The mood of the moment is about gas prices,
Republicans who control Congress and the absurd notion that buying us off with
$100 bucks is going to do the trick. Even Duke Cunningham's prostitutes got
more than that! I wonder what Porter Goss paid his pin up gal, that is, if TPM
Muckraker has it right. Mr. Goss is all a twitter about the whole affair. He
shouldn't sweat it. The party of all things corrupt won't care. As for the American
people, baby, we're on hypocrisy overload.
Wanted to share with you one of the most shocking things I've seen from a person
running for Congress ever. As regular readers know, I'm not exactly
a fan of special interest groups, minus the vet groups. But not being a fan
doesn't mean I disrespect their passion and their effectiveness at times. It's
just that their militancy precludes politicians daring to maintain their independent,
which is a killer for us, in my opinion. Case in point, the Sierra Club endorsing
Lincoln Chafee over a Democratic candidate. That said, when I was emailed the
link to an idiot male running for Congress, it just about blew my head off.
Enough introduction, take a look at this.
Vernon Robinson displays conduct unbecoming of being in Congress.
If you're interested in taking a look at the Bush meltdown, this is the
only link you'll need. However, take a look at what's developing, via Glenn Greenwald.
I also wanted to share some of Dowd's behind the pay firewall column today.
It's a look inside the gender war that's been raging inside the Bush administration,
where testosterone rules and women are welcome, but only if they agree with
the boss and genuflect to his boys.
Rummy was ordered to go to Iraq by the president, but he clearly has no stomach
for nation-building, or letting Condi run the show. He seemed under the weather
after a rough overnight ride on a C-17 transport plane from Washington into
Baghdad. And Condi's aides were rolling their eyes at the less than respectful
way the DefSec treated the SecState as she tried to be enthusiastic, in her
cheerful automaton way, about what she considers the latest last chance for
Iraq.A reporter in Baghdad asked Rummy about the kerfuffle when Condi talked of
“thousands” of tactical errors in Iraq. Rummy later noted that “I
don't know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest” and that
anyone who said that had “a lack of understanding” about warfare.
She's just a silly girl, after all.(snip)
As Iran vows to go ahead with its nuclear ambitions, the administration finds
itself relying for help on the very people it steamrolled and undermined before
the Iraq war: the U.N. and international arms inspectors.“The Security Council is the primary and most important institution
for the maintenance of peace and stability and security, and it cannot have
its word and its will simply ignored by a member state,” Condi said after
a NATO meeting on Thursday.Rummy may get prickly with his office niece, but who else but the automaton
could make that threat with a straight face?Say
Uncle, Rummy – by Maureen Dowd
Frankly, if were Rummy, I wouldn't pay attention to Condi either. Her rank
incompetence has now reached legendary proportions.
You may not like Jane Harman or Hillary Clinton, but at least they're capable
of learning as they go, not to mention performing to some level of competency.
The same cannot be said for Condi.
Saturday funnies continue
to amuse amidst the minefield that his George's presidency.
But the truly not to be missed link of the week is Neil Young's new
album. It's free. Take a listen, after all, it's Neil
Young.
But just in case you thought things couldn't get
any weirder, amidst a very busy week, we learned that James Baker III is now
being dispensed to Iraq, as Dowd references in her column today. I've talked
about the Iraq Study Group before. It seems
to me we're way past the stage of a “study group.” It's hard to put
a band-aid on a civil war.
At a time of growing American disenchantment with the war, but no real consensus
on what better course there might be, the choice of Mr. Baker to lead what
is called the Iraq Study Group is filled with historic and familial significance.
It is also seen as the most telling sign yet of the administration's willingness
to admit that it needs help in weighing its options and generating public
support for them.People close to Mr. Baker say that he was extremely concerned about being
seen as second-guessing President Bush's foreign policy aides and made sure
to get Mr. Bush's approval in person before he took on the job.Mr. Baker declined to be interviewed, but at a news conference this month,
he said it was not his intention to engage in “hand-wringing about the
past” but to focus on the path ahead “on a bipartisan basis in the
hope that we can come up with some advice and insights that might be useful
to the policy makers in Washington.”He is co-chairman of the group along with Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat and
former congressman who served as vice chairman of the commission that studied
the intelligence failures related to the attacks of Sept. 11. Mr. Baker and
Mr. Hamilton chose the other members of the group, trying to pick respected
people who would be prepared to take a fresh look at the situation, they said.Among their team are William J. Perry, a former defense secretary under President
Clinton; former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York; the former Supreme
Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor; and Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a longtime civil
rights leader, Washington power broker and confidant of President Clinton.
I wonder what Mr. Baker is going to do about that little item of Iraq
becoming a terrorist breeding ground? Can't wait to hear the policy on that
one.
But what the hell, right? Baker got Bush elected via the Supreme
Court in 2000. Why not send the “Bush family fixer” in to rescue George's
presidency among the rubble in Iraq? At this point, Bush has absolutely nothing
to lose.
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Last but not least, please take the time to prepare yourself for
the right-wing spin on Rush. It's all about liberals being so disappointed that
he didn't get the slammer. Get a clue and give me a break. We've got a mug shot of the guy who tried to rehabilitate Rummy, Deadeye Dick and the Bush administration. Get it? We popped champagne at my house. Rush slithered into the sheriff's office to turn himself in because an arrest warrant had been issued. Disappointed? Like anyone thought
Rush was going to do a day in jail. Hah!
RadioEqualizer
simply cannot be missed today. Take your time and scroll through the posts.
It's quite a treat in damage control. Rush is being made out the martyr. The
media and a zealous D.A. are to blame. It's the Tom Delay public defense for
the radio king, complete with a mug shot. A MUG SHOT. Never mind that he was a drug addict who railed against drug
addicts, right up until the moment his maid spilled the beans that Rush was a drug addict, too, and his third
wife divorced him. Pay no attention that Rush had to sneak into the jail to
give himself up, late on a Friday to try and mitigate the damage. Ignore the
moral hypocrisy of it all. Slap aside the humiliation that someone who reached
the highest of highs couldn't control himself and remains anything but contrite.
He's not guilty! I did nothing wrong! I'm innocent of the charges! Oh, but I'll
make a deal and pay $30,000 in court fees, just because I'm a good guy underneath
the lies and pr machine that's already in full gear to rehabilitate the right
wing's leading raconteur. Liberals and Rush haters will remember what he did.
Rush Limbaugh, the Bush administration's radio pimp, got caught like a common drug addict and had to buy his way out of it. That's cool, all the rich do it. The capper is Republicans and conservatives won't care. The right-wing radio
base and beyond will embrace him. He's a martyr to the “liberal media.” Shazaam, a new
political myth is born.
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