What a Difference a Few Months Make

From NBC's morning political summary (which, until about 10 minutes ago I didn't know existed) comes this succint summary of the decline of the Bush Empire:

Back to the Alito hearings, though… Almost 120 days have passed since John Roberts’s own confirmation hearings first began last September, but that’s a lifetime in politics. During that time, Bush’s poll numbers plummeted to the lowest level of his presidency (but now seem to begin to climbing up); Bush picked Harriet Miers to serve on the Supreme Court and then withdrew her nomination (making Alito’s own nomination possible); DeLay and Scooter Libby were indicted, while Abramoff and Duke Cunningham pleaded guilty to criminal charges; Democrats won the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia; and, most recently, the New York Times reported that the White House instructed the National Security Administration to eavesdrop on communications inside the US without a warrant.

And that's just the stuff we know about.