The Senate Intelligence Committee moves toward subpoenaing Bush for various documents regarding the lead-up to war, documents which the administration has tried to withhold on the grounds of executive privilege. Hmm, I wonder…will the shrill echoes of Dubya’s gay-baiting be enough to mask the whirring of the shredders? Somehow, I doubt it.
Category: GOP Culture of Corruption
Them’s just words.
“Science, to quote President Bush’s father, the former president, relies on freedom of inquiry and objectivity…But this administration has obstructed that freedom and distorted that objectivity in ways that were unheard of in any previous administration.” Over 60 scientists (including 20 Nobel laureates) call out the Bush administration for its lack of scientific integrity. In science as with everything else, it seems, Dubya’s approach is “faith-based.”
Shadiness, Inc.
Tom De Lay’s homegrown PAC, Texans for a Republican Majority, comes under scrutiny for misusing corporate donations. I never would have guessed. In semi-related news, the Senate GOP feels the heat from the soon-to-be-concluded investigation into stolen Dem documents. Lie, cheat, steal…all in a day’s work for today’s Republican Party.
The Real Filegate.
The Congressional Sergeant-at-Arms nears the end of his investigation into a GOP scandal involving illegally stolen Democratic e-mails. It’d be nice to see some heads roll for this, (and they certainly would have if the parties had been switched) but somehow I doubt it. If the media can shrug off the Dubya deserter story, they certainly don’t care about this sort of shenanigan.
Lies in, Lies out.
Building on the recent revelation by Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill that the administration started planning a war in Iraq immediately upon taking office — a revelation that dovetailed all-too-well with the recent Carnegie Endowment report on the administration’s WMD deceptions — Senator Ted Kennedy puts the war in perspective. “President Bush said it all when a television reporter asked him whether Saddam actually had weapons of mass destruction, or whether there was only the possibility that he might acquire them. President Bush answered, ‘So what’s the difference?’ The difference, Mr. President, is whether you go to war or not. No President of the United States should employ misguided ideology and distortion of the truth to take the nation to war. In doing so, the President broke the basic bond of trust between government and the people. If Congress and the American people knew the whole truth, America would never have gone to war.” Quite a good speech and worth a read, if nothing else than because no less a right-wing freak show than Tom DeLay found it “sad” and “disgusting.”
In related news, Rick Perlstein examines Dubya’s electoral exit strategy: “George Bush is selling out Iraq. Gone are his hard-liners’ dreams of setting up a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic republic, a light unto the Middle Eastern nations. The decision makers in the administration now realize these goals are unreachable. So they’ve set a new goal: to end the occupation by July 1, whether that occupation has accomplished anything valuable and lasting or not. Just declare victory and go home…Such is the mess this president seems willing to leave behind in order to save his campaign.“
Escape from New York.
While Dean and Clark parry for New York votes, Tom De Lay laments the loss of his GOP convention booze cruise. As of yesterday, “some Republicans in Washington who supported the cruise liner idea were still saying that it would not have taken much money away from the city and that perhaps there are some Republican members of Congress who want to take their families to the convention but do not want them to stay in Manhattan.” I see. So for the GOP, New York City is a great place to wave the bloody shirt, but God forbid they spend a night there.
Fox in the Henhouse?
Ashcroft gets the inside word on the FBI’s Plamegate investigation. Well, on one hand he is the Attorney General. But, c’mon now – the smart thing to do would be to recuse himself from this case, particularly given his close ties to Rove. As I’ve said before in other contexts, if we were talking about Janet Reno here, Dan Burton would already have fired up the investigation train.
Doubting Dubya.
In a news conference today, Dubya voiced doubts about whether the Plame leaker will ever be caught. “‘I don’t know if we’re going to find out the senior administration official,’ Bush said. ‘I don’t have any idea. I’d like to. I want to know the truth.’ But, Bush said, ‘This is a large administration and there’s a lot of senior officials.’” Good Lord, what garbage. Perhaps an independent counsel might facilitate matters?
Circling the Wagons.
With the inquiry into felonious behavior in the White House expected to broaden to include the State and Defense Departments in short order, Attorney General Ashcroft ponders how to investigate his buddy Karl Rove (Here’s a hint, John – Just treat him like you would a foreign national or medicinal marijuana advocate.) Meanwhile, the White House unleashes its “slime and defend” defense strategy, which involves slandering Joseph Wilson as a (gasp) Democrat while circling the GOP wagons around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “‘So far so good,’ the [Republican] aide said. ‘There’s nervousness on the part of the party leadership, but no defections in the sense of calling for an independent counsel.'” So who will be the first Republican statesperson to stand up and demand the Bushies be held accountable? John McCain, perhaps? Or how about one of the House Impeachment managers — they were so enamored with executive propriety only five years ago.
What’s Good for the Goose.
The political quagmire thickens for Dubya on the matter of the compromised CIA agent, with 2/3rds of Americans supporting the appointment of a special prosecutor into the matter. The GOP invested millions of taxpayer dollars in the vain search for a felony they could stick on the Clinton White House…let’s hope they show the same resolve and fortitude now that we’ve found an actual felon within this administration. If they can get that worked up over Monica Lewinsky, I can’t wait to see how they’ll respond to a criminal act of treason by one of the Bushies.