Does Bush Know Something We Don't?

By contrast, Bush continues to insist that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is possible before the end of his term. So file the Paulson plan as somewhat less likely to come to fruition than Middle East peace.

McConnell's Controversial Role

Greg Miller writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Spy chiefs have often seen their support in Congress fade after embarrassing intelligence flaps. But [national intelligence director J. Michael McConnell] has drawn lawmakers' ire largely because the Bush administration has put him in the unusual role of intelligence community lobbyist. . . .

"McConnell's role as the Bush administration's point person on espionage legislation is particularly unusual. U.S. intelligence chiefs have periodically been at the center of political storms over botched spy operations or pitched nomination fights. But they have traditionally been expected to remain insulated from policy issues, not to function as administration lobbyists on controversial pieces of legislation. . . .

"Democrats have . . . complained that McConnell has employed pressure tactics, including making alarming claims about the consequences of failing to pass the wiretapping legislation favored by the White House.

"In letters to lawmakers, McConnell warned that prolonged debate by the House was making the nation 'more vulnerable to terrorist attack and other foreign threats.'

"In a newspaper interview last year, he said that merely debating the issue meant that 'some Americans are going to die,' because terrorists and other adversaries would learn more about America's surveillance capabilities.

"More recently, at a House hearing in February, McConnell was accused of offering misleading testimony when he warned that allowing temporary eavesdropping authority to lapse would cause phone companies to quit cooperating."

Also see my Aug. 8, 2007 column, Chief Spy or Chief Enforcer?

Another Ugly Departure

David Jackson writes in USA Today; "For the first time in President Bush's tenure, one of his Cabinet members is stepping down amid a criminal investigation. . . .

"The FBI has been investigating the ties between Jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department as a construction manager in New Orleans, according to the Associated Press. Jackson's friend got the job after Jackson allegedly asked a HUD staffer to pass along his name to the Housing Authority of New Orleans.

"Other Bush Cabinet members, such as former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, have left office under political clouds, but Jackson, 62, is the highest-ranking Bush official to depart in this manner. . . .

"James Thurber, who directs the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington, said Jackson's resignation is not good news for Bush as he seeks political leverage with Congress and tries to stay relevant during an intensely fought presidential campaign to succeed him.

"'This is the last thing that he needs,' Thurber said."

Dan Eggen and Carol D. Leonnig write in The Washington Post: "Embattled Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced his resignation yesterday, leaving the Bush administration without a top housing official in the midst of a vast mortgage crisis that has shaken the global economy.

"Jackson, a longtime friend and former neighbor of President Bush, departed after the White House concluded he had too many controversies swirling around him to be an effective Cabinet member, several HUD officials said privately. . . .

"[T]wo government sources who work on housing issues said Jackson was called March 24 to the White House, where top aides discussed his ability to lead the agency. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Jackson met with Bush on Saturday to discuss his plans to resign, according to White House spokesman Tony Fratto. . . .

"Bush, who departed yesterday on a trip to Eastern Europe for his final NATO summit, issued a written statement calling Jackson 'a good man' and 'a great American success story.' Bush said he accepted the resignation 'with regret.'"

The New York Times editorial board writes: "As relieved as we were to see Alphonso Jackson resign on Monday as the secretary of housing and urban development, it was a sad comment on the Bush administration's low regard for HUD's mission that Mr. Jackson was permitted to remain in office so long."

A Debt of Gratitude

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post about how Kevin Rudd is one of the many foreign leaders who owe a lot to the president. Rudd unseated Bush favorite Prime Minister John Howard last fall.

Writes Milbank: "Bush may be a loathed figure in much of the world, but one group owes him a debt of gratitude: the many opposition leaders who came to power after Bush-friendly ruling parties were voted out. Howard took his place alongside Jose Maria Aznar of Spain (whose party was dumped in 2004), Italy's Silvio Berlusconi (tossed out in 2006), and Britain's Tony Blair (stepped aside in favor of a Bush-skeptical understudy in 2007). Ruling parties in Poland and Japan also paid for their leaders' friendships with Bush with big defeats.

"Bush's pariah status has turned his Coalition of the Willing into a retirement community and given the president an unusual role in the domestic affairs of other countries. In Australia, one of Rudd's predecessors as Labor leader, Mark Latham, got the top job after describing Bush as 'the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory.' He further described members of Howard's government as a 'conga line of suckholes' to Bush.

"Howard, in turn, expressed a view that al-Qaeda terrorists would be praying for a 2008 victory by Democrats in general and Barack Obama in particular.

"Bush enjoyed this mutual affection. 'I can tell you, relations are great right now,' he said last year in Sydney, which was all but shut down by security measures needed to keep him safe."

Bush Investigations Are a Bargain

Investigations of the Bush administration have provided much more bang for the buck than investigations of the Clinton administration.

Pete Yost writes for the Associated Press: "The CIA leak probe cost $2.58 million, the Government Accountability Office disclosed Monday, wrapping up an investigation that ensnared Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI.

"The office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald spent the money over a 45-month span that saw the indictment, trial and conviction of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby.

"The investigation also touched on other officials in the State Department and the White House, including presidential political adviser Karl Rove, who leaked the CIA identity of Valerie Plame.

"'This matter is now concluded for all practical purposes,' reported the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress."

By contrast, as Carol D. Leonnig noted in The Washington Post in 2006: "Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr's investigations of President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and his ties to the failed Whitewater land investment cost $71.5 million and took eight years. Independent Counsel David M. Barrett's examination of Clinton housing secretary Henry G. Cisneros over an extramarital affair and potential illegal payments cost $21 million and lasted 10 years."

'W' -- the Movie

ABC News reports on controversial director Oliver Stone's "W," which is to start filming this month. The movie "paints a humanistic portrait of the president along with plenty of embarrassing anecdotes from his life story, judging by a copy of an early screenplay obtained by ABCNews.com. . . .

"It also covers plenty of his administration's lowlights -- from Bush's reported obsession with invading Iraq, which Stone will portray as a desire to avenge Saddam Hussein's assassination attempt on Bush's father and his frustration with the failed search for WMDs to his penchant for malapropisms and cheery optimism about the chances for civil war in Iraq. . . .

"The first scene, in which Bush and his advisers brainstorm different terms to describe their global enemies, from 'Axis of Hatred' to 'Axis of Unbearably Odious,' is followed by an early glimpse of the hard-drinking young man when he was a college student at Yale.

"Drinking vodka mixed with orange juice out of a trash can at the DKE frat house, Bush impresses the fraternity leader with his ability to memorize the names of his fellow pledges."

Just In From the Onion

The Onion reports: "Amid allegations that his thoughtless and insensitive decisions have damaged his relationship with the nation, President George W. Bush vowed Monday that he would, starting now, 'make everything better.'"

Late Night Humor

Here's Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night, describing the Bush administration line on Iraq: "So if the violence goes down, that is because of the success of the surge. And when the violence goes up, that is because of the success of the surge."

Cartoon Watch

Tom Toles insinuates that things in Iraq aren't entirely stable; Ted Rall is hung up on torture; and Jim Morin gives the Bush presidency a new nickname.