Political digest

The last week has been a whirlwind of activity in politics as Congress crammed to finish business before leaving for the August recess. Some notable activities and my thoughts:

Energy and Transportation bills: The Congress passed major legislation regarding energy, which, thankfully, did not include protections for manufacturers of certain fuel additives that have been linked to cancer. That's a win for Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, who is hammering all things energy in preparation for her re-election campaign next year. The energy bill also has attracted a lot of notice because it would add a month to daylight-saving time beginning in 2007. Studies say that this could save as much as 100,000 barrels of oil each day, mainly because people would use less electricity in the evening because there would be ore daylight. Nevermind that it would be offset by an increase in morning use. Critics point out that schoolshildren would be forced to wait for the bus in the dark. The transportation bill also contains $220 million for the Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle, courtesy of the ranking Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee for transportation: Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

Meanwhile, the president's Social Security reform measure seems to be broken down along the side of the road. We have heard nothing of this for months, and the president's name has been prefaced by the term "lame duck" with increasing frequency.

Probably one of the biggest snubs to the lame-duck president came from the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee. He did a complete about-face July 29 when he announced his support for federal funding for stem cell research. This is a major departure for Frist, who advocated from the Senate floor the kind of protection for the unborn and the barely living such as Terry Schiavo. This is a significant break with the White House, and Frist undoubtedly lost some conservative support. He's making a bit of an appeal to the center with this, knowing the religious right will come back if he can win the nomination.

With the senators out of town, sources close to President Bush have indicated he will suddenly discover there is an emergency and send John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations by using a recess appointment. Such an appointment would only be effective through 2007 but would get around the blocks placed on Bolton's nomination placed by senators concerned about his record.

As Bolton is stalled, the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court seems to be progressing well. Committee hearings should begin after the August recess, and Democrats will have had a chance to comb through mountains of papers Roberts authored while working in the Justice Department for the Reagan Administration. However, Dems really want to see the internal memos Roberts wrote when he was deputy solicitor general during the George H.W. Bush Administration. Republicans say that the work was contracted for a client -- namely the president -- but Dems say that the client was actually the people of the United States, so the documents should be released.

Ahhh, the August recess. President Bush heads to his Crawford, Texas, ranch to clear some brush and have a "working vacation" at what is shamefully called the "Western White House." All aspiring presidential candidates head to Iowa and New Hampshire to address any Rotary chapter who will listen.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.