We’ll leave aside for now the high hilarity of George Stephanopoulos having Tom DeLay on to talk about ethics, and letting him blather on about corrupt Democrats virtually without challenge (I can think of 20 things a good journalist would’ve started hammering DeLay about on the spot, but obviously DeLay took the gig because he had no fear of anything like that happening). Howard Dean did an excellent job of scoffing at the absurdity of the situation, but then came Father Tim recounting practically the same narrative. So did Maura Liasson. The thing that they all seem to be terrified of is that the Democrats will gain a majority and start impeachment proceedings (or at least launch investigations) of the White House (it seems to be Chris Matthews’ deepest, darkest fear).
I have to ask — is this matter really polling that well? Are Americans trembling in fear that the GOP might have it’s dirty laundry tossed by the Democrats? It all sounds a bit Tell Tale Heart to me. Now I know why DeLay doesn’t want it to happen, but why are Matthews and Russert so consumed with fear of Congressional oversight?
I’d like to harken back to probably my favorite story I’ve ever written on. It has to do with a footnote in a Fitzgerald filing when Russert was fighting tooth and nail to keep from having to answer the Special Counsel’s questions. Russert was claiming that the general waiver signed by Scooter was "coerced," and that if he testified his "sources" would never trust him again. To which Fitzgerald said:
It is also relevant to note that Russert has treated an asserted waiver of the reporter’s privilege quite differently when convenient. When Richard Clarke published his book Against All Enemies and testified before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the September 11 Commission), Clarke became subject to intense media scrutiny. On March 24, 2004, the White House disclosed Clarke’s identity as the "senior administration official" who gave a "background" briefing in August 2002. When Clarke appeared as a guest on Meet the Press on March 28, 2004, Russert noted the White House had been aggressive in attacking Clarke’s credibility and had identified Clarke as the source for the background briefing — without indicating any concern about the "voluntariness" of the waiver, in which Clarke apparently played no role. (Copy of the March 28, 2004, Meet the Press transcript, Exhibit 1). Russert did not hesitate to broadcast out of any concern that such disclosure might chill future background sources.
I just love that tight, brutal paragraph. I have to resurrect it every now and again if only for my own amusement.
Russert fucked Richard Clarke, Fitzgerald knew it and he called him on it. Russert was willing to sell the high journalistic principles he claims to cherish so much down the river for the party and the access he values even more. He fought relentlesslyl to keep from helping Fitzgerald (and the public) nail Scooter Libby. How is he going to feel when people like John Conyers (whom he smeared this morning — and Conyers fires back here) start looking into the all-too-cozy relationship that the press had with the White House in leading the country down the garden path to war?
The next time Russert and Matthews start quaking in their shoes at the thought of Democrats with subpoena power, I think it’s time to remember that it’s not their beloved Republicans they fear for, and given their ecstatic participation in the Cliniton hunt it sure isn’t the public. Could it be their own sorry asses they fear being exposed? Is that why they’re working overtime to spread GOP narratives and attempting to strike fear in the hearts of their viewers at the specter of impeachment?
You know, I think it just might be.
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Fitz!
colbert!
Russert must resign. He’s tainted, and he’s failed the public interest. If he gets out now, he can be spared some of the Domenech treatment. But I suspect he lacks the perspicacity.
The “impeachment” thing probably only motivates the base, which is why the Rethugs like Dole have been warning their followers in mailings but not going on about it so much in public.
Man, the Dems will have so many bigger fish to fry than Little Timmy. Far more high crimes and misdemeanors than what reporters were on the dole or on the take.
Somehow I can’t believe they’re whoring for the GOP just for moolah. I think it’s worse. I think people like Russert and Tweety and the rest are true believers—–or at least they will be until they think it’s gonna blow back and get ‘em.
But frankly, it’s already clear that the Bushies are going down in history as total fuck-ups, so then you’d think any normal- thinking, ordinary suck-ups to power would get a clue and start backing off. But the McMedia types aren’t doing that. So maybe they really are True Believers.
Great post…
Great post. Again you articulated what I am feeling. Russert and Matthews are practically in a panic these days.
(BTW, caught a typo – fifth paragraph, last line – counry instead of country.)
The tinfoil hat angle here is the DIA’s psyops campaign and all the money they’ve put into it for domestic consumption. Anyone wanna take odds on GE’s defense contracting interest in having its NBC news division play ball?
Raw is reporting that WaPo will have a big story on Rove/Wilson in tomorrow’s paper.
Breaking news!!! ;) Deborah Howell corrects weather phone numbers, thanks to an alert reader who called anonymously!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01525.html
===The Post depends on alert readers to point out errors, and we need to appreciate and encourage that. An anonymous caller [who asked that his/her name not be used because of the possible threat to national security] alerted me this week to the fact that the weather page has been running two discontinued telephone numbers. That was fixed. Score one for the readers.===
EPU-ed from last thread:
Amid the discussion of Bushie’s presidential highlight being fishin’ in his bathtub, as it were, I’ve seen little notice paid to the flip side of his comments, the worst day of his presidency. 9/11’s obvious, but what was telling to me was his saying, “In such a situation it takes a while before one understands what is happening,†Bush said. “I would say that this was the hardest moment, once I had the real picture before my eyes.â€
Huh? The real picture? Was it a DVD his staff had to put together for him, like Katrina?
And Russert this morning, guesting the Bush clone. Subtext: lucky, lucky you, you get to be in the in crowd, ’cause that nasty other guy he’s a MEAN comedian. The Old Media Washington Press Corpse has been co-opted by the ultimate mean nasty guys for so long they don’t even recognize their own abetting.
One wonders if Colbert and his writing team are even now slavering over word of the day: Mean.
As Teddy Roosevelt would say, “Bully!â€
setting aside the fact of whether all those investigations ever take place — and i have my doubts — i don’t know that the relentless drumbeat now starting about don’t vote democratic because they’ll harrass the white house is such a winning meme to have out there for the g.o.p. and its lapdog media.
at the very least, it galvanizes the base for both parties, as opposed to other wedge issues, which seem only to stir the bits in the republican soupcan.
the far more dispiriting prospect is that rove and company will return to the playbook for the 2002 midterm elections. you know, the one which called for a summertime discussion about the prospect for a preemptive invasion, followed by the roll out in september (because you don’t roll out a campaign in august, as marketer andy card memorably put it) of a force resolution that can be used as a litmus test on how “tough” an incumbent is on terror. indeed, i would be stunned if they didn’t use that playbook. it’s the only one they know.
This coordinated smokescreen today is so ridiculous in its bias that I don’t know how anyone can doubt the GOP owns the top journalists (at least the TV mannequin versions). The same group that were exercising their “good journalism” with the endless hunting of Clinton are now going to the opposite extreme to protect the Bush government.
I have to wonder if there isn’t, along with the K Street Project, a GOP J-School Project. We always assume dictatorship would involve government-controlled media, but what we have in this country is a party-controlled media. It’s proving more powerful than actually running the government.
How irrelavent they are. During their impeachment of Clinton (it was the wingers’ and the media’s) Clinton’s poll numbers remained high. Despite their incessant bashing of Gore, Gore won the election (but Bush came thru for the media). And now, in spite of their constant proping of the Bush disaster, Bush has numbers in the toilet. If they keep it up, the media might deliver both houses to the Dems. The electorate seems to see right thru their paper-thin cover. The left side bloggers should be spending their efforts on the real culprits, the corporations who run the Republican administration.
Fitzsnark? I like it.
bee eye en gee oh!
looks like the typo has been fixed.
VG #10: That ombudsman column was another disaster — how telling that she ended it with “Score one for the readers.” Which just goes to show how horribly off-base Deb is about her job, the WaPo, and its readers….
You all had a super book salon this afternoon, sorry to miss it — it was great to have the authors stay to chat!
I’m still in Virginia with Mom. We saw Newt Gingrich when we were out to lunch today, and I wanted to ask him for my cut of his TIME article where he said the Dems should run on “Had enough?”
Great post, Jane, one wonders what they’re all so terrified of — and Conyers sure tore Timneh a new one, eh?
The poolboy’s article is up:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..00717.html
OK: “Pumpkinhead” is pretty obvious, but why do we call him “Father Tim?” and what is the joke behind “Timmeh?”
There’s nothing more unsettling to a while male of middling intelligence than a meritocracy.
Russert and Matthews are practically in a panic these days.
Olbermann’s ratings vs. their ratings may be have them worried.
“In such a situation it takes a while before one understands what is happening,†Bush said. “I would say that this was the hardest moment, once I had the real picture before my eyes.â€
Well, it’s a good thing for fighter pilot Georgie that Nixon didn’t call up the Texas National Guard for duty in Vietnam. Imagine if it took a while before he understood what was happening when they started shooting antiaircraft guns at his plane…
Could it be their own sorry asses they fear being exposed? … You know, I think it just might be.
Gov. LePetomaine: “Gentlemen! We must protect our phony baloney jobs!” [/Blazing Saddles]
Ya know, when I caught some of these shows this morning the thought that popped into my head was that these people really think it’s the *Dems* who are the natural party of government, not the GOP, and they’re throwing up all this dreck because they’re afraid their little game is falling apart.
I used to think they viewed the Rs as the natural party of government and allied with them for that reason. But maybe it’s the other way around? Is that why they so consistently take the anti-Dem line? Guess I’m just a little late to the party.
New WaPo article — looks like Luskin’s last, best attempt to spin.
I still say Wed. = sealed indctment, Thurs. = notification of press conference on Friday, and Fri. = “Rove Indicted”
The fact that the GOP is only pushing the line of “if you elect the Democrats, it’ll be nothing but investigations” privately to their base shouldn’t matter. Democrats should be telling the country nonstop that the big idea from the party that claims the Dems don’t have any ideas is:
“Keep us in power, it’s the only way to keep us out of jail!”
“Now I know why DeLay doesn’t want it to happen, but why are Matthews and Russert so consumed with fear of Congressional oversight”?
With respect, Hamsher, why play it coy with such a silly question?
Matthews and Russert are ciphers. If not them, it would simply be two other pompous, beltway aggrandized bagmen for Disney and General Electric. You know that.
I’m with you aReader. They already know it, too.
http://tinyurl.com/a6erq
Help Impeach
1) Please sign petitions if you have not already
2) Please send a letter to Congress
3) Forward your letter to the Media
4) Elist family and friend to help
5) Pass the link around… Post it on a blog, or in the comments on a news story
Thank you :)
VG — thank you.
Puppethead — GOP J-school project, I think so.
Rob Zuber
Man, that Fitz team is 100% leakproof…
And Jane, I love that you manage to keep all this “ammo” to call them on their B.S. time and time again.
Maybe it’s being exposed as the shills they are that has them in a spin; maybe it’s the fear of failing ratings, though I suspect ratings aren’t that important when their real job isn’t selling advertising but selling the party line. But what I hope has them quaking in their shoes is very real legal jeopardy, at very least of the civil kind.
Told ya, pool boy will believe anything. Rove has the reputation as an evil genius, but he, like most of Bush’s cronies, is a complete f**k up at the governing thing.
Why does Bush keep so many incompetent people around him? He is mired in the low 30s, has a hell of a mess in Iraq, limping through a second term, yet he seems so reluctant to get rid of Rove or anyone on his core team. He simply cannot abide to get rid of any of his old Texas cronies. The MSM explain this as ’stubbornness’, or ‘loyalty’, or a ‘reluctance to change’, but they never mention the obvious answer. He’s afraid.
This is a guy who wasn’t successful financially till his daddy’s friends helped him out with a sweetheart deal. He didn’t accomplished anything in public life without the help of Rove and co. No matter how bad his cronies screw up or how much damage they do to the country – he doesn’t care. He is too scared to lose them. To lose them would be like losing his security blanket.
Bush never went through any hard knocks, never had his metal tested, never built anything real by himself. The same guy who froze during the worst day in American history, is now paralyzed in the midst of his own political crisis. But count on the MSM to ignore this angle, they are too invested in the photo-op of Bush with the bullhorn.
#26 Thursday….all Dems stay at home and sober.
Sonoma #28
The rhetorical question is an effective literary alternative to belaboring the obvious.
and Neurophius #20
I’ve always assumed ‘Timmeh’ comes from the wheel-chair-bound character in South Park…
There are several narratives that the Republicans will use as we approach the midterms. If anyone thinks that these are examples of a “positive agenda” please let me know.
1. But the Democrats are all crooks too!
2. Those pesky Democrats will hold the president accountable for starting an idiotic war and that would be a BAD thing.
3. Gays are bad.
4. Aliens are scarier than Gays.
5. The Democrats will stop the president from starting a war against Iran (big US threat with scary centrifuges).
6. And now for the big positive item: We’ll give you a hundred bucks!!!
What else do they have, other than contacts deep inside Diebold? If anyone knows, please let me in on it, because I watch pretty closely and that is just about all I can see. Oh, and taxes, of course, you all know that nobody has to pay taxes, right?
Russert’s display was idiotic, and Pelosi should have handled it MUCH better than she did. Which house Dems have real brains and cojones? Conyers is not at all a young man, and as much as I honor Murtha, he is not the guy either. Let’s make Dennis Kucinic the speaker in January!!
peace,
jim
I’d like to see a chart of estimated salaries for the “top” journos and exactly how much the bush tax cuts are saving them.
Jane,
I have been reading you for the better part of a year now with great admiration. Just as Joe Strummer married words, music and irony to lift us all to a higher plane of understanding our existential place in this kitchy marketing-driven capitalist culture, you have elevated our understanding of the political deals that fuck us over every day and the white knights who fight for the truth and for the people (Go Fitz and Russ!) But there have been few posts which cut to the heart of the true nature media-government complex better that this one. I work in a big media corporation and there is nothing that these maggots fear more that someone pulling the rock up off their cozy little back scratching. Rock on girl!
Timmeh just snarled at Nancy this morning.
nerophius #20: “Timmeh” is from South Park, it’s a character who’s probably supposed to have cerebral palsy, and can’t say anything but his own name.
Man, that Fitz team is 100% leakproof…
That is truly amazing, isn’t it? Fitzgerald is an authentic American hero. The best this country has to offer. I hope he becomes Attorney General someday.
I remember reading that Jack Welch considered Tweety and Timmeh his best pupils – so proud of the way he “convinced” them to give up their “liberal” ways and make GE’s bottom line their new god – apparently right after Karl Rove personally convinced Welch that a dumbya victory in 2000 would result in $megazillions for Welch and GE.
Welch scoffs at the idea of real journalism and has fired journalists who asked real questions that were not in GE’s best intereests. His media enterprises (NBC, MSNBC) became nothing but vehicles to get republicans elected – period.
I think Welch is retired now, but Tweety and Timmeh are still his “boys.”
I’m in Texas right now visiting my dad after his surprise quintuple bypass (he’s doing great,btw). I have to say, for some of the people I know around here who would rather hate puppies or eat a baby than vote for a Democrat, the tide isn’t just turning, it’s way out to sea. One dyed in the wool republican I’ve known since birth who hails from an oil family and who still attempts the offhand racist joke, openly stated today that any one party with this much unopposed power is bad for our government. He had a sober and genuine curiosity about what Democrats he should know about. I was shocked.
Also, my father remarried last year to a Bushite who has a son that flies B-1 bombers based out of Dyess AFB. She, her visiting bomber son, and some other friends were sitting around today, and to my surprise, revealed that their penchant for honesty, respect for innocent life, and ability to recognize a clusterfuck, have left them feeling deceived and fearful for not only our nation but the world. The bomber son I wasn’t so sure about but he may have felt like the de facto symbolic receptacle for all the anti-war and negative republican sentiment being aired.
Considering the new common ground, I didn’t feel compelled to say much, which is nice.
Yep, you nailed it on the head. Sorry asses. Cheeky pontificators. Liars. Certainly not journalists. Stop this insane war now and send all the enablers to prison for sedition. Including russett.
Teddy SanFran @18
Hi Newt!
OK, we’ve got (1) True Believer; (2) Afeared for their sorry asses; (3) Ratings. I think we’re looking at all of the above: the mood is shifting and damn how ya’ gonna control the ratings and the advertising dollars if the folks are heading to the blogs and the Comedy Channel?
If this continues, the cable and networks are gonna’ fire their winger butts and hire people more (ulp!) liberal. If the libs win a couple of elections the chickens are gonna’ come home to roost and the networks are going be called on their shit, aren’t they?
It’s jobs and dollars and corporate meetings where the Word is thundered from on high: Get the people back in line! Get your ratings back up! Fix this shit now! (’Cept that pony done his one trick, hasn’t he?)
Muzzy,
I’ve been getting that feeling lately, too, at my fairly right-leaning workplace. It’s nice to hear people just spontaneously expressing their new-found awareness.
Stephanopoulos is such a dissapointment . . . what the fuck happened to the little man . . .
are coctail weenies really that tasty . . . are mickey’s $ that important . . . that little fucker can kiss my ass . . . ARRRRRGGGGGG!
I think the Republican fearmongering of Democratic investigations is something we need to take advantage of.
For instance, we can turn their own rhetoric around on them. “If they haven’t done anything wrong, what do the Republicans have to be afraid of?”
Or how about this, interview situation:
Pundit: What about accusations that Democrats only want to win so they can impeach the President?
Response: (laughs, out loud and heartily) See, that just cracks me up. Do the Republicans honestly think “Don’t elect the other guy, he’ll expose my corruption!” is a really winning campaign slogan? If that’s what we need to compete, I gotta confess I’m not too worried.
I mean, it’s just such an easy message to ridicule. What could the GOP possibly be thinking?
Thanks, tprez2000 and Redshift, for “Timmeh.” I learn something new every day.
“Father Tim,” anyone?
TedySanFran:
“Hey. . . aren’t you Candice Gingrich’s brother?”
Olberman on O’Lielly
/snerk
everhopeful — is that in Welsh’s book?
Not all that long ago, journalists made about what a senior guy with a union job did.
Guys like Welch bought Timmeh and Tweety off, and intimidated the Clair Shipmans of the world (while man’s man Brokaw watched).
http://www.midtod.com/exclusives/jack-welch.phtml
Want another example of why most journalists are full of it? They love to quote “follow the money.”
Let’s do.
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1611
“The love of money is the root of all evil”
The “Monsignor Tim” moniker comes from Russert’s penchant for flaunting his Catholicism with faux working class glee, and for moralizing about religion in politics (particularly bashing Dems for being “hostile” to religion).
You can understand Fitz reaching for cold steel when talking about Clarke. He’s on record, several times, comparing public and private service, and explaining why he chose the less lucrative path. Clarke made the same kind of choices that he did: son of a Boston factory worker, 30-year government vet. And Nantucket Timmeh fucked him over.
Anyway, re: the mid-terms, the ‘don’t rock the boat’ line is going to wear very thin, very quickly. The Dems need to solidify a first-100-days legislative plan, but the overriding principle should be ‘kick the bastards out’. And that’s how they combat incumbency. Got a fat porker committee GOPper in your district? He’s going to be in the minority next year, so why bother voting for pork, when you can have a freshman Dem who’s on the majority side?
Response: (laughs, out loud and heartily) See, that just cracks me up. Do the Republicans honestly think “Don’t elect the other guy, he’ll expose my corruption!†is a really winning campaign slogan? If that’s what we need to compete, I gotta confess I’m not too worried.
Or ‘if the Republicans think they’re doing such a good job, then that should be the least of their worries.’
i’ve always been suspicious if this isn’t a contributing factor for fat tim’s and tweety’s fealty to fredo. jeff immelt has to show his appreciation somehow to the millions and millions of dollars fredo has had an assist in adding to general electric’s bottom line:
Reuters July 23, 2005
With Bush’s help, GE courts Indian PM, nuke sector
In-Depth Coverage
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Just over an hour after the White House’s surprise pledge to help India develop its civilian nuclear power sector, the head of General Electric, the American company that could benefit most from the policy change, sat down for a celebratory dinner.
The host was President George W. Bush; a few feet away was India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and his top aides. GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt, a contributor to Bush’s presidential campaigns, had a coveted seat at the president’s table.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..a-nuke.htm
Why are the Beltway media whores shaking so bad, they can’t hold on to their cocktail weenie trays?
They are as butt naked as Emporer Bush, and their credibility will go down the toilet with his.
This country has been evenly divided for ten years, despite the constant media suck up to the GOP — and this parity was only achieved because of the media. Now that Bush has been exposed as the incompetent lunatic that he is, the media enablers are looking worse and worse.
To paraphrase somebody: the Kewl Kidz are all Gannon/Guckerts now.
Pachacutec 57
Thanks, Pach. Since I hardly ever watch the guy, I probably would not have figured that one out.
“The rhetorical question is an effective literary alternative to belaboring the obvious”.
That’s a fair answer, and I thank you for it. But it’s also one I think off the mark. The obvious is rarely belabored.
For every instance of legitimate criticism the sabbath gasbags endure, perhaps 2 in 10 mention who signs their paychecks.
I advocate, say, when Russert’s name is invoked, he be referred to as Russert/GE. Just like a politician (Boxer/D). It would be easy. It would be honest. More-so than exclusively hacking on an individual being paid to absorb legitimate criticisms that should righteously fall on the corporation. They’re members of a political organization, too, (in a very real and sinister sense), albeit private sector apparatchiks.
If nothing else, folks unaccustomed to thinking in such terms just might begin to wise up.
Unless I’ve missed something (and that’s certainly possible), there doesn’t appear to be anything really new in the WaPo/VandeHei piece.
Something I haven’t really seen considered here (again I may have missed it): Anything less than multiple indictments for Rove will likely be seen and spun as total victory for the administration. Look for a significant JAR bounce if that happens. We all know that prosecutors sometimes opt not to charge a person even if they are reasonably certain that the person has committed a crime. The reasons can vary but in this specific instance, I think it is a mistake for the rest of us out here to underestimate the legal team behind Rove. (I’m certainly not suggesting Fitzgerald’s unit underestimates team Rove.)
I’m just saying that Rove and Fitz appear to be locked in a very high stakes chess game at the moment and that, given the legal power working on behalf of Rove, Fitz may decide at some point he has played the best game possible but has been out maneuvered and must concede. It happens even to the best players.
Of course if Rove has committed a crime, I sincerely hope Fitzgerald makes a shining example of Rove. But the difficulty of doing so should not be underestimated nor should we assign superhuman attributes to the Fitzgerald team by assuming they can overcome whatever obstacles team Rove puts in their way.
I know most here are optimistic Rove will be charged and you may indeed be correct. But I really don’t think I’m being cynical when I say that the history of corruption in the executive branch suggests, one way or the other, the guilty are seldom held accountable.
-x-
Jane – I read it online in a piece entitled:
THE MEDIA COVER-UP OF THE GORE VICTORY
PART FOUR: DEMOCRACY, GENERAL ELECTRIC STYLE
http://www.makethemaccountable…..art_04.htm
Great post, Jane.
I hope the talking heads who exhorted America into Iraq are held accountable for their complicity in this illegal war.
The pro-Iraq war pundits and journos are as guilty as the Ruwandan broadcasters who exhorted their listeners to genocide.
Rwanda (not Ruwanda). My bad.
there doesn’t appear to be anything really new in the WaPo/VandeHei piece.
The new bit is that a former official leaked to Vandehei about his testimony (about Karl’s focus on Wilson). That contradicts Luskin, “Luskin, Rove’s attorney, said Rove’s focus was not on Wilson.”
Anything less than multiple indictments for Rove will likely be seen and spun as total victory for the administration.
A Karl Rove indictment is a disaster for Bush, and it will be reported that way.
This is the central question here: do Matthews and Russert believe this administration can bear even the slightest scrutiny? No, they don’t. That’s the elephant in the room here, people–we all know BushCo has broken the law umpteen times over since 2000.
If you don’t feel that that’s the case, then you’re not worried. I mean, if you’re not guilty, why fear scrutiny?
Does Kevin Klein rue Wanda?
Does KangaRoo Wanda?
marksb #48:
“OK, we’ve got (1) True Believer; (2) Afeared for their sorry asses; (3) Ratings. I think we’re looking at all of the above: the mood is shifting and damn how ya’ gonna control the ratings and the advertising dollars if the folks are heading to the blogs and the Comedy Channel?
How about (4) General Hayden’s illegal Snoop Dirty-Dirt has the goods on e_v_e_r_y_b_o_d_y_. That’s probably how Delay kept all them gooper congressperps in line, as well.
Is it really going to work for the Republicans to get people concerned about Bush being impeached? I don’t see where this is a winner. How many people are going to vote Republican only because they don’t think Bush should be impeached? This seems like a bigger worry to other Republican leadership and a chunk of the media than to your average disenfranchised voter.
#73 I was just going to say the same thing–why will pissed off conservatives suddenly want to protect the guy they’re pissed off at? What the f*ck kind of election “idea” is that?
The Democrats’ slogan on this issue should be, “Why are you so afraid of scrutiny?”
Rob:
“The new bit is that a former official leaked to Vandehei about his testimony (about Karl’s focus on Wilson). That contradicts Luskin, “Luskin, Rove’s attorney, said Rove’s focus was not on Wilson.â€
Thanks, I did miss that.
“A Karl Rove indictment is a disaster for Bush, and it will be reported that way. “
My thought there was that a single charge might be spun with the old “That’s just a small technicality. All that work and just a single charge?” but that multiple charges would not be so easy to spin.
Still, I think you are probably correct — i.e even a single charge would be significant. Especially in light of the poor PR management we’re seeing from the WH lately – a la Goss, and the Colbert thing.
Maybe Russert paid a few visits to one of those poke’er (or poke-him) hospitality suites, eh?
Maybe Pelosi is smart to promise hearings instead of impeachment, eh? Even a succesful impeachment and conviction would only get rid of one moronic lackey of Big Money. Think how many stinking fish heads might be exposed in, oh, a few miscellaneous Q & A sessions under oath with real questions and real (compelled) answers.
cs 34
… though I suspect ratings aren’t that important when their real job isn’t selling advertising but selling the party line…
Indeed. Remember when the network news divisions were a point of pride, loss-leaders that weren’t subject to the bottom line? (think Good Night and Good Luck). Nowadays, it would seem that they’re loss-leaders of another sort – greasing the skids for the corporate profiteers by fronting the GOP story lines.
Scrutiny of the Bounty
steve expat: I agree, it doesn’t seem like a winner – until you factor in the planned attack on that AXIS OF EVIL, Iran! Then, it becomes “We’re at war – Our President is trying to protect Americans and fight THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR – and the democrats are trying to impeach him?”
I still don’t think it will work – even if we (God forbid!) attack Iran – but I think that’s Rove’s plan…
Tim, Chris & the Boys act like folks being blackmailed – it’s the only scenario I can come up with that explains ALL their behavior.
Jane – I’ve just been reading Jason Leopold’s latest article on the Rove case. He raises a number of points relative to Fitz’s evidence that look new to me. For instance:
“…what has not been previously reported is the fact that there are dozens of other memos and emails Rove sent to White House officials in June 2003, including former Chief of Staff Andrew Card, in which Rove suggests the White House launch a full scale public relations effort to attack Joseph Wilson for speaking out against the administration.”
Did ‘we’ know this?
Very interesting post, thanks Jane.
Perhaps Mr. Russert and others fear that the truth will come out. The corruption wasn’t only in the White House, the People’s House, the Senate and the government bureacracy. It stretched its slimy tentacles into mainstream media.
Mr. Russert, et al, probably don’t want the average American to find out that they also engaged in pay to play, Karl-Rove-style. In exchange for access, the media “personalities” asked the softball questions, engaged in ocassional hits on the Dems and always, but always, repeated the Republican talking points that came out of the Rovian West Wing of the House.
Xmas 2006. Bush Sr. to Dim Son, “I told you that Rove dude was bad news.”
This passage sticks in your throat like sour milk. It pisses me off that people like Pelosi won’t call him on it, (something like ‘Tim, are you planning on asking Newt next week why it was he left his cancer ridden wife for his mistress, and if he thinks that might affect his presidential ambitions?).
from: THE MEDIA COVER-UP OF THE GORE VICTORY
PART FOUR: DEMOCRACY, GENERAL ELECTRIC STYLE
By David Podvin and Carolyn Kay:
“In private, Welch was proud to have personally cultivated Tim Russert from a “lefty” to a responsible representative of GE interests. Welch sincerely believed that all liberals were phonies. He took great pleasure in “buying their leftist souls”, watching in satisfaction as former Democrats like Russert and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews eagerly discarded the baggage of their former progressive beliefs in exchange for cold hard GE cash. Russert was now an especially obedient and model employee in whom the company could take pride.”
Thanks for the great piece Jane…you really
nailed it!! Being from Boston, and knowing a bit about the former speaker Tip O’Neill…I get so ticked off at Tweety when he starts saying about how he worked and learned from Tip…well, let me tell you, Tip would have Tweety’s head on a platter if he were still alive. I hope once we manage to gain control that all these so called
broadcast journalists get their due justice.
Out on their asses and on the unemployment line.
Keep up the great work…and btw, a couple of good friends of mine are going to the Yearly Kos party and are going to try and meet you.
Both are from DC…so don’t be surprised!!
Wish I could go, but circumstances here prevent it. Have fun!
Jane – also from the Leopold article:
“Sources close to the case said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales withheld numerous emails from Fitzgerald’s probe, citing “executive privilege” and “national security” concerns. These sources said that as of Friday, May 5, there were still some emails that had not been turned over to Fitzgerald because they contain classified information in addition to references about the Wilsons.
steve expat 73, maybe the Rs are thinking back to when Clinton’s popularity actually rose after the impeachment efforts started, and assuming the same reaction will hold for Bush. They are, of course, missing the point that Clinton hadn’t done anything worthy of impeachment, whereas Bush deserves impeachment (not to mention prosecution and imprisonment) many times over. But given the political myopia of much of the GOP where W is concerned, it’s not surprising.
I was a J-school refugee. It was so tedious and robotic that I think the only people who could stand it were the college repugnicans. I dropped out and went to English. I thought, “I came here to write, not to be taught to write as meaninglessly and mechanically as is humanly possible.”
The whole department was geared toward people who look and act like Nancy Grace and Stone Phillips. (HURL!) The J-school interns we get at our radio station are about as incurious and desultory as you can be and still have a pulse.
Man, Mara Liasson. If she’s going to be NPR’s main blogger then they need to hire me to act as her liberal foil. Not just RNC talking points, but LAST SEASON’S talking points at that! What, did she pick those up for 60% off on the sales rack at the Pundit Outlet Mall? Some little number she pounced on when she was cruising Lynne Cheney’s yard sale? Jeez, lady!
Why is the MSM worrried the Dems will take the House and Senate? Can’t they count on Diebold to hand over the election to the rethugs again? Has Diebold been neutered?
If Rove gets indicted on a single charge, it will spell THE END. No matter how it’s spun, another WH official indicted who has the kind of power Rove has (and Libby once had) will put the lie to the whole WH/Scotty statements at the start of this investigation. And then the rest of the lies will be exposed as the case goes on.
I will not be disappointed if the only other indictment is Rove, but I wish for more, and expecially for the conspiracy charge to come flying forward. As Wisconsinites say, that would be a “Great day in the cow barn.”
#87, That would be “especially.” Duh.
“George Step-on-top-o-this”
maybe he needs to borrow Barbara Boxer’s booster platform.
He could use some Boxer boosters, all right.
rove, rove, rove your bloat
gently now we blame
merely lies, merely lies, merely lies, merely lies,
life is but a plame
70 -
“Does Kevin Klein Rue Wanda?”
Enkleindering minds wanda know
I may have to sing that little tune as I fall asleep. Looks like this thread is over.
better:
life*, for outing Plame
*(w/o parole)
Ah, Kirk, you’re still around. Good one!
Ed N Sted says:
My thought there was that a single charge might be spun with the old “That’s just a small technicality. All that work and just a single charge?†but that multiple charges would not be so easy to spin.
Well, it’s true they won’t be easy to spin, but that won’t keep Republicans from spinning. Remember how Kay Bailey Hutchison after Libby’s 5-count indictment tried to convince everyone that they were all just “technicalities”, and people like Bill Kristol have been desperately ejaculating the same b.s. every since. Their sad, plaintive cries will echo again (once Rove is indicted) through the sets of Fox Sunday, Press the Meat and Snuffleuppagus’s show but it will be the sound of a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it.
Excuse me if this has been put up today:
 Last Question Is Obstruction for Fitzgerald, Rove
    By Jason Leopold
    t r u t h o u t | Report
    Sunday 07 April 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050706Z.shtml
#73 & #74: “Is it really going to work for the Republicans to get people concerned about Bush being impeached?”
Yeah, that’ll work well, just keep the impeachment image fresh in our minds. Imagine Ford with a new advertising slogan “Our cars do not explode! The media is biased and those films were rigged and anyway lots of cars explode and only a few people burned up and the other car companies make exploding cars too!”
That’s real top-drawer marketing.
thanks Dana – but all props to punaise – amazing!
Glad you’re still on the thread – is this the West Coast bit of fabric?
a perch named wanda
West Coast (CA here) and insomniacs from points eastward….
#98, I dunno. It’s way late on the east coast and raining. I’m trying to put off Monday. Wanda go fishing with punaise?
kirk 92 – double-dipping! two fishes with one cast. heh heh
Investigations by a Democratic-controlled Congress? No.
The real fear, the real reason for all the lies, the corruption, the phony war(s), for the trashing of our constitutional rights?
I have your answer in one word: Metrication.
Nothing scares a repug (and their shrill supporters in the CM) more than the metric system. It truly is French, and foreigners use it (gasp).
Since immigration reform has turned out to be a loser, you can bet they’ll try to scare the masses with metrication.
I think what they really fear is the end of their long cocktail party, with the money and self importance that has come along with it. Imagine if they had to get real jobs, even real journalist jobs. The cocktail party is about the cocktail party and the people who attend the cocktail – it has nothing to do with covering politics, politicians or issues. Its all a game. And, when the regime falls, all of its enablers fear that they will be held to account for its actions. I for one hope that is true.
and big marsupial group jumps to you, Dana :)
Don’t know if
Kanga Does Roo
rueing my ignorance….
EPU! You are going to be EPU’ed for sure. I’m a tad skittish about the metric system myself. It’s not scarier than a Nile Perch, though.
Jane raises a great question- “Is it a net positive or a net negative for dems if voters think that they will work to impeach Clusterfuck if they take control.. I think the answer is “No one knows”.
Smells like “Rove goes down week” I assume there will be some liquid refreshments soon. Won’t be good news for goopers.
Best outcome- Fitz announces the indictment and then says that the investigation is NOT concluded.
It’s kinda cute how the number one comment is usually “Fitz”. However, if we don’t start thinking “Diebold” all of this dancing in the streets will be brushed away by another stolen election. You’ve heard it many times before but as old Joe Stalin used to say “It’s not who votes that matters..it’s who counts the votes.”
Dana – Gas would only be about 78 cents a liter if we used the metric system. I am surprised that a marketing “genius” like Rover hasn’t pushed for this, I’m sure the “base” would think they are saving money.
perched upon the apex of his success…
Someone turn off the italics
Did that workd?
EPUd
EPU’d
EPU’ed
which is correct?
nobody answered me on this early Saturday.
Fitz has a way of writing these indictments so that;
1 anyone can understand em.
2 they lay out ALL the bullshit.
It will be hard for Rover to spin the indictment to anyone who has read it.
I believe I have most frequently seen it as:
EPU’d
Trouble with switching to Liters is that it would be too expensive to change all the pumps.
oops – everything is all slanty everywhere. I hope that wasn’t me that inadvertently forgot to close italics. Apparently did that last night; upon discovering it this morning, my apology likened it to leaving the toilet seat cover up.
When you leave the toilet seat up- do it like a gooper- proudly!
Punaise – It wasn’t you, it started at Evolving Peace #85.
dana #90: He could use some Boxer boosters, all right.
I get spam ads for “boxers boosters” every day…
Jay, some people don’t think it’s cute to start the comments with “fitz.” I learned that awhile back. :) EPU, don’t give any help to the Rove marketing geniuses–
If Fitz says the investigation is not concluded after indicting Rove, that would be a jolt, wouldn’t it? And if he indicts more than Rove and still says it’s not over, that would fitz ‘em all to the moon.
Pelosi isn’t afraid of the charge that the dems will investigate Clusterfuck and draw up impeachment articles if they are called for. She’s rolling the dice.
RE: Rove-
Shall we get our bets down? I say this week. Three indictments. 1 perjury. 1 misc. 1 conspiracy.
Yeah- I think this week too.
EPU 106
that doesn’t measure up :~)
I’d say one perchery- one obstruction- and one makin a general nuisance.
rwcole – I wan’t being serious. Although seemingly it would be cheap to change digital pumps.
No one worry, we’re not going metric anytime soon.
Did you know that some Frenchmen wanted metric time? Their dastardliness knows no bounds.
EPU– still a lot of mechanical pumps out there. I’m not sure if they can be changed.
Redshift 121
Viagra Falls, when the honeymoon is over
Dana 122 – The cool kids now start a thread with Kazuza. Trust me.
EPU 120 – thanks for setting us straight
I’ve been listening to Neil Young’s “Living With War” for 12 hours now. It takes me right straight back to the 70’s, Kent State and all that crap. As bad as that was, this is worse. Although if there were a general draft, I think some ROTC buildings would be ablaze again.
After Vietnam, Nixon, etc., I thought our country had learned.
Ha – the jokes on us. The lesson we refuse to learn – you can’t elect Rethugs. They are crooked to the core.
So I sit here in Diebold land, remembering Kent State, Bill Berry and crying in my hot chocolate.
And saying a prayer for Patrick Fitzgerald…..
Redshift, my husband told me that one day in the newsroom he wondered aloud whether he was the only one getting viagra ads (this was quite some time ago). Everyone spontaneously yelled, “yes!”
Trouble with the Fitz indictments is that few people read them.
dana 98 -
fishing sounds great, if I didn’t have to work – I don’t think the clinic has a fishing license (or tackle, come to think of it),or I’d just ask it along.
hope the rain helps keep Monday away
here in the Bay Area the rain kept most of March and April away, somewhere over the sodden clouds.
punaise 105 – thanks. wow, high praise from the hierophant of fdl punplay – I’m honored (and blushing at the keyboard)
fdl world – is it just me, or did thinks go italicized? this seems like another mysterious visit from the high order of the Serafont – angelic beings with debased typographical humor. The Serafont seem to be hanging out with the Serifs again…..
rw – perchery for the stool pigeon! Has Karl gone a capella?
I sought the Serif
but I did not seek the Century
Its all a game. And, when the regime falls, all of its enablers fear that
they will be held to account for its actions. I for one hope that is true.there won’t be any cocktail parties for awhile, and they won’t be “important” and making all that money any more.At least it is consistent. It could be the struck out stuff too.
Who’ll shoot the serifs?
Yeah, everything slants on late-nite toward the left. As Emily Dickinson wrote, “There a certain slant of light. . . . “
kirk – it was a glorious day in the Bay Area today, at least. April sure was bleak.
It’s always sunny where I live. Sorry.
punaise, we were thinking the same song, and ya beat me to it! Damn, you’re fast.
dana – simultaneous font-fest?
but you beat me to the follow-up!
great minds, and all that….
Hey! the slantiness disappeared! EPU, do you like EPU’d, EPU’ed, or what? And how do your flowers grow if there’s no rain in your universe?
dana–
Yes.
That slant.
My favorite is the high one bouncing off red brick schoolyard walls on pinkish autumn afternoons.
Ball hockey, oak leaves and runny noses followed by salt and vinegar potato chips and RC Cola in small town Canuckistan.
the sun never sets on the Evil Parellel Empire
136 -
my cats got up to see why their human started laughing
encountering felines want to purr
thanks for the fun and play
think I’m headed off to bed before someone needs to use the little deities’ room and the world goes all tilty again
g’night thread
suite dreams – don’t let the spooks bite
potato chips and RC Cola in small town Canuckistan.
or slantines with RW Cole, uhhh
catch ya later, kirk
Hey Punaise -
It sure was gorgeous here today – I think I got a sunburn in San Francisco. My dermis is disoriented.
Hope the week brings more sun and brings you good fishing weather.
heh – the only thing I fish for is props….
not your EPUdermis, I trust
From the NYT :
“In regular West Wing breakfast sessions catered by the White House mess, Mr. Rove and the White House political director, Sara Taylor, have already been reaching out to nervous and vulnerable Republicans, three at a time, laying out an emerging three-prong attack on Democrats over national security, taxes and health care.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05…..r=homepage
1- Who is Sara Taylor ?
2- My guess is that “internet pedators” makes the list of attack lines. “The Dems will sell your children into the sex slave trade” Will be the subtext.
TV is flooded with these stories now. Alberto is coming out every Thursday with a presser announcing some new sweep. They’re just waiting to see if pictures appear with Porter Goss and a live boy, dead woman, or “milking Bush’s stallion”.
3- Wed. one thing’s for sure, we see Scandal Jack’s list of trips to the W.H.
Good night, kirk and punaise and all the rest of youse guys. My cats are dreaming of fish, the dogs are dreaming of tennis balls bouncing in the yard, and I’m dreaming of three counts against Rove on Friday come true. Obstruction. “Perchery.” Conspiracy. Get yer bets on the table.
“…the White House mess…”
best unintentional funny of the day! LOL
and I really can’t compose a sentence anymore, so Monday, here I come.
think I’ll pack it in
and close my laptop
take a trip to the hay
(apologies to Neil Young)
bonne nuit a tous
Pool Boy writes this (Monday) morning in the WaPo that frog-marching time is almost here.
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..17_pf.html
Off to bed.
Last thought for the night. The MSM is playing this as will or will not Fitz indict Rove. I’ll suggest that isn’t the question on Fitz’s mind. He is probably thinking about how to do this in such a way that mzaximizes screw turning for the next steps. That probably involves pitting Rove against Libby and getting to Cheney or WHIG. Investigation will be ongoing.
Grand Jury on Wednesday — sealed indictment.
Thursday Morning — Fitz calls press conference.
Friday Morning — Rove frog march.
Upthread, Jane asked if “Impeachment” would be a net gain or net loss for the Democrats, going into the election. At a 16% strongly approve JAR, it can’t be all that bad. But John Conyers is already on top of it — impeachment isn’t our goal; it’s restoring Congressional oversight.
If we frame the issues, the good guys win big time. If the Rethugs frame the issues, they mitigate their losses. Either way, we win — but we need to win BIG.
Conyers at dKos –
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..1629/51672
hey punaise
Saw a steelhead in Bear Creek 2 nights ago.
Well now, how about these good ole frat boys ?
Nice work Josh !
Sure puts another spin on that Goss/Negroponte story
Click it out folks…
“Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination.” – Alan Watts
Suzanne,
A pair of loons came back to our lake today. I was gone when they came, but my wife and son described to me how they worked the ice edge, looking for upwelling food.
When I got home, I started tilling the garden. Ice clumps under the soil threw me for a few loops.
Fitz will be back this week, maybe for keeps.
“Someone named John Conyers”? Nice one, Russert. You really outdid yourself there. As if Conyers wasn’t a 40 or so year vet of the House and a national hero for helping rid us of Richard Nixon.
It’s typical of the patronizing way Conyers is often treated in the national media (who can forget Dana Millbank, who I truly wish Keith Olberman could quit, and his little yukfest when Conyers had to hold his rump hearing?)
Charles Rangel often has to endure the same treatment, being called “Charlie” by people considerably younger than him and generally being treated as comic relief by the likes of Novakula in spite of his long tenure in Congress and his honorable service in Korea.
Harrington,
Rangel’s Korea service. I didn’t know that. It explains the hardness of his attitude toward some of the neo-cons over the past sixteen years.
THANKS, Jane! Great piece! We need some like this from time to time. Made my day!
From Novacula, look who Karl sat with last weekend :
Unfriendly neighbors
Presidential adviser Karl Rove and his enemy, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, along with his wife, Valerie Plame, were seated at adjacent tables in the huge ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel for the White House Correspondents Association dinner last weekend.
Wilson on Aug. 21, 2003, talked about having Rove ”frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs” in connection with disclosure of his wife’s identity as a CIA employee.
Wilson later said, ”I don’t know if he leaked it.” With 2,700 in the ballroom, Wilson and Plame, guests of ABC, and Rove a guest of NBC, were seated a few feet from each other.
Although it would involve a lot more keystrokes, I think we should start referring to Punkinhead and Tweety as “defense contractor General Electric spokesman Tim Russert” and “defense contractor General Electric spokesman Chris Matthews”.
Might have to set up “defense contractor General Electric spokesman” as a hotkey.
How much does Russert make? $5 to $10 million a year?
I suspect that he likes the hefty tax cuts the Repos have given people of his ilk, as they pile debt on the rest of us, and as a result, he now believes that his personal best interests dovetail with those of the Repos.
All other issues are secondary.
Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Probably just shot himself or something…get Michelle Malkin on it.
ed n sted (#64)
Anything less than multiple indictments for Rove will likely be seen and spun as total victory for the administration. Look for a significant JAR bounce if that happens.
bounce? not. bloody. likely. why would the public be happy about that? the public hasn’t been in the spin zone since dubai. have you seen the graphs for bush’s jar lately? there ain’t no bounce in a dead cat.
When the right made the dust-up over no good news in Iraq, the cable cartoon shows just stopped reporting it at all. From the Monitor, this was yesterday in Baghdad :
Specials > Iraq in Transition
from the May 08, 2006 edition
Death squads deepen division in Baghdad
Bombs Sunday killed at least 30; some 45 men were found slain in the capital.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/…..-woiq.html
Looks like the Baghdad fishing derby will be canceled again this year. Someone tell the President.
Just woke up so for me this is the AM thread with first coffee
Threat of EPU but just a few general observations about how the media got this way.
I don’t watch, even own, a television since about 20 years and I live in Paris for 12 years now and get back to the States only once a year on average.
What appalls me every time when I return is the on-going infantilization of television news; each time I am amazed that it has become more banal and vapid than before, plumbing new lows in foisting tawdriness and misinformation on a public that is the proverbial frog on a slow boil.
Remember the film “Network”? A whole generation never knew what the networks were capable of providing. Murdock, Welch and the corporate owners of our media in many ways are the government—politicans take their marching orders.
Timmeh and his ilk are simply their mouthpieces, go-along but ambitious hacks who have cut a Faustian bargain for the heady cocktail of money, power and fame.
Sorry, don’t see much hope for change any time soon.
At 172, aarrgghh said.
“bounce? not. bloody. likely. why would the public be happy about that? the public hasn’t been in the spin zone since dubai. have you seen the graphs for bush’s jar lately? there ain’t no bounce in a dead cat. “
As I admitted earlier, I probably should not have used the word “multiple” indictments. As Rob pointed out (#68), even a single charge against Rove would likely be yet another disaster for Bush.
But let’s say Fitz announces he will NOT be indicting Rove at all (I know most of you here believe that outcome is unlikely, but bear with me a moment).
Should that happen, the entire administration and every talking head from O’Reilly to Hannity would be claiming total victory. They’d all claim “Look, after many months and many thousands of dollars, Rove was cleared was cleared of all wrongdoing.”
Such an outcome would hand the president’s supporters a huge victory and Bush’s JAR would benefit. I wouldn’t care to predict by how much but I’d bet the direction would be up.
-x-
ed (#175),
“Such an outcome would hand the president’s supporters a huge victory and Bush’s JAR would benefit.”
you fail to show how bush’s jar is logically connected to rove not being indicted.
the jar asks, generally, “do you approve of the job bush is doing/do you think bush is moving in the right direction?”
for the jar to rise, a lot of people who now answer “no” to that question will have to change their minds.
if rove is not indicted, how does that move lots of people from “no” to “yes, bush is doing a good job” — even if lots of people conclude that the investigation was a waste of time and money? the two issues aren’t even related.
1) Fitzgerald works a method
2) He never wastes a Grand Jury’s time
3) He knows a crime has been committed before he goes into the GJ
4) He only uses the GJ as intended: to enter evidence into the record and having the jury vote on the indictment
Given his track record… And I am not spinning propaganda. Rove is as good as convicted.
He is toast, and it would be very likely that Luskin, Rove, and the WH are very much aware it is simply a matter of time and specific charges brought.
Me3
spot on.
The ultimate and most satifying irony will be that DC’s greatest spinmeister will be caught in his own web of deceptions. Over nearly 2 years and 5 appearances, KR has been spinning the GJ to save his neck while Fitz has just been patiently braiding it into the rope that will hang him.
Stuff of Greek tragedy, if only the characters weren’t such a farce.
translation of all this: be very afraid, the brown comsymps will take over if you vote Democratic in Nov. That the press is colluding in the Repug fear tactic is sickening. Great great job catching them on it, Jane.
Haven’t been able to keep up with all the comments in the last week but have been able to keep up with the excellent posts. Also had a chance to glance at the site meter.
Congratulations to Jane & Christy for reaching the 10 million milestone.
Red Staters bitching about Dems wanting investigations. This guy is responding to a diarist’s post about the Dems agenda for post-2006:
Impeachment over policy decisions that are illegal? Nope.
Impeachment over lying about a blowjob? Check.
That’s your contemporary Republican right there.
a prime example of why you are loved so much by this reader..
you simply say what we are all thinking so well..
me thinks they doth protest too much..
what jerks
Good morning, gang–
Yesterday was infuriating, with Steph allowing Delay on the program to bloviate about Dem corruption, for Chrissake, and Father Tim is singing the same tune and hammering Pelosi about taking impeachment off the table.
It must be panic.
I definitely want investigations into the NSA surveillance, Iraq WMDs and war profiteering – wherever it shall go.
I cannot stand this right-wing notion that complete deference to Bush is the only way to effective prosecute the “War on Terror.”
He bumbled the “GWOT” from day one but they don’t seem so bothered by that, so long as their tax cuts are in place.
If they won’t indict Rove, will they at least revoke his fax machine privileges? I know a lot of Sunday morning hosts will go into withdrawal, but admitting they have a problem will be the first step towards recovery.
OT:
CNN in the AM – So far, the morning doofus crew hasn’t even hinted at hookergate. the only opposition point to Hayden seems to be about not having a military man heading up the CIA.
PS – it’s Tony Snow’s first day on the job. I hope Helen gives him hell.
I have resigned myself to the media spin, and have made a personal promise that come post election 2006, I will have the courage to keep fighting and NOT sink into the abyss of hopelessness.
Yesterday I heard 1) the dems are confident of winning one or both of the houses of Congress, but if they fail in that, the republicans will count (spin) it as a victory, and 2) the dems will be a disaster.
I also know this: IF the dems win one or both houses, the media will return to its attack dog status and bash the dems from here to 2008 and beyond.
Post Nov. 2006, win or lose, we will need the FDL, Kos and like communities even more.
GrandmaJ -
Media spin and dirty tricks are the only two things that make me second guess ever running for office.
For instance, my last name is the same as a former Nicaraguan dictator so I can just hear the comparisons and “slip of the tongue” remarks by people like Michelle Malkin, Red Staters, the Ann Coulters, Bill O’Reillys, Sean Hannitys, Brit Humes and Joe Kleins of the world.
Today’s New York Times:
You can just tell he’s got all kinds of Diebold, voter disenfranchisement, phone jamming, etc. cards up his treasonous sleeve.
from todays NYTimes obituary of Drexel A. Sprecher,a prosecutor at Nuremberg:
"The propagandists who lent themselves to this evil mission of instigation and incitement are more guilty than the credulous and callous minions who headed firing squads or operated the gas chambers," he said.This morning’s coverage on Today Show certainly tells me a lot — even with the tube on mute.
First, Hayden-for-DCI is a full-court press by the entire administration; Cheney, Hadley both on and promoting him. You can be certain I was throwing things at the television, listening (Seeing?) to unindicted co-conspirators go on about Hayden’s importance to that role.
Which makes what scotianova (72) quite important: I think Hayden’s got dirt on them ALL, and they are going to go through the motions of supporting him for this highly-unsuitable role and let him get chewed up by the Senate, simply because the man has dirt on every single one of them.
Explains a LOT of what we see going on right now, doesn’t it?
BTW, if there was ever any doubt Noron was a golden girl with the administration, her bagging a one-on-one interview with Cheney should have clinched. HOWEVER…she muffed the recap this morning, deliberately or no is open to conjecture.
She said, in closing, when Cheney was asked about the hunting accident that “…he shoo…he’d go hunting again.” Heh. Laughed my butt off. “He’d shoot again.” Yes, sweetheart, that’s absolutely right, you should have just said that instead of self-editing on air. Heh.
Didn’t Bush train on an airplane in the National Guard that was to be recycled?
Matt O:
I responded to your email. If you have not gotten my reply, your email account is still rejecting or losing my messages. I also replied to the yahoo address.
BTW, w/r/t to the talking heads giving virtual handjobs to the skanky ‘wingers yesterday on the Sunday circuit…
Don’t you think that two other burgeoning threats on the immediate horizon might drown out their chatter?
Hurricane season begins June 1.
And the same networks (ABC specifically) are starting inflammatory “entertainment” on bird flu…cue the scene with the thousands of bodies in a trench waiting mass burial.
Those same talking heads will be deployed to the scenes of the crime, yes? Can’t wait until Timmeh has to interview Broussard a SECOND time on MTP.
New thread. See ya’ll upstairs.
!ztiF
Yep. New thread time.
–
Is the graphic for your post a still from the 1944 film “The Uninvited,” in which Ray Milland was the starring actor?
Fish called Rwanda?
Those radio inciters …well, I usually hate that old saw about ,’ there-oughta-be-a-law ‘ but if the overall size and power of the state decreases then I would make a case for this kind of incitement to be made illegal. Actually I did make a case for this last year …about a month before we had a race riot here in Au. ( Cronulla)
If politics is for anything it has to be about reducing violence surely. ‘ Better jaw, jaw, jaw than war, war, war.’?
Thinking ’bout Luther now for some reason. He’s reported to have described himself as ‘ a turd in gods arse just waiting to be shat out onto the world…’
Someone shit in the pool?
Call cabana boy.
‘It is unclear if anyone other than Rove remains under investigation…’
Poolboy’s May 8 – Rove’s Time in Limbo Near End in CIA Leak Case
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 8, 2006
Previously on Hill st Blues…
George W. Bush IS a Liar
By Robert Parry
April 14, 2006
Patrick Fitzgerald described the anti-Wilson campaign as a “concerted†effort by the White House to “discredit, punish or seek revenge against†a troublesome critic.
Consortiummews.com
Bulldogs don’t let go that easy poolboy – neither do Firedogs either by the look of it.
Surely Card and Gonzales are in play…surely Pere Ubu. Tension mounts…and rides away.
What I meant to say…If Jeffs arse is tight – you must indict!
Fitz! Colbert! Fiengold! Pillar!Drumheller! Risen! Gorden and Trainer! Ray Mcgovern!Richard Clark! Paul O’Neil! Wilkerson! Larry Johnson!Dahr Jamail! Jane and Christy!… and Al Gore (and all the rest who refuse to be intimidated).
I could not believe the ferocious attack on Pelosi, Conyers and the Democrats by Russert on MTP Sunday. I wrote to MTP that Conyers was less of a partisan than Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KA) who, as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee has refused to hold any meaningful hearings concerning pre-war intelligence or NSA warrantless spying.
I used to think, long ago now, that Russert was an unbiased journalist. Each week he provides further evidence of how far up the a__ of Dick Cheney, he has burrowed.
But, then again, why would I think that the employee of one of the largest defense contractors and one of the largest benefactors of the current tax structure, General Electric, be fair?
I can’t believe I bought that man’s book and shook his hand (of course thinking “this hand shook JFK’s hand” which was the reason I did it instead of getting my friend to take my pic with him like I took hers.) God, he’s such a creep. His dad is spinning also, in his grave!
Conyers was my rep. when I lived in Detroit. He’s great.
Alex,
Well I’ll be go to hell!
I did not know that.
–
It seems to me that it’s time NOW to prepare for the strong possibility of impeachment of, first Cheney, then Bush.
If Cheney and Bush were impeached simultaneously by a Democratic-controlled House, and convicted by the Senate, that would leave Speaker Nacy Pelosi as president. Talk about constitutional crisis! The Bush/Cheneyites would do all the damage they could in trying to prevent this.
It will be necessary to first impeach and convict Cheney (or let him resign “for health reasons”), then allow Bush to nominate a new VP acceptable to a consensus of the Senate, then either impeach Bush or allow him to resign, much like the Agnew/Ford/Nixon scenario.
What needs to happen right now is to start thinking about a Republican acceptable to all to serve out the rest of Bush’s term. Someone strong on defense but not a rabid neocon, someone who still has credibility. Somone who, if he wants to run for 2008, will really clean house.
Not McCain. Not Powell. Huckabee?
Progressives need to get out in front on this issue, and start beating the drums.
Let’s also kep in mind that Bush will issue lots-o-pardons as he goes. So forget about getting convictions on Libby, Rove, Cheney, etc. And expect the imcoming Prez to pardon Bush, as Ford did Nixon.
Which prompts me to offer this amendment to the Constitution: Any one who has ben pardoned of a crime by the President shall thereafter be barred from holding public office or government employment, and shall therafter be barred from entering into a business relationship with the government of the United States or of any of the several States, unless such bar is removed by a majority vote of the Senate.
Right Fools
The prospects for the progressive populist agenda that opposes the “mediagovernmental complex” as articulated here by Pach are dim, I’m afraid. Global destabilization to the point of crises suggests that military/force options will preempt reasoned rational solutions in the face of crisis induced chaos.
That’s the amazing thing about chaos. No matter what causes it, it’s always the same. Lord of the Flies, anyone?
–
anonimouse
Wow, bringing suggestions for ammendments to the constitution here to the EPU’d Zone!
rusty, mui, I, and maybe a few others, are honored, I’m sure. There’s not many readers, I’m afraid, here deep down in the Late Nite FDL EPU’d Zone. FDL’s comentariat gaggle is buzzing around the most current comment thread.
I must say, however, I like the idea of limiting access to government ever again by pardonees. Would that really need a constitutional ammendment, though?
Don’t feel I’m running you off. Everyone’s welcome here in the EPU’d Zone, blog whorers, polite trolls, main thread stragglers, and a few “regulars” who prefer the peace and quiet.
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I think the reason that the Republicans are giving Timmey and Tweety this meme is because they took only one lesson from the Clinton impeachment fiasco: that the GOP was punished for it. ERGO, they think, “impeachment BAD,” and figure that if voters believe that the Dems will try to impeach, or even investigate Bush, once they take back control of one or both Houses, the voters will punish the Dems.
Of course, that’s because the GOP — and Timmy and Tweety — don’t understand WHY the GOP was punished for Clinton’s impeachment. It wasn’t because “impeachment BAD.” It was because the reasons behind the impeachment were correctly viewed as improper, having nothing to do with Clinton’s performance as President.
But if Democrats win either House next fall, it will be precisely BECAUSE voters are tired of having Congress rubberstamp all of Bush’s abuses of his office. It will be BECAUSE they want a Congress that actually exercises some oversight of this President.
So let Timmey and Tweety contintue to repeat the COP talking points. It can only help us, even as it infuriates us.
“could it be their own sorry asses they fear being exposed…,”
he..he..he..he..!
great question. definitely, yes.
you don’t ever stop kicking {g.o.p.} ass do you Jane?
thank you…
You hit it right on the head. They are scarred shitless that their cozy, way-over-paid, stonographer job will be eliminated!
I remember Dean, once a favorite ofYou hit it right on the head. They are scarred shitless that their cozy, way-over-paid, ball licker/stenographer job will be eliminated! Afterall, look at what they did to Howard Dean who was calling for Media (1)(2) and business (3) re-regulation all during his campaign. Can’t let that happen.
Dean gains great grass roots support all through 2003. The Media-whores must short circuit him—big time, but they can’t attack a guy directly who is obviously popular without him looking even better.
Lo and behold, the whispers start flying in late 2003 that he’s “unelectableâ€; never mind how well he ran his State as governor compared with Dim Son’s Texas shithole. Then, in Jan 2004, he’s painted as a crazy man with a little chicanery on the sound board as the Democratic caucuses are starting with the Iowa results! That was the time to stop the Dean train, and they sure did.
(1) Dean calls for Media re-reglation with Tweety (Dec 2003): http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=2096
(2) Dean calls for Media re-regulation in general (Jun 2003): http://www.onlisareinsradar.co…..001437.php
(3) Dean calls for Business re-reulation (Nov 2003): http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..ge=printer
I really enjoyed this, Jane. Very informative. It reminded me of how much contempt I have for Tim Russert. Pathetic tool that he is.
“What needs to happen right now is to start thinking about a Republican acceptable to all to serve out the rest of Bush’s term. Someone strong on defense but not a rabid neocon, someone who still has credibility. Somone who, if he wants to run for 2008, will really clean house.”
Indiana Senator Richard Lugar?
testing effects:
GWB interview:
RICO STATUTES used aganst the communication, energy corps, big oil corps,mil ind cmplx, bechtel halli kbr blackwater etc… and their (s)elected puppets, along with diebold cfr trilateral commision, fed reserve board all board members of these racketeers could have all their assetss seized pretrial should be the number one platform of any party. my idea is to abandon both corporate parties and find candidates who will pledge this platform to join the purple faced party, where their voters will paint their facews purple to get the message out and insure the diebold fasccist machines have no relevance on voting day when we all have purple faces/ second plat would include before repealing dhs and patriot act would be to charge all aforementioned as enemy combatants, then market them on a ppv humiliation series, and sell lottery tickets worldwide for the chance to come and humiliate these war criminals on tv for 30 minutes at a time. radical? yes! a winning strategy ? yes!! extra bonus? yes, no taxes would need be collected any time in our lives , because 2 above platforms would provide all funding neccessary. go with the purple faced party. no one else has , my idea, run with it.
J i O: Chaos is indeed the end game here.
I try to be positive, really I do…like work hard at the business all day, work on algebra with the seven year-old, bring the seventeen year-old to see the world with her critical thinking skills active and engaged, get her ready for her sailing off to a cool small liberal arts college in three months, work on keeping the marriage alive, and sometimes, if a spare moment can be found to duck into the quiet behind the waterfall, jump into FDL for a quicky of pithy political thought. And a dose of snark.
But with the Earth warming and obvious climate change *everywhere*, with the clear evidence of totalitarian governmental control, with the dominance of fundie religious insanity driving nationalistic leadership….I wonder if this pup can be saved?
With a positive spiritual awareness held in my core self like a precious gift; I just think we may be already past the point of no return and heading over the falls.
If the current regime falls and decency and morality threaten to rise, I don’t think the corporate, conservative, and religious leadership will allow control to be taken. I wish and hope and pray that love will take us all through this darkness…and I fear that it’s not the nature of our species. Today. (I took a wonderful population ecology class thirty years ago. Stunning life-changing eye-opening class. One thing I saw that I wondered about and filed away was how a ecological system seemed to cleanse itself when a nasty over-population destroyed it’s habitat. Then I ran across the Gaia-as-a-living-being theory, and filed that away. Now I look around and wonder—lemmings, anyone?)
And on top of all that I’ve got some f**king virus in my computer that constantly spans a process that runs as IEXPLORE.EXE and must be killed before eating up available memory, and AVG, NOD32, and several other anit-virus/spyware/malware programs can’t find. Bah!