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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Accusations by the United States that Russia has backtracked on democracy are unfair, President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide was quoted as saying two days before Putin meets U.S. President George W. Bush.

Washington has criticized Moscow for rolling back democratic post-Soviet reforms and alongside rows over a U.S. missile shield plan in Europe and the status of the Serb province of Kosovo, relations between the two countries have sunk to a post Cold-War low.

"We consider unfriendly the recent intensification of criticism of Russia for allegedly retreating from democratic values and norms," Russian news agencies reported Sergei Prikhodko as saying on Friday.

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THE SUPREME COURT term that ended Thursday confirmed exactly what many people had feared: that the testimony given by John Roberts and Samuel Alito at their confirmation hearings just months earlier was a lot of baloney.

During those hearings, the two presented themselves as open-minded jurists lacking an ideological agenda. Roberts likened a Supreme Court justice to an umpire, a neutral arbiter whose personal political views are irrelevant to decisions. Both Roberts and Alito promised fidelity to the court's precedents.

But instead, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito have behaved exactly as their opponents predicted. There was not one case this term in which the court was not ideologically divided, and not one in which Roberts and Alito did not vote for the result that their conservative backers would have wanted. In virtually all of these cases, they were joined by justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

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June 29, 2007 -- When it comes to political ad spending, the biggest unknown is Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has fueled speculation that he may make a run at the White House.

With his massive wealth, estimated at more than $13 billion, according to Fortune magazine, Bloomberg could wage one of the most sustained television campaigns in election history.

Pollsters are drooling at suggestions that Bloomberg is prepared to spend upward of $500 million on a campaign, with at least $300 million possibly earmarked for TV ads.

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At a time the 2008 presidential candidates and influence-hungry states are already doing a devastating job of damaging the way we nominate and elect our leaders, the Supreme Court has now weighed in with another lethal blow.

The process has already been severely undermined, by the leading candidates rejecting federal campaign subsidies and shooting for the moon in fund-raising, and by states front-loading the 2008 primary calendar in a early rush to judgment.

Now the Court?s 5-4 decision to soften the law intended to curb television attack ads opens wider the ability of special-interest groups to throw big money against candidates who buck issue positions that the groups embrace.

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Fred Thompson, the "Law and Order" actor and former Tennessee senator being pushed by many Republicans to enter the presidential race, is coming to Indianapolis.

Thompson will be the dinner speaker Aug. 25 at the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference in Indianapolis, an event that is expected to draw a parade of presidential hopefuls.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a top contender for the GOP nomination, will speak Aug. 24 at the event, which will be Aug. 23-26.

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