Real Kato Blog: Quick Hits

A few political tidbits; none of it should be a surprise to anyone.

Bush is getting heat for playing up Harriet Miers' religious beliefs to defend her Supreme Court nomination. Worried about a rebellion by Christian conservatives, and trying to quell conservative discontent over not picking a clearly far-right nominee, Bush said, "People ask me why I picked Harriet Miers. They want to know Harriet Miers' background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion." It's notable that Bush specifically did not want to talk about John Roberts' religion during his confirmation process. (Roberts is a Catholic.)

I'm beginning to think the Miers nomination might be dead in the water.

The United States ignored forecasts of post-war problems in Iraq, prior to going to war. The CIA had predicted ethnic turmoil and an lengthy insurgency, but the Bush administration paid little attention to those predictions. They also seemed to conveniently ignore the reports that there were no connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and the impact the war would have on the oil markets (all assessments that turned out to be correct). Instead, the administration focused on the one thing that was wrong in the report: the shaky assertion that Iraq had WMDs.

Is anyone surprised by this by now? Are there still people who don't believe Bush was beating the drums of war with insufficient justification, out of some personal or political motive?

Bush's approval rating is at 39%.

Bill Frist has been subpoenaed to turn over personal records involving stock transactions, as part of an investigation over possible insider trading. Dirty Bill. Dirty, dirty. So much for that Presidential run.

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