LIBBY-- IT ALL STARTED WITH IRAQ AND IT'S STILL INEXORABLY INTERTWINED

A couple days ago someone e-mailed me that Cheney's job approval rating had dropped to 13%. Looks like Paris Hilton has finally beaten him (not to mention Dan Quayle). And that 13% is probably very similar to the 13% that the Gallup Poll reported today thinks Bush did the right thing by commuting the sentence of Irving Libby (AKA- "Scooter"), one of Cheney's most venal henchmen. That doesn't mean that 87% think Scooter should be rotting in prison until he tells the Feds who gave the orders to expose an active duty CIA agent. Only 66% think that. A hard core bunch of extremists-- the ultimate end of the line base of Bush-Cheney support that will never ever ever waiver no matter what further hideous calamities they cause our nation-- 6%-- says that Bush should have granted Scooter a full pardon. Time to play the terror card and see if they can scare everyone someone into some more Bushism?

Bush and Cheney have worn out their welcome among the American people but the Republican congressional leaders, at least for now, are sticking with the Rove Agenda: Obstruction, Obstruction, Obstruction. This morning's Washington Post lays out their plans-- and the discomfort those plans are causing members who have to face angry voters next year, especially members from moderate (non-Confederate) districts in the Northeast, Midwest and the West.

Facing crumbling support for the war among their own members, Senate Republican leaders yesterday sought to block bipartisan efforts to force a change in the American military mission in Iraq.
But the GOP leadership's use of a parliamentary tactic requiring at least 60 votes to pass any war legislation only encouraged the growing number of Republican dissenters to rally and seek new ways to force President Bush's hand. They are weighing a series of proposals that would change the troops' mission from combat to counterterrorism, border protection and the training of Iraqi security forces.

Susan Collins, a right-wing Republican who has completely supported the Bush-Cheney agenda in Iraq at every step of the way but who calls herself a moderate (as do the editors of the Washington Post), is working with reactionary Democrat-- another Bush-Cheney supporter-- to craft some kind of legislation that will look good back home-- especially in anti-war Maine-- but won't hamper Bush's occupation agenda. Collins is also supporting another reactionary, pro-war Democrat, Ken Salazar, in his efforts to craft a fake bill that looks good on the TV news but won't do anything. Salazar's bill could have been written by Cheney for how "anti-war" it is. Republicans are flocking to it, of course.