After two weeks of Congressional scrutiny and one stunning House floor vote, the Bush administration finally got what it wanted: hundreds of billions of dollars to bailout an economy reeling from the mortgage crisis. The New York Times’  David Herzenhorn reports that the bill passed 263-171 after it failed Monday, 228-205.

The bill is different from Monday’s in that a series of tax breaks were tacked on to please various constituencies. But the essence of a bailout plan that may balloon to $700 billion remains unchanged. The motivations of the 58 lawmakers who were against the bailout plan before they for it will be subject to debate between now and the election.-MB

That’s the take away from the Washington Post’s R. Jeffrey Smith, who combs through the Justice Dept. Inspector General/Office of Personal Repsonsibility report on fired U.S. Attorneys. Smith specifically looks at the case of former Missouri federal prosecutor Todd Graves.

The headline of the story reads "political warfare" and I expected to get a titillating account of how current Missouri GOP Sen. Christopher ‘Kit" Bond axed Graves. It turns out, though, to be political warfare of the most trivial kind imaginable. It’s not even worth totally getting into here, but Graves refused to call for the firing of the chief of staff of his brother Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican Congressman. Bond’s chief of staff was apparently a bitter rival of Sam Graves’s chief of staff.

Why in the world the White House and Justice Dept. decided it was worth getting into the intramural spats of Missouri politics isn’t known:  Bond, along with Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers didn’t cooperate with the IG/OPR investigation.

I know it’s off-limits to compare anything with Watergate, but the U.S. Attorney scandal does at least have one Watergate-like quality:  Why did Nixon/Bush ever think it was worth it? Just as the actions that led to Watergate quickly strayed from its original goal of re-electing Nixon, the U.S. Attorney firings also seem unrelated to the presumed goal of extending Republican power.-MB

That’s the take away from the Washington Post’s R. Jeffrey Smith, who combs through the Justice Dept. Inspector General/Office of Personal Repsonsibility report on fired U.S. Attorneys. Smith specifically looks at the case of former Missouri federal prosecutor Todd Graves.

The headline of the story reads "political warfare" and I expected to get a titillating account of how current Missouri GOP Sen. Christopher ‘Kid" Bond axed Graves. It turns out, though, to be political warfare of the most trivial kind imaginable. It’s not even worth totally getting into here, but Graves refused to call for the firing of the chief of staff of his brother Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican Congressman. Bond’s chief of staff was apparently a bitter rival of Sam Graves’s chief of staff.

Why in the world the White House and Justice Dept. decided it was worth getting into the intramural spats of Missouri politics isn’t known:  Bond, along with Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers didn’t cooperate with the IG/OPR investigation. But we know the White House did– since Bond called asking Graves to be fired.

I know its off-limits to compare anything with Watergate, but the U.S. Attorney scandal does at least have one Watergate quality: Why did Nixon/Bush ever think it was worth it? Just as the actions that led to Watergate quickly strayed from its original goal of re-electing Nixon, U.S. Attorneys also seems unrelated to the presumed goal of lasting Republican power in government.-MB

The New York Times’ Matthew Wald reports that Congress plans to double the billion-dollar annual subsidy given to Amtrak, the public-private train company. Another $1.5 billion will be given to high-speed rail service.

With gas prices still astronomical, Amtrak has enjoyed something of a renaissance this year. It was dampened, though, by a train accident near Los Angeles that killed 25. It’s not clear if the bill’s safety provisions would deter future tragedies.-MB