Is Paul Wolfowitz in a 12-step program? A week after confiding to America about the “bureaucratic” thinking that motivated the WMD casus belli, Wolfowitz opens up to an audience in Singapore, telling them “we had no choice” in our Iraq policy because “the country swims on a sea of oil.” (Via High Industrial.) And now it turns out Cheney and co. were leaning hard on the CIA to come up with the “right” intelligence about Iraq’s WMD capabilities (and an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection.) Hmm…looks like it’s getting grim at WMD Search Central. Update: Jake Tapper of Salon points out that Wolfowitz’s alleged Singapore statement is based on a misquote – Wolfowitz was talking about the efficacy of sanctions, not the reasons for war.
Category: GOP
Credit Denied.
Despite growing GOP support in the Senate, Tom De Lay refuses to consider an increased low-income child tax credit in the House unless it includes more schwag for the filthy rich, such as an estate tax repeal. Speaking of which, new analyses of the Dubya debacle suggest that the middle class will end up footing the bill while the wealthy frolic. So much for “trickle-down.”
Bragging Right.
Medley‘s been birddogging some interesting GOP quotes lately, and she’s found another in this article on Matt Labash, senior writer for The Weekly Standard. Says Labash of his fellow cronies in the conservative media, “We’ve created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective…. It’s a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It’s a great little racket.” Sounds like conservative flaks are suffering from what Robert Wiebe called “the illusion of fulfillment.” As with the Norquist piece last week and as this Tom Paine article notes, it’s exactly this kind of public wink-and-a-smirk about their own fraudulent gimmicks that’ll (hopefully) help bring their “racket” to an early end.
Grand Slam, Eggs Rummy.
“Now is not the time or the place to talk. It’s the time to order, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.” Donald Rumsfeld orders breakfast at Denny’s.
The Powell Rules.
On a party line vote, the FCC eases ownership rules, paving the way for another wave of media consolidation over the nation’s airwaves. With Chairman Michael Powell now playing kingmaker for the likes of Rupert Murdoch, the Commission has come a long way from low power FM in two short years.
Dropping the Other Shoe.
In a strange moment of candor, Wolfowitz tells Vanity Fair that the WMD argument for overthrowing Saddam was chosen “for bureaucratic reasons,” since “it was the one reason everyone could agree on.” (He also lends credence to the argument advanced in this Fred Kaplan article that removing troops from Saudi Arabia was one of the central purposes of the Iraq war.) Meanwhile, in the same AP story, the head of US Marines in Iraq says of the WMDs, “they’re simply not there.” Looks like the Bushies have some explaining to do…If they follow the usual pattern, I suspect they’ll answer any tough question with a flurry of 9/11-esque horror stories.
War between the States.
“Bipartisanship is another name for date rape.” Ah, the wit and wisdom of a GOP flak…On what planet would that not be offensive? Republican strategist Grover Norquist also revels in the increasing acrimony within state legislatures. “We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals – and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.” I guess he’s a divider, not a uniter. (Via Medley.)
Media Blackout.
The networks stay mum on media consolidation as the Powell FCC prepares to lift cross-ownership caps in local and regional markets. Not surprisingly, it looks like the FCC vote will be party-line, with the three Republicans voting as a bloc to facilitate Rupert Murdoch’s ambitions and enlist free-market ideology in order to kill free-thinking media outlets. We’ll always have the web, I guess.
We only lock up the bad people.
The Justice Department gives its most detailed accounting yet of how its used its post-9/11 powers in the war on terror, although the vagueness of the report does little to satisfy congressional critics and civil liberties advocates. On a loosely related note, it must be some weird cosmic irony that the spokesperson for the Ashcroft Justice Dept. is named Comstock.
Here Comes the Judge.
With talk of Supreme Court vacancies opening up over the summer, the Post sits down with White House counsel (and prime contender) Alberto Gonzales. Good to hear that private sources find him “insufficiently conservative”…there might still be hope for the guy. In related news, Jeffrey Toobin surveys the judicial confirmation battlefield for the New Yorker.