Mukasey the Obstructionist

"In an angry phone call hours after Ashcroft's list reached the White House, President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., quickly dismissed the candidates, all Republican lawyers with impeccable credentials, the sources said. He and White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales insisted that Ashcroft promote John Yoo, a onetime OLC deputy who had worked closely with Gonzales and vice presidential adviser David S. Addington to draft memos supporting a controversial warrantless wiretapping plan and detainee questioning techniques.

"Ashcroft's refusal created a tense standoff and was the only time in the attorney general's tenure that Bush was called upon to resolve a personnel dispute, the sources said.

"The process led the White House team to introduce a compromise choice -- Jack L. Goldsmith, a Defense Department lawyer then on leave from a teaching post at the University of Chicago Law School.

"But Goldsmith's tenure did not proceed as White House aides had expected. He went on to challenge the administration, rescinding or rewriting several of Yoo's most sensitive memos after unearthing what he called numerous flaws."

Iran Watch

Glenn Kessler writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush's decision to shift policy and send a senior U.S. envoy to nuclear talks with Iran this weekend was made after increasing signs that Iran was open to possible negotiations and that international sanctions were having an impact on the Islamic republic, U.S. officials said yesterday.

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed for the move in a meeting on Monday of Bush's top aides, and Bush's support suggests he increasingly is determined to put aside a possible military strike in an effort to reach a deal to end Iran's nuclear program in his final six months in office. . . .

"Bush accepted Rice's recommendation at the closely held meeting that also included Vice President Cheney, national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, White House chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten and Burns. The move infuriated the administration's conservative critics, who said it was yet another sign the White House has lost its moorings.

"'This is a complete capitulation on the whole idea of suspending enrichment,' said former U.N. ambassador John R. Bolton. 'Just when the administration has no more U-turns to pull, it does another.'"

Elaine Sciolino and Steven Lee Myers write in the New York Times: "The increased engagement raised questions of whether the Bush administration would alter its stance toward Iran as radically as it did with North Korea, risking a fresh schism with conservatives who have accused the White House of granting concessions to so-called rogue states without extracting enough in return. . . .

"European officials hailed the decision as an important shift signaling that with just six months left, the Bush administration is seeking to avoid a war with Iran. . . .

"The presence of an American at the talks this weekend may help quiet the mounting calls in both the United States and Israel for military strikes against Iran. . . .

"Senator John Kerry, Mr. Bush's Democratic opponent in 2004, said the decision could be 'the most welcome flip-flop in recent diplomatic history.'"

And there could be even more in store. Ewen MacAskill writes in the Guardian: "The US plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years as part of a remarkable turnaround in policy by President George Bush.

"The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section -- a halfway house to setting up a full embassy. . . .

"The creation of a US interest section would see diplomats stationed in Tehran for the first time since the hostage crisis that began when hundreds of students, as part of the Iranian revolution that led to fall of the Shah, stormed the US embassy in 1979 and held the occupants until 1981."

Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt first reported that such a move could be in the offing in his opinion column last month.

Cheney Watch

Ben Pershing blogs for washingtonpost.com: "In the fourth and final Congress of the Bush administration, Vice President Cheney is playing a different and diminished role on Capitol Hill.

"Having served as the key deal maker on several high-profile issues in the first six years of the Bush presidency, the former House GOP Whip has been largely absent from the negotiating table in the 110th Congress, particularly during the last month's flurry of bipartisan legislative compromises."

But just because he's not visible doesn't mean he's not influential.

"'Cheney's involvement is much more active now behind the scenes rather than at the forefront,' said Candida Wolff, a former senior Cheney aide who also served as the White House's top legislative liaison."

Access for Sale?

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Adam B. Ellick write in the New York Times: "The White House on Wednesday disavowed the actions of a Houston businessman and Bush campaign fund-raiser who was caught on videotape apparently trying to trade access to top administration officials -- including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- in exchange for six-figure donations to President Bush's library foundation.

"The businessman, Stephen Payne, founder of a Houston company called Worldwide Strategic Partners, was shown suggesting the donations in a video posted Sunday on the Web site of The Times of London, which filmed him surreptitiously as part of an investigation into corruption in foreign governments. . . .

"Mr. Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, called Mr. Payne's actions 'inappropriate' and said that he did not represent the library or the foundation that is raising money for it. 'No one is allowed to try to say that there would be official action done under this administration in connection to any contribution that they may or may not make to the library,' she said."

Intel Watch

Walter Pincus writes in The Washington Post: "The House yesterday passed by voice vote the fiscal 2009 intelligence authorization bill, which limits the funds available for covert actions next year until all members of the House intelligence panel are briefed on the most sensitive ones already underway.

"As included in the bill, 75 percent of money sought for covert actions would be held up until the briefings are held.

"If that provision remains in the bill when it reaches President Bush, his senior advisers will recommend he veto the measure, a White House statement said yesterday. Current law requires briefing on the most sensitive covert actions only for the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence panels and their ranking minority members, the speaker of the House and the House minority leader, and the Senate majority and minority leaders.

"In its report on the bill, the committee said that the Bush administration has not kept lawmakers 'fully and currently informed,' and that without a briefing on all covert actions for the members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the panel cannot 'conduct its inherent oversight function.'"

Flying West

Julianna Barbassa writes for the Associated Press: "The White House said President Bush will visit Northern California on Thursday to get a first-hand look at the wildfires that have ravaged hundreds of square miles and strained the state's firefighting resources.

"The president was expected to travel to Redding to get a briefing on the wildfires, then take an aerial tour to survey fire damage in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to White House officials. Bush also plans to attend a private Republican fundraising event in Napa."

But I wonder: What came first, the fundraiser or the wildfires? Could Bush be so cynical as to use a visit to a disaster area as an excuse not to pay full freight for a political trip?

Paul Payne writes for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that a Republican source said 112 people would attend the fundraiser, donating about $850,000. That doesn't sound like something you throw together at the last minute.

Bush has private fundraisers tomorrow in Tucson and Houston.

Having a Ball

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post: "It was another day of turmoil in the capital. The Federal Reserve chairman again tried to reassure jittery markets. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he wanted more troops in Afghanistan to put down the growing insurgency. And just before 4 p.m., President Bush stepped onto the South Lawn for what he called a 'historic' moment.

"'Play ball!' cried the commander in chief.

"Leaving his cares behind, Bush then sat down for more than an hour to watch 6- and 7-year-olds play T-ball, to unveil a 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' postage stamp, and to lead the crowd in singing that anthem with the majesty of 'Hail to the Chief.' . . .

"Yesterday's T-ball game, the 19th of his presidency -- followed by a dinner last night in honor of Major League Baseball, the third of his presidency -- brought to at least 95 the number of sporting-related events he has participated in during his time in the White House. He has done no fewer than 18 such events so far this year -- already passing his previous record of 13 in both 2001 and 2007. . . .

"The game must have looked familiar to Bush in these final months of his presidency: dropped balls, swings and misses, and players running every which way. But in T-ball, at least, 'absolutely no score will be kept,' as [ESPN broadcasters] Mike and Mike put it, 'and everyone will leave as a winner.'"

David Lightman blogs for McClatchy newspapers about the Major League Baseball dinner: "'It doesn't get much better than this,' President Bush beamed Wednesday night, 'Country music in the Rose Garden and celebrating baseball.'"

Late Night Humor

Stephen Colbert last night gave Bush props for wrapping up last week's G8 summit with the words " Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" and then punching the air while grinning widely.

"For far too long the president has been forced to do a terrible job of pretending to care what people think of him. But not anymore, folks," Colbert said. "It is going to be so sweet when he pops by the World Court in the Hague and screams: 'Adios, from waterboard central! Then he can drop by the stock exchange, ring the bell, and scream: 'Goodbye from the world's weakest currency!' And then he can head over to Iraq, and as he's leaving, shout out: 'I break it, you bought it!'"

Jon Stewart contrasted what Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said about the economy Tuesday morning. "One is like a glass half-full kind of guy -- and the other is an expert on the economy."

And here's Jay Leno via U.S. News: "With all this financial panicking going on, President Bush held a press conference and told everyone to take a deep breath. 'Take a deep breath.' That's a good advice, huh? The economy is tanking and he's giving Lamaze classes. . . . 'Take a deep breath.' Isn't that what he told the people of New Orleans when the water was rising?"

Cartoon Watch

Kevin Siers on the Bush clown show; Daniel Wasserman on Bush's great economic advice; J.D. Crowe on Bush's buddies; Ben Sargent on Cheney's answer to everything.