Ever wonder what's in it for the ultra-rich who raise oodles of cash for presidential campaigns? In President Bush's case, 1/3 of his top fundraisers, meaning those that raised over $100,000 have been appointed to prestigious positions.

One-third of President Bush's top 2000 fund-raisers or their spouses were appointed to positions in his first administration, from ambassadorships in Europe to seats on policy-setting boards, an Associated Press review found.

The perks for 246 "pioneers" who raised at least $100,000 also included overnight stays at the White House and Camp David, parties at the White House and Bush's Texas ranch, state dinners with world leaders and overseas travel with U.S. delegations to the Olympics and other events, the review found.

Here's some numbers:

Sen. Arlen Specter today won the support of Republicans to chair the Judiciary committee. It's a done deal.

Specter promised to do his best to stop Democrats from blocking more of Bush's nominees. In the last four years, Democrats have been successful in halting 10 judicial nominees through threats of a filibuster, while allowing more than 200 to be confirmed.

"I have already registered my opposition to the filibuster and will use my best efforts to stop any future filibusters," Specter said. "It is my hope and expectation that we can avoid" future gridlock with next year's 55-45 Republican Senate majority.

Bottom line: A chastened Specter is better than the alternatives, which likely would have been Hatch (by extending his term) or going with the next in line, Jon Kyl.

Update: The New York Times profiles Harriet Miers .

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President Bush yesterday named his long time advisor and former personal lawyer Harriet Miers as White House Counsel. She will replace Alberto Gonzales.

I served with Ms. Miers on the Martindale Hubbell-Lexis Nexis Legal Advisory Board for a few years. She resigned in 2000. I didn't get to know her well, but I liked her. We only talked law, not politics, but I'm betting she will be very different from, and a big improvement over, Alberto Gonzales.

Congratulations, Harriet.

So you thought Republicans were the party advocating limited government spending and fiscal responsibility? Think again. The Republican-dominated Senate voted today for to increase our federal debt by $800 billion.

The bill, if approved by the House in a vote expected on Thursday, would authorize the third big increase in the federal borrowing since President Bush took office in 2001. Federal debt has ballooned by $1.4 trillion over the past four years, to $7.4 trillion, and the new ceiling would allow borrowing to reach $8.2 trillion.

With no end in sight to the huge annual budget deficits, which hit a record of $412 billion this year, lawmakers predicted on Wednesday that the new ceiling would probably have to be raised again in about a year.

Democrats opposed the measure.

by TChris

Bump and Update: Rule change approved.

Rules are made to be broken ... or at least changed, when they become inconvenient. And so we hear of Republican threats to change the time-honored Senate rule that permits the minority party to thwart the majority's overreaching by resorting to a filibuster -- Republican threats that are unwarranted, as explained here.

And now we hear of a proposed change of rules in the House.

House Republicans plan to change their rules in order to allow members indicted by state prosecutors to remain in a leadership post, a move designed to benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, GOP leaders said today.

Of course, the rule was adopted by House Republicans in response to Dan Rostenkowski's misbehavior, but hey, he was a Democrat. The rule is no longer convenient for Republicans, so it's gotta go.

Outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft gave a farewell address Monday to the International Association of Police Chiefs. He told them America was safer from terrorists and violent criminals. The next day, the Association responded: Baloney, they said.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) said that cuts by the administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever to public safety threats. The 20,000-member group also said in a statement that new anti-terrorism duties for local cops - which have come as state and local budgets have declined and historically low crime rates have crept upward - have pushed police agencies to "the breaking point."

Among other things, members of the chiefs' group have long complained about localities having to pay millions of dollars in overtime costs when the U.S. government issued terrorism alerts. The group also is annoyed that President Bush (news - web sites) is phasing out a $10 billion program begun by the Clinton administration in 1996 to help local departments hire tens of thousands more cops.

IACP President Joseph Polisar, the police chief in Garden Grove, Calif., said hundreds of police officer jobs have been lost across the nation during the past four years. And proposed cuts in federal aid in the 2005 budget could reach almost $1 billion, threatening hundreds more, the chief said.

You can fool some people some of the time....[link via Raw Story.]

CIA Chief Porter Goss sent out a memo telling employees to get on the Bush bandwagon...he warned of more firings to come. Our earlier thoughts that CIA staff were revolting against Goss may have been inaccurate -- this sounds much more like a purge.

Update: CNN reports the CIA denies Goss told workers to back Bush.

Looks to us like Tom DeLay is about to get indicted. Why? Because, as TChris wrote earlier, the Republicans are moving for a rule change. Wednesday's Washington Post says:

House Republicans proposed changing their rules last night to allow members indicted by state grand juries to remain in a leadership post, a move that would benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, according to GOP leaders.

The proposed rule change, which several leaders predicted would win approval at a closed meeting today, comes as House Republicans return to Washington feeling indebted to DeLay for the slightly enhanced majority they won in this month's elections. DeLay led an aggressive redistricting effort in Texas last year that resulted in five Democratic House members retiring or losing reelection. It also triggered a grand jury inquiry into fundraising efforts related to the state legislature's redistricting actions.

It now looks like Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) will graduate to Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee after all. He received some key Republican backing Tuesday.

We think now that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the current chair, has given his blessing, it is all but a done deal.

White House officials are telling Fox News that Bush has decided on Condi Rice to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State.

Update: The Washington Post says the appointment of Rice as Secretary of State is a cementing of the hawkish approach to foreign policy endorsed by Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Our question: If Cheney resigns for health reasons, will Bush appoint Rice as VP?

President Bush has selected Ken Mehlman to head up the RNC. Mehlman was Bush's campaign manager and is a protege of Karl Rove.

There has been speculation in the media that Mehlman, who is 37 and single, is gay. He won't say.

When asked if he was gay last week, Mehlman hung up the phone. Deputy communications director Steve Schmidt, reached by telephone, asserted that Mehlman was not gay but refused to say so on the record.

AmericaBlog asks:

Secretary of State Colin Powell has submitted his resignation to President Bush. So have Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Powell is expected to leave when Bush names a successor. He could leave in January. The names under consideration so far: Condi Rice and U.N. Ambassador John Danforth.

Update: Reuters reports Condi Rice is the White House favorite replacement candidate.