Yellow Dog Weasel Meter Never Wrong

As a postscript to President Bush's ill-advised recess appointment of John Bolton to be our Ambassador to the U.N., it's instructive to look at the Democratic Senators who responded to that maneuver with deafening silence.

I'll be updating the Yellow Dog Blog's Senate Weasel Meter – in which we chart Republican-like votes by Democratic Senators – next week but, until then, let me remind you of who our top weasels are at this point:

• Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
• Ben Nelson (D-NE)
• Mark Pryor (D-AR)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Ken Salazar (D-CO)

What's the common characteristic of all of the Democrats listed when it comes to Bolton's recess appointment? You guessed it – they had nothing to say about it. Their web sites had no press releases and, Google as I might, I couldn't find record of any of them having anything critical to say about Bush's actions.

Most Democratic Senators were suitably indignant about being disenfranchised right out of the advise-and-consent process – I quoted many of them right here in this space – but these five had nary a discouraging word to say about it.

Both the Nelson Boys are up for reelection in 2006. Do we have stronger Democrats to challenge these guys in their primaries? Probably not. Ben Nelson is an incumbent in a Red state and Bill Nelson may still be our strongest hand against Katherine "election Fraud" Harris.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep an eye on these guys and lean on them where appropriate.