Exposing Bush's Weakness

Mukasey Watch

Dan Eggen and Paul Kane write for The Washington Post that the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning voted to approve the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general after Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) parted ways with their Democratic party colleagues.

Schumer writes in a New York Times op-ed this morning: "Should we reject Judge Mukasey, President Bush has said he would install an acting, caretaker attorney general who could serve for the rest of his term without the advice and consent of the Senate. To accept such an unaccountable attorney general, I believe, would be to surrender the department to the extreme ideology of Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington. All the work we did to pressure Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign would be undone in a moment."

He also argues: "Congress is now considering -- and I hope we will soon pass -- a law that would explicitly ban the use of waterboarding and other abusive interrogation techniques. And I am confident that Judge Mukasey would enforce that law. On Friday, he personally made clear to me that if the law were in place, the president would have no legal authority to ignore it -- not even under some theory of inherent authority granted by Article II of the Constitution, as Vice President Cheney might argue."

But Georgetown Law professor Marty Lederman responds: "That all sounds perfectly fine and reasonable . . . except, of course, that no such specifying law will ever be 'in place,' because the President, devoted to torture and cruelty, would veto it.

"What Senator Schumer ought to do, therefore, is simple -- that is, if he truly cares about ending torture and cruel treatment: pledge to vote to confirm Judge Mukasey if and only if -- and after -- the President signs S.1943."

CNN reports: "A majority of Americans consider waterboarding a form of torture, but some of those say it's OK for the U.S. government to use the technique, according to a poll released Tuesday.

"Asked whether they think waterboarding is a form of torture, more than two-thirds of respondents, or 69 percent, said yes; 29 percent said no.

"Asked whether they think the U.S. government should be allowed to use the procedure to try to get information from suspected terrorists, 58 percent said no; 40 percent said yes."

Former Navy general counsel Alberto Mora and John Shattuck, a former assistant secretary of state, write in a Washington Post op-ed about "the corrosive effects of the decision to adopt cruelty and -- as with waterboarding -- even torture as weapons of war. . . .

"Judge Mukasey is able and accomplished. But if he is confirmed as the next attorney general, his legacy will depend on his ability to do what he has been unable or unwilling to do in his confirmation process: recognize torture and cruelty for what they are and protect our nation by stripping certain interrogation methods of their disgraceful camouflage of false 'legality.'"

Contempt Threat

Dan Eggen and Paul Kane write in The Washington Post: "The House Judiciary Committee sent a final warning to the White House yesterday to provide Democrats with access to disputed documents and testimony, pushing the House closer to a vote on contempt citations for two administration officials.

"In a letter to White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), gave the Bush administration until Friday to work out a deal on documents and testimony relating to last year's controversial removal of nine U.S. attorneys. If Fielding refuses the latest request, the House could vote as early as next week on the contempt charges, Democratic aides said.

"The committee also filed a formal, 102-page contempt report with the House clerk that lays out its request for testimony from former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and for documents controlled by White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten.

"Bush administration officials immediately signaled they do not intend to negotiate, arguing that internal deliberations involving Miers and Bolten are covered by executive privilege. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino accused Democrats of seeking to 'waste time again on another diversion' rather than pass meaningful legislation."

Civil Rights Watch

Charlie Savage writes in the Boston Globe: "The US Commission on Civil Rights, the nation's 50-year-old watchdog for racism and discrimination, has become a critic of school desegregation efforts and affirmative action ever since the Bush administration used a controversial maneuver to put the agency under conservative control.

"Democrats say the move to create a conservative majority on the eight-member panel violated the spirit of a law requiring that no more than half the commission be of one party. Critics say Bush in effect installed a fifth and sixth Republican on the panel in December 2004, after two commissioners, both Republicans when appointed, reregistered as independents.

"'I don't believe that [the law] was meant to be evaded by conveniently switching your voter registration,' said Commissioner Michael Yaki, one of the two remaining Democrats. . . .

"Other presidents have been able to create a majority of like-minded commissioners, but no president has done it this way. The unusual circumstances surrounding the appointments attracted little attention at the time. But they have had a sweeping effect, shifting the commission's emphasis from investigating claims of civil rights violations to questioning programs designed to offset the historic effects of discrimination."

Farm Bill Veto Threat

Dan Morgan writes in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration, setting the stage for another confrontation with Congress over a major spending measure, issued a veto threat yesterday against the Senate version of the $288 billion farm bill.

"The announcement came as a disappointment to bipartisan Senate supporters, who had hoped the farm legislation avoided some of the pitfalls that prompted a similar veto threat this summer against a House-passed version."

Override Ahoy

Alexander Bolton writes in the Hill: "The House is expected to vote overwhelmingly Tuesday to override President Bush's veto of legislation funding $23 billion worth of water projects, diminishing Bush's authority as he heads into a spending showdown with Democrats over 12 unfinished appropriations bills, say government scholars. . . .

"Senate Republicans say there are more than enough votes for an override in their chamber. . . .

"The first veto override of Bush's tenure signals the first time Republicans have deserted their president en masse, albeit on a relatively obscure issue. Congressional scholars say the rift between Bush and the majority of the party will diminish him as he prepares to battle congressional leaders over spending priorities. But how much authority Bush will lose, and how much of a wedge the bill will drive between GOP lawmakers and Bush, is a matter of disagreement."

Poll Watch: A New Record

Susan Page writes in USA Today that Bush has "reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they 'strongly disapprove' of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974."

Poll Watch: Iran

Page writes: "Americans are concerned about Iran's nuclear program but split on whether military action should be undertaken if diplomacy and economic sanctions fail to stop it, according to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll."

Given the choice between military action and economic or diplomatic efforts, however, 73 percent chose the latter. And 76 percent said they were very or somewhat concerned that the U.S. will be too quick to use military force.

Iran Opinion Watch

Gary Kamiya writes for Salon "that the Iraq debacle has taught us absolutely nothing. Talk of attacking Iran should be confined to the lunatic fringe. Yet America's political and media elite have responded to the idea of attacking Iran in almost exactly the same way they did to the idea of attacking Iraq. Four and a half years after Bush embarked on one of the most catastrophic foreign-policy adventures in our history, the same wrongheaded, ignorant and self-destructive approach to the Arab-Muslim world and to fighting terrorism still rules establishment thinking."

Iraq Watch

Lauren Frayer reports for the Associated Press: "The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of five more soldiers, making 2007 the deadliest year for U.S. troops despite a recent downturn, according to an Associated Press count.

"At least 852 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year -- the highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to AP figures."

And from ABC News: "Reports of fewer casualties in Iraq haven't altered most Americans' perceptions of the war: Fifty-nine percent still don't think the United States is making significant progress restoring civil order there, and a record six in 10 want the level of U.S. forces reduced.

"Those results in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll seem to reflect a continued hardening of attitudes on Iraq. Views on progress are unchanged from early September, and they haven't been positive since December 2005, shortly after the Iraqi elections."

Talking Turkey

Steven Lee Myers writes in the New York Times: "President Bush pledged Monday to increase intelligence cooperation with Turkey in its fight against Kurdish rebels, hoping to head off any significant Turkish military operation in Iraq.

"Meeting in the White House with Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr. Bush declined to say how the United States would respond if Turkish forces entered northern Iraq, dismissing it as a hypothetical question that, he said, Mr. Erdogan himself had asked.

"Instead, Mr. Bush promised that the American and Turkish militaries -- allies in NATO -- would work together to fight the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., which he called 'an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States of America.'

"'I can tell you that we -- he asked what would my reaction be if there was an attack,' Mr. Bush said, sitting beside Mr. Erdogan in the Oval Office. 'Well, that's a hypothetical question. But what we did talk about is to make sure that there is good enough intelligence so that we can help deal with a common problem, and that problem is a terrorist organization called P.K.K.'"

Warren P. Strobel writes for McClatchy Newspapers that, talking to reporters later in the day, "Erdogan gave no sign that a military operation was imminent and at one point told the audience with a smile that he was 'happy' with the results of the discussions with Bush."

Bush 2008

Michael D. Shear writes in The Washington Post: "With no certain Republican front-runner and the most open-ended nominating process in decades, it is perhaps no surprise that the party's first family is just as divided in settling on a candidate. While its most powerful members -- President Bush, his father and his brother Jeb -- have remained conspicuously on the sidelines, their public statements and body language carefully analyzed for evidence of whom they privately favor, other family members have spread their endorsements around."

George P. Bush, son of Jeb, has endorsed former senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee. His "little brother, whom everyone in the family calls 'Jebby,' has signed on to the campaign of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani as the young professionals chairman in Florida. Their aunt Doro, the president's younger sister, co-hosted a Washington fundraiser in February for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney."

Bush's New Poodle

Caren Bohan writes for Reuters: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy's talks with U.S. President George W. Bush this week are expected to highlight warmer ties between their countries -- so much so that the visit has inspired U.S. newspaper cartoons depicting Sarkozy as Bush's new 'poodle.'"

Helene Fouquet and Francois de Beaupuy write for Bloomberg: "Sarkozy's talks with President George W. Bush, starting with dinner at the White House tonight, will focus on shared opposition to Iran's nuclear program and on support for Kosovo's push for independence from Serbia, according to the French president's spokesman, David Martinon.

"'They are not here to disagree, just to show the world how much they agree on,' Dominique Moisi, the senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris, said in an telephone interview. 'Sarkozy will give a new flavor and depth to the relationship.'"

Cartoon Watch

Garry Trudeau on Lord Cheney; Dan Wasserman, Ann Telnaes, Bill Mitchell and Tony Auth on Musharraf; David Horsey on Bush's South Asia