Blog
Jun 25, 2004
Dana Milbank on Cheney’s “F-Bomb”
This article really is almost artful, could have been done by a blogger: As it happens, the exchange occurred on the same day the Senate passed legislation described as the “Defense of Decency Act” by 99 to 1. Cheney’s office did not deny that the phrase was uttered. His spokesman, Kevin S. Kellems, would say only that this language is not typical of the vice presidential vocabulary. “Reserving the right to revise and extend my remarks, that doesn’t sound …
Read More »Jun 25, 2004
GOP Nailed on PAYGO
We mentioned yesterday that it would likely be a rare interesting day in the House, since for once a bill was being brought to the floor without the GOP knowing what would happen to it. The bill was on budget enforcement, and DeLay was trying to squeeze it through without PAYGO, which calls for new tax cuts to be offset by specifically identified spending cuts. Didn’t work, and the Republicans got nailed. Here is Hoyer’s release today: REPUBLICAN BUDGET …
Read More »Jun 25, 2004
Tough Spot
L’Affaire Plame: Federal investigators questioned President Bush for more than an hour Thursday as the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s name reached into the Oval Office. The president was interviewed for 70 minutes by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the head of the Justice Department investigation, and by members of his team. The only other person in the room was Jim Sharp, a private trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor hired by Bush, said White House …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Sex? Yes. Energy Policy? No.
Julia finds that there is a lot more privacy these days than there used to be. Update: Orcinus has the quotes.
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Pappas Falls
Washington Post: The company commander of the U.S. soldiers charged with abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison testified Thursday that the top military intelligence commander at the prison was present the night a detainee died during an interrogation and efforts were made to conceal the details of his death. Capt. Donald J. Reese, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company, said he was summoned one night in November to a shower room in a cellblock at the prison, where …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Ron Jr.
Sheesh. Double Sheesh: KING: Do you think he wears his religion on his sleeve? He certainly refers to it more than your father ever did. REAGAN: Well, you know, there was that answer he gave to the question about, did you talk to your father about going into Iraq? No, I talked to a higher father, you know, the almighty. When you hear somebody justifying a war by citing the almighty, God, I get a little worried, frankly. The …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Team DeLay Goes Soft
Team DeLay vs Team McCain update: DeLay’s spokesman has responded to Frank Luntz’s talking points, which advised GOPers that “No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11,” with the following statement: “We shouldn’t use the war on terror as a political tool for the November elections,” said Stuart Roy, DeLay’s spokesman. Ha ha, just kidding, he did say that but as an argument for why the administration should not release (or be asked …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Blame the Media
What was actually more shocking than watching Rumsfeld blame the media for Abu Ghraib was the fact that he did it at a press conference. With all of these reporters surrounding him, wondering why he had ordered a detainee hidden from the Red Cross in violation of the Geneva Conventions, he looked them right in the eye and essentially said, “We have done nothing wrong, it is all your fault.” And so it was slightly disheartening that the press …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Rabble Rabble
Ever wonder what the GOP Schism looks like from the dark side? We’ve got the editorial for you. You see Tom Tancredo of Colorado has recently ruffled some feathers by directing or allowing a PAC he founded last year (now headed by Pat Buchanan’s sister) to campaign against other GOP Congressmen who are insufficiently hateful of immigrants. Campaigning against Members of your own Party does seem a bit rough, no? Apparently not, in fact the admonishment of Tancredo is …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
What Remains
The Washington Post editorial board, which has been strict and fair in their coverage of this particular affair (despite Rumsfeld’s complaints) has looked over the “Partial Disclosure” of documents by the administration. After the obligatory encouragement of such rare openness, this is what is left behind: Questions also remain about how the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere came about. The documents confirm that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved a number of harsh interrogation techniques …
Read More »Jun 24, 2004
Secrecy Czar
Jack Shafer, Slate : In a little-noticed mid-June speech, secrecy czar J. William Leonard fretted over signs of a breakdown of the classification system for national security. Leonard heads the Information Security Oversight Office, the National Archives branch that develops classification and declassification policies at the behest of the president. In his talk, given at a classification training seminar, Leonard complains that the system has lost touch with the “basics”: Some agencies don’t know how much information they classify; …
Read More »Jun 23, 2004
Patients’ Bill of Rights
Again, more soon, but in an attempt to show where the people’s interests really lie, we are inititiating a Petition for the Patients’ Bill of Rights. Join up, be counted, and dare Bush and DeLay to go against your will.
Read More »Jun 23, 2004
Quid Pro Pombo
Big smelly mess: Five months after becoming chairman of the House Resources Committee last year, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, created a political action committee that’s raised money from Indian tribes, gaming ventures, agricultural interests and other groups with issues under his committee’s jurisdiction, federal reports show. [...] At least eight tribes and tribal lobbyists gave the maximum of $5,000 each, including Jack Abramoff, who resigned in March from Miami’s Greenberg Traurig law firm after news reports of enormous fees …
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