by TChris

While Human Events characterizes Democratic opposition to John Bolton, President Bush's choice as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as a "smear campaign" -- apparently because Democrats have smeared the truth about Bolton's unsuitability for the job on the public record -- it reports that Republican misgivings about Bolton may doom his nomination.

With the Senate Foreign Relations Committee set to vote on the nomination on Tuesday, Republicans now fear that they might not have the votes to get Bolton out of committee and onto the Senate floor.

Human Events identifies the potential "turncoats" -- that is, the Republican Senators who might not follow the president's command -- as "[l]iberal GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee" and "presidential hopeful Sen. Chuck Hagel." Here's the Human Events warning to Hagel:

Conservatives in Washington believe that, in effect, a vote against Bolton would put an end to any hopes for higher political office that Sen. Hagel may harbor.

Shorter version: resistence is futile.

by TChris

Is the Bush adminstration harassing labor unions for their support of Democratic candidates?

The Bush administration is rapidly expanding audits of the nation's labor unions, citing a need to ferret out and deter corruption. But union leaders assert that those increased efforts are nothing more than crude political retaliation.

"It is obvious," said John J. Sweeney, the federation's president, "that the Department of Labor's assignment of 48 new staff to audit unions, starting with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., is pure political payback for the labor movement's opposition to the president's antiworker policies."

As former labor secretary Robert Reich points out, "enforcement has been cut in other areas, like occupational safety and minimum wage enforcement." Corruption in labor unions, like corporate misconduct, should be policed. Still, the administration’s sudden emphasis on an enforcement mechanism that burdens unions is suspicious given the administration’s lax enforcement of business regulations that protect employees and consumers.

by TChris

Some Republicans who care about the image of their party think Tom DeLay must go. Concerns about DeLay's unethical behavior -- or, more importantly, the publicity surrounding it -- have led to "signs of restiveness" back home. A recent poll for The Houston Chronicle showed that nearly 40 percent of voters had a lesser opinion of DeLay than they had last year.

As one might expect, the Fort Bend County Republican chair (formerly the public relations director for Enron) doesn't think Democrats will benefit from DeLay's slipping support, because the district is so heavily Republican.

But with some Republican voters siphoned off to create new districts that added to the Republican majorities in both the Texas Legislature and Congress last year, and perhaps because of Mr. DeLay's slippage as well, he garnered 55 percent of the vote last year - 53 percent in Fort Bend County - a dropoff from his share in his original district in previous years and below President Bush's 2004 majority of 57 percent in Fort Bend County.

Conservative voters who won't support a Democrat may be inclined to oust DeLay in a Republican primary.

"When a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want to have your friends around, preferably armed. So I feel really good."

Tom DeLay, KeynoteSpeaker, Annual Convention of the National Rifle Association, Houston, April 16, 2005.

Tom DeLay reportedly apologized Wednesday for his over-the-top comments about federal judges made during the Terri Schiavo case.

DeLay created a furor last month by saying that "the time will come" for federal judges who refused to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube "to answer for their behavior," and by criticizing what he called an "arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary."

If one of my clients gave this kind of apology at a sentencing, the Judge would throw the book at him:

"I said something in an inartful way, and I shouldn't have said it that way, and I apologize for saying it that way," he said. "It was taken wrong. I didn't explain it or clarify my remarks, as I'm clarifying them here. I am sorry that I said it that way, and I shouldn't have."

So he's not sorry for the content of his intemperate remarks, only for the way he phrased them. That's like saying he isn't sorry for the crime, only that he got caught.

Tom DeLay apparently doesn't care that Newt Gringrich has dropped him like a hot potato. On his website, he is still praising Newt's 1994 "Contract With Amercia." He's even comparing it to the Magna Carta. Since I wrote about the proposed legislation regularly for almost two years back in 1995 and 1996, I just can't let this pass. First, an overview:

1995 began with the inauguration of the newly Republican-dominated Congress. The first order of business for the House was to promise the passage of new laws within the first 100 days of the session, lumped together in a decorative but ill-conceived package titled "Contract With America." One of the components of the "Contract" called for the passage of "tougher" crime laws, named the "Taking Back Our Streets Act" (TBOSA), bundled within a set of ten bills.

The Contract was the brainchild of Newt Gingrich, and could best be described as a Republican Nightmare:

The AP is reporting that despite some devastating testimony against U.N. Ambassador nominee John Bolton, it appears he will be confirmed.

Bolton appeared a step closer to confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations despite scathing testimony Tuesday by a former State Department intelligence chief that he was a "serial abuser" of analysts who disagreed with his hard-line views.

A committee vote to send President Bush's nomination of Bolton, who has frequently dismissed the United Nations as irrelevant and misguided, to the full Senate could come as early as Thursday, depending on whether his Democratic foes request a few days to review State Department documents they sought to have declassified.

One witness, Carl Ford, Jr. referred to Bolton as a ""kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy."

At least one right wing blog is suggesting Sens. John Kerry and Richard Lugar blew the cover of a CIA operative referred to as "Mr. Smith" at today's Senate Hearing. The person they referred to was Fulton Armstrong.

Only Fulton Armstrong has been a publicly identified intellgence officer for years. He was the CIA's national intelligence officer for Latin America. Kerry didn't out anything. Even the story about him being forced out of the CIA has been in the media. From Salon:

Put it this way, with this White House, I see an outright pattern of bullying: Gen. Eric Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, warned that the U.S. was going to need several hundred thousand troops in Iraq, and he's attacked for that, and basically told that he doesn't know what he's talking about -- and he's fired essentially a year before he's out of that job. When it's time for him to retire, not a single senior representative of the Department of Defense or White House leadership is there for his retirement. ... There was a senior CIA analyst by the name of Fulton Armstrong who was attacked, using leaks to the press, which alleged that he was disloyal and somehow under the influence of the Cuban government. There was a prosecutor [ousted from] the Department of Justice who had warned that John Walker Lindh's father had hired a lawyer and that [the DOJ] needed to consider the Miranda rights. [emphasis supplied]

Here's his official bio from 2003.

Jenna and Barbara Bush got President Bush an iPod for his birthday. Here's what he's listening to. The White House reminds us not to "psychoanalze the playlist." Sorry, can't help it. My Sharona?

Here's more.

Tapped is the place to be today if you're looking for insight and analysis of Abramoff and Delay, or a roundup of coverage of John Bolton's senate confirmation hearing. These are just a handful of what's over there:

Cutting straight to the core of the issue, Hesiod of American Street raises a question about Mr. Bolton's double life. Atrios and Nickisthebest discuss another important symbolic issue. Only slightly less serious, Bolton's champions have their rigorous arguments rebutted by Media Matters and Thinkprogress.org.

Tom Delay is on the hot seat. Republicans have begun to backtrack and withdraw their support for the embattled Texas congressman. Chief among them: Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT):

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), one of Capitol Hill's leading conservatives, warned House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday that he needs to "lay out what he did and why he did it" if he is going to put an end to questions about his travel and dealings with lobbyists.

Another weekend critic was Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), a frequent DeLay antagonist, who said DeLay should step down. Shays told about 50 people at a town hall meeting in Greenwich on Saturday that he considers DeLay "an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party."

by TChris

A "mountain of evidence" is piling up against lobbyist Jack Abramoff in various investigations of influence-peddling and corruption. Whether the mountain will fall on top of Tom DeLay or other members of Congress remains to be seen.

Although there is no suggestion in public documents that any lawmaker is the target of a federal grand jury that is investigating Mr. Abramoff, disclosures about his lobbying activities have become embarrassing to prominent members of Congress. In recent weeks, Mr. Ney, Mr. DeLay and other lawmakers have gone on the offensive against the suggestion that their actions on Capitol Hill were influenced by foreign travel or other gifts from Mr. Abramoff.

DeLay and Ney aren't the only politicians to benefit from a cozy relationship with Abramoff.