Despite widespread support, rocker Bono didn't want the job of chief of the World Bank. He suggested Colin Powell. Some criticized that idea because Powell would not be passionate enough in his support for the needy in Africa. The World Bank is the world's largest provider of aid to developing nations.

Bush today nominated Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for the position. How is he qualified? Where is his humanitarian spirit? What an awful choice. This will do nothing for "Brand America" but sink it further.

by TChris

Tom DeLay's meltdown continues.

And for the first time, a significant number of Republicans have begun to question DeLay's political survival. Frets a senior G.O.P. Congressman about the odor surrounding DeLay: "It just isn't going away."

CNN today recounts DeLay's ethical lapses, his coziness with lobbyists, and his mounting legal problems before asking the question: Will DeLay survive? (CNN's answer, quickly summarized: "Probably, but it depends.")

After the debacle over the ethics rules, more than a few House members say they can ill afford to put their necks out much farther for DeLay. And their support could erode further--and quickly--if they start hearing complaints about DeLay from their constituents at home. ... A more ominous sign for DeLay: those who might succeed him have begun quietly positioning themselves to make a move if the opportunity arises, sources say.

by TChris

Access to information held by the federal government has become tougher to obtain in recent years, according to an Associated Press review.

The locations of stores and restaurants that have received recalled meat, the names of detainees held by the U.S. overseas and details about Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 energy policy task force are all among the records that the government isn't sharing with the public.

The FBI, always stingy with information, gave Freedom of Information Act requesters "everything they asked for just 1 percent of the time in 2004, compared to 5 percent in 1998." The percentage of requests granted by the CIA dropped from 44 percent to 12 percent in the same period.

In addition to decreasing some types of information released under FOIA, the federal government is increasing the number of documents deemed secret and has pulled thousands of documents and databases off public Web sites.

The administration contends that the new restrictions are necessary for public safety. Yet an open government also keeps us safe by making it more difficult for our public officials and employees to behave abusively.

by TChris

Tom DeLay incurred legal bills last year of $370,000 -- an impressive figure for a man who hasn't yet been indicted.

The fees were divided among lawyers in Washington and Mr. DeLay's home state of Texas, where he is facing scrutiny by a grand jury in Austin over his role in the creation and management of Texans for a Republican Majority, the political action committee that he helped establish in 2001. The committee has been accused of funneling illegal corporate donations to state Republican candidates in the 2002 elections.

The bills were paid by the Tom DeLay Legal Expense Trust with funds donated by (among others) Republican members of Congress and corporations. The corporate donors include two businesses that contributed to Texans for a Republican Majority.

Among the corporate donors to the defense fund is Bacardi U.S.A., the Florida-based rum maker, which has also been indicted in the Texas investigation, and Reliant Energy, another major contributor to a Texas political action committee formed by Mr. DeLay that is the focus of the criminal inquiry. Groups seeking an overhaul of Congressional ethics rules have long complained that companies might seek the favor of powerful lawmakers by contributing to their legal defense funds.

Other corporate donors include Coors Brewing, Exxon Mobil, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Bell South, and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines.

by TChris

The House of Representatives is unable to conduct ethics investigations of its members -- a result certain to delight some Republican representatives, but one that should be disturbing to the public.

The 10-member ethics committee -- five Democrats and five Republicans -- deadlocked late on Thursday on a vote to adopt new Republican rules that would make it tougher to launch an ethics investigation. A majority is needed to adopt the rules.

The full House approved the revision in January "after Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas was admonished by the ethics panel on three separate matters in 2004." The change would require a majority of the committee to vote in favor of an investigation, permitting an ethics complaint to die if the committee votes along party lines. Republicans, concerned that more ethics complaints might be made against DeLay, have worked to assure that impropriety goes uninvestigated.

President Bush is in Memphis, staying at the Peabody Hotel. He's there to present his speech, "Conversation on Strengthening Social Security" at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts. We received word there's been some trouble, including shootings, in the area. (Note: this is unverified.)

“We're just getting local news reports of a shooter in the area of the Peabody Hotel where Bush is spending the night. From the TV reports and visuals, it looks like most of the police cruisers in Memphis are on the site! They've caught the man with the gun and there's an ambulance across the street from the hotel, but the reporters don't know the extent of the injuries of a police officer. This is probably not connected to the Bush visit because no secret service men appear to be at the scene (probably snoozing away in their rooms). If anything significant materializes, I'll let you all know. The rally tomorrow seems to be building momentum - I just got an email notice about it from MoveOn.”

Protests have been scheduled by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

University of Colorado President Elizabeth (Betsy) Hoffman has resigned. The principal reason was the football recruiting scandal. Was Ward Churchill a contributing factor? I agree with Instapundit, who says:

A lot of readers think that the Ward Churchill angle has been downplayed, but I really don't think it had much to do with her resignation -- the football scandal is bigger, has been fermenting longer, and much more directly implicated the University Administration. Churchill certainly didn't help, and it's possible that he was the straw that broke the camel's back, but I really think that the football scandal was the main mover here.

Colorado Pols offers another reason: The Regents were tired of Hoffman's demand for more money.

by TChris

President Bush today nominated John Bolton, a frequent critic of United Nations policies, to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Bolton's nomination, which must be confirmed by the Senate, shocked diplomats at the United Nations.

Bolton is described as a man "who rarely muffles his views in diplomatic nuance," making him an odd choice for a diplomatic position.

Bolton presently serves as Undersecretary of State. The Senate confirmed his appointment to that job in May 2001.

In a measure of the partisan hackles Bolton has raised in the past, the Senate confirmed him to his current post by 57-43, with all the votes in opposition coming from Democrats.

Joltin' Joe, it may be time for you to go. You've moved from Republican Lite to Bushite.

In recent weeks, [Joe Lieberman] has angered Democratic activists nationwide for expressing a willingness to work with President Bush to change Social Security. Critics say that is just his latest act of disloyalty to the party. He already had supported the war in Iraq and Mr. Bush's cabinet choices - and received a televised presidential smooch at the State of the Union address.

...Their disappointment with Mr. Lieberman illustrates the difficulty of trying to be a centrist in an increasingly polarized political climate. Mr. Lieberman has gone from a possible Democratic heir apparent to a presidential primary footnote in 2004 to the conspicuous odd man out in his own Senate party caucus.

The Times reports Lieberman is laughing off the criticism. He still has the support of his constitutency. If I had to make an educated guess, I say that the attacks on Lieberman are about to begin. He will see a drop in his support. He will see a challenger. He will get jolted out of his complacency -- and his notion that he can vote his own beliefs over those of his constituents and the Democratic Party. This is not about right or left. Social Security is about the core values of the Democratic party, values Joe Lieberman has abandoned.

by TChris

CBS gave conservative analyst Norman Ornstein a chance to talk about Tom DeLay. Here's his take:

"Republicans in the house are worried that this could be a huge flameout for Tom DeLay," says Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and a recent critic of Tom DeLay. ... "Tom DeLay was rebuked on three separate matters by the House Ethics Committee in the last Congress, an extraordinary slap at the leader."

"But they left open pending a fourth issue, which was the Ronnie Earle case in Texas. So what did the House Republicans do? They fire the chairman of the Ethics Committee. They removed two members." And two of the replacements had contributed to DeLay’s legal defense fund. Adds Ornstein: "They want a group of people on the House Ethics Committee who are going to go to extraordinary lengths to keep Tom DeLay from going down or being embarrassed yet again, which embarrasses them all, they believe, with what’s been going on down in Texas."

CBS explores "what's been going on down in Texas" in the linked article.

by TChris

What are the family values we hear so much about? Do they encompass any values beyond conservative opposition to abortion and gay marriage? Two articles in today's New York Times broaden the debate.

The group Take Back Your Time favors legislation that would require employers to give employees paid time off to care for a sick child. Says John de Graaf, its national coordinator:

"This is completely about family values. People need time to have strong marriages, strong families and strong communities. When people don't have enough time, families can break down."

A different take on family values comes from black ministers who oppose the "Black Contract with America on Moral Values," a pledge that highlights opposition to gay marriage and abortion as top priorities. The leaders of four black Baptist conventions set aside their differences to reach a concensus on other moral issues of concern to their 15 million parishoners.

At the end of their four-day session, the ministers called for an end to the war in Iraq and withdrawal of American troops. They declared their opposition to the confirmation of Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general. They stated their opposition to making the president's tax cuts permanent, and warned that reductions in spending on children's health care programs would be "immoral."

by TChris

Poverty and social injustice are key causes of crime. Education should be the leveling force that helps disadvantaged individuals overcome those obstacles. That's why it's tragic to read accounts of public education like this one, written by Rich Halvorson, a teacher of ninth grade world history in Miami, as his students were being tested.

Just calling attendance, any illusions about "integrated" public schools are wiped away. My class was typical for the school -- 29 black students, three Latinos and one white. Once the test began and the students were quiet, we heard the intermittent traffic of rats scampering through the air ducts. ... How can it be that tens of millions of young Americans attend dilapidated schools often lacking basic sanitation, qualified teachers and up-to-date textbooks?