Think Progress

Under the Radar

ETHICS -- WHITE HOUSE REDISCOVERS CONSTITUTION, ACKNOWLEDGES CONGRESS HAS OVERSIGHT ROLE: Last month, the White House adopted talking points that reflected a truly radical interpretation of the Constitution: Congress has no oversight responsibility over the White House. White House spokesman Tony Snow repeatedly claimed that "Congress doesn't have any legitimate oversight and responsibilities to the White House," in response to congressional requests for President Bush's aides to testify concerning their role in the U.S. attorney purge. Spokeswoman Dana Perino echoed Snow, asserting, "The Congress does not have oversight over the White House." But yesterday, when asked about a recently passed subpoena on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Perino reversed her position: "We understand that the Congress has a role to play, which is oversight over the executive branch. I believe that this administration has been responsive to Congress, as we've worked with the new majorities as well, that we've been responsive." The claim that Congress has no oversight responsibilities is false. As the Congressional Research Service states in its Congressional Oversight Manual, "The Constitution grants Congress extensive authority to oversee and investigate executive branch activities." As for the White House's reversal today, it may well be a coordinated political decision. But it seems just as likely that Congress's oversight responsibilities are so astoundingly obvious that Perino simply forgot her month-old talking points and said what she actually believes to be true.

ENVIRONMENT -- WOLFOWITZ APPOINTEE DOCTORED WORLD BANK CLIMATE CHANGE REPORTS: Juan Jose Daboub, a strong advocate of the Iraq war, was rewarded with a managing director post when Paul Wolfowitz took over the World Bank. In that role, Daboub has come under heavy criticism from the Bank's executive directors for pushing a hard-right agenda in stark contrast to many of the Bank's long-standing policies. In addition to his efforts to undermine family planning policies, Bank scientists are now disclosing that Daboub also tried to eliminate references to climate change in official reports. "Robert Watson, the chief scientist, said Mr Daboub tried to dilute references to climate change in the Clean Energy Investment Framework," one of the bank's key strategy papers. Watson and two other bank officials noted, "He tried to water it down. He tried to take out references to climate change." "My inference was that the words 'climate change' to him implied human-induced climate change and he still thought it was a theory and was not proved yet," Watson added. Daboub's efforts at the Bank are strikingly similar to efforts by Philip Cooney, the former chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Handwritten notes on drafts of several climate reports issued in 2002 and 2003 showed Cooney repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming.

IRAQ -- BUSH ADMINISTRATION EXCLUDES BOMBING ATTACKS IN CASUALTY COUNTS: In an interview with PBS's Charlie Rose on Tuesday, President Bush discussed what an "acceptable level of violence" would be in Iraq. When pushed by Rose on whether it was possible to create zero violence in Iraq, Bush retorted that "if the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory." He added later that people who "judge the administration's [escalation] plan" based on such acts of violence "have just given Al Qaeda or any other extremist a significant victories [sic]." Bush said that these images of brutal violence on television are "one of the problems I face in trying to convince the American people" that the war is worthwhile. One reason Bush is hesitant to talk about suicide bombings is because they have increased 30 percent over the past six weeks despite the escalation, according to U.S. military data. The administration clearly considers the rash of suicide bombings in Iraq to be a public relations problem. Perhaps, in response, it has been intentionally underreporting the toll bomb attacks are having on the Iraqi population. McClatchy reported yesterday that "car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of addition U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims." Experts contend that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the "surge" is protecting Iraqi civilians. "Since the administration keeps saying that failure is not an option, they are redefining success in a way that suits them," said Jeames Denselow, an Iraq specialist at Chatham House.

Think Fast

28 percent: President Bush's approval rating in a new Harris survey, the lowest of his presidency.

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a congressional committee" and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order. "I am more than happy to answer them again in a letter," she told reporters.

"White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity," the White House acknowledged yesterday.

"The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay," proposing "new limits on the lawyers' contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases."

"The White House has turned over to a House committee about 200 pages of documents" related to a suspicious contract it had with a company owned by Brent Wilkes, who pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA). 

"In a somber and wide-ranging assessment," Britain's top counterterrorism officer Peter Clarke said that Al Qaeda and its supporters have established "an inexorable trend towards more ambitious and more destructive attack planning." "The only sensible assumption is that we shall be attacked again."

"Escalating his campaign to remain president of the World Bank, Paul D. Wolfowitz accused the bank's board on Wednesday of treating him 'shabbily and unfairly,' and appealed for more time to defend himself against allegations of favoritism and other matters."

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) said yesterday "that the Bush administration and Republicans are not doing enough politically in Iraq." Brownback said after meeting with Vice President Cheney and others last week, "They have a strategy, and it's dominated by military and Maliki."

And finally: A state lawmaker in Utah "has submitted a resolution equating illegal immigration to 'Satan's plan to destroy the U.S. by stealth invasion' for debate." The resolution refers to a plan by the devil for a "New World Order...as predicted in the Scriptures." State Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble (R) said, "I don't think you'll find much support for that sentiment."