THE PROGRESS REPORT
by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney,
Mipe Okunseinde and Christy Harvey
July 20, 2005
ENERGY
Winners And Losers
PLAMEGATE
'S' Is For Secret (Not Share)
UNITED NATIONS
Don't Forget About John Bolton
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print
ENERGY
Winners And Losers
This afternoon, members of Congress will meet -- again -- to try to hash out differences over comprehensive energy legislation. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) is charged with shepherding two competing bills into a single energy plan. The emerging bill sacrifices strong American energy policy in order to throw expensive favors at powerful industry friends. Here are some of the winners and losers:
POLLUTERS WIN: One of the major sticking points in the energy bill is ongoing controversy over the gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). A powerful pollutant which causes cancer in high doses, MTBE has already seeped into the nation's water supply; it has been detected "in 1,861 water systems in 29 states serving 45 million Americans." The corporations which manufacture MTBE refuse to clean the water their product has dirtied, forcing states to sue them to take responsibility. The Senate bill refuses to protect the polluters from cleaning up their mess. Thanks to Rep. Barton, however, the House energy bill shields polluters by waiving all MTBE liability lawsuits, leading to the current standoff.
OIL COMPANIES WIN: Both the House and the Senate bills provide billions of dollars for the oil industry for oil-drilling research. The House bill, for example, provides $2 billion for oil-drilling research the companies are already doing anyway and $125 million to reimburse oil and gas companies for 115% of the costs of "remediating, reclaiming and closing orphaned wells." These lavish supplements come at a time when oil companies are raking in record profits (Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, for example, "both reported huge increases in first-quarter income" this year). That money is going straight into CEO pockets as profit; as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, the average compensation of oil and gas executives last year was $16.5 million – a 109.1% increase from the year before and the highest of all the other industries profiled. The LA Times opines, "Such giveaways to a fully mature and outrageously prosperous industry are egregious when juxtaposed with the first federal education budget cuts in a decade."
ENERGY SECURITY LOSES: The Senate adopted an amendment which would require 10% of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources -- like wind and solar power -- by 2020. Rep. Barton, however, is opposing such a measure. Both the House and the Senate also ignored Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) efforts to close the so-called "SUV loophole," a move which would have required SUVs to conform to the national auto fuel economy standards. Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-IL) attempt to insert a provision that would "require a nearly 50 percent increase in automobile fuel economy to a fleet average of 40 miles per gallon over the next decade" was also shot down. Just this week, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) both tried to get their colleagues to accept more modest increases to fuel economy; neither succeeded. And the Senate's provision directing the President to reduce America's oil dependency by a million barrels per day by 2015 - the only language in either bill that required oil savings - is notably absent from the conference report.
AMERICAN PEOPLE LOSE: Both the House and Senate acknowledge their bills will "do nothing in the short term to drive down high gasoline and other energy prices or significantly reduce America's growing reliance on foreign oil." Even worse, a 2004 analysis by the administration's Energy Information Administration found that the Bush-backed energy bill would even raise gas prices and increase oil demand nearly 14 percent by 2010 (click here for our ideas on how to respond to high prices at the pump). And despite the serious consequences of global warming, neither bill contained mandatory limits on greenhouse gas pollution.
BARTON WINS: It's plain Rep. Barton knows on which side his bread is buttered. Corporate energy interests have lined his pockets with more than $1.5 million over the past decade. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, since 1993 the oil and gas industries have given Barton more than $750,000. Electrical companies have given him nearly $700,000. An additional $40,000 came from miscellaneous energy interests.
PLAMEGATE
'S' Is For Secret (Not Share)
That didn't take long. The CIA leak scandal has already made its return to the front pages after a one-day respite, throwing a wrench in the reported White House strategy to push Plamegate out of the public eye by rushing their Supreme Court nomination. Adding new details to yesterday's Wall Street Journal article, the Washington Post reports this morning that a "classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked '(S)' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified." But wasn't Plame, as Rove's defenders say, just a desk jockey at Langley? No. "The CIA classifies as 'secret' the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials."
WHY THE MEMO MATTERS: The State Department memo in question has become a "key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation" because it is thought to have been the way "someone in the White House learned -- and then leaked -- the information that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and played a role in sending him on the mission." Previous reports have also indicated that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald subpoenaed phone records from Air Force One -- where the memo was first seen by many administration officials -- to "determine whether presidential aides used the aircraft's phones to leak the name of a CIA employee to reporters."
WHY THE NEW REVELATIONS MATTER: For weeks, Karl Rove's attorney Robert Luskin has insisted that his client "never knowingly disclosed classified information." Yet we now know that "[a]nyone reading [the paragraph in the memo that mentions Plame] should have been aware that it contained secret information," as the Post reports. Thus, the memo's details are significant because they "make it harder for officials who saw the document to claim that they didn't realize the identity of the CIA officer was a sensitive matter." The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that "Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, may also be looking at whether other crimes -- such as perjury, obstruction of justice or leaking classified information -- were committed."
NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS: Also in this morning's Post, Rove's lawyer insists that Rove first saw the State Department memo from individuals from the special prosecutor's office. "He had not seen it or heard about it before that time," Luskin said. Yet, in some respects, it doesn't matter whether Rove learned of Plame's identity from the State Department memo (and so knew for certain that information regarding her role in the Niger trip was classified). Administration officials who are given the national security clearance to receive classified information are required to sign the "Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement," also known as the "SF 312." In other words, Rove not only had a duty not to disclose classified information, but he also had an affirmative duty prior to "confirm through an authorized official that [Plame's identity had], in fact, been declassified."
IT ALL COMES BACK TO IRAQ: One other new fact unearthed in today's Post report is that the State Department, like the Iraq war hawks within the White House, also opposed Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger. But unlike the hawks, the State Department opposed the trip because their own investigations "already had disproved the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger" in February 2002. That's nearly a year before President Bush tried to terrify the American people by including that claim in his State of the Union speech.
UNITED NATIONS
Don't Forget About John Bolton
While the nomination of John Roberts to be the next Supreme Court justice is the main topic of discussion, let's not forget another Bush nominee who continues to deserve thoughtful consideration. The appointment of John Bolton to become the next ambassador to the United Nations remains in limbo because the White House refuses to comply with Senators' requests for information. Rumors continue to be bandied about suggesting that President Bush will bypass the Senate temporarily and name Bolton to a recess appointment. The Washington Post reported that Bolton has said he would "take a recess" appointment. The White House, though, continues to insist that Bolton be given an up-or-down vote without releasing information both on his involvement in altering intelligence assessments of Syria and the reasons for why he requested the identities of 10 different U.S. officials through secret National Security communication intercepts. Should the White House act hastily to push Bolton through, they may destroy the good will of the Senate in acting on Roberts' nomination.
BOLTON RECESS APPOINTMENT MAY AFFECT SUPREME COURT NOMINATION: A White House reporter recently suggested to Press Secretary Scott McClellan that if the White House pursues a recess appointment on Bolton, "that would probably anger people on the Hill, which could affect the Supreme Court nomination." McClellan responded, "The president continues to believe that John Bolton ought to have an up-or-down vote. That remains our position." He added, "I wouldn't necessarily connect the two [nominations]." The White House is putting Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in a difficult position by insisting he push for another vote on Bolton. The White House said it "stands ready to help in any way Senator Frist asks for it." Should the White House successfully persuade Frist to call for another vote without first disclosing the requested information, First may end up undermining his own call for a Supreme Court nomination process that "is marked by cooperation – not confrontation -- and by steady progress."
A NEW QUESTION FOR BOLTON: WHAT ROLE DID HE PLAY IN PREPARING CLASSIFIED STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT?: The Washington Post reports today that a classified State Department report has become the central focus of the federal investigation into who leaked the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. Because Plame worked in the nonproliferation unit at the CIA, it is likely that the classified State Department report identifying her would have been seen by the top official at the State Department on arms proliferation issues. That would have been John Bolton -- the Undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security. Did Bolton help draft the report and did he play any role in disseminating it?
Under the Radar
IRAQ -- MAJORITY OF SOLDIERS REPORT LOW MORALE: A recent Army report finds that morale remains low among troops in Iraq, especially those in the National Guard and reserve units, with over half of soldiers rating their unit's morale as low to very low. According to the report, the most troubling factor for the soldiers is the length of required stay in Iraq. At the beginning of the war, most were deployed for six months but now they are required to stay for an entire year. Furthermore, 13% of soldiers screened positive for a mental health problem. The report recommends the Army reconsider whether National Guard and reserve troops are receiving adequate training and combat skills. These results come in the wake of criticisms that the Bush Administration is inadequately prepared to care for veterans returning from the war.
MILITARY -- AGE IS NO FACTOR WHEN IT COMES TO WAR: Attempting to slip by unnoticed, the Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to increase the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service. Currently, the law states that the maximum age to enlist in an active component is 35, while individuals up to 39 years old may enlist in the reserves. The Pentagon's request to increase the maximum age is part of a package that officials are calling "urgent wartime support initiatives." In addition, the plan looks to revise a number of benefit proposals already before Congress. Commenting on the Pentagon's request, Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AK) noted the current difficulties facing the armed forces: "Recruitment is a challenge right now," Snyder said. "Both the military and Congress are working on solutions, but I expect these challenges will be with us for some time."
CIVIL RIGHTS -- CANADA LEGALIZES SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: On Tuesday of this week, Canada became the fourth country to legalize gay marriages, granting full legal rights to same-sex couples. Currently, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain are the only other countries which grant such rights. Canada's law comes after years of court battles and political debates. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin stated that "despite anyone's personal beliefs, all Canadians should be granted the same rights to marriage." The U.S. government continues to refuse to acknowledge same-sex marriages, and most states will not accept a wedding certificate from gay or lesbian couples, regardless of where they wed.
ECONOMY -- CHINA ENDS DECADE-OLD PEG TO DOLLAR: China announced this week that it would revalue its currency, the yuan, by 2.1%, thus ending its decade-old peg against the dollar. The decision comes in the wake of months of both market and political pressure. The central bank announced that the yuan would now be linked to a basket of currencies from China's main trading partners; a move that it said would improve the running of the economy and give more play to market forces. Beijing has been under strong pressure from a number of trading partners, including the United States, who said that the yuan's peg to the dollar undervalued the currency and gave China an unfair advantage in the world economy.
POLITICS -- THE NEW PRINCE IN TOWN: Bandar Bin Sultan, the Saudi Arabian envoy who famously earned the nickname "Bandar Bush" for his close ties to the President's family, stepped down yesterday as Ambassador to the United States, citing "personal reasons." He will be replaced by Prince Turki bin al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and former current ambassador to Britain. But Turki, a more reticent man than the swashbuckling Bandar, should not come without concerns: he was known in Saudi Arabia for contacts with Al Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, and was even named in a lawsuit following 9/11. While an unnamed American official says Turki has "gotten out of that business," his history should prompt the US to take a hard look at the new man in Washington.
CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE RIGHT-WING QUOTE OF THE DAY: Commenting on the left's opposition to President Bush's Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) observed, "It's a little bit like biblical Pharisees, you know, who basically are always trying to undermine Jesus Christ."
Mipe Okunseinde and Christy Harvey
July 20, 2005
ENERGY
Winners And Losers
PLAMEGATE
'S' Is For Secret (Not Share)
UNITED NATIONS
Don't Forget About John Bolton
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print
ENERGY
Winners And Losers
This afternoon, members of Congress will meet -- again -- to try to hash out differences over comprehensive energy legislation. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) is charged with shepherding two competing bills into a single energy plan. The emerging bill sacrifices strong American energy policy in order to throw expensive favors at powerful industry friends. Here are some of the winners and losers:
POLLUTERS WIN: One of the major sticking points in the energy bill is ongoing controversy over the gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). A powerful pollutant which causes cancer in high doses, MTBE has already seeped into the nation's water supply; it has been detected "in 1,861 water systems in 29 states serving 45 million Americans." The corporations which manufacture MTBE refuse to clean the water their product has dirtied, forcing states to sue them to take responsibility. The Senate bill refuses to protect the polluters from cleaning up their mess. Thanks to Rep. Barton, however, the House energy bill shields polluters by waiving all MTBE liability lawsuits, leading to the current standoff.
OIL COMPANIES WIN: Both the House and the Senate bills provide billions of dollars for the oil industry for oil-drilling research. The House bill, for example, provides $2 billion for oil-drilling research the companies are already doing anyway and $125 million to reimburse oil and gas companies for 115% of the costs of "remediating, reclaiming and closing orphaned wells." These lavish supplements come at a time when oil companies are raking in record profits (Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, for example, "both reported huge increases in first-quarter income" this year). That money is going straight into CEO pockets as profit; as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, the average compensation of oil and gas executives last year was $16.5 million – a 109.1% increase from the year before and the highest of all the other industries profiled. The LA Times opines, "Such giveaways to a fully mature and outrageously prosperous industry are egregious when juxtaposed with the first federal education budget cuts in a decade."
ENERGY SECURITY LOSES: The Senate adopted an amendment which would require 10% of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources -- like wind and solar power -- by 2020. Rep. Barton, however, is opposing such a measure. Both the House and the Senate also ignored Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) efforts to close the so-called "SUV loophole," a move which would have required SUVs to conform to the national auto fuel economy standards. Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-IL) attempt to insert a provision that would "require a nearly 50 percent increase in automobile fuel economy to a fleet average of 40 miles per gallon over the next decade" was also shot down. Just this week, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) both tried to get their colleagues to accept more modest increases to fuel economy; neither succeeded. And the Senate's provision directing the President to reduce America's oil dependency by a million barrels per day by 2015 - the only language in either bill that required oil savings - is notably absent from the conference report.
AMERICAN PEOPLE LOSE: Both the House and Senate acknowledge their bills will "do nothing in the short term to drive down high gasoline and other energy prices or significantly reduce America's growing reliance on foreign oil." Even worse, a 2004 analysis by the administration's Energy Information Administration found that the Bush-backed energy bill would even raise gas prices and increase oil demand nearly 14 percent by 2010 (click here for our ideas on how to respond to high prices at the pump). And despite the serious consequences of global warming, neither bill contained mandatory limits on greenhouse gas pollution.
BARTON WINS: It's plain Rep. Barton knows on which side his bread is buttered. Corporate energy interests have lined his pockets with more than $1.5 million over the past decade. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, since 1993 the oil and gas industries have given Barton more than $750,000. Electrical companies have given him nearly $700,000. An additional $40,000 came from miscellaneous energy interests.
PLAMEGATE
'S' Is For Secret (Not Share)
That didn't take long. The CIA leak scandal has already made its return to the front pages after a one-day respite, throwing a wrench in the reported White House strategy to push Plamegate out of the public eye by rushing their Supreme Court nomination. Adding new details to yesterday's Wall Street Journal article, the Washington Post reports this morning that a "classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked '(S)' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified." But wasn't Plame, as Rove's defenders say, just a desk jockey at Langley? No. "The CIA classifies as 'secret' the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials."
WHY THE MEMO MATTERS: The State Department memo in question has become a "key piece of evidence in the CIA leak investigation" because it is thought to have been the way "someone in the White House learned -- and then leaked -- the information that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and played a role in sending him on the mission." Previous reports have also indicated that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald subpoenaed phone records from Air Force One -- where the memo was first seen by many administration officials -- to "determine whether presidential aides used the aircraft's phones to leak the name of a CIA employee to reporters."
WHY THE NEW REVELATIONS MATTER: For weeks, Karl Rove's attorney Robert Luskin has insisted that his client "never knowingly disclosed classified information." Yet we now know that "[a]nyone reading [the paragraph in the memo that mentions Plame] should have been aware that it contained secret information," as the Post reports. Thus, the memo's details are significant because they "make it harder for officials who saw the document to claim that they didn't realize the identity of the CIA officer was a sensitive matter." The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that "Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, may also be looking at whether other crimes -- such as perjury, obstruction of justice or leaking classified information -- were committed."
NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS: Also in this morning's Post, Rove's lawyer insists that Rove first saw the State Department memo from individuals from the special prosecutor's office. "He had not seen it or heard about it before that time," Luskin said. Yet, in some respects, it doesn't matter whether Rove learned of Plame's identity from the State Department memo (and so knew for certain that information regarding her role in the Niger trip was classified). Administration officials who are given the national security clearance to receive classified information are required to sign the "Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement," also known as the "SF 312." In other words, Rove not only had a duty not to disclose classified information, but he also had an affirmative duty prior to "confirm through an authorized official that [Plame's identity had], in fact, been declassified."
IT ALL COMES BACK TO IRAQ: One other new fact unearthed in today's Post report is that the State Department, like the Iraq war hawks within the White House, also opposed Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger. But unlike the hawks, the State Department opposed the trip because their own investigations "already had disproved the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger" in February 2002. That's nearly a year before President Bush tried to terrify the American people by including that claim in his State of the Union speech.
UNITED NATIONS
Don't Forget About John Bolton
While the nomination of John Roberts to be the next Supreme Court justice is the main topic of discussion, let's not forget another Bush nominee who continues to deserve thoughtful consideration. The appointment of John Bolton to become the next ambassador to the United Nations remains in limbo because the White House refuses to comply with Senators' requests for information. Rumors continue to be bandied about suggesting that President Bush will bypass the Senate temporarily and name Bolton to a recess appointment. The Washington Post reported that Bolton has said he would "take a recess" appointment. The White House, though, continues to insist that Bolton be given an up-or-down vote without releasing information both on his involvement in altering intelligence assessments of Syria and the reasons for why he requested the identities of 10 different U.S. officials through secret National Security communication intercepts. Should the White House act hastily to push Bolton through, they may destroy the good will of the Senate in acting on Roberts' nomination.
BOLTON RECESS APPOINTMENT MAY AFFECT SUPREME COURT NOMINATION: A White House reporter recently suggested to Press Secretary Scott McClellan that if the White House pursues a recess appointment on Bolton, "that would probably anger people on the Hill, which could affect the Supreme Court nomination." McClellan responded, "The president continues to believe that John Bolton ought to have an up-or-down vote. That remains our position." He added, "I wouldn't necessarily connect the two [nominations]." The White House is putting Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in a difficult position by insisting he push for another vote on Bolton. The White House said it "stands ready to help in any way Senator Frist asks for it." Should the White House successfully persuade Frist to call for another vote without first disclosing the requested information, First may end up undermining his own call for a Supreme Court nomination process that "is marked by cooperation – not confrontation -- and by steady progress."
A NEW QUESTION FOR BOLTON: WHAT ROLE DID HE PLAY IN PREPARING CLASSIFIED STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT?: The Washington Post reports today that a classified State Department report has become the central focus of the federal investigation into who leaked the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. Because Plame worked in the nonproliferation unit at the CIA, it is likely that the classified State Department report identifying her would have been seen by the top official at the State Department on arms proliferation issues. That would have been John Bolton -- the Undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security. Did Bolton help draft the report and did he play any role in disseminating it?
Under the Radar
IRAQ -- MAJORITY OF SOLDIERS REPORT LOW MORALE: A recent Army report finds that morale remains low among troops in Iraq, especially those in the National Guard and reserve units, with over half of soldiers rating their unit's morale as low to very low. According to the report, the most troubling factor for the soldiers is the length of required stay in Iraq. At the beginning of the war, most were deployed for six months but now they are required to stay for an entire year. Furthermore, 13% of soldiers screened positive for a mental health problem. The report recommends the Army reconsider whether National Guard and reserve troops are receiving adequate training and combat skills. These results come in the wake of criticisms that the Bush Administration is inadequately prepared to care for veterans returning from the war.
MILITARY -- AGE IS NO FACTOR WHEN IT COMES TO WAR: Attempting to slip by unnoticed, the Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to increase the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service. Currently, the law states that the maximum age to enlist in an active component is 35, while individuals up to 39 years old may enlist in the reserves. The Pentagon's request to increase the maximum age is part of a package that officials are calling "urgent wartime support initiatives." In addition, the plan looks to revise a number of benefit proposals already before Congress. Commenting on the Pentagon's request, Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AK) noted the current difficulties facing the armed forces: "Recruitment is a challenge right now," Snyder said. "Both the military and Congress are working on solutions, but I expect these challenges will be with us for some time."
CIVIL RIGHTS -- CANADA LEGALIZES SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: On Tuesday of this week, Canada became the fourth country to legalize gay marriages, granting full legal rights to same-sex couples. Currently, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain are the only other countries which grant such rights. Canada's law comes after years of court battles and political debates. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin stated that "despite anyone's personal beliefs, all Canadians should be granted the same rights to marriage." The U.S. government continues to refuse to acknowledge same-sex marriages, and most states will not accept a wedding certificate from gay or lesbian couples, regardless of where they wed.
ECONOMY -- CHINA ENDS DECADE-OLD PEG TO DOLLAR: China announced this week that it would revalue its currency, the yuan, by 2.1%, thus ending its decade-old peg against the dollar. The decision comes in the wake of months of both market and political pressure. The central bank announced that the yuan would now be linked to a basket of currencies from China's main trading partners; a move that it said would improve the running of the economy and give more play to market forces. Beijing has been under strong pressure from a number of trading partners, including the United States, who said that the yuan's peg to the dollar undervalued the currency and gave China an unfair advantage in the world economy.
POLITICS -- THE NEW PRINCE IN TOWN: Bandar Bin Sultan, the Saudi Arabian envoy who famously earned the nickname "Bandar Bush" for his close ties to the President's family, stepped down yesterday as Ambassador to the United States, citing "personal reasons." He will be replaced by Prince Turki bin al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and former current ambassador to Britain. But Turki, a more reticent man than the swashbuckling Bandar, should not come without concerns: he was known in Saudi Arabia for contacts with Al Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, and was even named in a lawsuit following 9/11. While an unnamed American official says Turki has "gotten out of that business," his history should prompt the US to take a hard look at the new man in Washington.
CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE RIGHT-WING QUOTE OF THE DAY: Commenting on the left's opposition to President Bush's Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) observed, "It's a little bit like biblical Pharisees, you know, who basically are always trying to undermine Jesus Christ."
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