What Your Congress is Doing

Dick Morris writes:

Anyone who wonders why Congress has a job approval rating of 23 percent, seven points lower than even Bush’s, need only look at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) failure to change the ethics of the Congress. Having pledged to make Congress full-time and put the lackadaisical members to work, she then announced a schedule for 2007 in which House members will have 20 weeks off (and when they work, it’s Tuesday to Thursday most of the time).

Now Pelosi has come up with her own version of the No Child Left Behind program by asking the Defense Department to allow adult children of members of Congress to accompany them on their taxpayer-funded travel abroad if their spouses can’t make it. Such heartfelt concern for the lonely congressman on a publicly paid junket may be her version of family values, but it is a waste of tax money.

New York Democrat Leaves Republican Party

The New York Observer reports:

A little past 6 p.m. on the evening of June 19, Michael Bloomberg’s press office sent out the following statement:

"I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party."

Newsweek adds:

When the billionaire and life-long Democrat ran as a Republican for mayor of New York City in 2001, his conversion had nothing to do with epiphany and everything to do with expediency (as the GOP candidate, he’d face an easier primary field and could spare himself the labyrinthine nominating process he'd face on the Democratic side)... Term-limited in New York... Today's news that Bloomberg was changing his party status from "Republican" to "unaffiliated" is hardly Earth-shattering.

Since he doesn't need the affiliation to get on the ballot anymore, it's hardly even news.

Congressional Approval Rating Headed Towards Zero

From the Wall Street Journal:

Amid political gridlock on domestic issues and inconclusive debates over Iraq, the approval rating for Congress stands [much] lower than [President] Bush's, at 23%. Just 41% of Americans say their representative in Congress deserves re-election, comparable to levels before Democrats swept Republicans out of power in November.

The Candidates That Can’t Face Fox, Can’t Face Al Qaeda

Via Drudge: "The candidates that can’t face Fox, can’t face Al Qaeda"

Another Failure of "Higher Education"

The Washington Times reports:

Commencement addresses at the nation's top colleges and universities this year mostly were given by [leftist] speakers with few conservatives snagging the honor, according to a report... by the Young America's Foundation.

The conservative group conducts the review each year using the U.S. News & World Report ranking of top schools. This year, it found left-leaning speakers outnumbered conservatives by a ratio of 8-to-1.

"It's not that there's a few cases here and there. It's that there's a consistent pattern where conservatives are shunned," said Jason Mattera, spokesman for YAF. "For 14 years, we've shown that college administrators are using commencement ceremonies to send their students off with one more predictable leftist lecture."

...With some schools yet to announce their speakers at the time of the review and some schools' speakers listed as neutral, YAF found 42 "blue" speakers and eight "red" speakers.

...

Among the eight speakers listed on the conservative side of the political spectrum were Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates at the College of William & Mary, first lady Laura Bush at Pepperdine University and conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks at Wake Forest University.

A Do-Nothing Senate

Robert Novak writes:

Former Rep. Henry Bonilla, a Texas Republican defeated for re-election last year, remains unconfirmed by the Democratic-controlled Senate two and one-half months after President Bush nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States. He is one of 85 Bush nominees for substantive government positions who are stuck in the Senate.

They include presidential appointees for deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, under secretary of energy for nuclear development, assistant secretary of agriculture, assistant secretary of commerce, deputy Social Security administrator and HHS general counsel.

Also unconfirmed are 24 judicial nominees, seven for appeals courts and 17 for district judgeships. All told, the Senate has not acted on 175 Bush nominations.

While many Americans had last Monday off for Memorial Day, the Senate spent the entire week on vacation.