MSNBC is teasing the new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out today — Bush at 35 percent, another new low.

Today:

The Pew poll found Bush’s job approval at 33 percent, the lowest ever in that poll.

Bush’s approval on handling terrorism was at 42 percent, down 20 points from the start of his second term.

Garrison Keillor:

The Republican Revolution has gone the way of all flesh. It took over Congress and the White House, horns blew, church bells rang, sailors kissed each other, and what happened? The Republicans led us into a reckless foreign war and steered the economy toward receivership and wielded power as if there were no rules. Democrats are accused of having no new ideas, but Republicans are making some of the old ideas look awfully good, such as constitutional checks and balances, fiscal responsibility, and the notion of realism in foreign affairs and taking actions that serve the national interest. What one might call “conservatism.”

Furthermore:

Over the course of time, the Chief Occupant has been cruelly exposed over and over. He sat and was briefed on the danger of a hurricane wiping out a major American city, and without asking a single question, he got up from the table and walked away and resumed his vacation. He played guitar as New Orleans was flooded. It took him four days to realize his responsibility to do something. When the tsunami killed 100,000 people in Southeast Asia, he was on vacation and it took him 72 hours to issue a statement of sympathy.

The Republicans tied their wagon to him and, as a result, their revolution is bankrupt. He has played the terrorism card for all it is worth and campaigned successfully against Adam and Steve and co-opted whole vast flocks of Christians, but he is done now, kaput, out of gas, for one simple reason. He doesn’t represent the best that is our country. Not even close.

Update: Harkin in as Co-Sponsor

I just called both my senators’ offices to find out where they stand on Sen. Russ Feingold’s proposal to censure President Bush over his illegal domestic spying program and learned that Sen. Barbara Boxer will support the censure resolution, but that Sen. Dianne Feinstein has not yet decided.

I mentioned to Sen. Feinstein’s aide that the text of the senator’s censure resolution against President Clinton in 1999 is available on the web, including our site, and said I hoped she would re-read the text of her 1999 resolution as she made the decision.

Btw, Sen. Boxer often doesn’t get the respect outside of California that she deserves so I always like to point out that in the national elections in November 2004 she received the third highest number of votes in the nation, under President Bush and Sen. John Kerry — and received more votes in California than did Sen. Kerry.

Finally, if you haven’t called your senator yet, please do it now. Firedoglake has the numbers here.

Update: MSNBC and ThinkProgress are reporting that Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa will support the censure resolution; TP says he’s signed on as a co-sponsor. TP also quotes liberal GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee as praising Feingold and saying it would be “positive” if the censure fueled debate over the legality of some policies in the war on terrorism.

Except it’s the wrong president

In case you haven’t seen this from Busy Busy Busy, via Firedoglake, here is my senator, Dianne Feinstein, in full righteous indignation, proposing a censure of the president of the United States:

• Whereas [the] president of the United States, deliberately misled and deceived the American people, and people in all branches of the United States government;
• Whereas [the president’s] conduct in this matter is unacceptable for a president of the United States, does demean the office of the president as well as the president himself, and creates disrespect for laws of the land;
• Whereas [the president] fully deserves censure for engaging in such behavior;
• Whereas future generations of Americans must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but also bears grave consequences, including loss of integrity, trust and respect;

The unfunny joke is, Sen. Feinstein offered this proposal in February 1999, after President Clinton had been aquitted in the impeachment hearings. Here’s the last part of the censure proposal:

• Whereas William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate employee in the White House, which was shameful, reckless and indefensible;

If you live in California, please call the offices of senators Feinstein and Boxer and ask them to support Sen. Russ Feingold’s censure of President Bush over the president’s illegal domestic spying program:

• Sen. Feinstein’s office online and phone number: (202) 224-3841
• Sen. Boxer’s office online and phone number: (202) 224-3553

If you don’t live in California, you’ll find a list of phone numbers for every senator here.

Why Democrats Don’t (and Can’t) Win Elections

By Bill Arnett

Why does the Democratic Party keep losing elections when they are on them right side of every issue that the public identifies with in the endless polls taken?

They have become craven cowards without the courage or principles or the conviction to fight for what is right. The minute Harry Reid invoked the rule to bring the Senate to a screeching halt until we got answers on the intelligence about Iraq, and then caved utterly and broke his promise, the image of gutless, unprincipled Democrats was again reaffirmed and reinforced the belief that we are bumbling cowards, with no more integrity than Republicans. And if we are viewed to be the same as the sycophantic, morally corrupt, and morally bankrupt Republicans, take a wild guess which party is going to get its ass kicked again in 2006 and 2008.

This is, I know, a sweeping, generalized, and very harsh judgment, but it is deserved. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary, Rahm, and others who want to be “nice” and go along to get along should look up the word nice. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (the definitive dictionary of the English language), the original meaning of the word “nice” was “idiot”, a perfect definition for a party that has lost the will, knowledge, courage, and conviction that makes people vote for a Democrat; they no longer know how to win elections.

We ARE on the right side of every issue, but we appear to be just “Republican Lite” because we don’t fight tooth and nail, no-holds-barred, Texas-style, fight to the finish with a nine month time limit to the 2006 elections.

[…]

This email message from Buzzflash is about as cogent a summation of our era as I’ve seen lately:

Is this what the Joe McCarthy period was like? A time when a congenital and chronic liar held the nation at his mercy until the United States Army and Edward R. Murrow exposed him? Only now we have a happy-go-lucky version of McCarthy in the White House.

But Bush is exposed day after day, and he keeps on popping back up with that “Pet Goat” grin, a one-man Hurricane Katrina, leaving disarray and destruction in his wake.

It seems that even the old cliched joke about the powerful politician who would only be brought down if he was found in bed with a live boy or a dead woman wouldn’t even apply to Bush.

The American people, according to the polls, have caught on to him, but the press keeps treating him as a credible president. It’s like having a court of public relations professionals, under retainer, report the news.

Hmmm…that may be exactly what’s going on.

You have a President who should be shunned, and the lone Senator, Russ Feingold, who tries to censure Bush is shunned instead.

The people who had the courage to create this great country are spinning in their graves at the craven capitulation of most of our elected officials.

We deserve better than a morally corrupted, cowardly rubber stamp Congress.