(Cont'd) What Did the President Know?

Rosenbaum quoted that statement without comment, a far cry from Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press, who was there when Mrs. Bush first used that line in March. Loven at the time called Mrs. Bush's appearance a gimmick: "After all, the grandchildren in the wealthy Bush family are unlikely to depend on Social Security in their sunset years and the monthly Social Security check collected by Mrs. Bush's husband, the former President Bush, is undoubtedly only a minuscule portion of their retirement income."

Here's the transcript of Bush's "conversation on senior Security."
The Path to the Supreme Court Nomination

Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post: "Much of Bush's selection process remains opaque, guarded jealously by aides who refuse to disclose many details even now that it is over. But interviews with dozens of administration officials, outside White House advisers, Republican strategists and others close to the process peel back at least some of the shroud and reveal a process that took several unexpected twists and turns for a White House that prides itself on order and discipline."

Among the delicious details: Cheney interviewed all of the finalists. And: "At a black-tie dinner for the visiting prime minister of India in the White House State Dining Room [the night before Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s nomination was announced], Card ran into Justice Clarence Thomas. 'You're going to love who the president picks,' Card assured him."

Charles Lane writes in The Washington Post that last week, the White House told news organizations that had reported Roberts's membership in the Federalist Society that he had no memory of belonging. But now it turns out that Roberts's name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory.

Rick Klein writes in the Boston Globe: "The White House signaled yesterday that it does not intend to release documents produced by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. during his service in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, setting up a clash with Democrats who are insisting that internal memos prepared by Roberts be released for lawmakers to review."

Timothy Noah asks on Slate: "What belittling nickname will President Bush give his new Supreme Court nominee?" He's taking nominations.
The Administration and the Fury

Emily Wagster Pettus writes for the Associated Press: "A scathing parody that likens President Bush to the 'idiot' in William Faulkner's novel 'The Sound and the Fury' has won this year's Faulkner write-alike contest -- and touched off a literary spat.

"Organizers of the Faux Faulkner competition are accusing Hemispheres, the United Airlines magazine that has sponsored the contest for six years, of playing politics by not putting Sam Apple's 'The Administration and the Fury' in its print edition -- only on its Web site. . . .

"The story portrays President Bush in the role of Benjy, the mentally challenged son -- or, as Faulkner himself said, the 'idiot' -- in his 1929 novel about the wreckage of a Southern family."

Here's the parody , as published in Slate in February, and in which Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepare Bush for a news conference.

An excerpt:

" 'Go and get him Saddam's gun,' Condi said. 'You know how he likes to hold it.'

"Dick went to my desk drawer and took out Saddam s gun. He gave it to me, and it was hot in my hands. Rummy pulled the gun away.

" 'Do you want him carrying a gun into the press conference?' Rummy said. " 'Can't you think any better than he can?' "
Brilliant!

So was the Roberts nomination moved up in an attempt to distract from the CIA leak scandal? And did it fail?

Howard Kurtz asked the National Review's Byron York for his thoughts.

"Just shows you the president's brilliance," York said with a big smile. "Roberts is not taking the heat off Rove; Rove is taking the heat off Roberts. And now we don't have the Supreme Court controversy which we thought we were going to have."
Angry Bush Jokes

Matt Alexander puts forth some new Bush jokes in McSweeney's -- although he acknowledges that some of them "seem gratuitous and mean-spirited."
© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/07/25/BL2005072500724_pf.html
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CIA leak inquiry probes delay
San Francisco Chronicle, United States - 10 hours ago
Washington -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday that he spoke with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card immediately after learning that the ...
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