| The war in Ukraine has united Americans as few issues have in the recent past. President Biden is earning some praise from some Republicans for how he has united the West against Russia. A Quinnipiac University poll from early March found that his approval rating on Ukraine has gone up eight points from February to March, with Americans basically split on how he's handling the war. An NPR-PBS-Marist poll earlier this month found his approval rating overall shot up eight points after a forceful State of the Union speech in which he sounded tough on Russia and got bipartisan standing ovations. But there's evidence that Biden's low approval rating isn't budging significantly, despite his work on Ukraine. Several other recent polls have shown that a majority of Americans — as much as 57 percent — disapprove of the job he's doing overall. A president's approval is shaped by many factors. Polls show that a majority continues to disapprove of how he's handling two huge issues for Americans — the pandemic and the economy. And the war in Ukraine has the possibility to blur into Americans' pessimistic views of the economy, because it's directly affecting energy and gas prices. So even though some polls suggest his handling of the war in Ukraine could shore up Biden's approval ratings, there's more evidence that this alone won't do it — and could even hurt him the longer the war goes on. What's up with the drama over Ginni Thomas?  Ginni Thomas and Justice Clarence Thomas in 2019. (Patrick Semansky/AP) | Who is she?: Virginia "Ginni" Thomas is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative justices on a conservative court. She is an outspoken conservative activist. She has long supported Donald Trump and founded a conservative group with the support of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. What's the drama?: She's been in the news lately because her activism against the House's Jan. 6 investigation is coming to light — especially this past January, right around when the Supreme Court ruled on whether Trump could block the committee from his documents. Clarence Thomas was the only justice to say the former president could keep them from Congress. Then in an interview published Monday, Ginni Thomas confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that she participated in the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, arguably the highest-profile political rally in recent history. She said she was at the rally for a short time, left before Trump took the stage and was "disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering." As my colleague Michael Kranish explains, justices decide for themselves whether they have a conflict of interest, and Clarence Thomas doesn't seem to see one with his wife's activism. The case for Ginni: I talked to conservative judicial activist Mike Davis, who says the court's recusal rules are set up as they are for a reason. There are only nine Supreme Court justices, and they aren't interchangeable as in the lower courts. You can't substitute a justice if one has to step aside; there would be just eight votes. Also, he said, "the court doesn't want litigants gaming the system by forcing recusals of certain justices to get the results they want." Finally, Davis rejected the idea that Ginni Thomas's political activism creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, arguing that she doesn't do direct work that involves the Supreme Court. (Though her causes have overlapped with cases before the court.) But her activism certainly doesn't help with public perception that the Supreme Court is becoming a political body, something the justices frequently try to push back on. The debate over sending fighter jets to Ukraine If the Western world won't create a no-fly zone over Ukrainian territory (because enforcing it would require NATO allies to shoot down Russian planes), then at least give Ukraine fighter jets to do its own shooting. That's the frequent appeal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky makes to American politicians. He's asking for Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets, which Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly. (You'll hear politicians call them "MiGs" for short.) U.S. lawmakers want to get Ukraine these planes ASAP. "I haven't yet met anyone in the Senate who is not in favor of seeing those MiGs get into Ukraine," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said today. But the problem, as he and the White House have pointed out, is how to do it. The last country seen with these planes is probably going to be deemed a target by Russia. Last week Poland tried to offer the United States the opportunity to deliver the planes, but the Washington quickly shut the door on that. Western officials and their allies are worried that this war could quickly escalate — into NATO countries, into Western Europe or even into a nuclear war. "How do you get planes into Ukraine in a way that is not escalatory?" White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said. So when Zelensky addresses Congress on Wednesday morning, expect him to keep asking for fighter jets that lawmakers want to give him — with no apparent way to do it. | 
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