Pick Your Bush

But the ramifications are potentially enormous. For analysis, I turned to Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a nonprofit public-interest watchdog organization.

Bass said his first question was: "Why now? I find it interesting that we're seeing this push for major reform when these guys are leaving in a year. And it makes me think that they are trying to indirectly codify procedures that they were not able to get approved by the Congress. . . . I think this is exactly the reason why we elect a Congress."

Bass said the system Bush is setting up has a certain logic to it. "It really is an obligation of government to assess whether there is benefit from the programs that are being conducted," he said.

The order also requires each agency to put onto its Web site "regularly updated and accurate information on the performance of the agency and its programs, in a readily useable and searchable form, that sets forth the successes, shortfalls, and challenges of each program and describes the agency's efforts to improve the performance of the program."

"I really like the transparency," Bass said.

But who gets to decide what's working and what's not? "Of course we want a more effective government. Of course we want more efficient spending. But what does that mean?" Bass asked. "That's the danger. I want to as best I can give them credit for tackling a thorny issue, but the downside is that the system they've set up opens up the door to political manipulation. Even if their intent is to create an objective, fair, open process, it is inevitable that this kind of new structure can be used to damage agency programs to meet their ideological objectives."

Signing Statement Watch

After signing the defense appropriations bill yesterday, Bush's aides appended another of their infamous signing statements. This one says: "The Act contains certain provisions identical to those found in prior bills passed by the Congress that might be construed to be inconsistent with my Constitutional responsibilities (sections 8005, 8009, 8012(b), 8034(b), 8052, 8082, 8085, 8089, 8091, and 8116, and the provision concerning consolidation under the heading 'Operation and Maintenance, Defense Wide'). To avoid such potential infirmities, I will interpret and construe such provisions in the same manner as I have previously stated in regard to those provisions."

I haven't had time to look up those sections to see what he's objecting to. (And there hasn't been any other media coverage yet.)

Reopening the Investigation

In one of the most overlooked chapters of his presidency, Bush last summer took the astonishing step of personally intervening to suspend an investigation into his own administration. See my July 19, 2006, column, Cover-Up Exposed?

Now, the investigation is back on.

Scott Shane writes in the New York Times: "Just four days after Michael B. Mukasey was sworn in as attorney general, Justice Department officials said Tuesday that President Bush had reversed course and approved long-denied security clearances for the Justice Department's ethics office to investigate the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program. The department's inspector general has been investigating the department's involvement with the N.S.A. program for about a year, but the move suggested both that Mr. Mukasey wanted to remedy what many in Congress saw as an improper decision by the president to block the clearances and that the White House chose to back him."

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "H. Marshall Jarrett, the OPR's chief counsel, wrote in a letter to several lawmakers yesterday that lawyers in his office 'recently received the necessary security clearances and are now able to proceed with our investigation.' He said the investigation will focus on 'the role of Department of Justice attorneys in the authorization and oversight of warrantless electronic surveillance . . . . and in complying with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.'"

Law professor and blogger Marty Lederman writes that OPR's mandate, however, may prove too narrow to satisfy critics.

The New AG

Lara Jakes Jordan writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush welcomed Michael Mukasey back into government Wednesday and promised to help the new attorney general rebuild the top leadership of the beleaguered Justice Department.

"Speaking at Mukasey's ceremonial oath-taking, Bush said the retired federal judge 'will bring clear purpose and resolve' to the agency. . . .

"With a pointed smile at the applauding crowd, Bush added: 'And he's going to have the trust and confidence of the men and women of the Department of Justice.'"

Contempt Watch

John Bresnahan writes in the Politico: "House Democrats have postponed a vote until December on contempt resolutions against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, delaying for now any constitutional showdown with the White House over the president's power to resist congressional subpoenas."

E-Mail Watch

I wrote about the latest in the White House e-mail saga yesterday.

The Austin American-Statesman editorial board writes: "Trust in White House has been deleted. . . .

"President Bush has not inspired confidence in his dedication to historical records and public access. So a federal judge has stepped in and ordered the White House to preserve backup copies of millions of possibly missing e-mails.

"A Bush spokesman said the White House is already preserving backup tapes of e-mails. But U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy isn't taking chances and issued a temporary restraining order Monday to prevent any deletion. . . .

"President Bush has shown he is more interested in maintaining secrecy than in providing an accurate, public historical record. That's why Kennedy's order is important. It puts the administration on notice and is a firm rebuke to the 'trust us about the e-mails' rhetoric from the White House."

Pakistan Watch

Here's Bush on Saturday: "If you're the chief operating officer of al Qaeda, you haven't had a good experience. There has been four or five No. 3s that have been brought to justice one way or the other, and many of those folks thought they had found safe haven in Pakistan. And that would not have happened without President Musharraf honoring his word."

Robert Scheer writes in his San Francisco Chronicle opinion column: "Of course Bush's statement was utter nonsense. Al Qaeda has been having a very good experience with its CEO Osama bin Laden, whom Bush had promised to get 'dead or alive,' being still very much alive and apparently moving with his minions quite easily across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. So too, his Taliban sponsors, who seem to get stronger each month; Afghanistan is no closer to stability than Iraq, that other war-on-terrorism battleground where Bush once claimed triumph.

"But now, even Pakistan is a war zone in which the terrorists seem to be thriving, and that is more troubling than the chaos in that other country we invaded to seize its imaginary nuclear bombs. Pakistan has real ones, upward of 80 of those suckers, as well as the aircraft and missiles to deliver them if some of the religious extremists in the military ever get in charge."

Bush's Changing Views

Sig Christenson wrote in the San Antonio Express-News on Veterans Day: "Ten years ago today, then-Gov. George W. Bush stood on a small road in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery and defended his father's decision to end the first Gulf War after 100 hours of fighting.

"'There are a lot of Americans (who say), "Why didn't you go get him?"' Bush told the San Antonio Express-News, referring to Saddam Hussein. 'Well, I'm confident that losing men and women as a result of sniper fire inside of Baghdad would have turned the tide of public opinion very quickly.'

"That Veterans Day, Bush said efforts to ferret out Saddam from his many Baghdad hideouts would have transformed the battle from a desert conflict to an unpopular 'guerrilla war.'"

Christenson notes that "the fears expressed 10 years ago have become reality."

And the president who famously avoided asking his father for advice about the war had a different view about his father's wisdom back when Clinton was president. Writes Christenson: "Pointing to Iraqi efforts to toss the U.S. inspectors, he said 10 years ago this week that Clinton would be wise to talk with his father, saying, 'I think my dad conducted himself brilliantly during Desert Storm and understands the situation pretty clearly.'"

Impeachment (Non) Watch

The American Research group finds that 55 percent of voters say Bush has committed abuses of his powers that rise to the level of impeachable offenses -- but only 34 percent believe Congress should actually try to remove him from office. For Cheney, those figures are 52 percent and 43 percent.

Dowd's Expiation Continues

Mark Z. Barabak of the Los Angeles Times talks to Matthew Dowd, a former member of Bush's inner circle turned bitter critic.

"On the administration's response to the Sept. 11 attacks: 'I asked, 'Why aren't we doing bonds, war bonds? Why aren't we asking the country to do something instead of just . . . go shopping and get back on airplanes?' '

"On the White House stand against same-sex marriage: 'Why are we having the federal government get involved? . . . Does a thing limiting someone's rights and aimed at a particular constituency belong in the U.S. Constitution?'

"On the war in Iraq: 'I guess somebody would make the argument, well, the Iraq war was about defending ourselves. But it seems an awfully huge stretch these days to say that.' "

As Barabak notes, Dowd started speaking out a while back: "In March, he wrote a piece for Texas Monthly magazine suggesting Bush had undercut his 'gut-level bond with the American public.' Finally, applying torch to bridge in spectacular fashion, Dowd detailed his break with Bush in a front-page interview in the New York Times."

Dowd tells Barbarak that Bush started off governing in a bipartisan manner. "But he believes something changed after Sept. 11, 2001. 'There was an imperial feel to it,' Dowd said. 'The things he did in Texas, he didn't do any of that. . . . We didn't build relationships with Democrats in Congress, and we didn't build them overseas.' . . .

"He expresses no regrets for repudiating the president he served, even if the experience seems to have deepened his disappointment in Bush and the ways of Washington. Dowd has taken comfort from strangers who called and sent e-mails 'basically saying that it took a lot of courage to say the truth.' It is friends who have let him down: 'People who called up and said, "We agree with you, but you should not have said anything until January '09." '"

Come On By

The president and Laura Bush invited the nonprofit America's Promise Alliance to the White House last night for a black-tie dinner in the State Dining Room -- at which Laura Bush was given an award.

The Associated Press has the details. Here's the first lady's acceptance speech.

Free Speech Watch

Stephanie Strom writes in the New York Times that "in a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003, a team of women who represented the United States at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month is facing sanctions, including a yearlong ban from competition, for a spur-of-the-moment protest.

"At issue is a crudely lettered sign, scribbled on the back of a menu, that was held up at an awards dinner and read, 'We did not vote for Bush.'"

Cartoon Watch

Mike Lane on Bush and Musharraf's eyes; RJ Matson and Monte Wolverton on the dollar; John Sherffius finds a missing White House e-mail.