If you were watching C-SPAN last night, you saw an amazing moment in political history — the thunderous standing ovation Israelis gave President Bush at Shimon Peres’ “Facing Tomorrow” conference.  Even the upcoming Republican convention is unlikely to match the emotional outpouring of raw support and love the Israelis showed for Bush.

Peres’ speech offered a grand historical sweep of U.S. presidents’ support for Israel.

And here’s what Peres recently told Lally Weymouth:

So, how does this president impress you?

I think Bush did something very courageous, and that was to topple Saddam Hussein. Imagine today that we would have in the Middle East both Ahmadinejad and Saddam Hussein. Bush [made] a decision and should be given credit for it. The problem with the Europeans is, they are right but they are always late. And here to be late is to be wrong. To be right means to be on time. Would they have been right on Hitler, the whole [of] Europe would look different.
What about President Clinton?
Clinton was a friend. Bush’s father was a friend, and President Ronald Reagan was a friend.

If Barack Obama becomes president, we’d be curious to see who calls him a friend.  Judging from by this Al Jazeera report from Gaza, the answer might be quite evident.

Today’s Yeas & Nays has this wonderful graphic, a sound chart showing that President Bush barely beat out Craig Ferguson for noise at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner Saturday night …

How’d they measure the noise?  Multi-faceted Jeff Dufour used this hyper-sensitive (think New York Times) atomically-calibrated decibel counter, presumably on loan from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.  Or Radio Shack.

We learn this in the Washington Post today:

The schedule is coming into focus for President Bush’s second trip to the Middle East this year: He is planning to visit Israel next month to celebrate the country’s 60th anniversary. While in Israel, Bush appears likely to visit Masada, the desert fortress overlooking the Dead Sea where nearly 1,000 Jews committed suicide in the 1st century rather than be taken alive by the Romans.

He is also planning a speech to the Israeli Knesset, and will attend a giant celebratory conference being hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres that is expected to feature such notables as Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger. But Barbra Streisand, the liberal singing and acting icon who had been tapped to sing the Jewish prayer “Avinu Malkeinu” (Our Father Our King), abruptly pulled out last week for “personal obligations.” Was Babs unhappy about the prospect of sharing the bill with Bush? We will never know.

Actually, that Streisand news should come as a relief to the already long-suffering people of Israel.  At least they’ll be spared Stresiand’s unique, cutting-edge, and breakthrough political commentaries and observations, such as the knee-slapping hilarity we see here…

President Bush with Palestinian Authority President Abbas today:

“I assured the President that a Palestinian state is a high priority for me and my administration — a viable state, a state that doesn’t look like Swiss cheese.”

President Bush with Jordan’s King Abdullah in March:

“I said a state has got to be continuous — a contiguous territory; it can’t look like Swiss cheese.”

President Bush in Saudi Arabia in January:

“when I said contiguous, that means contiguous territory that does not — Swiss cheese.”

President Bush in Ramallah in January:

“Swiss cheese isn’t going to work when it comes to the outline of a state.”

Of course, some things are worse than cheese from the Swiss.  Like chocolate cake from the Germans.

Should President Bush elect not to attend the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics?  That’s the big debate these days.

It’s not just a moral and ethical question.  It’s also a question wrapped up in political history.

Is there precedent for an American president to stay away from an Olympics?  Of course there is  — in fact there are far more examples of presidents staying away than attending.

Here’s the most delicious example.  In 1932 President Hoover declined to attend the Olympics.  He was too busy campaigning for re-election.  And where those Olympics held?  Los Angeles.  Yes, Hoover stayed away from Olympics — in his own country.

He sent Vice President Charles Curtis instead.  We’ll pick up the story from — and we’re not making this up — the Charles Curtis fan site:

For the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, California; at the request of President Hoover, Vice-President Charles Curtis opened the Games for the United States. An actual recording of Charles Curtis announcements can be heard in the movie “The Jim Thorpe Story.”

And here’s photographic proof.  That good looking gent is VP Curtis.

Surely Dick Cheney would be just as intimidating to the Chinese.  So send him to the Beijing Olympics.  He’d strike fear into them.  And probably he could medal in the shooting competitions.

We learn about President Bush’s get together with Vladimir Putin:

They shared a casual, no-ties dinner of veal loin and red caviar as a Cossack chorus sang, and at one point the two men even jumped onstage and joined in the folk dancing.

Mmmm.  Caviar.  Quite common for the two.  Here’s Putin after Bush visited him in May 2002:

Yesterday, when we had our dinner and I was treating my guests of course to the Russian caviar, and I told him how some of the caviar is produced. The experts would take the fish and open up the fish and then take the caviar and then throw out the fish again and throw it back into the water. (Laughter.) Everybody was laughing — thinking that I was really inventing things on the spot, something really improbable. (Laughter.) But I was trying to convince them — I was really trying to tell them that I was telling the truth.

At least Putin didn’t serve Texas caviar.

Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio once said, “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.”

That quote is inscribed in the new Washington Nationals ballpark, which opened for business tonight in Major League Baseball’s first game of the season, against the Atlanta Braves.

Who else gave their best?  President Bush, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

It was a great toss to Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca.  Just a bit high, but otherwise a fast pitch straight over home plate.  ESPN announcer Jon Miller remarked, “There have been lots of presidents who’ve thrown out the first pitch, but I don’t know anybody who’s done it better.”  And Joe Morgan said, “That’s the best I’ve ever seen, that’s some high heat.”
For those kids in the stadium tonight who’ve seen President Bush throw for the first time, he certainly gave his best.

(And the Nationals right now are beating the Braves 2-0 in the third inning.)

President Bush has agreed to throw out the ceremonial first pitch when the Washington Nationals open their new ballpark March 30 against the Atlanta Braves.

The Post notes: 

Bush also threw out the first pitch when baseball returned to Washington on April 14, 2005, at RFK Stadium. He has since attended three other Nationals games, and the club is 2-2 when he is there. Vice President Cheney threw out the first pitch in 2006.

The news of Bush’s return gives me the opportunity to once again run the below piece.  I originally wrote it as part of a bigger article for MSNBC three years ago, when the Washington Nationals’ inaugural baseball season began.

Even the most singularly focused political junkie must acknowledge the influence of baseball on politics.  President Bush was a managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team.  Ronald Reagan used to broadcast and re-enact baseball games on the radio.  Hall-of-fame pitcher Jim Bunning is a U.S. senator.  And who was that sitting next to Hillary Clinton during President Clinton’s 1999 State of the Union Address?  None other than Sammy Sosa, who made a repeat appearance last month in Congress, joining other Major League Baseball star players to discuss the problem of steroid use.  Fortunately for Washington baseball fans, Sosa is Peter Angelos’ problem now.  No wonder with Sosa, the Orioles are so-so.

President Bush this week throws out the opening pitch at RFK Stadium (only D.C. would name its ballpark after an attorney general), an act itself proving the intertwining of baseball and politics.  The president’s pitch resumes a tradition that began with William Howard Taft, who in 1910 tossed to the Senators’ Walter Johnson. (Here’s one for you baseball trivia lovers: Johnson pitched a shutout win, allowing the Philadelphia Athletics just one hit in a 3-0 victory for Washington. This year, the other Philadelphia team, the Phillies, beat Washington on opening day.)

Baseball’s Hall of Fame Web site describes the executive act this way: “The president’s annual appearance at the start of each season symbolically renews the bonds that unite the country, its leaders, and the game — a ceremonial springtime rebirth as America’s National Pastime. For presidents, baseball offers a welcome connection to a wholesome, all-American image.”

Sounds like a State of the Union address. Or the budget request.

Don’t forget: In 2001, President Bush threw out the first pitch at Game Three of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium, weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.   It was a warm, supportive crowd.  Surely April 14 will be equally friendly to the president — what with all those W’s on everyone’s cap.  But opening day presents this political sub-drama: The Nationals battle the Arizona Diamondbacks. That’s right, Arizona, as in John McCain.

Let there be little doubt who will be in the stands on Opening Day: Politicians.  Lots of politicians.  And the people who lobby politicians.  And the people who donate to them.    And the media celebs who cover them.  Better be careful getting angry at a player or umpire.  Yell out “Get rid of the bum!” and half the crowd will think you’re demanding a recall election.

The Washington Post reported on political and media heavy-hitters angling for the best seats in RFK stadium: “Major League Baseball is returning to Washington after a 34-year absence, but the game of connections and status never left town. So for months, VIPs from business, politics and the media have been working to get choice tickets to Nationals games.”

Yes, along with patriotism, there’s status.  Political status.

“One of the things that Washington has is many people who define themselves as being important,” team President Tony Tavares told the Washington Post about ticket requests. “There are very few people that don’t define themselves as being important in Washington.”

That’s politics for ya.  Everyone’s important.

Of the old Washington Senators, it used to be said: “First in war, first in peace, last in the American League.”  Of our new baseball team we can add, “And always in politics.”

President Bush said something quite newsworthy today.

Here he is at the National Religious Broadcasters 2008 Convention in Nashville:

There’s an effort afoot that would jeopardize your right to express your views on public airways. Some members of Congress want to reinstate a regulation that was repealed 20 years ago. It has the Orwellian name called the Fairness Doctrine. Supporters of this regulation say we need to mandate that any discussion of so-called controversial issues on the public airwaves includes equal time for all sides. This means that many programs wanting to stay on the air would have to meet Washington’s definition of balance. Of course, for some in Washington, the only opinions that require balancing are the ones they don’t like. (Laughter and applause.)

We know who these advocates of so-called balance really have in their sights: shows hosted by people like Rush Limbaugh or James Dobson, or many of you here today. By insisting on so-called balance, they want to silence those they don’t agree with. The truth of the matter is, they know they cannot prevail in the public debate of ideas. They don’t acknowledge that you are the balance; that you give voice — (applause.) The country should not be afraid of the diversity of opinions. After all, we’re strengthened by diversity of opinions.

If Congress truly supports the free and open exchange of ideas, then there is a way they can demonstrate that right now. Republicans have drafted legislation that would ban reinstatement of the so-called Fairness Doctrine. Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives have blocked action on this bill. So in response, nearly every Republican in the House has signed onto what’s called a “discharge petition,” that would require Congress to hold an up or down vote on the ban. Supporters of this petition are only 24 signatures away.

I do want to thank Mike Pence, who is with us today, and Congressman Greg Walden, for pressing this effort and defending the right for people to express themselves freely. And I urge other members to join in this discharge petition. But I’ll tell you this: If Congress should ever pass any legislation that stifles your right to express your views, I’m going to veto it.

That’s President Bush twice mentioning the Fairness Doctrine.  A yawner, right?  Don’t we hear that all the time?

Actually, we don’t.  In fact, we never have before.  Search “Fairness Doctrine” on the White House website and today’s speech is the only Bush remarks that come up — and one of only two results (a 2005 Scott McClellan presser being the other).

Meaning today was the first time the President has mentioned it specifically.  Making it quite newsworthy indeed.

Low approval ratings. Lame duckery. And now this - Bush has to turn the White House offer to someone who is presumably plagiarism-free, like Dick Cheney:

(UPDATE: More at Newsbusters):