White House to Blame?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Not Just Anyone Will Do

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she would like to see another woman appointed to the court to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor, but "any woman will not do." Ginsburg told the audience at an annual New York lecture on women and the law, named in her honor, that some potential female nominees "would not advance human rights or women's rights."

She added, "I have a list of highly qualified women, but the president has not consulted me." As for John Roberts' view that foreign law should have no bearing on U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Ginsburg said she will "take enlightenment wherever I can find it."

White House to Blame?

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is blaming White House strategy for sinking Social Security reform. Santorum, who heads the Senate Republican Conference and the subcommittee on Social Security, tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the president's decision to wait until the State of the Union address in February to promote his Social Security agenda stalled the plan, saying that while Democrats, “...started hammering on the president, basically starting to tear this apart in December... we sat back and let our opponents define us and define the issue."

Farm Fury

Rocker Neil Young, who co-founded the Farm Aid organization that raises money for American farmers through annual concerts, is hopping mad over an article in the Chicago Tribune telling a room full of reporters that the paper should "...be held responsible for this piece of crap," before ripping a copy in half. What had Young so angry with the Trib?

A story in the paper cited IRS reports showing that Farm Aid gave away less than 28 percent of its revenue last year to farmers. A Farm Aid director tells the paper she was "shocked" that farmers received such a small percentage of the group's revenue.

Goods Going Nowhere?

New Orleans police have received multiple complaints that donations aren't reaching storm victims in the area and now they say they've found one of the culprits. Officers searching the home of Cedric Floyd, the chief administrative officer for the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, found four truckloads worth of food, clothing and tools meant for Katrina victims. The police plan to file charges against Floyd, who was in charge of distributing the goods in his area, as well as other city workers, but in the meantime, the "evidence" in the case will be distributed to victims of the storm.