Bush's Endzone Dancing

USATODAY.com - Bush sets out to salvage 2nd term: "'This president doesn't dance in the end zone when things are good, doesn't throw in the towel when things are bad,' says Mark McKinnon, media director in Bush's presidential campaigns."

Bwahahah, that's really funny, McKinnon. Remember the ridiculous "mission accomplished" premature celebration that Bush did?

Bush waylaid an aircraft carrier, then waylaid a jet, was flown in the jet to the carrier where he had the seamen line up behind him for a photo op, and stood in front of a huge banner saying "Mission Accomplished."

That may be the largest "Dance in the end zone" in American political history.

And, of course, Iraq has really gone horribly since then, and Bush's reasons for invading Iraq have all proven false.

Libby's Bad Bets

Why do Libby's lies seem so stupid in retrospect?

I can guess at two reasons:

1) When he concocted his scheme he thought that Ashcroft would dispatch the Plame inquiry quickly.
2) He thought that reporters would hold firm and not reveal him as a source.

1) The Ashcroft Angle: Libby's initial lies to the FBI that led to the false statement charges were in October and November, 2003. From the press release accompanying the indictment:

The false statement charge in Count Two of the indictment alleges that Libby lied to FBI agents on October 14 and November 26, 2003, regarding the conversation with Russert on July 10, 2003. Count Three charges Libby with making false statements to FBI agents during the same FBI interviews in October and November 2003 relating to his July 12, 2003 conversation with Cooper.

Ashcroft's recusal came after those initial Libby lies, in late December 2003. I bet Libby wasn't happy when he found out that Ashcroft had recused himself.

2) The Journalist Backstop: Kevin Drum puts it well in this post. "Apparently Libby figured he'd never be caught out because the reporters would stay mum and go to jail on his behalf. He lost that bet."

So long Scooter. Let's hope "Official A" joins you soon.

Merry Fitzmas: It Speaks to All of us

Merry Fitzmas

I hate the commercialization of Fitzmas.

Years ago, Fitzmas didn't used to be about the money.

Miller, the Opposite of a Reporter

Jay Rosen has a good quick take on the Judith Miller Lie-A-Culpa:

"Miller cannot recall where the name at the center of the case came from? Wowzer. Sure to be the center of controversy over the next week. Claiming memory loss about the most important fact in the story is weak. Very.

Miller actually subtracts from public knowledge in this part, a feat. She introduces into the narrative a new “source” who must have been around to plant the name on her, and then promptly tells us she cannot remember anything about him. So we know less if we believe her." [emph. added]

"So we know less if we believe her." That's sterling work by a faux reporter!

I'm sure Rosen's more in depth followups will be worth reading.

Some Things You Can't Take Back

Let's hope Howard Fineman is right about the Conservative Crackup.

Everyone keep your eyes peeled and your recorders running: People will definitely say things they will regret later.

Whee!

Serious As A Federal Indictment

Atrios wrote:

A few people wrote in to say that a little while ago on Hardball, Tweety and the gang were suddenly taking the whole Fitzgerald investigation very seriously. Anyone see it?

I think this segment of Hardball is repeated at 7 PM eastern. Guests in the opening segment about the Plame crimes were Howard Fineman of Newsweek, Michael wolff of Vanity Fair, and one of the authors of Bush's Brain (I believe).

They were certainly taking it seriously. Matthews, even. (Tweety had his usual adoration of the republicans by going out of his way to indicate that probably no crime had been committed (huh?). Recently he asked a guest if Fitzgerald understood how hardball politics is played, indicating that any crime involving national security is ok by Matthews so long as a republican is doing it. Matthews really is a horrible creature, and none to bright or detail-oriented.)

My favorite aspect of the show were several archival footage montages of Rove in different settings (walking with Bush, talking to the camera, in an office, etc.).

These are precisely the type of montages used on live news coverage when a public figure dies. This time, let's hope, it's a political death. Of course, Republicans resuscitate criminals to be either pundits (Oliver North, Gordon Liddy, Lawrence Kudlow, et al.) or within the administration (Eliot Abrams, anyone?).

I was pleased to see Rove in these "bye-bye" montages. Let's hope he is indicted.

Update: I thought of another aspect of Hardball that made it far better than the usual Tweety-fest. Matthews and David Shuster both pointed out how the White House slapback against Wilson (which dragged in Plame) was over the lies about Iraq's nukes. Matthews essentially held that the fear-mongering about Iraq's nonexistent nuclear capability was what pushed American public opinion over to support the invasion of Iraq.

If there were no fake story about Hussein with nukes, there would have been no Iraq war. That's why they started sliming Wilson-- to ensure their war. And that's a very strong case that the war was waged on knowingly false pretenses, not just "mistaken intel."

That point should be rammed home over and over. It is the moral abcess at the center of the Bush administration. And Americans have died due to this lie.

Matthews colored in a bit of that story in his Hardball show on Monday.

Firedoglake is a great stop for Plame-crime-related writing. They pointed out to me that Crooks and Liars has some of Monday's Hardball up for viewing online.

Well worth watching.

Bad People

Look at what William Kristol is saying. Think Progress has a great catch, and caps it with a plaintive call:

"The best way to stop the criminalization of politics is to get the criminals out of politics."

I think instead one should say "If you don't want criminals in politics, tell folks in your party not to talk about CIA agent's identities to reporters."

Bill Kristol has a point, just not the one he was trying to make.

Don't out CIA agents should be a firm rule. I hope it's a firm law.

John M. Barry, Mr Synchronicity

Radio and TV bookers have had John M. Barry on speed dial in recent weeks.

The Katrina disaster got him on many media outlets and his book Rising Tide into reprint.

I saw him tonight speaking about his book The Great Influenza with Avian flu as the appropriate peg.

When I checked a couple hours ago, both books were in the 120s in Amazon's bestsellers list. Kudos to Mr. Barry for writing historical non-fiction that speaks to our day.

Oddly enough, another book he wrote is Ambition and Power, about the fall of former House Speaker Jim Wright.

What synchronicity. Tom Delay isn't speaker, but no one could seriously say he was less powerful than Denny Hastert.

John M. Barry, you have eerie powers.

The Mind of Harriet Miers

All you need to know about Harriet Miers, just appointed by Bush to a Supreme Court seat. From staunch Conservative David Frum:

"In the White House that hero worshipped the president, Miers was distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president was the most brilliant man she had ever met. She served Bush well, but she is not the person to lead the court in new directions - or to stand up under the criticism that a conservative justice must expect"

It's cronyism squared. It's like nominating your puppy to a seat.

Or it's the "Michael Brown-ing" (Brown being "Drownie" of FEMA) of the entire Federal government. Apparatchiks everywhere.

Not the Combo He Was Going For

Bush, Cheney and Rove were not doubt looking to have Bush cast as a combination of Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt-- or something like that.

With the scandals creeping up the White House ranks, and with his so-called "malaise" speech, he's starting to look like another hybrid altogether: a combination of Nixon and Carter.

Maybe when the "declare victory and get out" of Iraq day finally comes, we can add LBJ. And, when the economy goes all to hell due to energy costs and Bush's mishandling, maybe Hoover too.

Christ, how much pain does the US have to go through for the greater glory of George W. Bush (aka Nixon + Carter)?

Dividing Line

There are a lot of dividing lines in the US. I suspect one dividing line in the death photos for porn is between those who are more upset about the porn versus those who are more upset about the necrophotographia.

Comrade, Celebrate the Party's Martyrs! or else....

Steven Clemons catches (and modifies just a bit), a voice mail that Commerce Department employees got encouraging them to march in the ironically named "Walk for Freedom."

And apparently the voicemail workd -- at least a bit:

"When I consulted with various members of the media who covered the so-called Freedom Walk that co-mingled a memorial to 9/11 victims with a rally for our actions in Iraq, they reported that many of those who attended the several-thousand person rally were "unenthusiastic civil servants" from the Labor, Commerce, and other Departments who were pressured to attend."

Apparatchiks unite!

Undercounting?

Will they try to undercount the deaths due to the Hurricane? Maybe so.

Looks to me like the undercounting may have already started, and in a huge way:

From the Times-Picayune blog:

Lee reports on deaths in Jefferson
Friday, 10:05 p.m.

"Sheriff Harry Lee said Saturday night that the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s office had processed 152 bodies, but only 20 of those were deaths related to Hurricane Katrina. He said the coroner’s office was picking up bodies that are reported lying in the street and handling them to FEMA’s specifications. He also said that body count does not include bodies that may have been taken to the morgue in St. Gabriel. "

They've processed 152 bodies, but only less than 1/7 of those deaths are due to the Hurricane? Huh?

Does FEMA have standards for what counts as a "death due to Hurrican Katrina?" If so, what are those standards?

State, Local, Federal

Republicans and republican mouthpieces want to blame the local and state authorities for the response to Katrina. At least for this Democrat, I'm fine with that.

With the added caveat that follows: who is surprised when the notoriously clueless governments of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana really screw things up? If they'd have done an exemplary job I'd have been more suprised.

But one expects the Feds to actually get things done, and they failed horribly.

And, of course, Bush's failures -- from hiring Republican hacks with no emergency experience for Fema jobs, to staying on vacation while people were dying -- were a big part of that failure.

Obama

Macy Gray wearing a "Barack Obama 2008" tee shirt tonight on CNN.

I've been thinking about Barack Obama recently. And he's got some good things to say about the current situation.

That is the deeper shame of this past week - that it has taken a crisis like this one to awaken us to the great divide that continues to fester in our midst. That's what all Americans are truly ashamed about, and the fact that we're ashamed about it is a good sign. The fact that all of us - black, white, rich, poor, Republican, Democrat - don't like to see such a reflection of this country we love, tells me that the American people have better instincts and a broader heart than our current politics would indicate.

His whole statement is really nice.

Even worse than the 38 per cent

Quite a few have pointed out the 38 per cent approval rating Bush enjoys in the recent Newsweek poll

Just as important to me is the dawning realization among the public that Bush isn't much of a leader in a crisis:

More critical to President Bush—and the GOP’s future as the nation’s majority party: most Americans, 52 percent, say they do not trust the president “to make the right decisions during a domestic crisis” (45 percent do). The numbers are exactly the same when the subject is trust of the president to make the right decisions during an international crisis.

And, from the same poll:

Demonstrating the widespread havoc that Katrina has wrought on the president’s political fortunes—even far from issues of disaster response—for the first time in the four years since 9/11, more Americans disapprove of Bush’s handling of terrorism and homeland security than approve of it.

Remember, Bush was taking an extra long vacation (and avoiding meeting Cindy Sheehan) so he could make crisp decisions:

"I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy," he said when asked about bike riding while a grieving mom wanted to speak with him. "And part of my being is to be outside exercising."

I'd hate to see how horrible the Katrina aftermath would have been if his decisions hadn't been so damned crisp.

Karen Hughes Defines Her Job

Karen Hughes was appointed to help mend America's image abroad in spring. Showing how important this image-mending is to Bush, she was sworn in on Friday, mere months after her naming!

Also showing how skilled she will be in communicating with the world, she opens her tenure with this horseshit:

"The images of crime being committed in the face of an awful natural disaster is hard for anyone to understand, people around the world and Americans. It sickens me as an American," she said. "How could criminals prey on vulnerable elderly citizens and children during a time of such horror?"

I'm pretty sure she didn't check a single foreign public opinion poll about Katrina or even get an honest sampling of foreigners before saying that. I'm willing to bet that the looting was not the main thing that non-Americans will take away from the Katrina fiasco. Maybe massive poverty in the richest nation on the world would be noted above looting. Or third-world conditions in the first world. Or the suffering and death caused by the utter incompetence of this government.

One of those is probably top of the heap, since everyone knows the US is a violent nation and has its share of crime -- that's common knowledge and it's an idea exported via our popular culture. But Hollywood blockbusters don't generally depict utterly hopeless poverty and the existence of an ignored black underclass on the scale the world saw on CNN International.

However, to Karen Hughes reflexive Bush-promoting mind, looting at least isn't something Bush did directly, so it takes the focus off his pathetic failure.

If Karen Hughes is going to continue speaking solely to make Bush look good and not to communicate to the world at large in good faith, she is doomed to failure. Which is bad for the US. But probably not the worst failure of the Bush administration.

Also, whatcha wanna bet that she doesn't speak Arabic? What language does she speak, if any?

This little bit from her remarks indicates she probably isn't much of a linguist:

"I've got to tell you, it's impressive to be with Condi, when you're with the Russian officials, to hear her speak the Russian language"

Wow, an American who speaks one of those funny languages -- not just pidgin Spanish. It's so impressive!

Everything this Administration touches turns into a joke.

Bush's Baby

Don't forget that it wasn't just any federal agency that failed all those people along the Gulf Coast.

It was the Department of Homeland Security, created in secret by Andrew Card with input and ultimate authority of George Walker Bush.

Bush's baby. Bush's brainchild. A brand spanking new department designed and staffed (such as it is) by George W. Bush.

Bush: Massive undeniable failure.

Not Photoshopped

Appropriate.

Adminstration at Odds with itself.

Scott Mclellan claims he doesn't want anyone to play the "blame game."

Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett are doing nothing but "playing the blame game," blaming everyone but Bush for his failure.

Seems like that would warrant a few questions to McLellan and others.