As Scooter Libby’s defense begins in Washington, a slew of reporters — including Bob Woodward, Bob Novak, and Evan Thomas — testify that Libby was not their source in the Plamegate fiasco, with Novak pinning the onus on Karl Rove (and the previously-outed Richard Armitage.) Hmm. Good to know, but whether Libby was the only White House official throwing around Wilson’s name or merely one of a team of Dubya flaks doing the same seems incidental to the question of whether he perjured himself.
Category: Politics (2007-2008)
Money Problems.
“And there is the irony in reading Schumer and McAuliffe’s books back to back. For all the easy political rhetoric about ‘fighting for the middle class’ and ‘the people vs. the powerful,’ the Democrats depend heavily on the financial support of the wealthy, from New York hedge-fund managers to Hollywood producers to tort-shopping trial lawyers. The quid pro quos may not be nearly as naked as among the Republicans, but Bill Clinton did not fund two $100-million-plus campaigns (not to mention a presidential library) with bake sales and tip jars.” In his overview of new memoirs by former DNC head Terry McAuliffe and New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Salon‘s Walter Shapiro reaffirms the importance of campaign finance reform.
Bad Feith Reporting.
A new report by the Pentagon’s inspector general argues that former undersecretary of defense and Dubya war hawk Douglas Feith misrepresented intelligence findings during the lead-up to Iraq. Not a big surprise there, but it’s good to get Pentagon confirmation. “Feith’s office, it said, drew on ‘both reliable and unreliable’ intelligence reports in 2002 to produce a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq ‘that was much stronger than that assessed by the IC [Intelligence Community] and more in accord with the policy views of senior officials in the Administration.’”
Enter Rudy.
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani gets one step closer to officially joining the presidential fray. Good luck in those primaries, bub…My guess is his post-9/11 Churchillian cachet won’t do much to prevent his being eaten alive by the gay-and-immigrant-despising fringe-right.
A Modest Proposal.
“The first part of the Ackerman-Ayres plan calls on the government to give every voter $50 to donate to candidates running for federal office. The second part will sound almost as crazy, until it sounds brilliant: Make all campaign donations secret, so that nobody — especially political candidates — knows where any citizen’s money is going. Anonymous giving means no quid pro quo.” Salon‘s Farhad Manjoo talks up an overlooked outside-the-box proposal for reforming campaign finance, one made by two Yale professors in 2004. As Manjoo notes, at first I thought, “This will never work.” But the idea kinda grows on you…
The Trouble With Dubya.
“[A]s those who believe that he is following a wise course shrink to an almost insignificant remnant, as the very architects of the policies he now defends repudiate their own work, as the political cost of his current path becomes increasingly apparent to almost any sentient person, Bush — who may still have time to redeem at least some part of his legacy — still appears to be oblivious both to the downward spiral of his presidency and to his own likely place in history.” Ted of The Late Adopter points the way to New York Magazine‘s roundtable discussion of Dubya’s mindset these days, which includes a diagnosis by my advisor/employer, Alan Brinkley. (Other notable participants include Dahlia Lithwick, Jonathan Alter, Ted Sorenson, Melvin Laird, and Gary Hart.)
Scooter’s Days in Court.
“Who is this tiny, tiny fellow? Not more than 5-foot-7, to my eye. Sleek and slight like a kitten. Wears a digital watch with a Velcro band. Also wears a little beaded bracelet around his wrist. And writes semiperverted novels set in 1903 Japan. I admit it: You fascinate me, sir.” While GitM has been on hiatus this week, the aspens have been turning in Washington over at the Scooter Libby trial, and old friend Seth Stevenson, among others, has a ringside seat for Slate.
Minimum Overdrive.
Following up on one of the first orders of business of the “100 Hours,” the Senate passes a minimum-wage increase 94-3 for the first time in almost a decade…but not before burdening the House bill with sundry small-business tax breaks to appease the GOP. “House leaders have demanded that the tax measures be stripped from the bill…Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said he may have other plans for the $8.3 billion that the Senate would use for business tax breaks.”
Biden’s Macaca Moment.
“He’s ‘the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.‘” As you no doubt heard, Joe Biden torpedoed his own official candidacy announcement this week by using dubious language to describe his rival, Barack Obama. (Well, at least the words were his own.) The sticking point in the news seems to be Biden’s talk of Obama as “clean” — Al Sharpton had a nice riposte: “I take a bath every day.” But really, “articulate” is pretty bad too: It’s one of those classic buzzwords of unwitting racist condescension. (He’s so well-spoken!) Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Unsinkable Molly.
“She believed in democratic politics and hated it when people didn’t exercise their rights to vote and protest. She believed in government and hated it when people ran it down.” Molly Ivins, 1944-2007. “Her columns and essays — and for that matter her wonderful, low, smoky voice, if you were lucky enough to hear her talk — used her regional sensibility and experience to illuminate the wider world. She talked Texas but her subject was the universe.“