Presidential Press Conference
Bush held a news conference today, mostly for damage control on the Miers nomination. Transcript is here. I saw part of it on CSpan in replay, and I can't help but notice that he seems positively uninspired to keep doing this job. I get the feeling that if he could quit right now without bringing historic shame to himself and his family, he'd do it. Since he can't, maybe that's why a little drinky-drink could be looking pretty good to him right about now.

As for Miers, there's no real reason to think she'll be anything less than frighteningly conservative, especially since she may have turned Republican in the middle of her life because of the allure of one Jesus Christ. For my money, those mid-life converts can be the scariest ones.

But the main connection with the Roberts pick and this one is they both are essentially executive branch moles. Even if Bush isn't packing the courts with social conservatives (and he may be), he is packing it with those trained to help the White House have its way. I suspect that plays a bigger part of both picks than any other concern. If she's confirmed, I'm not sure what it does to the judicial branch, but the executive will have gotten alot stronger.

But really, you know what issue seems to have captured our A.D.D. President's attention more than any other? Bird flu. For every other answer, he sounded and looked dazed and annoyed. But when it came to bird flu (and he did take the Barry book with him on his last vacation, which I take as a good sign that he may have genuine interest in not screwing up a freaking plague), he seemed to actually know something about what he was talking about. Although I suppose it may just have been the most recent answer he was briefed on just before walking out there. Either way, as a bird-flu-phobic, I can only hope that the recent disaster-response failure will convince someone to develop an actual thoughtful plan. And hopefully some frat brother of Bush's isn't in charge of that.

And don't forget, it is bird flu awareness week.