March 30, 2007
The Big Picture (John Feehery)
Having just returned from a brief vacation, where I looked back at Washington from the Left Coast, I saw little blurbs of gossip and information that from far away reveal the big picture.
Here are the bits that came through the news:
- Tony Snow, the best thing that has happened to this White House in four years, has cancer again, and it may have spread to his liver. This is bad and very sad news for all who know Tony personally and for this White House team that needs his leadership.
- The Iranians' seizure of 15 British marines is needlessly provocative and possibly much more significant geopolitically than has been acknowledged by the White House thus far.
- The Democrats are having a field day beating up the executive branch, especially the Justice Department, and the Attorney General has done a fairly lousy job explaining himself. Getting thrown under the bus by his ex-chief of staff yesterday was not helpful.
- The Democrats finally won a short-term victory on the war supplemental. They got their votes, and some Republicans’, and now they have a bill that will surely be vetoed by the President. It is too early to tell who won this battle, and only God knows how much pork has yet to be added to get the conference report to final passage.
- So here is the Big Picture. Washington is screwing around, playing political games here at home, while the Iranians are licking their chops and hoping that we leave Iraq so that they can finally dominate once and for all their neighbor and long-time adversary. The Iranians are so confident that they can win the endgame that they are playing a risky game of hardball by seizing those British Marines and then parading them on television. They are calculating that we have a weak hand because of our political shenanigans, and that we won’t do what it takes to win this game in the long run. I hope they are wrong, but given the realities of the situation today, they may be right.
Post a Comment (2) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Troops In Harm’s Way Because Bush Acts Unwisely (Brent Budowsky)
This is my friendly, professional — but strong — response to what Ron Christie argues in his post today.
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are not playing, but taking the wise and appropriate actions that happen to be in line with the will of the overwhelming majority of the American people and the results of the recent election.
Regarding the surge, the troops are in harm’s way because George W. Bush ignored and disrespected the overwhelming and possibly unanimous advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who opposed the escalation. > Read More
Post a Comment (4) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This The Lucky Guy (A.B. Stoddard)
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is a lucky guy, and human nature makes lucky people very attractive to the rest of us. Before the end of March, just six weeks after formally announcing his bid for the presidency, Obama has won the hugely significant endorsement of Jesse Jackson — a veritable Good Housekeeping seal of approval to many African Americans watching the ’08 race.
Following media reports about his seeming lack of legitimate credentials among black voters and his inability to galvanize a voting bloc Hillary Clinton was supposed to have under lock and key, Obama took to Selma, Ala., several weeks ago on the anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” crossing of the Edmund Pettus bridge to turn things around. Sure, Clinton followed him there; having stepped on his announcement week she sure wasn’t going to let Obama’s rock-star appearance at Bloody Sunday pass without the Big Foot. Obama’s presence generated bursting crowds as he thundered from the pulpit in a newfound southern accent about how the event 42 years ago had basically birthed him, having inspired a black man and white woman to become the parents of Barack Obama. Too bad everyone quickly remembered that he was born three years before Bloody Sunday. When called on it, Obama said he meant that the whole civil rights movement produced him — or something like that. > Read More
Post a Comment (1) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Troops in Harm's Way While Congress Plays (Ron Christie)
Fifty-three days ago, President George W. Bush asked the Congress for additional resources to reinforce our troops in the field as they wage the war on terrorism on our behalf. Among other things, this included $769 million to support deployed troops in Iraq with an additional $1.5 billion to provide armor and equipment to these troops.
For Afghanistan, the president asked the Congress for $272 million to deploy a Combat Brigade Team and $99 million to support linguists in Afghanistan and provide additional support for the team mentioned above. > Read More
Post a Comment (11) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Jack Danforth for Attorney General (Brent Budowsky)
Congress should promote and the president should appoint former Sen. John Danforth to replace Alberto Gonzales — now.
Jack Danforth is one of the most respected and admired Americans in public life. He is a lawyer of premier intellect and stature, a minister of unquestioned integrity and faith, and a Republican who is admired on both sides of the aisle in the Senate.
When I worked for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Danforth was a friend and collaborator of Bentsen's and I saw his work up close. He is truly outstanding on every level. While Sen. Bentsen has left us, I feel very confident suggesting that he would volunteer to be at Sen. Danforth's side, introducing him at confirmation.
While confirmation hearings for any Attorney General will and should raise hard and controversial issues, hearings for Danforth would elevate bipartisanship and civility.
Sen. Bentsen accomplished many great things. One issue we talked about often and at great length, which we could not accomplish, was his passionate judgment that the Attorney General should be an independent figure of stature, far above partisan politics.
If ever there were a president who needed an Attorney General of universal crediblity and independent legal stature, it is George Bush. Yes, there are many scandals to come, from the years of one party Republican rule and a president who believes his personal whims and ideologies take precedence over the time-honored requirement of faithfully executing the law.
The President is on extremely dangerous ground right now and personally engenders profound levels of partisanship, anger and even hate among far too many Americans and among America's friends around the world. > Read More
Post a Comment (1) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This March 29, 2007
Will Alberto Gonzales Take the Fifth? (Brent Budowsky)
When we take the dress off the pig, today Kyle Sampson said Alberto Gonzales is a liar.
The attorney general told the Congress and the nation he was not involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys. We can dress this up nine different ways, we can use the weasel words of official Washington, but this is clear:
Alberto Gonzales lied.
Here is the problem for the President:
He wants to replace Gonzales but has extreme problems finding a successor who is both honest and will accept the job.
The president is afraid of an honest attorney general because the trail of wrongdoing would be exposed by an AG who faithfully executes the law.
The president cannot get an AG who will play the cover-up game, because the cover-up AG candidates won’t accept the job for fear of being indicted.
This is an administration full of Scooter Libbys protecting Dick Cheneys. > Read More
Post a Comment (8) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Fred Thompson: Authenticity and Anti-'Gotcha' Politics Looks Good to Many Democrats (Lanny Davis)
Far be it for me to say anything nice about former Republican Tennessee Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson.
First, he was the chairman of the Government Oversight Committee's 1997 campaign-finance abuse hearings aimed at the Clinton White House — and thus made my life miserable when I served as President Clinton's special counsel in charge of "handling" those hearings and being sure the White House and national political media covered them accurately (I almost say "fair and balanced"). Sen. Thompson was very tough on the Clinton campaign's fundraising practices. And I strongly disagreed with him, at the very least, for not applying the same standard to Republican fundraising practices. (At one point, I must admit, I was flattered when Thompson sarcastically interjected a comment during the televised campaign-finance hearings in the summer of 1997 (I am paraphrasing, but this is close), "This testimony is so significant that even Lanny Davis won't call it 'old news.'") > Read More
Post a Comment (13) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Speaker Pelosi's Magic Moment (Brent Budowsky)
Wouldn't it be amazing if the first woman Speaker redefines national politics and regains the high ground for Democrats on national defense and national security?
The truth is, the Speaker comes from a family of old-fashioned values and traditional standards and views America as a larger family and shared community.
The Speaker is a woman of faith, a grandma, mother, daughter, and wife. In her world, all Americans are security moms and security dads; all Americans are military moms and military dads.
For military families, it's a family affair. The Speaker's daughter Christine Pelosi is a strong advocate for vets and troops in her own right, and initiated a major program for vets through the Democratic National Committee.
If the Speaker leads an unprecedented battle for better treatment of our troops and vets she will transform American politics and can seize the high ground on national security for many years to come. > Read More
Post a Comment (1) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Questioning the straight talk (A.B. Stoddard)
Things looked like they couldn’t be worse for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but the story in our newspaper today has made the gloomy last months now seem almost sunny. Bob Cusack reported that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) held several discussions with McCain in 2001 about what Daschle concluded was the legitimate possibility of McCain leaving the GOP and possibly retaining his seniority in a Democratic majority. The story includes denials from the McCain camp about him ever seriously considering leaving his party.
This revelation arrives when McCain has lost his early momentum, lost his frontrunner status, money is thin and his candidacy faces possible challenges from two friends — Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) — and a definite challenge from another friend, Rudy Giuliani. Add to that his status as Poster Man for the Iraq war. > Read More
Post a Comment (3) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This Enemy at the Gates (Armstrong Williams)
I just watched President Bush join his Republican congressional allies at the White House to denounce publicly, once again, the Democrats' attempts to load the supplemental with pork and force a withdrawal date of U.S. forces from Iraq. There's no question the White House is in full throttle on this effort, and when you have the bully pulpit, you command attention.
But I fear the enemies/the terrorists/al Qaeda have already won. Think about it: By trying to legislate what nearly every American is feeling — bring the troops home — we have signaled to the insurgents that we admit defeat. I'm not trying to be Pollyanna-ish about this — that's the statement! Why am I so sure? Because terrorist organizations prey on uncertainties and indecision, and America is definitely full of that today. To the terrorists in their bombed-out shells of buildings in Basra today, perception governs reality. And the image they will peddle throughout the Islamic world is that they are on the verge of winning, however "winning" is defined, but winning nonetheless. > Read More
Post a Comment (5) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This