While the President offers constructive solutions, Democrats are trying to score election year, political points and the American people are seeing through their tactics. The Manchester Union Leader writes that "Democrats are obviously more concerned about scoring cheap political points than in quickly crafting legislation to tighten laws governing corporate behavior." The Washington Post calls the Democrat attacks on President Bush a
"distraction."

The hypocritical and callous political games being played by the Democrats has now been exposed by recent news reports that say House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt wants to keep corporate scandals "on the political radar screen until November." While the American people continue to see the money invested for their children’s education and their future retirement dwindle due to corporate bad actors, Democrats are more concerned with their own political gain. President Bush has taken decisive action to prosecute and punish corporate criminals. The Republican leadership in the House passed corporate reform in April. It is time for Democrats to put their partisan, stonewalling aside and help pass real corporate reform.

President Bush and Republicans in Congress have shown genuine leadership in cracking down on corporate corruption. Spread the word about President Bush’s record of action on corporate reform - and set the record straight about the Democrats’ putting partisan gain ahead of the American people by calling your local talk radio shows today!

Earlier this week, Fitzgerald won initial approval for a tough prosecutor, Miriam Milquelon, as U.S. attorney for Illinois' Southern District. Fitzgerald's colleague, Sen. Dick Durbin, who vacillated because Milquelon named Durbin pal Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case that sent video poker king Thomas Venezia to prison, buckled because he feared the wrath of voters. An earlier Fitzgerald pick, Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation), has been scoring big as prosecutor of Republican corruption in the Northern District of Illinois.

Now the junior Illinois senator has proposed legislation to target federal government waste: a law that would mandate federal agencies to receive the scrutiny of outside accountants. It is a little-known fact that under current law, only 24 of Washington's biggest agencies have to be audited every year, along with a handful of others required by Congress. Imagine that! Corporations must be audited, but not an entire panoply of federal agencies.

The Accountability of Tax Dollars Act would mandate every executive agency with budget authority over $25 million to prepare audited financial statements and be required to submit to an independent audit. Nineteen additional federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission, would have to undergo the scrutiny.

Authorities predict that the audits could save taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Fitzgerald, a key member of the Senate Governmental Affairs committee, says ''the total amount of taxpayer losses is probably much greater than we know.'' In 2000, a General Accounting Office report showed overpayments by 12 federal agencies that cost taxpayers about $20.7 billion in fiscal 1999.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald is smashing through the Judiciary Committee logjam that blocks approval of good judicial nominees. He achieved committee approval of Amy St. Eve to the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. St. Eve was part of the independent counsel team that obtained convictions of former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal in the Clinton Whitewater scandal. She later co-prosecuted a number of ''Operation Safe Road'' cases involving public corruption at the Illinois secretary of state's office.

By achieving prosecutorial appointments, Fitzgerald has undergone severe criticism from politicians of both parties, who claim behind-the-scenes to liberal media that he is, ironically, ineffective and not a team player. He most assuredly is not a team player in the old ''one hand washes the other'' context. He has shocked both conservatives and liberals with his startling independence.

He was the only senator to vote against the $15 billion airline bailout, claiming ''the number was pulled out of thin air, and it had no relation to the losses [the airlines] incurred by virtue of the governmental shutdown.'' On such issues as gun control, patients' bill of rights and environment, he often sides with the Democrats, while on abortion, tax relief and limited government, he joins the Republicans. Crossing party lines, Fitzgerald has joined Carl Levin of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona on Enron reform, supporting legislation requiring companies to count the cost of stock options against earnings.

While partisan critics assail Fitzgerald for not playing ball with Mayor Daley and Gov. Ryan on the O'Hare Airport expansion proposal, others see him as the successor to McCain as the Senate's leading reformer. McCain seems to agree.

Fitzgerald, the senator said, ''is a refreshingly tough-minded young man'' who will be the leader ''of a coming generation of reformers.''

No wonder the bipartisan Demi-publican establishment of Illinois is down on Fitzgerald. He doesn't talk the talk or walk the walk of those who wait for the bosses to ring him up and tell him how to vote.

Americans' reaction to the specific reform proposals Bush outlined in his July 9 speech is mixed: a slight plurality (43%) believe these proposals will be effective at curbing corporate abuses, 39% say they will not be effective and 18% are unsure. Americans identifying themselves as Democrats are the most skeptical, but so are a sizeable number of Republicans -- a sign that the lack of enthusiasm for Bush's speech may be somewhat rooted in a belief that the problems he seeks to address are intractable.

*Corruption Lags Behind Economy and Terrorism as Top Concerns

A key Gallup indicator of the national issues troubling the public is a question asking Americans to name what they think is the most important problem facing the country. Gallup's July 9-11 survey finds only 6% of Americans citing corporate scandal as the nation's biggest woe. Far more, 27%, name the economy (including unemployment and inflation), while even more, 41%, cite terrorism and issues related to national security.

Six percent is not a trivial number of top-of-mind mentions on this open-ended measure; it is comparable to concern about education, for example. But it does suggest that corporate corruption is in a much different category than the paramount concerns of terrorism and the economy more generally.

Reinforcing this finding, a question asking Americans how closely they have followed Bush's corporate reform proposals finds that the level of attention his speech has received is no higher than the average level of attention paid to a variety of different news events Gallup has tracked over the past decade.

About six in ten Americans tell Gallup they are paying close attention to the news on this subject, including 39% who are following it somewhat closely but only 19% who have followed it very closely.
Attention to news about Bush's involvement in alleged accounting irregularities and insider stock trading while he was a director at Harken Energy Corporation in Texas in the early 1990s has received even less attention. Just 38% of Americans are following that story closely, including just 12% "very closely."

Gallup trends on public attention to news stories dating back to 1990 suggest that public interest in the Bush's reform proposals is exactly average for a major news story, while attention to the news about possible wrongdoing by Bush at Harken is significantly below average. Looking at the more than 100 news stories rated since 1990, the average rating for paying very or somewhat close attention to a story is 58%, including 19% paying very close attention and 39% paying somewhat close attention.

*Bush Job Rating Holds Strong

Bush's current 73% job approval rating illustrates that any public concern about his dealings with the Texas energy corporation have thus far not had a significant impact on the public's overall assessment of the job he is doing. While his current approval rating is among the lowest levels of support for Bush since September 11, his ratings are down only slightly compared to Gallup's previous readings in late June and early July (73% today vs. 76% two and three weeks ago), and are comparable to where he stood in early June.

Bush has maintained a 70% or higher job approval rating for ten months, something accomplished by no president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963 and 1964.

==>– Patrick Henry