Bush Thumbs Nose at Congress

"Bush spoke of America's 'unfinished business.' Talk about understatement. The question isn't how to finish the jobs; it's how to limit the damage."

On the occasion of Bush's final State of the Union, former White House speechwriter Michael Gerson devotes his Washington Post column to an ode to his former boss' compassionate conservatism.

"Proposals such as No Child Left Behind, the AIDS and malaria initiatives, and the addition of a prescription drug benefit to Medicare would simply not have come from a traditional conservative politician. They became the agenda of a Republican administration precisely because of Bush's persistent, passionate advocacy. To put it bluntly, these would not have been the priorities of a Cheney administration."

Why such little attention or thanks for his compassionate reforms?

Writes Gerson: "The conservative movement gives the president no credit because it views all these priorities -- foreign assistance, a federal role in education, the expansion of an entitlement -- as heresies, worthy of the stake. Liberals and Democrats offer no praise because a desire to help dying Africans, minority students and low-income seniors does not fit the image of Bush's cruelty that they wish to cultivate."

FISA Watch

Paul Kane writes in The Washington Post: "The House and Senate yesterday approved a 15-day extension of an expiring intelligence surveillance law and the White House backed off a threatened veto, allowing more time to resolve a dispute over the administration's proposal to immunize telephone companies from lawsuits stemming from their cooperation with warrantless wiretaps. . . .

"The Senate has not acted yet on a surveillance bill because of two related disputes: one among Democrats over whether to approve the legal immunity, and another between Democrats and Republicans over whether amendments are to be allowed when the proposed measure is brought to the floor for a vote.

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who last year shepherded a surveillance bill through the House without immunity provisions, again urged the Senate to resist Bush's lobbying."

Torture Watch

Philip Shenon writes in the New York Times: "Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Tuesday that the harsh C.I.A. interrogation technique known as waterboarding was not clearly illegal, and suggested that it could be used against terrorism suspects once again if requested by the White House.

"Mr. Mukasey's statement came in a letter delivered Tuesday night to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has scheduled for Wednesday its first oversight hearing for the new attorney general."

Wrote Mukasey: "There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding. Other circumstances would present a far closer question."

Shenon writes that Mukasey "suggested that waterboarding might be reintroduced under the 'defined process by which any new method is proposed for authorization' in the C.I.A.'s interrogation program.

"'That process would begin with the C.I.A. director's determination that the addition of the technique was required for the program,' he continued. 'Then the attorney general would have to determine that the use of the technique is lawful under the particular conditions and circumstances proposed. Finally the president would have to approve of the use of the technique.'"

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "Mukasey said in the letter that waterboarding -- a simulated drowning meant to coerce disclosures by a resisting prisoner -- is not part of a 'limited set of methods' being used by CIA interrogators. Mukasey said he has found the current methods, which he did not specify, to be legal. . . .

"Mukasey did not elaborate on what circumstances would present a close call on waterboarding. He also did not identify which laws the practice might violate, or explain his reference to 'current' law."

Blogger Marty Lederman asks: What about "those other 'enhanced interrogation techniques' in the CIA program, the ones that (unlike waterboarding) continue to be authorized -- such as hypothermia, stress positions, threats, sleep and sensory deprivation, etc.? Well, they're all perfectly ok, according to Mukasey. But he won't explain why, or even say what they are."

The View From the Red Cross

Demetri Sevastopulo writes in the Financial Times: "The International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday urged the Bush administration to establish stronger safeguards for detainees held in US custody, particularly at Guant¿namo Bay.

"Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC president, said the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation had made 'tangible progress' with the US government over detention-related issues in recent years, but called for improvements in the process under which prisoners captured in the 'war on terror' were detained."

In his statement, Kellenberger said that in his meeting with U.S. officials, he "outlined the ICRC's view that the detention of persons captured or arrested in connection with the fight against terrorism must take place within an appropriate legal framework, and that more robust procedural safeguards are needed, especially in Guantanamo Bay."

Kellenberger also noted that it is important for the ICRC to engage with the U.S. intelligence community: "The CIA has been active in situations of armed conflict and, as confirmed by President Bush in 2006, it has been involved in holding detainees. This is a subject of particular relevance to the ICRC."

Stimulus Watch

Jonathan Weisman writes in The Washington Post: "The House overwhelmingly approved a $146 billion shot in the arm for the nation's ailing economy yesterday, sending a stimulus package to the Senate with a bipartisan appeal not to slow down the bill with significant changes."

Weisman describes the "growing concern that the Senate would make changes that, at best, would force the package into House-Senate negotiations and, at worst, would court a presidential veto.

"'My concern is that we need to get this bill out of the Senate and on my desk so the checks can get in the hands of our consumers and our businesses can be assured of the incentive necessary to make investments,' President Bush told reporters in the Oval Office."

Raising Money

Bush heads West today to headline five Republican fundraisers in three days. But so the GOP doesn't have to pay all those travel expenses, he's also shoehorning a few official events between the donor-only affairs. He'll make remarks at a California helicopter plant, a Las Vegas ballroom and Hallmark Cards headquarters.

Ken Herman blogs for Cox News Service: "On Wednesday, Bush will headline two Republican National Committee fundraising events at private residences in California.

"The Thursday schedule has him in Las Vegas for a Nevada Victory (that's a state GOP organization) luncheon at a private residence. Air Force One then is off to Colorado for another private residence event. This one is for Colorado Victory and GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, a former House member. . . .

"All of the events announced so far are of the closed-door variety. Not surprising, says Matt Sugar, Colorado Democratic Party spokesman. 'The (GOP) Senate candidate in question wants to keep those things private because he doesn't want to be attached to the policies of the administration,' says Sugar, who acknowledges Bush's ability to bring in the bucks for GOP candidates and causes."

Bush's Drinking

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post from Baltimore: "President Bush plopped himself into a chair between two former prisoners, Thomas Boyd and Adolphus Moseley, and asked to hear how their lives had changed. But first, he wanted them to know something about him: 'I understand addiction,' he said, 'and I understand how a changed heart can help you deal with addiction.'

"The scene inside a tiny room in an East Baltimore rowhouse Tuesday was part of an unusual day for the president, who referred repeatedly to his struggle with alcohol as a way of connecting with the participants in Jericho, a church-run program that helps former inmates find jobs and reenter society.

"'Addiction is hard to overcome,' Bush told reporters after meeting with Boyd and Moseley, both of whom told the president they had struggled with drugs. 'As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life. I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem.'

"Bush, who was here to celebrate the seventh anniversary of his program to funnel federal funds to 'faith-based' social service organizations, has occasionally talked over the years about his struggles with alcohol before he quit in 1986 after waking up with a hangover from celebrating his 40th birthday.

"But recent encounters with those facing drug or alcohol addiction appear to have touched a chord with the president."

Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press that Bush asked the two men "how they stopped using drugs -- and then answered his own question.

"'First is to recognize that there is a higher power,' Bush said. 'It helped me in my life. It helped me quit drinking.'

"'That's right, there is a higher power,' Mosely said.

"'Step One, right?' Bush said, referring to the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-steps program."

As long as Bush didn't talk about his drinking, the subject was largely off limits for the Washington press corps. But now that he's bringing it up, it's worth noting that there's a lot we don't know about his relationship with alcohol.

For instance, there is no indication that Bush ever went through anything remotely like the 12 steps suggested by Alcoholics Anonymous that he alluded to yesterday. Acknowledging a higher power is only one of those 12 steps -- the second, incidentally, not the first. Others include making a "searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves" and making "a list of all persons we had harmed" and trying to make amends to them all.

Some attempts to psychoanalyze the president have even suggested that untreated alcoholism is a significant part of Bush's psyche. For instance, Washington psychoanalyst Justin Frank wrote in his book about Bush that the president displays all the symptoms of what AA calls a "dry drunk": "grandiosity, judgmentalism, intolerance, detachment, denial of responsibility, a tendency toward over-reaction and an aversion to introspection."

Bush Library Watch

Gretel C. Kovach and Ralph Blumenthal write in the New York Times from Dallas: "Methodists opposed to a George W. Bush Presidential Library, museum and policy institute at Southern Methodist University here are mounting a last-ditch effort to block a nearly completed deal by throwing the decision to a regional church conference in July. . . .

"The nature of the policy institute stirs much of the debate. In outlining the project to prospective universities in 2005, two officers of the foundation, Marvin P. Bush, a brother of the president, and Donald J. Evans, said the institute would be answerable to the foundation, not the university. And they said: 'Part of its mission will be to further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration,' including 'compassionate conservatism' and 'defeating terrorism.'"

Kovach and Blumenthal also note that Bush, "after he leaves office, would probably be a neighbor, as he intimated to Texas mayors last week at the White House, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Sunday. Greeting Mayor Tom Leppert of Dallas, Mr. Bush said, 'There's my new mayor.'"

Cheney Watch

Al Kamen writes in The Washington Post; "Never too early to begin transition planning. So there were Vice President Cheney and spouse Lynne out in McLean on Sunday afternoon, strolling about the house they're building in that tony suburb."

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Late Night Humor

Jon Stewart describes what he calls "a weird, oddly subdued, utterly insincere State of the Union" -- which nevertheless seemed to delight the Vice President. "By my count, Dick Cheney smiled 12 times during that speech -- meaning he only has four smiles left for the entire year."

Cartoon Watch

Mike Luckovich, Ben Sargent and Matt Davies on the State of the Union; Bob Gorell on Bush's unfinished business; Jim Morin on Bush's eternal youth.