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Newsview: Bush Gets Wins Under His Belt
After a rocky start, President Bush is scoring legislative wins that could be important tests of his ability to push laws through Congress in his second term.
While his centerpiece proposal to restructure Social Security continues to languish, Bush's close victory on a trade bill and his progress on energy and highway legislation are quieting talk that he is a lame duck already.
His nomination of conservative federal appeals court Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court also seems to be on track, despite skirmishing with Democrats over access to papers from Roberts' work as deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration.
With Washington summer vacations looming, Bush and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill were encouraged on Thursday that a few things were finally going their way — a welcome break from unrelenting bad news from Iraq and the firestorm over whether Bush aide Karl Rove helped disclose a CIA officer's identity for political purposes.
"I think they've shown themselves to be very resourceful," Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker said of the president's team and other GOP leaders. "Particularly, I think you have to credit the leadership of the House."
On Thursday, the House approved a Bush-backed energy bill loaded with $14.5 billion in tax breaks, designed to boost U.S. production. The Senate was expected to approve it on Friday and the White House said Bush — who has been urging a major change in U.S. energy policy for five years — will sign it.
The House also moved toward expected approval of a Bush-backed $286.4 billion highway and transit bill, hailed by Republicans as capable of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. A vote had been expected late Thursday but was postponed until Friday.
In his hardest-fought victory, Bush won House approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement — previously passed by the Senate — late Wednesday night, on a 217-215 vote, overcoming heavy Democratic opposition and some GOP defections. The win was achieved only after last minute dealmaking and arm twisting by Republican leaders, and a roll call held open for an hour.
While the economic impact of the pact is expected to be relatively small, the political symbolism was large. Bush lobbied vigorously, including last-minute in-person appeals on Wednesday, and portrayed the measure as central to his goal of spreading democracy and freedom to combat terrorism.
Democrats remained combative — but outmaneuvered.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California suggested Bush "expended enormous resources" to get the measure through a chamber controlled by his party, suggesting it was a "Pyrrhic victory for him," achieved at too high a cost.
The legislative victories come as Bush's job approval percentage hovers in the 40s. His rating in some polls is near the lowest levels of his presidency.
That's in spite of some positive recent developments.
The budget deficit is smaller than expected, and by most measures the U.S. economy is improving.
Ties with Europe are on the mend. North Korea is back at six-nation talks on ending its nuclear program. And China has agreed to a small revaluation in its currency after heavy Bush administration pressure.
"Bush has had some good things happen," said pollster Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "But they don't speak to the largest problems the public is having with the administration."
Topping those are the Iraq war and "continued uneasiness with economic conditions, even though the economy by the standards of economists is not all that bad," Kohut said.
Republicans are hopeful that momentum from Bush's legislative successes can carry over after the August recess to his proposal to restructure Social Security.
Polls show six in 10 Americans oppose the president's proposal to add voluntary personal investment accounts to Social Security in exchange for a reduction in guaranteed future benefits. The matter remains in committee in both House and Senate, facing solid Democratic opposition and considerable GOP skepticism.
Still, White House spokesman Scott McClellan spoke optimistically.
"We have been working closely with Congress to get things done this week," he declared.
San Francisco Chronicle ~ Associated Press - Tom Raum ** Newsview: Bush Gets Wins Under His Belt
Posted by uhyw
at 11:49 PM EDT
chatty
Judge's Reagan-Era Work Criticized
Papers Show Roberts's Conservatism, Liberal Activists Say
After sitting mostly silent for more than a week after the Supreme Court nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr., liberal activist groups and their allies in the Senate yesterday expressed growing concern about the conservative positions Roberts advocated while working as a young Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration.
Memos and other documents from Roberts's work as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith show that Roberts took positions that some of those groups regard as hostile to civil rights. The documents show that he advocated a narrow interpretation of a variety of civil rights laws, and presented a defense of congressional efforts to strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over busing, abortion and school prayer cases.
The emerging portrait of Roberts, liberal activist groups say, is not that of a dutiful advocate who was a step above the political fray, as Roberts has been described by his White House sponsors and supporters. Instead, they say, the documents reveal Roberts as an intense and ambitious partisan who appears to have been at the center of the Reagan administration's efforts to put a conservative stamp on government.
"With every passing day, it is becoming clearer that John Roberts was one of the key lieutenants in the right-wing assault on civil rights laws and precedents," said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group.
Roberts's sparse paper trail from his two years as an appeals court judge and the 22 years he spent as a lawyer, both for private clients and for the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, have made it all but impossible for activist groups to separate his personal views from those of his clients. Consequently, many have been forced to reserve judgment on his nomination. But the recent release of thousands of Justice Department documents, while covering only a small span of Roberts's work, is raising serious questions among civil rights leaders and liberal advocacy groups, which are beginning to think they may have the ammunition they need to oppose him.
"The question is: Who is John Roberts? What does he really believe?" said Theodore M. Shaw, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, during an appearance at the National Urban League convention here yesterday. "What we're finding out is troubling. I've moved from a position of neutrality to being deeply disturbed."
Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, speaking at the same forum, echoed that sentiment. He said he found the documents "to be extremely troubling. They seem to reflect the work of a deeply committed ideologue."
Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) defended Roberts, saying the memos reflect only the advocacy requested by his bosses. McConnell cautioned against trying to glean too much about Roberts's views from the documents that have been released. News reports, he said, "run the risk of simplifying complex constitutional issues beyond recognition."
While acknowledging that the memos are not conclusive, civil rights leaders and others joined with Democrats who are calling on the White House to release more documents related to Roberts's work as a government lawyer. Senate Democrats were preparing a letter yesterday requesting that the Bush administration provide legal memos Roberts wrote about 20 cases while he was principal deputy solicitor general from 1989 to 1993.
The White House has said its release Tuesday of documents from Roberts's time in the Reagan administration should be sufficient for the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court begins its new term Oct. 3.
On Capitol Hill, Roberts visited with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who emerged impressed with the nominee. "I don't see anything that's going to be disturbing" in his record, Nelson told reporters after a 30-minute meeting.
Nelson is one of the "Gang of 14," seven Republicans and seven Democrats who have agreed to oppose efforts by GOP leaders to change filibuster rules. They also signed a pact not to filibuster judicial nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances."
"I have not seen anything that rises to that level," Nelson said.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), asked if the documents suggest Roberts is not committed to civil rights, said: "I don't reach that conclusion yet, but it does certainly raise some questions in my mind." He added that the Judiciary Committee must find out whether "Judge Roberts is going to be a part of the sense of progress we have made" on civil rights or whether will he "move us back."
Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report.
The Catholic League is taking Senator Dick Durbin to task for talking out of both sides of his mouth on the subject of a judicial nominee's religious views.
Catholic League Blasts Durbin Duplicity
Today, Catholic League president William Donohue (right) criticized Sen. Dick Durbin's attack on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts:
"After Senator (R) John Cornyn (left) laid to rest on Monday any concerns that Judge Roberts would allow his religious views to affect his rulings on the bench, we thought this matter was closed. We were wrong: Senator Durbin told a CNN correspondent yesterday that he 'needs to look at everything, including the nominee's faith... .' Now match this up with what Durbin has said previously:
Speaking about questions regarding the religious beliefs of a nominee for the federal bench, Durbin said on April 15, 2005, 'By the Constitution and by law, we cannot even ask that question, nor would I.'
On June 11, 2003, Durbin took umbrage at Circuit Court nominee William Pryor when Pryor merely noted the historical relationship between Christianity and the nation's founding: 'Do you not understand,' he said, that this 'raises concerns of those who don't happen to be Christian that you are asserting an agenda of your own, religious belief of your own inconsistent with separation of church and state?'
♠ After taking flack for his remark, Durbin said on July 23, 2003 that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee ought 'to expunge references to religion from this point forward.' He added, hypocritically, 'This is beneath the dignity of the committee.'
♠ The very next day, July 24, he reversed himself, saying, 'If Senator [Jeff] Sessions is suggesting that anyone who has a religious belief should never be questioned about it, even if it has political implications, I just think [that] is wrong-headed.'
♠ On July 31, he reversed himself again, this time having the audacity to co-sponsor a resolution saying, 'It shall not be in order to ask any question of the nominee relating to the religious affiliation of the nominee.'
"Durbin's duplicity is mind-boggling. But of greater concern is his determination to force Roberts to submit to a religious test."
d'oh
Newsweek Drops Issue, Cites Poor Ad Sales
Due to low ad pages during late summer, Newsweek is trimming the number of issues it publishes by one, opting for a double issue dated Aug. 29-Sept. 5, 
silly
REPORTER VOWS TO 'KILL SELF' IF CHENEY RUNS FOR PRESIDENT
Veteran wire reporter Helen Thomas is vowing to 'kill herself' if Dick Cheney announces he is running for president.
The newspaper HILL first reported the startling claim on Thursday.
MORE
cheeky
Economic Activity Expands on Retail Sales
WASHINGTON - The economy flashed fresh signals of strength in the last two months, with factories buzzing and cash registers ka-chinging despite high gas prices.
The latest snapshot emerging from the Federal Reserve's survey of the business climate around the country, released Wednesday, suggested the economy has bounced back nicely from a springtime soft patch. The job market showed some improvements and inflation was fairly contained, the survey also found.
The picture was consistent with the assessment Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan offered last week when he delivered the central bank's midyear economic outlook to Congress.
At that time, Greenspan signaled that short-term interest rates will continue to move higher in the months ahead in an effort to keep the economy and inflation on an even keel. Economists widely expect Fed policymakers will boost rates by another quarter-percentage point at their next meeting, Aug. 9. The Fed's survey appears to support such a move.
Over the last year, the Fed has pushed a key interest rate to 3.25 percent in nine modest, quarter-point moves. Before the Fed embarked on its credit tightening, that key rate stood at 1 percent, a 46-year low.
Some analysts believe this key rate could climb as high as 4.25 percent by the end of this year.
In the survey, most of the Fed's 12 regional districts reported "moderate to solid expansions in manufacturing activity and expectations for future factory activity were generally upbeat." The survey also noted that "activity in a wide variety of manufacturing industries was characterized as strong."
Boston and San Francisco, for instance, reported strength in aircraft and high-tech manufacturing; Atlanta and Dallas said refineries were doing quite well. Several districts reported that producers of construction materials, especially cement, and industrial equipment also were busy. But makers of metals and textiles saw some weakness.
The Fed's survey is based on information collected before July 18.
Consumer spending, a key force behind economic activity, also was holding up well despite high energy prices, the survey suggested.
"Most districts reported increases in retail sales and reports on retailers' expectations were generally positive," the survey said.
Boston, however, reported sales were flat or down from a year ago, and New York said sales softened in early July, following solid growth in June.
Meanwhile, car sales in nearly all of the Fed's regions were boosted by a new round of price discounting. And, tourism continued to show strength throughout much of the country, the report said.
The housing market remained hot, but showed a "few signs of cooling" in some districts, the survey said. House activity and home price appreciation in Massachusetts moved from "hot" to "normal." In the Richmond, Atlanta and San Francisco districts housing activity stayed strong but "eased in a few markets that had been especially hot - Washington, D.C., several Florida markets and parts of southern California."
Oil prices surged to a new closing high of $61.28 a barrel in early July. Gasoline prices earlier this month set a record of $2.33 a gallon nationwide, the Energy Department reported.
Yet, inflation was contained in most Fed districts, the survey suggested.
"Overall price pressures either eased slightly or remained unchanged in most districts despite substantial increases in the cost of energy and some building materials," the report said.
Transportation firms in the Chicago, Cleveland and Dallas areas were able to pass much of their increased fuel costs to customers, the report said. "However, in a number of districts, firms outside the transportation sector were reported as having only limited success passing on cost increases."
On the employment front, demand for workers increased in most Fed districts, but New York said labor markets were a bit softer overall despite a pickup in hiring at financial services. Several districts reported stronger demand for temporary workers. Skilled workers were in shorter supply in some areas, truck drivers were reported as scarce in Cleveland, Richmond and Atlanta.
The nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent in June, the lowest level in nearly four years.
Even with the labor market improvements, wage pressures - a barometer of inflation - remained moderate, the Fed said.
Home Sales Still Rising to Records
The nation's roaring housing market set its second record in three months as sales of existing homes climbed 2.7 percent in June, to 7.33 million, according to a report released yesterday.
Low mortgage rates and strong demand drove the frenetic sales activity, which defied expectations that the market was starting to cool, at least in some of the hottest regions. The median price - half the homes sold were more expensive, half were less expensive - rose at nearly its highest annual pace in almost 25 years, 14.7 percent, to a record $219,000. It was just short of the April year-over-year advance of 15.1 percent.
The average sales price climbed 9.4 percent, to $268,000.
The report, from the National Association of Realtors, provides yet another sign that the housing market remains vibrant and is playing a big part in the nation's economic expansion. But it added to fears among some economists and policy makers that the boom might eventually turn into a bust in some locations.
The locations showing the greatest gains in prices were in the West, where the median price for the region was up 17.4 percent, and in the Northeast, where the median price rose 13.6 percent. The median price gains in the Midwest and the South were smaller, but still healthy: 12.7 percent for the Midwest and 9 percent in the South.
Existing home sales for June broke a record set in April, when 7.18 million homes traded hands. Sales fell slightly in May, to 7.14 million. Analysts had been expecting 7.15 million sales in June.
"It's fairly astounding what is going on and with rates not moving up there is no sign of it ending anytime soon," said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist for MFR Inc., an economic research firm in New York.
Low mortgage rates have been driving the market for the last few years, prompting some economists to suggest the nation is experiencing a housing bubble that will eventually burst and deal the economy a significant setback.
Nationally, median prices are 40.2 percent higher than they were in 2002. In the West and the Northeast - the regions with the greatest growth - they are up 49.9 percent and 56 percent, respectively. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage had a 5.73 percent rate last week, down from 5.98 percent a year ago, according to 
Iraqi Special Forces perform training exercises yesterday for Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Iraqi Minister of Defense Saadon al-Dulaimi. >>>>>
50,000 Iraqi insurgents dead, caught
U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed or arrested more than 50,000 Iraqi insurgents in the past seven months, a former top general who has headed repeated Pentagon assessment missions to Iraq said yesterday.
Gen. Jack Keane, a former deputy chief of staff for the Army, also said the United States has a good picture of the leadership of the vicious insurgency but less of an idea about its mid- and lower-level ranks.
"We know who they are," he told a lunch gathering sponsored by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He said the eight to 10 leaders "occasionally meet -- we've recorded that -- not just in Iraq, but in Jordan and Syria."
Gen. Keane's remarks provided a rare insight into the extent of U.S.-led operations against an insurgency that has been responsible for hundreds of deaths in the past few weeks alone.
Pentagon officials previously had been quoted as saying 15,000 to 16,000 Iraqis were in custody in Iraq, but spokesman Lawrence DiRita was unable to comment last night on the 50,000 figure offered by the general.
"I would highly doubt that anyone has a good handle on the numbers," he said. "I'm not aware of what General Keane has been told, but I know of no number that has been provided to the secretary, briefed by the commanders, or is being tracked by anyone."
Gen. Keane, noting that the numbers probably were higher now, said, "In the past six to seven months, we have killed or captured 50,000 insurgents."
The retired general has traveled to Iraq twice in uniform and twice as a civilian to assess progress there for the U.S. military. He did not explain how the number had been obtained.
A Defense Department consultant, retired Army Col. Robert Killebrew, said Gen. Keane's figure likely includes some Iraqis who were swept up in military operations and subsequently released.
"Does that mean all of them are terrorists or still being held? Probably not. It means we are making inroads, but not that we captured 50,000 terrorists," he said.
Many Iraqis feel that a number of innocent people have been caught up in military raids. A slow-moving judicial system and constant intimidation of judges means that a majority of those behind bars have not been tried, Gen. Keane said.
"There are thousands of people in jail who have a body of evidence against them -- some should be receiving death sentences, some should be in jail for life sentences," Gen. Keane said.
He noted that he did not know how large the insurgency was, but said that, in spite of the number of people imprisoned or killed, "we are still dealing with a rather formidable force out there."
He also said American commanders have found it difficult to penetrate the insurgency. Despite painstaking work undertaken to sift through thousands of interrogations and field reports, a clear picture of the midlevel structure of the insurgency was hard to see.
"We have not been able to put the mosaic together to anybody's satisfaction," Gen. Keane said.
He added that the insurgents think they could keep up the current level of violence for about 10 years, waiting out the American forces, whom they feel will eventually leave Iraq.
Jeffrey White, former head of the Regional Military Assessments Group at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Syria was a serving as a crucial conduit and safe haven for the insurgent forces.
"Syria is critical to the insurgency -- it's the closest thing they have to a foreign base," he said.
Mr. White, who now works at the Washington Institute, said the insurgency stretches from Syria through a wide swath of central Iraq, into seven of Iraq's 18 provinces. He added that the level of attacks was not likely to go down anytime soon.
"There are some 60 to 65 incidents a day; [you] can expect it to continue for six months to a year, and expect further peaks as key political events unfold," he said.
"The insurgents are a learning opponent," he added. "These people actually know what they are doing. They do not attack randomly, and they can shift across lines of operations as they deem necessary."
Schumer Confesses to Not Understanding Constitution
surprised
Youth funds diverted to liberal radio station
The Bronx News has learned, through informed sources, that the diversion of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in Co-op City to the liberal Air America Radio is at the center of the city’s probe of corruption at the local club.
The money, which was reportedly paid to Air America as a loan, was supposed to be paid back with interest, two unidentified informed sources told the News. One source added that Air America officials, led by an official of the Gloria Wise Club, agreed to help the local club by publicizing its activities.
To date, no indictments have been handed down in the New York City Department of Investigation’s ongoing probe of the Gloria Wise Club’s reported transfer of funds to Air America.
Most of the Gloria Wise Club’s programs are for the Co-op City community, but the club also runs after-school programs in the Baychester/Edenwald and Soundview areas.
At the center of the investigation, in addition to Charles Rosen, the charismatic leader of the local club for the last 15 years, is Evan Cohen, who resigned, under fire, as chairman of Air America Radio shortly after its start as an alternative to conservative talk radio.
Cohen, at the time the alleged transfers of funds from the Gloria Wise Club to Air America took place, was also the director of Development for the local boys’ and girls’ club, the News has learned.
One source told the News that $480,000 in funds from the Gloria Wise Club is involved in the city’s investigation of illegal transfer of funds from the local club.
A second unidentified source stressed that Rosen never sought to profit personally from the reported loan that the Gloria Wise Club gave to Air America. The source emphasized that Rosen’s sole motive, even if it was a bit na?ve, was to benefit the Gloria Wise Club with the interest that Air America would pay for its loan from the local club.
The city’s DOI is pursuing the probe because the Gloria Wise Club depends heavily on city funding for its operations. These funds are subject to extensive audits, as are funds received through the state and federal governments.
The Co-op City-based club, which Rosen has built into an empire in the Co-op City community, reportedly has 19 contracts and at least one grant with the city, worth a total of $9.7 million.
Over the last year, Rep. Joseph Crowley has secured two major federal grants for the Gloria Wise Club, one for a day-care program for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers and the other for the community’s NORC program for senior citizens. The grant for the program for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers was for $250,000, while the grant for the NORC program was for $99,410.
In 2003, Crowley secured a $218,500 grant for a mentoring program that the Gloria Wise Club runs.
Cohen, who is reportedly at the center of the Gloria Wise probe, is a Guam-based investors who was reportedly a key principal in the start-up of Air America, which has been billed as the liberals’ answer to conservative talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, Bob Grant, Michael Savage, and G. Gordon Liddy.
