HIGH LEVEL CLOSETED GAY REPUBLICANS AT ODDS OVER GOP PROSPECTS IN NOVEMBER... + EVERYTHING ELSE THAT BROKE IN THE NEWS WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS

As Karl Rove minces his way across the country-- in between Grand Jury appearances-- comforting the Republicans' distraught radical-right homophobic base, he has to counter what today's NY TIMES refers to as "The prospect of the administration spending its last two years being grilled by angry Democrats under the heat of partisan klieg lights." But Rove confidently tells the base that this isn't going to happen "because they're not going to win." Maybe he and Diebold have already figured it all out (again) but he certainly hasn't told another high level closeted gay mincing hither and thither to talk to distraught right-wingers.

Ken Mehlman, Bush's very gay/somewhat closeted-- sort of like Dave Dreier (R-CA) and Mark Foley (R-FL) but unlike Rove and Jim McCrery (R-LA) who are super-closeted-- RNC Chairperson, threw a little party in Colorado for the Republican Party state chairmen over the weekend. And he was definitely the skunk at his own shindig. Although it was sparsely attended, the increasingly hysterical and desperate Mehlman told those who were there that the Republicans would lose seats in November-- everywhere and at every level. "Would lose seats," not "might lose seats" or "could lose seats unless"... just would lose seats.

Mehlman, who is usually known around RNC Headquarters as "Miss Optimistic," had already told congressional Republicans last week that he was expecting as many as 45 seats to be lost in November. When word got out, Miss Optimistic has a real tizzy fit and ran around tearing his hair out until he found a GOP propaganda shill who would allow him to contradict himself. But even the shill wrote that "High-level party sources close to Mehlman estimate the GOP loss could be 25 seats under a worst-case scenario," more than enough to give the Democrats the control they need to curb the Bush Regime's rampant criminality. (The shill didn't put in that last part.)

Today's USA TODAY reports that Bush's already dismal approve rating are rapidly sinking towards the 20's-- only 31% of Americans (including Mormons) are still confused enough to claim he's doing a decent job. "Historically it's been pretty devastating to presidents at this level," according to University of Wisconsin political scientist Charles Franklin. Even Republican members of Congress are "now so worried about their electoral fortunes in November that he has less leverage with them than he normally would with his own party controlling Congress."

And although that USA TODAY poll comes from the non-partisan Gallup organization, even Republican Party pollsters are freaking out about how rapidly and steadily Bush's approval ratings continue to spiral downward. Yesterday's WASHINGTON POST ran a story that would lead one to believe that it's just about all over for the Bush Regime other than the pomp and circumstances... and more grand jury investigations and, eventually, trials.


Although the Republican pollster insists, weakly, that Bush is still around 36% approval, Lance Tarrance acknowledges that "by and large, if you want to be tough about it, the relevancy of this administration on policy may be over." A chief architect of the Republicans' 1960s and '70s Southern strategy, he told a gathering of journalists and political wonks last week that the recent Regime shake-ups were an attempt to jump-start Bush's stumbling presidency and boost his pathetic approval ratings, but that those efforts are, basically, too little, too late to salvage anything.

"Tarrance said it would be extremely difficult for any president to bounce back this late in his administration and reassert influence on Capitol Hill when his approval rating barely exceeds his party's base support and half of all adults surveyed said they 'strongly disapprove' of his performance. An overwhelming 73 percent of independents disapprove of Bush's performance, and two-thirds of those 'strongly disapprove.' The new poll of 1,003 adults was conducted April 27-30 (after Bush had picked a new chief of staff, budget director and press secretary) and was released at a conference sponsored by the Cook Political Report. It contains plenty of other bad news for Bush and the Republican Party, and suggests that the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war may be turning this year's midterm congressional elections from local to national issues. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they would like to see the Democrats back in control of Congress, while 37 percent want Republicans to remain in charge. The war looms large as a concern of voters, the poll shows, along with jobs, health care, gas prices and immigration... Thirty percent of those surveyed said they will vote for a candidate for Congress specifically to express opposition to Bush, while 16 percent said they will vote for a candidate to express their support for the president. Half said Bush will not be a factor in their voting."

And just in case anyone has forgotten the Republican Culture of Corruption, yet another high-level GOP staffer, Abramoff associate/Ney chief of staff Neil Volz is pleading guilty today to "conspiracy charges stemming from his work on Capitol Hill and the lobbying practice he joined after leaving Ney's office." Immediately after leaving Ney's office.

"The purpose of the conspiracy was for defendant Volz and his co-conspirators to unjustly enrich themselves by corruptly receiving, while public officials, and providing, while lobbyists, a stream of things of value with the intent to influence and reward official acts and attempting to influence members of Congress in violation of the law," according to a criminal information filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington. Every single case that has come up involving criminal conspiracy and bribery has involved Ney. I wonder if Zach Space is home shopping in the D.C. area yet.