Just POlitics

Wolfowitz head of World Bank?

Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. deputy secretary of defense, has emerged as a leading candidate to replace James Wolfensohn as the president of the World Bank.

Leadership of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund is decided by all the shareholders in the institutions. But the U.S. and Europe in effect divide up the top jobs, with an American heading the bank and a European running the fund.

EMILY’s List must comply

A federal judge ordered Emily’s list that it must comply with restriction on soft money. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied a request by EMILY's List for a preliminary injunction against Federal Election Commission regulations that took effect Jan. 1. The judge wrote that EMILY's List failed to show it would be irreparably harmed if the rules remained in effect.

The new rules restrict spending by groups that collect both "soft money" - corporate, union and unlimited donations - and "hard money," limited donations from individuals. Hard money can be spent on such things as direct support for specific congressional and presidential candidates. The federal law imposes a broad ban on the use of soft money in specific congressional and presidential races.

The new FEC regulations require such groups to use hard money to cover at least half the cost of their overhead, nonpartisan voter drives and ads, phone banks and mailings that refer to a federal candidate.

Judicial showdown

William Myers, a former Interior Department lawyer whose nomination had already been thwarted in the Senate, will be the first test of whether Sen. Arlen Specter can move judicial nominees. Specter is starting with Myers because he believes that he can get Democrat votes to confirm him.

However, you would not know that from the Democrat rhetoric.

"I believe Mr. Myers to be the most anti-environment nominee sent to the Senate in my time here," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said during the confirmation hearing on Myers' nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Your record screams 'passionate activist.' It doesn't even whisper 'impartial judge,'" Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Myers.

America is waiting and watching as to what will happen.

White House going to the mattresses

The White House has set up a war room in the Treasury Department. This is an excerpt from Washington Post story on the subject:

The Treasury Department yesterday announced the formation of a Social Security "war room" and the hiring of three full-time employees to help coordinate and refine the administration's message on the issue. The war room, which the administration is calling the Social Security Information Center, will track lawmakers' remarks to their local news outlets, to help the White House detect signs of Republican concern or Democratic compromise.

The White House wants movement on the issue in the next six weeks.

 Syria still in hot water

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier today continued to put pressure on Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon to ensure that there will be free and fair elections. They also jointly continued to put pressure on Syria to ensure that there would be a full and complete investigation of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. That investigation can only offer further embarrassment to Syria.

The heat remains on despite Syria’s handing over Iraqi terrorists that they had been harboring in their country.

Norton/Norquist group investigated

The Hill reports on the continuing investigation of Jack Abramoff and all that he is connected with:

An interagency criminal task force investigating former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has subpoenaed a Republican group founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and now run by her former aides, sources with knowledge of the investigation say.

The subpoena was issued to the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), a nonprofit group created in 1997 by Norton and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and long denounced by environmental organizations as a front group for industry interests.

Nine vulnerable Democrats

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has released the list of vulnerable Representatives and they are:

Melissa Bean (Ill.)

Leonard Boswell (Iowa)

Chet Edwards (Texas)

Stephanie Herseth (S.D.)

Brian Higgins (N.Y.)

Jim Matheson (Utah)

Charlie Melancon (La.)

Dennis Moore (Kan.)

John Salazar (Colo.)

The following Congressmen could be added to the list:

Tim Bishop (N.Y.)

Lincoln Davis (Tenn.)

Tim Holden (Pa.)

Darleen Hooley (Ore.)

Paul Kanjorksi (Pa.)

Rick Larsen (Wash.)

Mike Michaud (Maine)

Earl Pomeroy (N.D.)

Buddies Badmouthing Dan Rather

The St. Louis Dispatch is carrying a story on Dan Rather’s supposed pals:

THE VULTURES CIRCLE: Even Dan Rather’s friends at CBS News are bad-mouthing him. The new issue of The New Yorker features a piece in which the anchorman’s colleagues get downright nasty. Samples:

Old buddy Mike Wallace calls Rather “uptight and occasionally contrived.”

Dear friend Andy Rooney says Rather takes his act on the road so often because he’s ashamed of anchoring — “a dumb job.”

Treasured buddy Walter Cronkite says he long ago switched his television to NBC to escape from Rather’s “showboating.”

Personal pal Don Hewitt prefers ABC to Rather’s show these days. He says, “If you’re in a three-network race and you come in third, the public is against you.”

Wead tapes on pause

Tapes of President Bush that were secretly recorded by Doug Wead and released to the media now are in the possession of the president's private attorney, the White House said Tuesday.

"It's a matter that we consider closed at this point," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Poll Watching

New USA Today/Gallup Poll: Avid poll watchers should visit this site.