Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has defended the claim that opponents of President Bush’s judicial nominees are “against people of faith.” Tonight President Bush was asked if he agreed, and his answer was clear:

BUSH: … I just don’t agree with it.

QUESTION: You don’t agree with it?

BUSH: No. I think people oppose my nominees because of judicial philosophy.

QUESTION: Sir, I asked you about what you think of…

BUSH: No, I know what you asked me.

QUESTION: … the way faith is being used in our political debates, not just in society generally.

BUSH: Well, I can only speak to myself. And I am mindful that people in political office should not say to somebody, You’re not equally American if you don’t happen to agree with my view of religion.

The President retorted that he doesn’t know about the NCLB lawsuit filed by the nation’s largest teachers union because he’s not a lawyer. Yet not being a ballplayer didn’t stop him from knowing about the Washington Nationals’ lineup. Interesting how he knows about what he wants to know about.

President Bush said he was “amazed” that a “phenomenal” amount of taxpayer money goes unpaid every year.

What a difference a year makes.

Just last August, remember, President Bush explained why he’s refusing to close tax loopholes or roll back tax cuts for those earning over $200,000 a year because, as he said, “the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.”

President Bush on when troops will come home from Iraq:

As soon as possible. And as soon as possible depends upon the Iraqis being able to fight and do the job. … General Petraeus, as you know, is in charge of training. [He is] upbeat about what they’re seeing with the Iraqi troops.

He may be upbeat, but our government watchdogs are not. Though more than a year and a half has passed since Gen. John Abizaid first announced plans to build Iraq’s security force, the Government Accountability Office reported last month that coalition leadership has still failed “to develop a system to assess the readiness of Iraqi military and police forces so they can identify weaknesses and provide them with effective support.” Moreover, the high number of security forces frequently touted by senior White House officials “overstates the number actually serving,” probably by “tens of thousands.” As one training supervisor, Army Staff Sgt. Craig E. Patrick, admitted recently: “It’s all about perception, to convince the American public that everything is going as planned and we’re right on schedule to be out of here. I mean, they can [mislead] the American people, but they can’t [mislead] us. These guys are not ready.”

President Bush said an important piece of American defense was the missile defense system.

Let’s hope he’s not putting all of our defense eggs in that basket. The missile defense system has cost $130 billion so far and is scheduled to tally $50 billion more over the next five years. And it still doesn’t work. Indeed, President Bush’s recently released budget includes a request for $8.8 billion in funds for missile defense, despite his pledge to cut programs that weren’t “achieving results.” (President Bush’s 2005 budget included nearly twice as much funding for the ineffective missile defense system as it alloted for the Department of Homeland Security to spend on customs and border patrol.)

In related news, Business Week quotes a defense expert who reports that “Russia has tested a ballistic missile that would render the United States Star Wars scheme useless.”

The President continues to criticize how “political” Washington is and that people need to put aside their politics for the greater good. Maybe he should give the same speech to his Secretary of State:

“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told her senior staff she was disappointed about the stream of allegations and said she did not want any information coming out of the department that could adversely affect the [John Bolton] nomination.”

The President suggested that we go to some of the states where American employers are given personal accounts. Senator Barbara Boxer not only took that trip but also wrote up a report on it. Its conclusion:

“By examining the actual system in place in Texas, this study shows that Americans are worse off with privatized accounts – not in theory, but in reality.”