What Karl Rove Fears Most

"According to Davis and GSA officials, Doan rejected a series of White House candidates for the jobs of GSA general counsel and chief acquisition officer. Both posts, while recently filled by political appointees, are held by career civil servants serving in an acting capacity."

As readers in my Live Online discussion on Wednesday pointed out, one way for Bush to tie the hands of his successor is to install political loyalists in career positions.

Most Unpopular President Ever

Paul Steinhauser writes for CNN: "A new poll suggests that President Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

"A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president.

"'No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark,' said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

"'Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon [22 percent and 24 percent, respectively], but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s,' Holland said. 'The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67 percent disapproval in January 1952.' . . .

"CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider adds, 'He is more unpopular than Richard Nixon was just before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974.' . . .

"The poll also indicates that support for the war in Iraq has never been lower. Thirty percent of those questioned favored the war, while 68 percent opposed it."

That 71 percent figure is even higher than the 69 percent disapproval rating Bush received in the latest Gallup Poll, the subject of my April 22 column, The Most Disappointing President.

Bush on Food

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush asked Congress yesterday to approve $770 million in new global food aid for the coming fiscal year, the centerpiece of an evolving administration response to a crisis that has sparked increased violence and hunger around the world. . . .

"The president said he is asking Congress to include the money in a broader Iraq war funding bill for fiscal 2009 that the administration sent to Capitol Hill yesterday.

"The proposal came under immediate criticism from some congressional Democrats and outside experts, who said additional money would do little to alleviate the current crisis if it is not available until the 2009 budget year, which starts in October. Bush has also requested $350 million in additional food aid as part of the 2008 supplemental Iraq war budget, an amount that top Democrats say is too little.