Fox News is reporting that Rush Limbaugh was arrested in Florida today on prescription drug charges.

More:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh was arrested Friday on prescription drug charges, law enforcement officials said.

Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant issued by the State Attorney's Office, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office.

The conservative radio commentator came into the jail at about 4 p.m. with his attorney Roy Black and bonded out an hour later on a $3,000 bail, Barbera said.

The warrant was for fraud to conceal information to obtain prescription, Barbera said.

Black said his client and authorities reached a settlement on a single count charge of doctor shopping filed Friday by the State Attorney will be dismissed in 18 months.

Good for the president!

"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."
He made his remarks on the matters during a wide-ranging briefing with reporters.

"I think people who want to be citizens of this country ought to learn English," Bush said.

Good to see that the president is finally coming around. Now if he would more strongly push building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, as well as stronger enforcement of current immigration laws, he might begin to break above the 40 percent approval line.

The problem that stands between Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the presidency, according to Robert Novak:

Prominent, respectable Evangelical Christians have told me, not for quotation, that millions of their co-religionists cannot and will not vote for Romney for president solely because he is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If Romney is nominated and their abstention results in the election of Hillary Rodham Clinton, that's just too bad. The Evangelicals are adamant, saying there is no way Romney can win them over.

And given the fact that Evengelicals are apparently already distressed enough with the current state of affairs a la the Republican party, a Romney run at the presidency in 2008 becomes all the more of an uphill task.

He just might, and leave CBS as well:

But he added something that was surprising, that I’ve not heard elsewhere — he may leave CBS, and if he does, may start blogging. I offered my help and advice if he goes that route, he said he’d like that.

It must have been stinging for Rather to see the once mighty news network of Murrow bring "perky" Katie Couric in to do their evening news, an action which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago by news executives that really did believe that their flagship evening news program needed to possess gravitas.

Whether you agree with him or not, Dan Rather would certainly be a fascinating addition to the blogosphere, one that I suspect a very large number of people would make part of their regular blog reading.

Aw, the poor guy:

$450,000 said stolen from PA foreign minister during visit to Kuwait

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar has had $450,000 stolen from his hotel room during his current visit to Kuwait, the Itim news agency quoted the Kuwaiti media as saying Wednesday.

According to the report, al-Zahar had asked the Kuwaiti authorities to keep the theft under wraps, but the incident was confirmed by a security official at the hotel.

The foreign minister, a senior member of Hamas, is on a tour of Arab and Muslim countries to drum up funds after Israel suspended the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority and Western donors cut off aid to the Hamas-led government. ...

(Via The Corner)

That's $450,000 that likely won't be going toward the construction of terrorist homicide bombs.

Scott McClellan is a nice guy, according to almost all who know him, but he was being eaten alive by the White House press corps every day. They'll have a considerably harder time doing so with Tony Snow.

James Glassman (via Glenn):

With gasoline prices close to $3 a gallon, President Bush this morning gave a disingenuous speech to an alternative fuels association about what he was going to do to stem the rising tide. There were a few flashes of candor and insight, but, on the whole, it was a sad example of political capitulation by a former Texas oilman who certainly knows better.

It's a good piece, and representative of why the president is so abysmally low in the polls (32 percent from CNN yesterday) at present. No great energy (no pun intended), and very few new ideas, is coming from the president on this issue, except to tell Americans that they will be in for a "rough" summer of high gasoline prices. The same statement could have come from Jimmy Carter in 1978, and comparisons to the ineffective former president from Georgia is not a situation that Mr. Bush should be happy to find himself in.

A great opportunity exists here for the president to make a major push for a serious effort at alternative sources of energy, and thus far he is squandering it.

Update: Fred Barnes on Fox's Special Report:

"Jimmy Carter could have given this speech today...it was that bad...this was truly a disappointing speech by the president."

The unhinged and extremely dangerous president of Iran was at it again today:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday renewed his criticism of Israel, calling it a "fake regime" that cannot continue to exist.

"Some 60 years have passed since the end of World War II. Why should the people of Germany and Palestine pay now for a war in which the current generation was not involved?" Ahmadinejad said at a news conference.

"We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live," he said.

Nuclear weapons this man must not ever possess.

Andy McCarthy:

There is no mention by the Post -- none -- that Mary McCarthy is a big Kerry campaign and Democratic Party contributor.

How can the WPost justify reporting one friend's mere impression that McCarthy is not biased and that it is very difficult even for those who know her well to understand why she would leak sensitive information, and yet not report the objective fact that -- after a meteoric professional rise in intelligence circles during a Democratic administration -- McCarthy, while a government official on a government salary, gave at least $7700 of her own money in a single year to Democratic political campaigns?

Given the Post's delicate posture in this case -- having been the recipient of at least one highly sensitive leak on a subject about which it chose to publish a story damaging to national security -- you would think they might perceive a special obligation to play it down the middle here. But apparently not.

This morning's story is said to have had no fewer than eight contributors -- it was written by R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer, and lists as contributors Walter Pincus, Al Kamen, Howard Kurtz and Dan Morse, and research editor Lucy Shackelford and researcher Magda Jean-Louis.

Since campaign contribution information is available on-line -- you don't even need to draft star reporters and research editors to dig it out -- is it too much to suppose that at least one of these eight folks might have mentioned, at least in passing, that this purported non-ideologue of a leaker was giving lots of money to the effort to unseat the present administration?

As best as I can tell, this is the first employee to get axed for the most recent leaking to the media: WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

The CIA said on Friday that it has fired an intelligence officer who acknowledged leaking classified information about the spy agency's operations to the news media.

The CIA, which declined to identify the officer or describe the officer's duties at the agency, said the dismissal was the result of a three-month-old investigation of CIA operations that had been the subject of recent media leaks.

"This CIA officer acknowledged having unauthorized discussions with the media in which the officer knowingly shared classified intelligence, including operational information," CIA spokeswoman Michele Neff said.

The spy agency would not describe the information disclosed to the media or say which media outlet was involved.

The CIA was rocked in November by a Washington Post article that said it was operating secret prisons for terrorism suspects in Eastern Europe.

Update: According to Fox News, the investigation by the CIA began in January, the officer failed a polygraph, and has admitted the leaking. The CIA has is likely to refer this to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.

The person should be arrested immediately to prevent any possible further leaking, and if this person is found guilty I do hope that they throw the book at him or her, and that the individual stays in prison for a very, very long time.

Sorry, Dana Priest, but it looks as if your source has been cut off. Enjoy your Pulitzer.

Fox News has the president at a 33 percent approval rating, according to Brit Hume on Special Report.

Number one cause for disapproval? You guessed it, the war in Iraq.

***

Update: John McIntrye:

The President has got to get his Republican base back in the fold. If he can do that his approval ratings will stabilize in the high 30's and low 40's and he will be in a position to mount a comeback this fall. Bush could take sliding approval ratings into the high 30's in the RCP Average, but deterioration below 35% - it's not there yet, but the FOX poll could be a troubling leading indicator for the White House - starts to indicate loss of core support in his Republican base and that can become a very slippery slope which could effectively kill his presidency. He's got to pick a fight with the Democrats on something and get his base reenergized. Compromising with Ted Kennedy on immigration is not the answer to his political problems.

Build the wall on the Mexican border, Mr. President. If Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid et al get up and scream, all the better. Go to the mat in a head on fight with the Dems and light a fire under the base.

Of course it's not news, but the censorship of a woman on China TV today who heckled the Chinese President is a good reminder of the true nature of the Chinese ruling regime:

On China TV: As Hu was speaking when yells of protesters became audible, the screen went black. When the feed came back the screen once again went black when woman was again heard. During CNN International's post-speech commentary, at mention of south lawn heckler, the screen also went black again. The CNN feed returned when the incident ended.

It would make sense. Snow has qualifications equal to or better than any other contender to replace the departing Scott McClellan, and he's certainly capable of sparring with the most agitated and unhinged members of the White House press corps during their most heated moments - all the while keeping a smile on his face.

Bill Center:

The retired generals had their chances to resign. It is reported that Maj. Gen. John Batiste may have done so. Others chose to follow orders. If they now want to offer an opinion on the conduct of the war, they are well-qualified to do so. They are also free to criticize the secretary's leadership. I've offered critical opinions of my own. It is not their place, however, to call upon the president's second-in-command to step down.

The vast majority of the more than 8,000 retired general officers have remained appropriately silent. That does not mean we lack a voice. Eisenhower was right; we already exercise disproportionate influence.

The outspoken generals have put us on a very slippery slope. You may agree with them in this case and therefore find little reason for concern. Would you be equally comfortable with 5,000 or 6,000 retired officers calling for the resignation of a leader you supported?

It's a good thing that Karl Rove will no longer be involved in the "oversight of policy development," but rather will be going back to mainly focusing on political strategy and implementation in preparation for the November elections.

Rove's political acumen is undisputed, but as you may have noticed, policy formulation and execution has not exactly gone smoothly for the White House during the last year.