Capital Briefs

* NOT ROVING FAR: Karl Rove was dubbed "The Architect" by an appreciative President Bush after his masterful management of the President's 2004 re-election campaign. He is unparalleled as a political tactician. He knows where to find Republican voters and how to get them out to the polls. John Kerry would be President today were it not for Rove.

But Rove's brilliance in that area did not carry over to the public policy assignment he took on at the beginning of Bush's second term-which is why Republicans on Capitol Hill believe it is a good thing he is surrendering that assignment now to focus on politics again. Last January, Rove took a beautifully simple idea -reforming Social security with personal retirement accounts-and, trying to appease Democrats, developed a program too complicated to sell.Then he was in the midst of last fall's disastrous Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination, and more recently was a prime mover behind the President's effort to enact an amnesty for illegal aliens. Conservatives, recalling his good work of 2004, are delighted his next project will be retaining the Republican majority in Congress.

* GREEN NUKES: Patrick Moore, cofounder of Greenpeace, has had a change of heart about nuclear energy. Writing for the Washington Post April 16, Moore said nuclear energy is the only viable way to save the planet from climate change.This comes from a man who ordered Greenpeace to trek to Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the 1970s to protest nuclear testing. "Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too," wrote Moore. He added, "Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power." Nuclear power delivers just 20% of America's electricity-coming from 103 plants. Not a single new reactor has been built since the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

* RALLY FOR RUMMY: Two informal public opinion surveys last week showed an overwhelming majority of Americans want Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. In fact, both polls-one by Newsweek (68,000 votes) and the other by CNN (116,000 votes) - revealed that eight in 10 respondents want Rummy gone. But where it counts - in the White House and on Capitol Hill - Rumsfeld got ringing endorsements from President Bush and Republicans in Congress (with the exception of Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel). During a call with bloggers, including HUMAN EVENTS Online Editor Robert Bluey, two Republicans-Representatives Mike Conaway (Tex.) and Joe Wilson (S.C.)-chalked up the attacks on Rumsfeld to politics. "I just really appreciate the steadfastness of secretary Rumsfeld," Wilson said.

* COMMUNIST HOLIDAY: May Day, the annual celebration of workers endorsed by Communist and Socialist movements, will this year be marked by a "nationwide boycott of work, school and commerce" organized by proamnesty immigrant-rights groups. Reuters reports that New York City councilman Charles Barron was among those announcing plans for the boycott at Gotham's City Hall. "I don't think we will crumble the economy of the United States on May 1 but we will make a dent," Barron said.

* TEN BEST (LIBERAL) SENATORS: Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.) should be flattered after making Time magazine's list of the 10 best senators. As the only conservative on the list, Kyl is lucky he didn't get stuck on Time's other list: the five worst senators. Time's exercise of ranking the best and worst senators makes clear where the magazine's political preferences fall. Of the 10 senators on the list, three of the Democrats-Teddy Kennedy (Mass.), Dick Durbin (III.) and Carl Levin (Mich.)-fall into the ultra-liberal category. The fourth Democrat, Kent Conrad (N.D.), is a moderate within his party. What about the five other Republicans besides KyI?They all have one thing in common: They're not conservatives. They include Senators Thad Cochran (Miss.), Richard Lugar (lnd.), John McCain (Ariz.), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Arlen Specter (Pa.).

* WAGES OF SIN: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y), who earns $160,000 per year as a senator and who took an $8-million advance for her book about life with Bill, said last week that "lawmakers should know what it feels like to be working poor and going years without a raise." To that end she will introduce legislation to tie congressional salary increases to identical percentage increases in the minimum wage "so that working parents can lift their children out of poverty."

* 191 DEMOCRATS: Contrary to what you'll read repeatedly in the liberal press, it was actually the vast majority of House Democrats-not Republicans-who voted to make felons out of illegal aliens during debate about H.R. 4437, the comprehensive immigration reform bill. And as a public service to our readers, HuMANEvENTsOnline.com has posted the list of the 191 Democrats who voted against an amendment that would have reduced the crime to a misdemeanor.