I agree with Arianna. Why is the national news covering San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's extra-marital affair with his campaign manager's wife? If you haven't read about it yet, the wife told her husband who confronted Newsom before quitting. Newsom held a press conference to confirm the rumor and apologize. It made the round of cable news shows as well as the national media.

And now conservatives are predicting that Newsom's chances for higher office have been dashed. By that logic, Rudy Giuliani wouldn't have formed an exploratory committee for President and Newt Gingrich wouldn't say he's draftable for the presidential nomination.

But the real point is that except for those who are family values hypocrites, the media should stay out of politicians' bedrooms. It's nobody's business but their own.

When policy and science collide in the Bush administration, it's like an 18-wheeler smashing into a Yugo. Science doesn't survive, as witnesses (including Rick Piltz, formerly of the federal Climate Change Science Program) told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday.

Part of his job, Mr. Piltz said, was to compile periodic assessments of government climate research for the Congress. “This report has essentially been made to vanish by the Bush administration,” he said.

The testimony coincides with the release of a report that documents and criticizes the administration's "widespread political interference in federal climate science." The Union of Concerned Scientists surveyed climate scientists, with disturbing results.

"Advocates for tougher immigration enforcement" are complaining that four members of the Arizona National Guard didn't take aggressive action when they encountered six to eight armed men wearing bulletproof vests near an observation point.

The soldiers contacted Border Patrol agents and pulled back, investigators concluded. The Border Patrol tracked the armed men back to the border but could not locate them. No shots were fired.

The complainers argue that it makes the United States look weak when Guardsmen fail to engage those they suspect of crossing the border illegally. The National Guard isn't permitted to assume a law enforcement function in border security. Do "advocates for tougher immigration enforcement" expect Guard members to disobey orders and violate the law?

For those of you following President Bush's State of the Union address tonight, here's a CBS article with some excerpts and an open thread to discuss it.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the cabinet member who will sit out in case of a terrorist attack during the speech.

Update: Attytood: Bush to New Orleans, Drop Dead.

As President Bush gets ready for yet another State of the Union Address, his poll numbers have dropped to levels that rival Richard Nixon's.

President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president while 33 percent approve. The rating matches Bush's career low in a May 2006 poll.

Seventy-one percent of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, up from 46 percent in an April 2003 poll, the month after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A majority of those polled this month don't approve of how Bush is handling the Iraq war, terrorism or the economy.

CNN's most recent poll also shows a big drop for Bush.

Ed Kilgore writes an interesting post about Netroots attitudes towards Bill Clinton. Only problem - it is based on a false premise:

Chris [Bowers] and others didn't come to grips with Scott [Winship]'s underlying argument about the anti-Clinton worldview of the Netroots Left. And that's a shame.

Sorry Ed. Indeed, I think that is part of the whole problem of the discussion at TPMCAfe - the idea that the Netroots has some type of New New Left ideology. That simply is wrong. More.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has advanced the minute hand of its Doomsday Clock by two minutes. It now shows five minutes to a catastrophic midnight.

Current nuclear worries touched on by the speakers included the ambitions of North Korea and Iran, the nuclear rivalry between Pakistan and India, new initiatives to expand nuclear power plants around the world and the lack of progress toward realizing the goals of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The board also added climate change to their list of doomsday concerns, because "it could cause irremediable harm to the habitat humanity needs for survival."

This is solely my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Talk Left and its contributors.

When Alberto Gonzales was nominated to become Attorney General of the United States, I, and thousands of others, opposed his confirmation:

As the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, Gonzales's advice led directly to the abandonment of longstanding federal laws, the Geneva Conventions, and the United States Constitution itself. . . .

In January 2002, Gonzales advised the President that the United States Constitution does not apply to his actions as Commander in Chief, and thus the President could declare the Geneva Conventions inoperative. Gonzales's endorsement of the August 2002 Bybee/Yoo Memorandum approved a definition of torture so vague and evasive as to declare it nonexistent. Most shockingly, he has embraced the unacceptable view that the President has the power to ignore the Constitution, laws duly enacted by Congress and International treaties duly ratified by the United States. He has called the Geneva Conventions "quaint." . . .

Now, Attorney General Gonzales has the audacity to state that the Judiciary should not enforce the Constitution and the laws of the land when the President chooses to ignore his responsibility to faithfully execute the laws and the Constitution of the United States:

U.S. Attorneys are being forced out of office, replaced with interim appointees chosen by the attorney general. Why? Let's start with the false explanation:

“We in no way politicize these decisions,” Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Right. That's why the choice to replace H.E. Cummins in Arkansas is the former research director for the Republican National Committee.

The selection of U.S. Attorneys is always political. Justice Department officials assured the NY Times that there are "frequently changes in the ranks of United States Attorneys after an election." That's true when the election produces a new president, but it's usual for an administration to force out prosecutors who the admInistration chose for the position.

A suspicious mind might wonder whether it's a coincidence that Carol Lam lost her job after prosecuting former Rep. Randy Cunningham, and that Kevin Ryan is getting the boot after investigating the backdating of stock options awarded to corporate executives. The Justice Department claims the prosecutors had poor priorities, pushing corruption cases rather than gun cases. Shouldn't federal resources be devoted to complex federal crimes, leaving states to prosecute simple "felon in possession" cases? Not according to the Gonzales Justice Department.

How embarrassing for the President.

Negotiations to build George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University have divided the campus, pitting the administration and some alumni against liberal-leaning faculty members who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.

Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war.

This is quite a slap at the Bushes:

First lady Laura Bush is a graduate and is on the board of trustees. Vice President Dick Cheney previously served on the board. Presidential adviser Karen Hughes and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are both graduates.

However the school expects the library to go through claiming the protesting profs are in the minority.

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows Bush's approval level on Iraq has sunk to its lowest level of his presidency -- 26%.

It also found that Americans want Democrats to have "more control over the direction of the nation.

Among the findings:

Nearly half of those surveyed say the United States can't achieve its goals in Iraq regardless of how many troops it sends. One in four say U.S. goals can be achieved only with an increase in troop numbers.

Eight in 10 say the war has gone worse than the Bush administration expected. Of those people, 53% say Bush deserves "a great deal" of blame; 41% place a great deal of blame on Iraqi political leaders.

You wonder sometimes how stupid our DC Democrats can be. Just when you think they can't do something more idiotic, they top themselves. Nancy Pelosi makes history this week, heck the press coverage was grudgingly good. So what do we get? This dimwittery:

Thursday was notable for another milestone in gender politics: the return of the Alpha Male Democrat. The members of this new faction, which helped the Democrats expand into majority status, stand out not for their ideology or racial background but for their carefully cultivated masculinity. . . . John Lapp, the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who helped recruit this new breed of candidate[, says] “These are red-blooded Americans who are tough.” Mr. Lapp even coined a term to describe these manly — and they are all men — pols: “the Macho Dems.”

Sheesh. The Macho Dems? Only a wimp has to call himself macho. This is the rhetorical equivalent of stuffing the crotch in your pants. Mr. Lapp, let me clue you in to something - Jim Webb and Jon Tester and Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy do not need YOU calling them "Macho Dems" and "red blooded Americans." Authenticity. Look it up. Figure it out. This is pathetic, not to mention insulting to the rest of the Party and to the strong Fighting Dem women in our Party. Only a wimpy, spineless DC Democrat could come up with this.