedside of an ailing attorney general, a Senate panel was told Tuesday.

"Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that he refused to recertify the program because Attorney General John Ashcroft had reservations about its legality just before falling ill with pancreatitis in March 2004.

"Comey, the acting attorney general during Ashcroft's absence, said then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card responded by trying to get Ashcroft to sign the recertification from his bed at George Washington University Hospital.

"During that dramatic meeting, also attended by Comey, Ashcroft lifted his head off the pillow and appeared reluctant to sign the document, pointing out that Comey held the powers of the office.

"Gonzales and Card then left the hospital room, Comey said.

"'I was angry,' Comey told the panel. 'I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general.'"

The Secret Cheney

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From the transcript of Vice President Cheney's short session with reporters on the way back from his Middle East trip: "I apologize in advance for the fact that I won't talk about my conversations with the folks I visited with. That's why they talk to me."

Cheney on Supporting the Terrorists

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From Cheney's interview with Fox News's Bret Baier:

"QUESTION: On the debate about Iraq at home, do you believe that someone who opposes the war wants terrorists to win?

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think they have to be responsible for the consequences of the policy recommendations they make. If, in fact, they advocate complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, then they are, to some extent, accountable for what would happen when that policy followed, what happens inside Iraq, what kind of encouragement that might give to al Qaeda. . . .

"So if you're going to be a public official advocating withdrawal from Iraq, you, in fact, are also saying that what you're recommending is validating the al Qaeda strategy."

Iraq Watch

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Greg Jaffe and Yochi J. Dreazen write in the Wall Street Journal: "The Bush Administration continues to wrestle with many difficult policy questions on Iraq, from how hard to push Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to how best to end Iraq's civil war.

"But there are fewer and fewer senior administration officials looking for answers.

"In recent weeks, two Iraq hands have announced plans to step down, each citing the desire to pursue other interests. Meanwhile, the White House hasn't found anyone willing to serve as a 'war czar,' with day-to-day responsibility for implementing administration policy toward Iraq and Afghanistan. At the Pentagon, a key architect of the 'surge' is likely to leave soon for a promotion to a new State Department job, which would be focused less on Iraq, while the Pentagon's top policy official has devoted an increasing amount of time to missile defense and less to Iraq in recent weeks. . . .

"Lack of political progress over the past year has been cited as a reason for the continuing bloodshed. But senior military officials and others who work closely with the Pentagon say Washington's failure to adequately support efforts to build an effective Iraqi government is making an already tough situation more intractable."

Privacy Board Watch

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John Solomon and Ellen Nakashima write in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration made more than 200 revisions to the first report of a civilian board that oversees government protection of personal privacy, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials deemed 'potentially problematic' intrusions on civil liberties, according to a draft of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

"One of the panel's five members, Democrat Lanny J. Davis, resigned in protest Monday over deletions ordered by White House lawyers and aides. The changes came after the congressionally created Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board had unanimously approved the final draft of its first report to lawmakers, renewing an internal debate over the board's independence and investigative power. . . .

"White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called the editing 'standard operating procedure,' saying it was appropriate because the board remains legally under the supervision of the Executive Office of the President...

"Davis wrote that he was 'concerned that there may be current and developing anti-terrorist programs affecting civil liberties and privacy rights of which the board has neither complete knowledge nor ready access.'"

Davis's change of mind is a dramatic turnaround. Up until now, to the great disappointment of civil libertarians, he had been a supporter of the board's pro-administration pronouncements.

Energy Watch

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Zachary Coile writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "President Bush responded Monday to the Supreme Court's rebuke of his administration for refusing to regulate greenhouse gases by rehashing a plan from his State of the Union speech to boost ethanol and tinker with fuel efficiency standards."

Steven Mufson and Michael A. Fletcher write in The Washington Post: "With gasoline prices spiraling to record highs last week and a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring executive action to restrict global warming gases, President Bush yesterday ordered four federal agencies to draw up regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by the end of his administration.

"But Democrats, environmentalists and some energy experts said the president was simply delaying measures that he has the power to impose now. . . .

"'In effect, the president asked his agency heads to share ideas and come up with a plan that is due three weeks before he leaves office,' said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the new House select committee on climate change. Markey said that 'will leave motor vehicle fuel economy stuck in neutral until Bush's successor takes office.'"

First Lady: Smoking?

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Laura Bush yesterday spoke out about women and heart disease, and noted that quitting smoking is hard.

That apparently emboldened Sanjay Gupta of CNN to ask the first lady one of the great unspoken Washington questions: Does she still smoke? Mrs. Bush said she does not. But note that she did not say how she quit -- or when.

Here's the transcript. Gupta tells Wolf Blitzer: "I wanted to get right to it. Because there's been a lot of rumors about whether she was a smoker, and whether she still is a smoker. I decided to just ask her. This is what she said.

"GUPTA (on camera): Were you a smoker at one time?

"LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: That's right. I used to smoke.

"GUPTA: Do you smoke anymore?

"BUSH: No, I don't smoke anymore.

"GUPTA: How did you quit?

"BUSH: It was very hard to quit and smoking is very difficult to quit. I want to encourage people to not pick it up. It's very difficult to quit.

"One of the good ways, I think, one of the easier ways to quit is the way the president did, when he smoked, which is when he was back in graduate school. That was, he took up running. And I think once you get up and exercise, smoking becomes counterproductive, and then it's easier to quit."

Bush, the GOP Albatross

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Catherine Dodge and Laura Litvan write for Bloomberg: "Many Republicans blame Bush's pursuit of the Iraq war for putting them in the minority in 2006 and fear further losses in 2008. Increasingly, they're looking past Bush at a perilous future. . . .

"The longing for a break with Bushism is a far cry from the hopes the Texan stirred with his 2000 victory. Casting himself as a party-builder, Bush envisioned a political realignment that would make Republicans the nation's ruling majority.

"Instead, he's poised to leave office as one of the country's most unpopular leaders, at home and abroad, with his party weaker than he found it. . . .

"David Carney, White House political director under President George H.W. Bush, said that 'to continue to go on and rally around the Bush flag is going to get us nowhere.' . . .

"'You'd have to go back to Jimmy Carter, who became totally ineffective in times of crisis and whom no one respected,' to find a president regarded as poorly by his party as Bush, said Edward Rollins, a Republican consultant and former Reagan campaign manager.

"Hamstrung by an unpopular war and 35 percent approval ratings, 'there is nothing Bush can do to get his numbers back up,' Rollins said. 'He has no good will.'"

TV Watch

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The New York Times reports that: "In 'Spying on the Home Front,' tonight on PBS's 'Frontline,' Hedrick Smith doesn't merely re-sound the familiar alarm that public officials are rooting through our mail and phone records. He suggests that the domestic surveillance begun by the Bush administration after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, redefines the legal standards on which the United States was founded. Old standard: Law enforcement's job is to seek out a specific suspect and/or investigate a specific crime. New standard: Everyone is a suspect, and the crimes will be specified when those in charge are good and ready."

The Conductor in Chief

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I asked yesterday if anyone had seen the video of Bush conducting the symphony that was playing at the celebration of Jamestown's 400th anniversary over the weekend.

C-SPAN has video of the entire event; Bush's takeover of the symphony starts around the 39:45 mark.

And of course Jon Stewart decided to show the video on his show last night -- along with a mock Bush narration: "I'm the Decider. That's right. I'm gonna decide when the oboe comes in. I'm the decider. I want trombones. Hee hee hee."