President Bush just vetoed the bill to expand SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, to cover an additional 4 million kids from lower income backgrounds. While the Senate has the votes to override the veto, the House does not.

If members of Congress can't take lobbyist funded trips, argues the Orlando Sentinel, then neither should members of the Executive Branch and President Bush should sign an executive order banning the practice before his branch of government has a Jack Abramoff all their own.

The Louisville Courier-Journal cautions President Bush to sign the lobbying overhaul bill passed after much debate in the House and Senate. Bush's veto threat is perplexing given the crushing effect the public perception of corruption has on his party in the mid-term elections, and now that the Abramoff affair is ceding center stage to William Jefferson/VECO/Ted Stevens/Don Young it's not as if the pressure to change the rules in Washington has lessened.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has admitted that the Department of Justice gave false information to Congress about the firings of eight US Attorneys, many involved in public corruption investigations. Emails have emerged showing extensive conversations between the White House and the Justice Department over who was let go. Turns out, White House Council Harriet Miers wanted to fire every single US Attorney - 93 in all - in 2004.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has highlighted some interesting information on President Bush's No Child Left Behind Reading First program. It would appear the Department of Education Inspector General, which has criticized the program on a number of occasions, is concerned that the quality of reading material available through the program is being compromised to favor corporate donors to Bush's campaign.

Yeah, that whole "impartial judiciary" thing...not so much. As this piece at Salon.com (you may have to watch a short ad to read the whole article) reveals, 24 candidates vying for seats in our nation's appellate and district courts gave directly to the officials who had a hand in winning their appointments - including President Bush.