Deepak Chopra, writing at Huffington Post, says Justice Grows to the Left. On Harriet Miers, he makes this excellent point:

In Ms. Miers we seem to have someone who is a blank slate, but whose private inclinations are tolerant, cautious, compassionate to the underprivileged, and politically flexible. On the surface her nomination is unfair, in that she seems to have a private agreement on ideology with the President and no public trail; therefore, she is immune to being examined. Matters are made worse by Pres. Bush's wink-and-a-nod comments implying that she has her marching orders and will be a loyal foot soldier. That demeans both Ms. Miers and the Court itself.

If indeed her flaw is rigid loyalty to the right wing, we are no worse off than if the President had nominated another Scalia. But if Miers grows to the left, which is to say, if she begins to empathize with America's vast, diverse population instead of the rich white males who have determined her fate so far, the country will be well served by her.

Digby has two fabulous guest bloggers this weekend - Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake and Tristero. Jane's RoveGate writing has been top notch.

Two more RoveGate bloggers to read every day: Tom Maguire of Just One Minute and Empty Wheel of The Next Hurrah. [Addition: Needlenose is another one.]

Regarding Karl Rove, this blast from the past by Murray Waas that appeared in the March 4, 2004 American Prospect is well worth re-reading:

by TChris

According to CNN, the recent terrorist threat to the New York City subway system originated in Iraq. If this turns out to be true, the president's professed strategy of "fighting the terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here" has been a dud. We didn't have to fight Iraqi terrorists anywhere until the president invaded Iraq, creating a new threat to national security.

by TChris

Harriet Miers served one term on the Dallas City Council. A WaPo article summarizes her mixed record.

She would meet with abortion rights advocates and gay rights activists but tell them firmly she did not agree with them. She backed a redistricting plan aimed at electing more minorities even though conservatives called it a quota system. She voted to raise taxes two years in a row, disagreeing with some colleagues who favored deeper budget cuts.

Miers told gay activists that she could not support the repeal of a Texas law banning sodomy. On the other hand, she stated in a questionnaire for the Lesbian/Gay Political Coalition of Dallas that she supported equal rights for gays.

Abortion rights activists asked Miers if she supported an ordinance that protected abortion clinic patients from harassment.

by TChris

A new AP-Ipsos poll shows that the president's base is increasingly disappointed with his job performance:

The number of people who strongly approve of Bush's job performance has eroded over the last year, most notably among key groups like evangelical voters, down from 49 percent who strongly approved in January to 33 percent now; Republican men, down from 57 percent to 42 percent; Protestants, down from 36 percent to 25 percent; and Southerners, down from 32 percent to 22 percent.

New York City Mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer came under fire Friday from death penalty opponents for saying that the death penalty is justified in some cases.

"After 10 years of experience with the death penalty, New Yorkers have rethought their position on the issue, and Mr. Ferrer should, too," said David Kaczynski, executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, which was influential in virtually scuttling the state's death penalty law this year. "We would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Ferrer to help him sort through the various issues."

Ferrer has flip-flopped before on capital punishment. He has said he's opposed to the death penalty. He's also said he supports it in some cases. At other times he has said he supports a moratorium until flaws can be removed.

Murray Waas has a new RoveGate article today at National Journal (free link). He adds another aspect: Did Rove intentionally mislead Bush and could that be a crime in itself?

In his own interview with prosecutors on June 24, 2004, Bush testified that Rove assured him he had not disclosed Plame as a CIA employee and had said nothing to the press to discredit Wilson, according to sources familiar with the president's interview. Bush said that Rove never mentioned the conversation with Cooper. James E. Sharp, Bush's private attorney, who was present at the president's interview with prosecutors, declined to comment for this story.

If you are in Houston, Nogales, AZ, Nogales, Sonora, MX, Sunland Park, NM or Anapra, Chihuahua, MX, organizations from both sides of the border will rally for social justice and against the anti-immigrant actions of the so-called “Minutemen Project” tomorrow.

Houston:

On Saturday, October 8, from 3 pm to 5 pm, at Burnett Bayland Park(Chimney Rock & Gulfton), there will be speakers, poets and music to rally supporters of immigrants and against the Minuteman Project's call to patrol Houston streets and US/Mexico border areas. Rally speakers include Juan Alvarez, Teodoro Aguiluz, Rev. Jezer Urena, poets Joe B., Claudia Peña, and singers Chuy Negrete and Xavier Herrera.

by TChris

It is increasingly uncomfortable for Republics to act like, well, Republicans. House Republicans today narrowly passed the kind of bill that, in better times, would have easily prevailed. Clouded in the political cover provided by Hurricane Katrina, Republicans claim the bill will encourage oil companies to build new refineries. Among other obnoxious provisions, it requires citizen's groups that challenge new refineries to pay the refinery's hefty legal bills, win or lose.

Ignoring the rules once again, Republicans held open the vote until they could lobby enough party members to change their votes. Democrats, finally showing signs of life, chanted "shame, shame" as Republicans rejected demands to close the vote. Democrats held together, unanimously opposing the bill.

Finally, long after the vote had been scheduled to close, two GOP votes switched, providing the Republican victory.

Final vote to provide outrageous giveaways to Republican-friendly oil companies: 212-210.

Tom DeLay has moved to dismiss the Indictments against him on grounds of misconduct by prosecutor Ronnie Earle:

DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, alleged in a court motion that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle unlawfully participated in grand jury deliberations when he went to a second grand jury last week to seek a second indictment against the congressman.

DeGuerin also alleged that Earle "attempted to browbeat and coerce" the second grand jury to change its decision not to indict DeLay so there would be no public record of a rejection. DeGuerin said the indictment forced DeLay to step down from his job as majority leader, the No. 2 position in the U.S. House, for a crime that did not exist in Texas law.

It's pretty amazing that Texas doesn't have a law gagging grand jurors until after the case is over.

Uh-oh. For Scooter Libby. Reuters reports that Judith Miller has found and turned over notes on an earlier conversation from June, 2003 with Scooter Libby.

Miller's notes about a June 2003 conversation with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, could be important to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's case by establishing exactly when Libby and other administration officials first started talking to reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson.

What else happened in June, 2003? One thing is the classified State Department memo that mentioned Valerie Plame. WAPO reported

Great news. President Bush has withdrawn Timothy Flanigan's nomination for Deputy Attorney General. (Background here.) Senator Dick Durbin has just released this statement (received by e-mail.)

“Earlier this week, I asked for a follow-up hearing on the nomination of Timothy Flanigan to be Deputy Attorney General because serious concerns had been raised about his relationship with indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and about his role in crafting the Bush administration’s policies on torture. I wanted to make certain that no conflicts of interest would have prevented Mr. Flanigan from performing his duties.”

“While Mr. Flanigan’s nomination has been withdrawn, troubling questions remain about the Bush administration’s torture policies and Abramoff’s dealings with the administration and the Republican leadership of Congress. We have to answer these questions in order to restore the trust of the American people’s trust in their government. I encourage the President to nominate an individual of unimpeachable integrity as Deputy Attorney General. At this difficult time, the American people deserve no less.”