Bolton is a feint. No one
cares who represents us
at the UN, but this wild
choice drives Democrats
to distraction, while Bush
and friends stifle giggles.
The house majority leader
and Social Security lose
top billing on cable news
to a likely Senate fight.
Meanwhile Rove searches
for more bait to chum
the political waters while
he looks for a way to make
private accounts and
Tom DeLay both [...]

On the day before the funeral of the Pope
Republicans finally revealed the source
of the infamous Shiavo talking points.
It was them. Legal counsel for the point man
in the Senate says he wrote the document,
but can’t remember printing it. Senator
Martinez doesn’t think he ever read the
memo, but he gave it to another Senator
who wanted more information. How [...]

Who the CIA is holding, and where,
is too secret to reveal to anyone but
senior members of Congress. Why?
The prisoners’ friends know they’re
missing, and guessed where they are.
This reminds me of the run-up to Iraq.
Bush couldn’t give us proof Saddam had
WMD because it was “top secret.� It
might reveal sources and methods. Yeah,
they were bad, the [...]

Bush continues to flog his
flawed charge of “crisis� in
Social Security, and the value
of risky private accounts,
despite little support from
the public or Congress. Why?
He persuaded both that Saddam
had weapons of mass destruction,
and posed an imminent threat,
when they didn’t. He never said
Iraq caused 9/11, but still convinced
millions it was so, when it wasn’t.
He doesn’t say [...]

Tom DeLay may go the way of
House Speaker Jim Wright, another
Texan with an ethics blight. Senator
Lindsey Grahm thinks he might.
Wall Street Journal editorials rarely
fault the right, but a recent one
accuses DeLay of serial abuses that
“sooner or later will sweep him out.�
The Majority Leader, known for clout,
for now has nothing to worry about,
but if his friends [...]

Delays in securing full benefits
concern disabled veterans.
Reductions in subsidies worry
farmers in North Dakota.
Failure to hire authorized border
patrol personnel leads citizens
in Arizona to do it themselves.
These groups voted Republican.
They should stop complaining,
relax and enjoy their tax cuts.

Bush rarely pleases me, like his
act to thwart Trent Lott’s hold on
the base-closing commission did.
He appointed all the members
Friday before the Senate reconvened.
avoiding the need for confirmation.
That will work, but it was tricky
we’ll close some military bases,
if not in Texas, maybe Mississippi.

Iraqi insurgents attacked
Abu Ghraib yesterday.
We suffered 18 casualties
in 40 minutes.
If we had closed the prison,
if officers had been accountable,
if anyone had accepted responsibility,
this might have been avoided.
This war has many ifs, but
the one we worry about most,
“if we just had better intelligence,�
is the only one that didn’t matter.

Still another commission report
casts doubt on the evidence
Bush used to go to war. Why?
Millions of Americans, and
most of the world never believed
Saddam posed an imminent threat.
Why waste time and money
rehashing history to prove the
President was misled by the intelligence
community? As he said himself,
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me –
you can’t get fooled again.�

Bush still lusts after Alaskan oil,
but prominent Republicans
have joined environmentalists
in the “Set America Free� coalition.
They will lobby for tax incentives
to encourage faster development
of high mileage cars and trucks.
The war and escalating terrorism
convinced these conservatives that
spending billions in the Middle East
is dangerous, and national security
depends on reducing gasoline
consumption. This epiphany may be
our only reward for [...]