The Honeymoon's Over
Rupert Cornwell writes in the Independent about the hole Bush has dug himself into...and keeps digging:

This Bush, we were told, was the first president with an MBA, and his White House would hum with the efficiency of Jack Welch's General Electric. Did you hate that ditherer Bill Clinton, for whom every question had three sides? Well, the Bush promoters assured, you'll love straight-shooting George W. And so it used to be. You might not have liked the decisions - invade Iraq, pull out of Kyoto and so on - but boy, they got made.

Well, they still are being made. But now it feels as if the early Clinton era has returned, when hardly a day went by without a "White House in Disarray" headline on the front of The Washington Post. The magic Bush touch of the first term has gone. Instead there is only trouble: Iraq, Katrina, and assorted scandals, including the indictment of his top enforcer on Capitol Hill, and the possible indictment of his most influential White House aide. And now Harriet.

What is going on? Mr Bush has been hauled over the coals for cronyism, embodied by the hapless Michael Brown ("Brownie" to the President) at the helm of the Fema disaster agency when Katrina struck. But when a long-anticipated vacancy on the court opens up, he names not the fire-breathing conservative he promised, but a loyal retainer from his Texas days, with no track record as a jurist.

And that is only the start of it. This Bush has advertised his opposition to quotas and affirmative action - yet he seeks to fill the O'Connor slot with another woman. A White House Counsel with similarly scant credentials whose name was Harry Miers wouldn't have been considered.

When you're in a hole, stop digging, is the first rule of politics. But last week the President wielded the shovel again, saying that his nominee's born-again Christian faith was an important factor in his choice - as if that was a proper criterion. Mr Bush's political instincts have abandoned him.

Some argue that master strategist Karl Rove has been distracted by possible indictment over the leaking of a CIA agent's name, and took his eye off the Supreme Court ball. A fully functioning Rove, it is said, would have nipped the nomination in the bud - just as, had he not been on holiday, he would have told his boss to scrap his junkets in California when Katrina struck, and get to Louisiana right away. More likely, however, Mr Bush has met the fate of every politician, sooner or later. His luck has run out.