Fox News anchor Tony Snow got a clean bill of health from his doctor and has accepted President Bush's offer to be his new Press Secretary.

President Bush will make the announcement tomorrow morning.

by TChris

The president finally made a truthful statement:

"Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic. It's just not going to work. You can hear people out there hollering it's going to work. It's not going to work."

Those who are "hollering" at politicians to round up and deport every undocumented worker are part of the president's base. Not surprisingly, the president delivered these remarks to a different part of his base: the business community that depends on undocumented workers. Will the "foreigners go home" crowd feel abandoned by their president?

Even as the administration has been putting on a show of getting tough with employers who hire undocumented workers, President Bush expressed sympathy for employers who are "fooled" by fake social security cards. If that's the president's attitude, how widespread or effective are those enforcement efforts likely to be?

by TChris

When the Kennebec County Democratic Committee debated the pros and cons of a resolution endorsing the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, they "rather quickly ran out of cons," said Chairperson Rita Moran. The resolution passed easily, and the Maine committee isn't alone in its desire for accountability.

In New England, where three of Massachusetts' 10 House members have called for the investigation and possible impeachment of President Bush, and residents in four Vermont towns voted last month at annual town meetings to impeach the president for lying, such an action is becoming far from uncommon.

Illinois State Rep. Karen Yarbrough recently "sponsored a resolution calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings." California Assemblyman Paul Koretz "has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney."

Bump and Update: the LA Times tells Bush to dump Cheney and Rumsfeld . As to Cheney:

Unlike most vice presidents, Cheney does not aspire to be president, and he is the consummate Bush loyalist. He would not be giving up a political birthright by agreeing to retire (citing health reasons or a concern about the publicity surrounding the trial of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby). And the problem of taking sides in the 2008 election is easily solved. Bush could nominate as Cheney's successor an elder party statesman -- Bob Dole, anyone? -- with no interest in the 2008 nomination.

As to Rumsfeld:

The secretary should go not because he has been criticized by a group of retired generals but because he embodies the smugness and inability to acknowledge error that has characterized both the Iraq war and the wider war on terrorism. Rumsfeld has been the pinched public face of an administration that has cut legal and humanitarian corners in dealing with people -- including U.S. citizens -- suspected of involvement with terrorists.

I'm torn between thinking it's better for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 if Bush keeps Cheney and Rumsfeld--and hoping they go for the good of the country. Your thoughts?

by TChris

It's official. Historian Sean Wilentz, writing for Rolling Stone, declares George Bush a contender for the title of Worst President in History. Here's a summary of his thorough analysis:

Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

by TChris

President Bush has been miserly in the exercise of his pardon power.

Bush has issued 82 pardons and sentence commutations during 63 months in office, mainly to allow people who committed relatively minor offenses and served their sentences long ago to clear their names.

Only two of the 82 were sentence commutations, and they involved token reductions of time. The numbers include 11 pardons he granted yesterday. This one and this one and this one were for people who committed tax crimes in the 1980's. Tax crimes probably don't bother the president much. A more humane and productive use of the pardon power is illustrated in this post.

Margaret Colgate Love, who served as US Pardon Attorney under two administrations, has some advice for President Bush, courtesy of Sentencing Law and Policy:

by TChris

When did this become true?

"ICE has no tolerance for corporate officers who harbor illegal aliens for their work force," [said ICE chief Julie Myers].

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been quite tolerant of the business community's desire to employ aliens who haven't been authorized to work. If ICE made a serious effort to hold corporate executives accountable, the GOP's corporate base would howl in protest.

Still, the poll numbers are down, immigration is the hot new issue, and the administration needs to look like it's doing something. It's time to look tough. Raids at several businesses across the country today netted the corporate community's sacrifice to ICE's new zero tolerance enforcement policy.

Think Progress wonders whether Karl Rove has lost his security clearance which could account for his shift in positions.

In November, Newsweek wrote, "Having his security clearance yanked would not require Rove to resign as deputy chief of staff to President Bush. But it would prevent him from taking part in policymaking that relates to national-security issues, which would mean a much-reduced role in the Bush White House."

Rove has now resigned his policy-making post and is focusing primarily on politics. Given Rove's public intentions to make national security the focus of the 2006 elections, the White House should reveal whether Rove will be doing his political job while holding a security clearance.

The White House needs a news spokesman now that Scott McClellan has resigned. Will it be Fox News' Tony Snow?

Karl Rove "gave up some of his responsibilities."

Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections. Just over a year ago, Rove was promoted to deputy chief of staff in charge of most White House policy coordination. That new portfolio came on top of his title as senior adviser and role of chief policy aide to Bush.

But now, the job of deputy chief of staff for policy is being given to Joel Kaplan, the deputy budget director.

Update: Attytood names Scotty's replacement -- Beltway Bob.

by TChris

The morning headline, Rumsfeld Faces Growing Revolt by Retired Generals, leads to the predictable response from our stubborn president, Bush Declares Full Support for Rumsfeld, and the sad but inevitable late afternoon headline, Rumsfeld Rejects Calls to Quit.

Netroots in action. Readers of Firedoglake and other liberal blogs, including My DD bought 1,000 rubber stamps to demonstrate the rubber-stamping by our Republican dominated Congress.

They were delivered last week to Sen. Arlen Specter. Crooks and Liars has video of the delivery.

VP Dick Cheney was booed loudly today as he threw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals' home opener. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Daily Kos reports:

To say the Veep was booed would be an understatement. Fox News and CNN both carried the first pitch LIVE - and the sellout crowd was loud and overwhelmingly anti-Cheney. He was booed ONTO the field, at the mound, as his pitch made it to the Nationals' catcher, and as he left the field. There's no room for debate. The guy was jeered off the field.