Justin's Thursday Political News 04.19.07
Posted by Justin Baragona on 04.19.2007
I am currently under the weather due to some bad food. I therefore am recognizing my one year anniversary at 411Mania a week early.
Well, today is Thursday and it is time for another edition of Justin's Thursday Political News. Unfortunately, I have come down with a slight case of food poisoning and have been pretty much useless all day. What that means is I will not be able to give you a very good news column. However, next week represents ny one year anniversary writing for 411Mania. So, I will go ahead and repost my very first column from April 27th, 2006. Also, I am providing some links below to check out some of the biggest news stories of the past few days. I will be back next week, hopefully feeling much better, and give you some much needed news and commentary (especially in regards to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the President's law banning 'partial birth' abortions.) So, go ahead and read below and see what the political landscape was like at this time last year.
Hello all. My name is Justin Baragona and I'm a new political news writer to 411Mania. Currently, I live in St. Louis, work in mortgage banking and am 30 years old. There, enough about me personally, let's get to the business of reviewing news in the realm of politics over the past few days, shall we?
On Monday, a CNN poll gave Bush an approval rating of 32 percent. In April 2005, Bush's approval rating was 48 percent, according the same poll. This mirrors other polls in recent days which show the president's popularity lagging. The Pew Center poll which was done from April 7-16 had Bush at a 35 percent approval, while last week's Fox News poll was showing him at 33 percent. Other numbers shown from the CNN poll have 40 percent agreeing that Bush is ‘honest and trustworthy', 47 percent stating that he is ‘competent' and 46 percent saying yes that the president can be described as a ‘strong and decisive leader.' The CNN poll also asked Americans if gas prices were causing them a hardship and the vast majority (69 percent) were in agreement.
Apparently, ol' Dubya was paying attention to the polls, as on Tuesday the President delayed adding deposits to the national oil reserves and asked the EPA to temporarily ease clean air regulations to allow for less ethanol to be added to some of the summer's gasoline supply. He also ordered a federal investigation into possible price gouging as well as illegal manipulation of the gasoline market. Finally, he emphasized conservation from the population while pushing his energy plan where he also stated that we need to increase domestic production of oil, promote fuel efficiency and develop alternative sources of energy. The part of this ‘energy plan' to pay attention to most, in my opinion, is the increase of domestic oil production. It is no secret that the Bush Administration, as well as many other conservatives in Congress, have been pushing hard to get drilling started in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. Look for a much harder sell of this in Congress, especially if gas prices continue to rise or at least remain as high as they are now.
Where the president's poll numbers plummet, the GOP's are not far behind. It should be very interesting to see how much the Republican members of Congress separate themselves from Bush in the coming weeks and months with the November elections creeping up. Right now, the poll has voters going 50 percent for Democrats and 40 percent Republican, with 6 percent undecided. It should be pointed out that these numbers have been pretty much the same over the past 8 months. Will the Democrats actually take advantage of this come the mid-terms? Can the Democrats actually capture the House and/or Senate? Is it still possible that Karl Rove can right the sinking ship and steer the Republicans to victory come November, allowing them to hold onto Congress (Well, for all our sakes, I hope not.)?
Speaking of Rove, the shakeup in the President's Cabinet continues, as Scott McLellan resigned as Press Secretary and Karl Rove's position was redefined, so to say. Rove will now focus on strategy solely and no longer handle any policy decision making as deputy chief of staff. (I would go ahead and remark that this is probably not a demotion for him, as the sagging poll numbers for the President has caused collateral damage to the GOP and Rove is needed to help devise a plan of action for the upcoming campaigns.) This all comes after Chief of Staff Andy Card was let go in favor of Josh Bolten and amid calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down by numerous retired generals. Bush has come to Rummy's defense numerous times the past couple of weeks (remember the recent quote, ‘I'm the decider.'), but with all the changes in the White House recently and the country's increased disapproval with the War in Iraq, can Rumsfeld's days actually be numbered? It would seem inconceivable due to his loyalty to the President as well as the talk growing about a possible military action in Iran, but Bush may look to throw him under the bus if his approval rating continues to approach Watergate-era Nixon.
Back to McLellan, his job has been filled by Fox News political analyst and anchor Tony Snow. Tony was a speechwriter for Bush's dad back in 1991 and he has been very supportive of the Bush Administration in his commentary, so it seems like a natural fit. In the past few years, he has gone out of his way to advance numerous falsehoods to support decisions made by the President, or policy that Bush would like to carry out (link to Media Matters article, possibly 2). According to sources, Josh Bolten approached him several weeks ago for the position, so it is pretty obvious now that Scott McLellan didn't exactly resign. This move also helps lend credence to the feeling of many out there that Fox News and the White House are in bed together. Be prepared to see the press corps finally energize and take Snow to task more than they have over the past 5 years against Ari Fleischer and McLellan, due to his visibility with Fox. Also, be ready to hear the phrase ‘Snow Job' ad nausea.
The last story I'd like to highlight is the accusation from a former CIA official that the Bush Administration ignored intelligence that indicated that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and did not have an active nuclear weapons program in the lead up to the war.
Tyler Drumheller, who at one time was the highest ranking CIA officer in Europe, told CBS this past Sunday that the White House chose to ignore information gathered from Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri. Apparently, Bush, Cheney and company were very excited to learn that the CIA had obtained info from Sabri. However, once they found out he was stating that Iraq had no stockpiles of WMD's or any programs in the works, there was no longer any interest, per Drumheller. He quoted the White House as saying, ‘Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.' Mr. Drumheller charges that the policy was already set and that the Bush Administration was only looking for intelligence that fit their agenda and ignoring that which did not.
Obviously, Drumheller is upset with the insistent claims by the White House that they were given faulty intelligence, and feels that he needs to set the record straight. He wants to point out that the Bush Administration has politicized intelligence gathering, looking to cherry-pick intelligence and information to fit into their agenda, and dismissing information that doesn't fit. He is not the first one to make this charge, nor will he be the last. While the Senate Intelligence Committee report issued in July 2004 and the Silberman-Robb Commission, which was appointed by the President, found no evidence that there was political pressure to skew the intelligence community's findings, neither of these reports addressed how the White House made its case for war, either. Democrats have been trying to get the committee to make a second part of their report detailing how the President and his staff used the intelligence to make their case for war, and not just how the intelligence was gathered.
Well, that's it for today. I will be back next Thursday to go over the next week's news in the realm of politics. Have a great weekend!
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