Scum Rises to the Top

It also makes for a serious case of the jitters when the chips are down:

The result...is a mood of intense uncertainty in the White House that veers in some cases into fear of the personal and political consequences and anger at having been caught in the snare of a special prosecutor. And given how badly things have been going for Mr. Bush and his team on other fronts - a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center put his approval rating at 38 percent, a new low - they hardly have deep reserves of internal enthusiasm or external good will to draw on...

The prospect of a White House without Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush's longtime strategist, has some allies of the president in a near panic, fearful that without him the administration would lose the one person capable of enforcing discipline across a party that has become increasingly fractious and that is almost at war with itself over the president's nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court.

Oh, sorry--that was my schadenfreude showing.

At other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Bug Man is all upset at Ronnie Earle, as we all know. Now, he's running an ad likening the prosecutor to an attack dog. Too bad the investigation is ongoing, i.e., no comment from Earle, who, if I remember right, replied to DeLay's charge of his being partisan to "being called ugly by a frog." Well put.

DeLay's phone records were subponeaed by Earle, who also wants to know about his purchase of a minivan--ooh, that must smart...not only is the Bug Man under the glare of investigative lights, he's also got a mommy car. Ouch.

Finally, to round out this post, here's a fun (but memory intensive) graphic demonstrating what Shrubusto looks like in freefall. 38 percent--and dropping.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.