07/01/2008 Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters by Rasmussen Reports

“Okay, how do you rate the way that Congress is doing its job?”

2% Excellent
7% Good
36% Fair
52% Poor
2% Not sure

Congratulations, Congress! Single digit (9 percent) approval ratings! A new low!

That’s how they roll in India!

Big debate on C-SPAN right now over a bill by Henry Waxman that would prevent future administrations from deleting 5 million e-mails as the Bush administration did. Rep. Paul Hodes says the bill will lift the Bush administration “veil of secrecy.” Chronology here.

Republican arguments seem weak. The computer that powers Dan “I lost to Gray Davis” Lungren has booted up the “high gas prices” software.

Of course I agree that all e-mails should be preserved, even if it costs $155 million as the Congressional Budget Office says. These are, above all, historical records, and erasing history diminishes us all.

But because the preservation of history is somehow a partisan issue these days, it bears noting that Clinton folks did much the same. A federal judge found the EPA in contempt because the hard drives of Administrator Carol Browner and other top folks at the EPA hard drive got wiped clean.

Back and forth we go.

Isn’t anybody bothered by the fact that Congress is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act?  And has always been exempt?

Update: Bill passed the House 229-193

In testimony for yesterday’s House Judiciary hearing, John Yoo said copies of the  2002 “Bybee” memo were given to the Justice Department’s Criminal Division for review.

I’d be curious to hear what the career professionals in the DOJ’s criminal division had to say about this memo.It’s hard to believe they would approve of an interpretation of a law that it would make it virtually impossible under any circumstance to prosecute violators. (Background on Bybee memo here.)

According to Yoo:

We also sent drafts of the opinion to the deputy attorney general’s office and to the criminal division for their views and comments. (emphasis added)       

So where were the career prosecutors in the criminal division? Were they cowed into silence by their boss at the time, Michael Chertoff? Did they even see the memo? If they did, didn’t t this memo violate every professional instinct?Until someone breaks the silence, we’ll never know.

It’s not a good sign when they put the newspaper building on the auction block