The best defense is a good offense

Bull Moose has a good post today on the Bush Summer Offensive.

The next two months could be critical to the future of the Bush Presidency and the Republican hold on power. Since the inauguration, Bush has been falling in popularity and his agenda has stalled. His social security plan has been a dud. Divisions within the GOP have opened over social issues. Frist dropped the ball on the nuclear option. The economy seems to be mediocre and the public is fearful about future prospects.

Most importantly, the situation in Iraq has not improved since the January election. If anything, it has gotten worse. The President's standing on the domestic front has been fundamentally linked to his effectiveness as Commander in Chief. Prior to 9-11, his domestic agenda was floundering. With the war on terror receding in the public's consciousness and the Iraq war losing popular support, the President's standing is similar to the period immediately preceding that tragic day.

So what to do?

Beginning this week expect the Bushies to launch a fierce counter-offensive against the Democratic insurgents to regain control over the capital. They will move a form of social security privatization through the Senate and House. More right wing judicial nominations will be offered. A showdown is imminent over one or more Supreme Court vacancies. And Dr. Frist has much to make up for in his failing panderfest to the right.

The Moose is optimistic that the FORCE can defeat the DARK SIDE.

In another story the Washington Post reports that the GOP Worries Ethics Issue May Hurt Party in '06. Duh! do you think? On the endangered species list is Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio).

Nowhere is the impact of the ethics issue clearer than here in the Appalachian hills of eastern Ohio, where a thicket of weekly newspapers now gives regular coverage to revelations about House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) and his ties to DeLay and Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist now under criminal and congressional investigation for the tens of millions of dollars in fees he and a partner collected from casino-owning Indian tribes.

Ney is known as "the mayor of Capitol Hill," where his committee controls perks that include BlackBerrys, modular furniture and parking spaces. He is a conservative who has thrived in a blue-collar Democratic district, through gestures such as personally giving tours of the Capitol to 5,000 constituents' children each spring. With his warm relations with other lawmakers in both parties and his mastery of the nooks and crannies of the institution, he has been considered a strong contender to move up the House leadership ladder.

Now, all of that is in jeopardy. Ney, 51, has hired a criminal lawyer and is preparing for a grueling inquiry by the House ethics committee. His name also appears frequently in e-mails being studied by investigators at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is looking into lobbyists' dealings with gambling-enriched tribes.

Ney's constituents are paying attention and they don't like what they see.

In the strip malls and along the Cumberland Road where Model T's once caravanned west, Ney's constituents said that they have been shocked by the revelations and that they are starting to wonder whether he is really who they thought he was. Joseph E. Wagner, 60, a Republican and owner of a sports club, has always voted for Ney and recently shook the congressman's hand at a National Rifle Association banquet. But now he is disappointed.

"I'm beginning to think they just ought to bomb every politician out there," Wagner said over a scrambled-egg breakfast at the TeeJay's diner in Zanesville, in the Ohio Valley west of Pittsburgh. "He's just gotten completely out of control. He just got involved with the wrong people."

Polls have shown that Tom Delay himself has some problems in his district. He saw his margin of victory drop from 70% to 58% in 2004. Recent polls show he now has less than a 50% approval rating. Other high ranking Republicans on the endangered list are:

• Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.)
• Tom Feeney (R-Fla.)
• Charles H. Taylor (R-N.C.)