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My guess is that most liberals will be conflicted as this issue develops; antidiscrimination is an article of faith, but they don't want a yodeling Republican cowboy in the White House.

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And in the Salt Lake City market, which takes in the whole state of Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming, "Desperate Housewives" is fourth, after two editions of "C.S.I." and NBC's "E.R."; Mr. Bush rolled up 72.6 percent of the vote there.

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"He made everyone believe in him, that he wasn't the typical politician, and he's just like everyone else."

Hat tip:Christiana

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental—men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost.

All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H.L. Mencken
The Baltimore Sun
July 26, 1920

Announcing her nomination at the White House, Mr. Bush said that over the next four years, he and Ms. Spellings were "determined to extend the high standards and accountability measures of the No Child Left Behind Act to all of America's public high schools."

Ms. Spellings, 46, who had advised Mr. Bush on educational issues when he was governor of Texas, will take over from Rod Paige, the former superintendent of schools in Houston who was the first African-American secretary of education.

In the White House, Ms. Spellings's office was down the corridor from that of Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, who first introduced her to Mr. Bush when he was running for governor of Texas in 1994. ... Ms. Spellings is seen as closely attuned to the administration's thinking and political sensibilities.

Despite promises to reach out to adversaries in the wake of his election victory, President Bush is assembling a second-term Cabinet that so far seems to reflect the dictum: Only longtime loyalists need apply.

Republicans close to the White House say that reflects the president's determination to act aggressively on his second-term priorities and to reinforce the storied discipline of a White House where internal disputes have been kept largely from public view. His appointments also could consolidate the president's power, solidify his conservative agenda and reduce the possibility that Cabinet agencies might undercut administration policy during his second term.

Though he has nominated replacements for only three Cabinet officials, Bush already has relied more heavily on White House insiders than did the previous two presidents who had the opportunity to form second-term Cabinets, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

While Bush adversaries may bemoan the departure of mavericks like O'Neill and Powell, the choice of insiders gives Bush an advantage most presidents seek.

"The ultimate goal of any administration is to have a well-disciplined Cabinet that thinks they work for the president," said Gary Andres, who served on the White House staff of Bush's father. "This is a way of maximizing the chances of that happening. It's a matter of trust, comfort."

The tightly controlled team approach also increases the administration's ability to accomplish its objectives through unilateral administrative rule-making in addition to legislative action, analysts said.

Presidential scholar Shirley Anne Warshaw, author of "The Keys to Power: Managing the Presidency," cited as an example the creation of a program to promote abstinence by the Department of Health and Human Services. She predicted there would be more such initiatives during Bush's second term.

"He'll have a very conservative, loyal Cabinet and sub-Cabinet that can govern administratively," Warshaw said. "If you narrow the focus of the agenda and promulgate the appropriate rules and regulations, you don't need to govern legislatively."

In a shocking historical moment, one of the two Thanksgiving turkeys pardoned by President George W. Bush has turned in his resignation, preferring to die rather than be pardoned by someone who refused to pardon human beings in Texas. The turkey, "Biscuits," was promptly drafted and is being shipped to Iraq.

The other turkey, "Gravy," pledged eternal fealty to Bush and is considered front runner to the first available seat on the Supreme Court.

We'll be stuffing more into this story as it develops.

"Gravy" and President Bush in the Rose Garden.

[Goss] has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work. As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies."

Bad Nooz. In the first place, the concept of “purge” has not hitherto played much part in our history, and now is no time to start.

“Disloyalty to Bush,” or any president, is not the same as disloyalty to the country.

That’s what I was most afraid of in the next four years: the complete closing of the circle, the old Bush emphasis on loyalty as the first and most important asset. Bush has been making this mistake for years, and it is clear it will now get worse. The clash of ideas is not welcome in his office. He wants everything solved in a one-page memo.

Hat tip: Andy.

When the younger Bush ran for president in 2000, [Rice] schooled him on international affairs. He named a rise on his Texas ranch "Balkan Hill" because Rice once explained Balkan history in the middle of a 4-mile hike.

Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Finally, someone who's heart beats less often than Dick Cheney!

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Has the same business associates, too!

In all fairness, I should mention a few of the other nominees:

Looking for a quick, inexpensive way to do something disgusting, hateful, and downright evil? Feeling sociopathic? Want to do something downright inhumane but don't want to go to jail? Looking for ways, through home decorating, to express the side of yourself that's ruled by pure, galling, blackhole-like malice?

I have the perfect suggestion...

A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing things men have always done. If a war story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.

Tim O'Brien

John Kerry was not defeated by the religious right. He was beaten by moderates who went -- reluctantly in many cases -- for President Bush. This will be hard for many Democrats to take. It's easier to salve those wounds by demonizing religious conservatives. But in the 2004 election, Democrats left votes on the table that could have created a Kerry majority.

I take great personal satisfaction in the record which has been developed. The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved. The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, in comments last week, noted that Senate Democrats have staged filibusters to block confirmation votes on federal judge nominees who oppose abortion and most likely would do so again. “I would expect the president to be mindful” of that, he said. Some GOP conservatives took that as a warning that Specter would keep such nominations from a vote and said Specter should be denied the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he is in line to assume next year.

Specter pointed out Sunday that he had supported all of Bush's nominees, regardless of their positions on abortion. “Although I am pro-choice, I have supported many pro-life nominees,” he said on the CBS program Face the Nation.

[Bush advisor Karl] Rove said Specter has pledged to hold hearings quickly on any Bush appointments and bring them to a vote: “Sen. Specter's a man of his word. We'll take him at his word.”

Assuming that Specter cannot and will not make a flat commitment of support [for Bush's judicial nominees], the prospect of his imminent chairmanship poses tests for two ambitious Republicans. Will Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, eyeing the White House, marshal his power to block Specter's ascension? Will Senate Republican Conference Chairman Santorum, after alienating his base by backing Specter against serious conservative opposition in this year's Pennsylvania primary, turn against his colleague?

[Majority Leader Bill Frist] is considering asking the full Republican Conference to waive term limits for Hatch.