Bush selects AG candidate

Politico.com reports that Bush has nominated Michael B. Mukasey, a former federal judge appointed by Reagan, for Attorney General.

“The White House seems like they don’t want a confirmation fight,” said a Republican close to the selection process. “They think this guy is bulletproof from the left.”

Adding a note of caution, the official said, “They want to make sure there’s not a Harriet Miers rebellion from the right,” referring to a Bush Supreme Court choice whose nomination was later withdrawn.

That’s the way it is for lame ducks, nobody may like whom you choose.

From Wikipedia,

In June 2003, Democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer submitted Mukasey’s name, along with four other Republicans or Republican appointees, as a suggestion for President George W. Bush to consider for nomination to the Supreme Court. On the March 18, 2007, episode of Meet the Press, Schumer again suggested Mukasey as a potential Attorney General nominee who, “by [his] reputation and character, shows that [he] put rule of law first.”

Seems harmless enough, but time will tell. You know this is just the beginning.

Get in line

Is there book writer who has been in or had contact with this administration that hasn’t been critical? Alan Greenspan’s is the latest.

The former Fed chair said he urged Bush to veto a string of “out-of-control” spending bills, but to no avail. He was told the president wanted to avoid antagonizing Republican political leadership.

“To my mind, Bush’s collaborate-don’t-confront approach was a major mistake — it cost the nation a check-and-balance mechanism essential to fiscal discipline,” Greenspan said.

Not that I’m opposed to throwing a shot across the administration’s bow occasionally.

And I believe, and many conservatives would agree with me, that Greenspan is right. With a Republican Congress, there should have been no reason for spending to run amok as it did (and still does).

Dems Try to Choose Bush’s Attorney General

From RealClearPolitics, we see that the Democrats aren’t too excited about some of the possible picks for Attorney General.

I may not like it, Mr. Cass may not like it, but these are some of the things that have to be dealt with when the opposing party is in power and the President has less than a year left.

Revisiting Moyers

Updating last week’s post on Moyers’ comment on Rove’s retirement. One commenter pointed me to this post on Moyers’ blog. Then there was this post by the ombudsman, who appears to not have that great a relationship with Moyers.

I’m not sure now what information Moyers used in his characterization of Rove as an agnostic. For my part it still doesn’t matter, although claiming to be a Christian while in actuality being agnostic would be a little more serious, Rove was an advisor not an office holder. We’ve already read about cynicism in the White House toward the Christian right, so who cares?

By the way, you can see what caused all the commotion here.

Gonzales resigns

OK, back to real news.

Alberto Gonzales has reportedly resigned as Attorney General.

Among those being mentioned as a possible successor were Christopher Cox, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a former congressman; Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security who is a former federal judge; and Larry Thompson, a former deputy attorney general.

The Journal Sentinel’s NewsWatch says that Cedarburg native Paul Clement will be named the interim U.S. attorney general once Gonzales makes his resignation official, a senior administration official said Monday.

They also give a link to his bio. Here are links to Cox, Chertoff and Thompson.

I had mixed feelings about Gonzales. He seemed like a good man, but, like many in this administration, seemed to court Congress and American public displeasure.

My thoughts exactly

From The Queen of All Evil:

The Turd Blossom resigned. Where will I get my marching orders without Karl Rove to issue them?

Yes, I’ll miss my emails from Karl, telling me what to write. It’ll probably be the same as when I can’t listen to Charlie, or Rush, or Belling, I hardly know what to believe that day.

From the comments of the above post, one of our Kos friends (?) posted 5 Reasons Rove is Resigning. I didn’t go for most of them, I admit, but I did think this one was funny,

4. He’s joining another campaign
I hear John McCain has some openings.

I think he and McCain would be great friends, don’t you?

His posting at Kos has a poll.

Economy growth is best in a year

From Yahoo! News:

The economy snapped out of a lethargic spell and grew at a 3.4 percent pace in the second quarter, the strongest showing in more than a year. A revival in business spending was a main force behind the energized performance.

Inflation — outside a burst in energy and food prices — moderated.

However, consumers, whose spending largely prevented the economy from stalling out in the first three months of this year, lost energy in the second quarter. They boosted spending at a pace of just 1.3 percent, the smallest since the final quarter of 2005.

Still, a solid jobs climate — the nation’s unemployment rate is at a relatively low 4.5 percent — should help cushion some of these negative forces.

But then comes the amazing fact that,

Even with the steady employment climate and the economic rebound, President Bush continues to shoulder weak public-approval ratings for his economic stewardship. Only 37 percent approve of his performance, close to a record low, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll.

A wicked good economy and only 37 approve of Bush’s economic performance? Makes me think something else is at work here.

Like polls are a poor barometer of, well, anything.

Great minds think alike?

Cartoon by Stuart Carlson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Cartoon by Mike Thompson, Copley

Interesting, no?

Opposing Bush

In conjunction with my last post, I feel compelled to express my increasing frustration with the administration. In an article looking at the juggling act Bush has to do to appeal to independents, the Los Angeles Times articulated some of those. The lack of leadership on the Iraq War. “Stay the course” only goes so far. The American people need some kind of timeline like we got with elections and [rest of the post is lost]

Opposing Harriet Miers

I gave the administration the benefit of the doubt, I think. I was supportive; I felt Bush knew the nominee and she would make a good Justice. At the very least, I was neutral, wanting to see what came out in the hearings.

But now I must say that I oppose the Miers nomination.

This nomination has been handled at the best poorly and at the worst with incompetence. News in the past week has highlighted how Miers was vetted by few in the administration and that there are feelers of a Miers pullout. There was also the sloppy answer to the question on equal representation, senators’ rejection as inadequate her answers to a questionaire, and the cessation of Senate visits after reports of saying something to a senator and then clarifying it later, usually with a completely opposite meaning.

This comes on the heels of the stumbling start and “bones” thrown to the social conservatives to reassure them that Miers would vote “the right way.”

It’s just too much anymore.